Flaming Rebellion
by CCougar42709
Summary: After "Fire Across the Galaxy", the crew of the Ghost is now with the Rebel Alliance. So what now?
1. A New Beginning

_Fulcrum._

We got Kanan back.

_Really, we got lucky._

We beat the Inquisitor.

Well…I didn't. I got my butt handed to me. I got three saber locks. Kanan joked when we started that "Things actually start when you get to 10 saber locks." I got 3, then pushed, then nearly got my arm sliced off.

_I didn't see the slice that nearly got me._

I glanced at Kanan, seeing what to do next, then I saw sparks and the Inquisitor's then I fell. Kanan thought I was dead. I thought I was about to die.

And now I'm in my bunk on the Ghost. I'm safe. Sabine's safe. Kanan and Hera are safe.

_We're all safe._

I reach over and grab my lightsaber off my nightstand.

_How'd Kanan think of blasting and fighting?_

"Blast and Slash." I say quietly and activate the blade, then quickly deactivate it and pretend to fire.

Then I hear somebody laugh behind. I freak out and nearly fall out of bed scrambling to see Kanan smiling in the doorway. "Sorry kid. Didn't mean to scare you."

"It's ok. Just wasn't expecting you." I say quietly.

"I could hear your thoughts on the other end of the ship. Reminds me that I never taught you mental shielding. I'll need to before we face somebody worse."

"Worse?" I ask.

_What could be worse?_

"There's always worse. Which reminds me of what the Inquisitor said before he jumped."

"Jumped? He fell. I saw it."

"No. He chose to fall. There's tons of things he could have done to get out of that spot. Some I could counter, some not." Kanan shakes his head while looking away.

_Huh?_

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"It doesn't matter." Kanan waved his hand dismissively, then sat next to me on my bed.

"He said "You have no idea what you have unleashed here today. There are some things far more frightening than death.""

"Oh." I say.

_What could that be?_

"Yeah. It means that this probably was the easy part."

"Did he mention anyone?" I ask.

"No. But that's not what's important. He was right."

"What?" I say.

_I don't believe him._

"He's right. Death is easier than what was facing him. He would have had to say that he got beat by 2 Jedi. Tarkin and his little buddy Kallus probably would have killed him right then."

"So he jumped."

"And proved he was a coward in the end. Just like the rest of them. Back in the days of the Order, we used to call them Sith."

"Sith?" I ask.

"Jedi that instead of striving for balance and valuing life, they feed off fear and want power. They are a Jedi's sworn enemy. They want us all dead."

"How have I never heard of them?"

"Well…" Kanan started, then stopped himself and ran his hand over his little beard. "Almost 30 years ago, we thought they were extinct. We hadn't seen or fought one for a millennia. The Jedi Order, that is. But one popped up then. And since then until the Purge, we had fought Sith, and their agents. They were behind the Clone Wars."

"Do you think that they are behind the Purge?" I ask.

_That would make sense._

"That would be above my credit-grade kid. Personally, it wouldn't surprise me. We fought aside troopers the entire war. Then they turned on my master and I. And all the other Jedi. And…" Kanan said, voice cutting off at the end. "It was too coordinated to be just a random act. If I were a betting man—" He said, then sat up straight and turned around.

_Hera._

"Hey. You okay?" She asked softly.

_Oh no, they're all soft and sweet again. I hate it when they're like this._

"Yeah. Just filling the kid in on some details." Kanan answered.

"Of?" She asked wearily, quickly shooting her eyes at me.

"The purge. Jedi &amp; Sith."

"Oh." She said simply then grabs my desk chair and sat next to him.

Kanan shook his head, then started again. "If I had to guess, which I don't like doing, but…I think that somewhere high up in the Empire's power structure, is a Sith or two pulling the strings."

"Wouldn't they be in power? Like, they can use the force and a lightsaber. They can finish anyone."

"Well, you just saw that's not true." Kanan smiled at me. "And here's the thing. The leader at the end of the Clone Wars is the Emperor."

Hera perked up. "No coup."

"Coup?" I ask.

"No power struggle. The same guy." Kanan explained. "But that's not the point I was getting at. I was going to say that you did well with the Inquisitor. You didn't back down. But you've got a long way to go. He caught you off guard."

_He knows what happened._

"I was trying to see what to do next, then his saber was on me." I say nervously.

"WHAT?!" Hera jumped to her feet.

"He's okay now." Kanan said reassuringly to Hera, then turned back to me. "You'll get your legs and face tougher people. You got 3 locks in with a bad guy. Could be worse."

"A Sith, or however you say their stupid name." Hera frowned, still glaring at Kanan.

"I don't think he was full on Sith. He didn't use Sith powers. I've seen one full on Sith in action. And although I as a little older than Ezra, it was very different."

"How?" I ask.

Kanan turned to face me completely. "Listen closely. I'm not saying this in admiration. But it was like art. His name was Dooku and he used his lightsaber and force power in tandem. The Inquisitor was all saber. Brute force. Dooku was beautiful. Smooth. Just like the best Jedi."

"What about that force thing? The push?" I ask.

Kanan frowned at me, looking angry then pushes my desk clear across the room using the Force. "Not dark. Easy. I could do it in my sleep at your age. Don't forget you're very behind kid." Kanan said simply, then turned to Hera. "Does Ahsoka want us?"

"She asked me to tell everyone that we're about to jump from hyperspace and go to a rebel base. She would like to see you two, but no rush on that." She answered.

"Okay." Kanan said, rising off my bed.

"Hey! Move my desk back!" I hop up.

Kanan quickly turns back to me. "No. You do it."

"He can't do that. He'll put a hole in the wall." Hera said.

"I'll fix it. Let's go see what Ahsoka needs." Kanan reassures Hera.

"Is she a Jedi?" I ask.

_I saw her lightsabers. That's the really weird thing. It's weird to see just one. But two?_

"She used to be the padawan to one of the order's best Jedi. Outside of that…I don't know kid. Don't prod her."

"I'm not. I'm just—" I start, but Hera cuts me off.

"So you knew her?"

"No. I only saw her a couple of times. Since she was Skywalker's apprentice she was always involved in something important." He said, the last part very quietly.

He quickly takes the ladder up to the cockpit, and Hera and I follow. I barely get up there before we come out of hyperspace, and the reverse inertia nearly sends me back down the stairwell.

"A…asteroid field?" I hear Hera ask.

Ahsoka turned around in the pilot's chair and said "Yup. Polis Massa. Old planet that got ripped apart year ago. Perfect place to have a rebel base. All the regular hyperspace lanes just skip right around asteroid fields."

"So…we're going to this base..?" Kanan asked, sounding uneasy.

"Yes. As I said earlier, the protocol has changed. We're actually starting to do something positive, we need to build on the momentum created by your cell, along with others. So we're making a plan. Here, at Polis Massa."

"Kid, go put your desk back and grab your stuff." Kanan said.

"But—" I begin to argue, but Hera turns to face me.

"Ezra."

_She's putting her foot down._

"Fine…" I grumble, then slide back down the ladder. And almost directly onto Sabine.

"Oops! Sorry…" I say, as she quickly jumped back.

"No problem. You're ok." She smiled.

"Yeah." I smile back.

"Did you face the Inquisitor? How'd you free Kanan?"

"Snuck thru the ducts. And yeah."

Her eyes went wide. "You faced him? How'd you do? Were you scared?"

"No, I did pretty good I think. Locked him up 3 times. Got a few strikes in. He almost got overwhelmed, but pushed me off onto another platform." I say, not really thinking.

Sabine beamed, then hugged me tightly. "Good job. Don't let it get to your head though. If you want to become as good as Kanan you'll probably have to train a lot harder."

_Geez, everyone is one my case today about that. I did ok! I didn't die! That's a start isn't it?_

"I know. But first we've got to go to this rebel base and see what the plan is."

Sabine tilted her head. "Base? Is that why we're out of hyperspace?"

"Yeah, it's—" I start, but am cut off but Kanan.

"KID STOP TALKING! WE'RE HERE!"

I hang my head, causing Sabine to giggle. When I look up, she's smiling at me. Unfortunately, she slips her helmet on and starts towards the airlock.

"Uhm, where are we?" Zeb asked behind me.

"No idea really. Some asteroid field."

Chopper chimed in with a series of beeps.

"Exactly. Really specific." Zeb said.

I ignore them and follow Sabine into the airlock, where Ahsoka, Hera and Kanan already are.

"Hiss…"

_Whoa!_

My eyes are assaulted by white, and I throw my hands up before I blink and try to see past all the white.

"Ahh. Fulcrum. There you are. Is this the Lothal cell?" A tall, thin woman asked, surrounded on either side by men with blasters.

"Yes. And they know my name. The Mustafar operation went smoothly." Ahsoka, Fulcrum whoever replied.

"Alright Master Tano. What about the other starships?"

"No indication of any trouble. But we haven't gotten the all clear yet."

The woman nodded, then turned her attention to Kanan. "I'm Mon Mothma. One of the organizers of the rebellion and Senator from Chandrila. You are?"

"Kanan Jarrus." Kanan bowed his head slightly, then stepped aside. "This is Hera, along with the rest of my crew."

"Hera Syndulla. Thank you for your hospitality in this time." Hera smiled while grasping the woman's hand.

"You're certainly welcome. It's the least we can do for the most well-known of our cells."

"Well known?" Sabine asked.

The lady's face turned stern. "I'm afraid you must remove your helmet while on the premises unless in combat training."

Sabine froze for a moment, then took her helmet off. "We're well known?" Sabine said shortly.

_She's mad she had to take her helmet off. She never likes to unless she really knows the people she's with._

A few of the soldiers look taken aback by her.

_Morons. Of course she's a girl. It's not a cute guy using a voice modifier._

"Yes. Your team's transmission was broadcast across the sector. Other cells broadcast it across the rest of the galaxy."

_My voice went across the galaxy?_

"Our suspicions were also confirmed. The two men use a lightsaber." Ahsoka jumped in.

"Jedi?" Mon Mothma asked us.

"No." Kanan answered shortly.

"Why not?"

"My training was cut short by Order 66. Ezra can use a lightsaber, but is lacking in any sort of refinement." Kanan replied.

"You fought off the Inquisitor though." Sabine piped up, sounding very happy.

"You did?" Mom Mothma asked, looking from Sabine, to Kanan and finally to me.

"I did. Ezra fought only briefly before the Inquisitor overpowered him and took him out of the fight."

_Shoot. That's not what I told Sabine._

_I got all excited to see her again and…Made myself look all good._

I dare to glance over at Sabine, and she's looking at the group in front of us with her jaw locked.

_Dang it._

"Alright. We were planning on discussing tactics and formulating a plan tonight, but in light of these recent developments, I'll need to discuss it with the other Alliance Leaders before a plan can be made. These troops will show you to your accommodations." Mon Mothma said, then bowed and walked away, followed by a few troops.

"We'll go see where we're staying. Ezra, Sabine, Zeb, grab your stuff." Kanan asked us.

"Got it." I reply.

By the time I turn back around, Sabine is already telling Zeb to go ahead.

_Uh oh._

When we both gets inside the ship she slaps the door control, causing the door to shut. "So you nearly overwhelmed the Inquisitor huh? YOU DID!" Sabine snapped, throwing her helmet to the side, causing it to bounce around.

"Sabine—" I start, but she throws a hand up and cuts me off.

"Doesn't sound like you did "good" against the Inquisitor! It sounds like you're a big fat liar!"

"I…I'm sorry. I was just excited to see you and—"

"Oh come on Ezra. You're sorry and were excited? Well I hope you're excited now!" She snaps at me, then starts marching off.

"Sabine…" I call after her.

"No kid! Some Boy Wonder you are…" She said, then disappeared deeper into the ship.

_Well now I've done it._


	2. Plans

Tap. Tap. Tap. "C'mon kid." Zeb said lightly.

"No Zeb…" I groan.

"Just one more game."

"I'm going to win again." I reply tiredly.

"Just another reason to play another game."

I sigh and try to ignore Zeb's glances at me.

_I'd almost like to go against Kanan's droid again._

While the rebels have kept us waiting, I've been stuck here in Zeb &amp; I's room or deflecting blaster shots from a droid Kanan got from somewhere. The darn thing I swear fires them where I have a hard time blocking them. Both of my legs and arms, plus my chest are bruised from getting hit over and over with the blaster shots.

Kanan won't even intervene. He sets it to automatically shoots out 100, at alternating speeds and leaves the room before I get beaten up. The only thing he'll give me is water. No advice on how to block the bolts, or techniques, nothing.

_It's weird._

I saw Hera coming back from one of those sessions, but that was two days ago. The only other thing I've done in the 4 days I've been here is go to the medical wing. They measured me, weighed me, took measurements for some clothes, drew blood, tested my reflexes, asked me tons of questions about my background and what I did before I met Kanan and everyone. Everything they could think of I think. Then I was silently shuffled back here.

"Kid…"

"Zeb! Play by yourself or something." I say wearily.

"…That's not a bad idea." Zeb said.

I close my eyes again and listen to Zeb shuffle the cards, then start dealing them out. After a moment of silence I hear him say something quietly under his breath, then smile to myself.

_Bad hand._

I feel something yank my attention behind me.

_Huh?_

I prop myself up on my elbow and glance at the wall.

_Weird. It felt friendly…and it's still there, But it's nothing._

I glance back to Zeb, and he's looking at me. "Thought I heard something." I say quietly.

"I'd hear something way before you kid. Plus these walls have to be Durasteel and dampened. We ain't hearing a thing." Zeb said dismissingly as the feeling, whatever it is moves closer to the door.

Right before I lie back down, our door opens. "C'mon guys. Play time is over." Kanan said, leaning against our door.

"This hasn't been fun. I've been bored out of my mind." I roll to my feet.

"And I've been losing to the kid in Sabaac. That's worse." Zeb said.

"You're losing to him? No wonder you lost Chopper." Kanan smiled at him.

I laugh before Zeb fires back. "That's not funny."

Kanan still smiled. "C'mon." Kanan waved for us to follow him.

I'm almost out the door before I remember my lightsaber. "Go ahead Big Z." I say, turning back to the room.

"Thanks kid…" I hear him say before I quietly pull my lightsaber to me and clip it to my belt then rush to catch up with Kanan and Zeb.

"—didn't miss much. Just talking and debating ideas back and forth. I haven't even been to add my thoughts."

"But you've been able to walk around. The kid and I have been stuffed in that room for forever." Zeb replied.

"You're frustrated."

"I feel like I'm being pushed aside." Zeb clarified.

Kanan slowed and put his hand on Zeb's shoulders. "I'm sorry my friend. You'll be able to move freely after this meeting. I promise."

I think Zeb, smiled, but I caught up just as Kanan started walking. Finally we reached an automatic door, which springs open. I glance around and see a group of people, plus Hera, Ahsoka and Sabine. Most of them are talking to a man in old looking military gear.

_It's not like Stormtrooper armor. Looks earlier than—_

"You…" I hear Kanan growl out, and I turn to him fast enough to see him pull out his lightsaber and activate it, causing everyone to turn in our direction.

"What's the problem?" I hear someone ask.

"You. CLONE…" Kanan growled out, advancing on the man.

_Clone?_

"Clone?" I stutter out, then pull out my lightsaber. Sabine and Hera move to pull out their blasters, but get restrained.

"Whoa! Everybody…everyone settle down." The man said.

I stop for a brief second, and get a good look at him.

_He looks like he's been thru a battle or two. He looks hardened. He also looks a little like Sabine. That's weird._

"I'm Rex. Clone…rebel. You are…?" The man extended his hand to Kanan.

"Spy?"

"No." The clone named Rex answers shortly.

"Deactivate the lightsaber." Ahsoka orders us from the other side of the room.

Kanan waited for a moment…then deactivated his lightsaber. I move to deactivate mine, but then it gets yanked out of my hand. Instinctively I grab onto it with the Force and look over to see who is grabbing it from me.

Only to see that Ahsoka is grabbing it…also with the Force.

"Kid…" she said, frowning with one hand extended.

We battle for a moment, then she put her other hand up. And my lightsaber flies straight into her hands.

"How are you with the rebels? Shouldn't you be marching into some place?" Kanan said darkly, as Ahsoka is inspecting my lightsaber.

"No. I defected years ago. I didn't believe that the Empire was standing for what the Republic did back when I began to serve. So, when I reached the next spaceport, I left on the next transport. I roamed the galaxy, trying to find the Rebellion. To no luck, until I found Commander Tano."

"Commander?" I hear Hera ask.

Commander Tano is still looking at my lightsaber, turning it over in her hands.

_I don't think she's seen anything like it._

I smile at the thought before she looks to me. "You had trouble with the power regulator?" She asks me, tossing the lightsaber back to me.

"No, not yet." I reply, catching it.

"I'd watch out for that. Such a unique design could drain it twice as quick."

"Unique design?" Kanan asked.

"Nobody's ever thought of making a lightsaber that's also a blaster. In our day a lightsaber used to be enough." Ahsoka said, sounding sad.

"Hey, it's still our time." Kanan said, half defensively.

"You know what I mean. You used to be able to wield it openly. Not much it can't do."

"Greatest weapon ever invented." Kanan smiled.

The door behind Ahsoka opened, and Mon Mothma, along with several other people. "It's my honor to present to you, Mom Mothma of Chandrila, Senator Bail Organa of Alderaan along with his daughter, Princess Leia Organa." Everyone in the room that was sitting snapped to their feet.

"Sit, please." Mon Mothma said, and pretty much everyone sat.

I found myself a few feet away from Bail Organa's daughter, the princess.

_Who happens to be gorgeous._

I pry my eyes away to see Sabine glancing at me. But when she noticed that I'm looking at her, she quickly looked away. I lean against the railing surrounding the central console where Mon Mothma is gathering her stuff.

"Friends, we all know why we are here, so I'm going to do this as informally as possible. Currently our presence here at Polis Massa is undetected by the Galactic Empire. The events in the Mustafar system have not merited a reaction from the Empire as of the last hour. This is as we have expected, since they likely would have to disclose the fact that they lost a Jedi prisoner." Mon Mothma says, inclining her head in Kanan's direction. The room perked up, and Kanan gently acknowledged them.

"For the time being, the Jedi and his crewmates will stay here and begin training with the respective divisions, being trained by Commanders Rex and Tano."

Mon Mothma briefly paused, then turned to face Commander behind her. "As for their future, Commander Tano, how are the talks with the Onderonians?" She asked.

Ahsoka straightened up, then replied "They're making preparations for a potential arrival. They are still concerned about their cell's safety and secrecy."

"I assume you're assuring them that additional forces will be supplied?"

"Yes Senator. I believe that they will come thru, it will just take time for them to become comfortable. This cell just formed months ago."

"There are younger cells with greater responsibility." Somebody that wasn't introduced, but came in with Mon Mothma said defiantly.

"And some of those cells have had a major impact on this conflict." The princess said, then glancing at me.

Mon Mothma smirked, then slightly bowed. "Princess, would you be kind enough to update us on your status?"

The princess nodded, then walked to Mon Mothma's place. Mon Mothma comes over and stands where the princess was standing. "Due to security clearance with our newest guests, I cannot give out the names of the cells I've been negotiating with. However, I have successfully gotten them to agree to discreetly supply a full armada of ships to allow us to have much greater mobility."

The room burst into quiet applause. I'm not sure what to do, so I stay still and respectful.

_I don't have a problem with the Princess, but…she does give off an aura that she's better than everyone in the room._

_That annoys me._

"Since this is the Princess' first trip here to Polis Massa, I feel the need to elaborate. She's currently running to represent House Organa in the Galactic Senate, with the hopes to craft legal roadblocks for the Emperor to hurdle. She is, without a doubt, the best hope for a diplomatic end to this era of fear and violence. She is arguably the best diplomat and orator in Alderaan's history at her age, and certainly the galaxy's best since the late Padmé Amidala of Naboo." Mon Mothma proclaims to the room.

Suddenly, and without warning my stomach flips, and I'm assaulted with sensations of crushing darkness and happiness at the same time. I hear the princess start speaking again, but I have no idea what she's saying.

_I'm in like my own little world over here. So bright…but so dark and hopeless. Hope. And Death._

_Focus Ezra._

This is just like with the dark side and the Inquisitor.

_Focus._

Hera. Kanan.

"—economically the Empire is starting to—" I hear the princess say clearly. I get a foggy outline of the scene in front of me. The princess in front, flanked by everyone else on both sides.

Sabine.

_She's probably still mad at me, knowing her. She can hold a grudge longer than it takes a Hutt to grow._

Suddenly my vision immediately goes dark and screaming starts in my head.

_It's a woman's screams…_

_I don't know whose screams it is. Maybe not thinking of Sabine will help._

I let out a quiet breath as the princess continues to drone on.

_Hera. Zeb._

My line of sight immediately becomes clearer.

_My friends on Lothal. Lothal period. We're gonna go back. And we're not going to lose to the Empire again._

"And with the combined efforts of all these cells, I don't see a way we can lose in the long run. Because their rule is based on fear. And all fear eventually dies." The princess says finally. My vision completely clears fast enough to see the Princess step away, and swap places with Mon Mothma again.

"On that uplifting note, I appreciate your attention and—"

I glance over at Commander Tano, and she's tightly gripping the table behind her.

_I wonder if she felt the same thing I did. That was awful. I…think that was the Force._

_Kanan once said that it can hit you in waves. I'd call that more than a wave though._

Mon Mothma's delegation begins filing out, with the princess flanked on every side by men with large blasters.

Commander Rex stepped into the void. "I apologize for not knowing your names—" He began, pointing to Sabine, then me "—but I need both of you to come with me for a brief moment."

_Huh?_

I instinctively look back to Kanan, who shrugged. When I look to Sabine, she nods. Commander Rex smiles, then started out a side door into an area I haven't been before.

_That's not saying much._

"So, let's make this easier. I'm Rex. When we're training I expect you to call me Commander. But for now Rex will suffice. What are your names?"

"Sabine Wren."

"Ezra. Bridger." I extend my hand.

He shakes, but his gaze doesn't leave Sabine. "Sabine you say. _Mando'ad._"

_Huh?_

"What?" I ask.

Only to get ignored as Sabine took a half step back.

"_Ad'ika a Mando'ad"_

_What?_

Rex bit his lip, but nodded. _"Solus resol?"_

"_Solus e'tad."_ Sabine replied.

"Why did you leave Mandalore? _Be 'sol ke'gyce a Mando'ad."_

I raise my hands in frustration as Sabine doesn't blink.

"_Ba'slan shev'la. Shereshoy. Empire a aaray shebs."_ Sabine said, smiling at the end.

Rex smiled.

_I want to know why Sabine left. She's never said, and Hera ordered me never to ask._

"Alright. Good enough for me. I'll be handling both of your martial training, albeit separately. It'll be good to separate you two. I bet you two play off each other in a tough spot." Rex said, turning away from Sabine.

"_Mando'ad_, I'll be also teaching you battlefield tactics and mental welfare. While your friend studies with Commander Tano and the vengeful Jedi."

"Hey!" I say hotly.

"He has a reason kid. I'm not mad."

I cross my arms and frown.

"That's enough for today. I'll see you two bright and early in the morning." Commander Rex said, then bowed his head and walked out of the room.

…

I nervously glance in Sabine's direction. Only for her to sigh, then walk out. I follow her back to the main room, where Kanan and the others are.

"Dinner? We haven't been together I think it'll be nice." Hera smiled. Kanan agreed, then they led the rest of us somewhere.

_At least Sabine's not yelling. She's just simmering down._


	3. Day One

_Too early._

I rub my eyes again and check the meal hall clock.

6:45 GST.

We're supposed to be ready to go to the combat training room at 7:00.

I've been a good boy and woke up with my alarm. Got ready and left without waking up Zeb, and have eaten breakfast like Kanan told me to.

Meanwhile, Sabine has decided to sleep in.

_Oh well, her loss._

Knowing her, she'll do something like make a perfect score on a weapons test or explosives test.

Or she'll ace some test that I'm not thinking of.

I have no idea of what we're going to be doing.

Maybe they'll split us up.

That'd probably be fairer to me.

I hear the lift doors to the hall open, and I glance back to see Sabine.

She waved, then let out a yawn. "Morning kid. I need food."

"It's over there." I point over to the serving stations they have set up.

It's actually pretty neat.

They can make pretty much anything you want as long as they have the ingredients.

_I wasn't expecting to be able to have Panna Cakes for dinner yesterday._

But when I asked what I could get, and they said anything, I tested them.

And they won.

Sabine and Zeb had some fried thing.

Hera had some kind of a stew.

Kanan had…a salad.

Most of dinner we were all giving him a hard time about it. Hera especially.

She joked that he was needing to watch his figure.

Which made him stutter like I do around Sabine.

_Used to._

I used to stutter around her.

Right on time, Sabine walks back towards me with a handful of nutri-bars and a cup of caf.

"They just brewed a new pot of caf if you want some." Sabine said cheerfully.

"I'm fine, thanks."

"Hmmph hrrgh hww." She said, mouth full.

I shrug. "I don't know Sabine."

She laughed, then cleared her throat.

"I asked how are you are awake at this ridiculous hour."

"I'm usually not. I guess I'm just excited for training."

Sabine shrugged.

Then something clicked together in my head.

"You…you're Mandalorian. You probably did stuff like this all the time growing up."

Sabine took a bite out of her nutria-bar, then looked around.

"Kind of. Mandalore was changing a lot. Is still." She said pensively.

Then added calmly "I don't appreciate how you said Mandalorian though."

"I didn't mean it negatively." I say quickly.

Sabine took another bite out of her nutria-bar.

"You put the normal stereotypes behind it. Mandalorians go to war for fun. That's not true. We fight for honor. To better ourselves personally. Not a blind quest to kill people. We aren't the Empire. Mandalorians, true Mandalorians don't like the Empire."

"I didn't know that."

"There's a lot you don't know." Sabine said simply.

…

"I'm going to check on that caf." I say.

Sabine didn't respond, verbally or visually, so I go back to the kitchen.

_Boy I got on her nerves fast._

Just when she wasn't outwardly mad at me anymore.

I grab a cup of caf, just because I said I'd come back for some, grab a lid and then walk back outside.

To see Sabine already talking to Rex and a guy with a thick white beard.

I quickly walk back to them.

"Sorry. Am I late?"

"Not at all kid. Let me introduce somebody else who served with Commander Tano and I in the 501st Clone Division." Rex said, then gesturing to his friend.

"Echo. It's a pleasure…" He said, extending his hand.

"Ezra." I say, shaking his hand.

"Is that fresh caf?" He asked.

"Uhh…yeah." I say.

"Last one there talks first." Rex says, then takes off towards the kitchen.

"NOT FAIR!" Echo roars, then sprints after him.

Sabine laughs as they both disappear.

"You're not mad at me are you?" I ask her.

"No. Just don't get all happy to see me again and we'll be fine."

_Ow._

"Point taken." I say, then sip my caf.

Sabine glanced at me, eyebrows raised.

_Don't look at her._

I turn to the kitchen door, and shortly after Echo bursts thru first.

"Yeahhhhh!"

Seconds later Rex walks thru the door.

"C'mon. We're going to the armory."

"The what?" I ask.

Sabine lit up and smiled happily.

"Oh she's excited." Echo smiled.

"Enthusiasm always helps. Makes things easier."

We walk out of the meal hall, then take a right, then a left, then go straight.

And then bump into Ahsoka, Hera and Kanan talking.

"Hey." Ahsoka smiled and waved.

"General." Rex smiled back.

Kanan bowed his head, but didn't say anything.

Once we're thru another set of doors Sabine asked. "Why'd you call the Commander General?"

...

"Did I?" Rex asked.

"You did." Echo replied.

"Dammit. Sorry Sabine. It's force of habit back from when we served together."

"You called her General even though she is younger than you?"

To my surprise, both clones smiled.

"Miss Wren, have you seen a Jedi in action before?"

"Not really, just Kanan and the kid." She replied.

"Then you've seen their incredible abilities."

"No, not really." Sabine shook her head. "I wasn't all that impressed."

Both clones stopped in their tracks and turned to face her.

"I don't know if she's bold, brave, arrogant or stupid sir." Echo said evenly.

"Hey!" Sabine replied quickly.

"We'll just have to see." We're here _kid._" Rex said, putting his hand on a scanner.

The door opened and revealed the largest weapons I've ever seen.

"Whoa…" I say.

"It's just for looks right now. It's a large open space."

Sabine's eyes are scanning the room.

"Alright you two. This is an official training session. In these, you'll learn battle tactics, maneuvers and weaponry. You'll also work to become as physically fit as the old Republic Special Forces. The games are over." Rex said formally.

"Yessir." Sabine said, a little accent at the end.

"First things first however. Every good soldier knows what they are good at. And more importantly, what they aren't good at. Miss Wren. You first."

"I'm a good shot, slicing expert and am a explosives artist."

"Ar…tist?" Echo asked.

"I make pretty explosions that get the job done." Sabine said.

"Bridger. What about you?"

I step forward and try to swallow the lump in my throat.

"Well, I'm okay with a lightsaber—"

"This isn't a age for your lightsaber kid. You can't use it in 90 percent of your fights." Echo said bluntly.

"What can you do?" Rex asked.

"I've got my blaster, but it only stuns. Other than that I try to keep them at a distance."

_I hope that's good enough._

"Why does it only stun?" Rex asked curiously.

"I never really looked into it. I just wanted both the lightsaber and blaster part of it to work." I say sheepishly.

Sabine hopped onto a supply crate and looked at Echo and Rex.

"Toss me your weapon kid." Rex asked.

I unclip it and throw it to him.

Echo immediately looks over his shoulder.

"Hmm…it's both. That's not a bad idea." Echo said.

"Think you could crank up the power? So the kid can really be something to see?" Rex asked him.

Echo is biting his lip.

"Do you have some schematics?" he asked me.

"No."

"Of course not…it's one of a kind." Echo growled out.

"You need some alone time with it?" Rex asked.

"Yeah. Need to figure out how it's even powered." Echo said, then turned to me.

"I'll get her back together. Don't worry."

"But I need that. I've got another training after this." I tell them.

The clones exchange glances.

"We'll talk to the General." Rex said.

"Good job on your strengths. Knowing yourself is often your greatest weapon in battle."

Sabine rolled her eyes.

"The kid forgot something. He is super handsy."

WHAT?

"What? No I'm not! I've barely ever touched—" I begin hotly.

_I am TIRED of her getting these cheap shots in!_

She's hot, but that's not cool.

"I don't need to know that Miss Wren." Rex said calmly, as Echo is giving me a strange look out of the corner of his eye.

"I didn't mean it like that. He still has his hands. Ezra used to be a pickpocket on Lothal. He's really good at getting stuff."

Rex looked impressed.

"Oh. That's a lot better then." Echo said.

"So you are good?"

"It's not something I'm proud of." I tell them.

"Every skill is valuable. We'll have some fun later and see how good you are." Rex said.

"Alright. Now Miss Wren Please step forward." Echo asked her as Rex stood to the side.

Sabine hopped off the crate and stepped in front of him.

Echo smiled and waved for him to come at her.

"Tion'ad hukaat'kama?" Sabine smirked.

Echo shook his head.

Then a whole bunch of things happened.

Sabine struck first with a kick. She tried to get a second one in, but Echo blocked it.

Echo nailed a body blow on Sabine, who flipped away.

Before I know it, it's back to brutal hand to hand combat.

Sabine tries a few punches, only to find air.

Echo gets Sabine in the ribs, and I hear the breath come out of her.

"Uh oh!" Rex called out as Sabine put space in between the two of them.

Sabine squared her jaw up, then did a cartwheel into a set of kicks.

_All of which landed._

Echo blocked one of them, took one to the stomach and then caught the last one.

Sabine contorts her way onto his back

And then Echo SLAMMED into the ground.

I jump and Rex made an incredulous noise.

Echo kicked her away and turned to Rex.

"Somebody's going to get hurt here."

"It's you!" Rex said gleefully, as Sabine closed in for a kick.

Echo caught it, and threw her into the crate she was sitting on earlier.

"We're done here." Echo said darkly, then walked to Sabine and extended his arm to help her up.

Sabine rolled away from him and got to her feet by herself.

Echo retracted his hands and went to stand next to Rex, who is smiling.

Sabine came and stood a few feet from me, muttering words in Mandalorian under her breath.

"I think we've had enough hand to hand combat for one day. Besides, you said it yourself Bridger. You're not a hand to hand sort of person." Rex said with a smile.

"You said you should know yourself." I reply.

"We'll teach you to fight later. For now, let's give somebody some trouble."

Sabine glanced at all of us, then simply walked out.

Leaving us all in silence.

"She's feisty." Rex said.

"She hits like a transport." Echo replied.

"Any advice kid?" Rex asked me.

"No. She's pissed off at me right now. I can't give anybody advice on her."

She's either dismissive, calm or…like she has been.

Like a gundark in a bad mood.

"Who are we messing with?" Echo asked.

"One of those new officer types. We're going to take his key card." Rex replied, then smiled at me.

"They're shiny. At least test the kid. Lothal has some good streets for a pick pocket."

"Let's just see if he can do it Echo." Rex replied, leading us up.

We hop onto a elevator, then take a right.

The sign in front of the next door is "Officers Deck".

The door opened, and several men are around a holoterminal.

"Ahh. Commanders. It's a pleasure. What can we do for you?" A man said.

"Nothing Captain Orshel. Just wanted to introduce one of our new charges to you all." Rex said formally.

"Ezra Bridger sir." I shake his hand.

_This guy doesn't have a clue._

I have his key card out of his pocket and into mine before I let go of his hand.

I shake the rest of their hands and step back.

"What are you all up to?"

"Monitoring starship traffic sir. All is quiet so far."

"Have we heard from Tattoine?"

"Nagative."

Echo nodded.

"Alright, well we will let you get back to work."

"Pleasure." I say, shaking the Captain's hand again and smiling.

I let Echo and Rex lead me out, and we start back down the elevator.

"Your key card." I say, extending it to Rex.

Echo laughed.

"I didn't even notice. Good job Ezra." Rex smiled, then clapped my shoulder.

"Thank you. So I assume we need to find Sabine again?"

"Nope. We're handing you off to the Jedi." Echo replied.

Oh yeah.

I've got double training.

…

"The girl has serious Mandalorian Training. She's tier II."

That caught Rex's attention.

"High II or Low II?"

"I'd say high. The weight flip she used to slam me on the ground is a base III move."

"That class is based off momentum."

"And I wasn't moving laterally. I was still blocking her." Echo replied.

Rex nodded. "We'll have to train them separately then. Since Bridger here has no martial training."

"We can do that."

We turned a corner, and Ahsoka and Kanan are still talking.

_No Hera though._

"Hera saw Sabine and is calming her down. You must have had quite the first lesson." Kanan said, getting to his feet.

"She's a fighter. We'll have fun together." Echo smiled.

"Now for the fun part." Ahsoka smiled at me.

"Would you mind if i take a look at the kid's lightsaber? To see if we can squeeze some more power into it?" Rex asked.

"More power? Did it cut out?" Ahsoka asked me.

"No, but the blaster part only stuns. Echo and I want to see if we can make it an actual blaster instead of a toy."

"Sure. He won't be needing it for a bit anyway."

"Thank you Commander." Echo said.

"At your leave General." Rex bowed his head.

To my surprise, Ahsoka laughed.

"Bye Rex. Grab some food."

Echo laughed, and the two of them left the room.

I glance around and see that it's a circular room with plain walls.

"Sit Ezra." Kanan asked me quietly.

I sit cross legged in front of Ahsoka and Kanan.

"I've been taking to your Master Ezra, and it seems like we're kind of starting from the ground up. But that's okay. Everybody has a starting point."

"Don't feel bad kid. I'm here so I can catch up too. I haven't had a lesson like this in years. I need it." Kanan smiled at me.

Ahsoka smiled and said "There's more to being a Jedi than using a lightsaber. The best Jedi keep their lightsaber attached to their belt. We're going to teach you tactics later, but first we'll teach you're the 6 forms of lightsaber training."

"Forms?" I ask.

"It might look like a bunch of random swings Ezra, but there's a formula to it. Attacks, counter attacks. Parries, blocks, maneuvers, feints, everything." Kanan explained.

"There are 6 ways of facing a lightsaber duel. Some are more attack oriented, some defense oriented, some personality driven and some physically driven."

"That's why I gave you that blaster droid Ezra. You didn't notice, but the wall behind you was one was transparisteel. We watched everything."

"And heard."

I cringe and close my eyes.

_I said some not so nice stuff in there._

"I didn't think you guys were nearby."

"Don't worry about it." Kanan smiled at me.

"You base blocking form is Form V. Which is also the best for blocking and deflecting blaster bolts."

"Uh, do you guys have a datapad or something? I'm not going to be able to remember all of this." I ask.

"We're going to give you homework Ezra. You'll get a datapad with all this and more on it." Ahsoka smiled.

"But first we are going to get food, then meditate. You'll need more than a few nutri-bars to do what you need to do." Kanan smiled, as he and Ahsoka smiled.

"How'd you know I had a light breakfast?" I ask him.

"No mental shielding. We'll teach you that too." Ahsoka smiled.

"We both read you when you came by earlier."

"That fast?" I ask.

"Compared to how I used to be, that was really slow. I used to be able to do it if you were halfway across the station." Ahsoka sighed.

"It's training for all of us. We'll all get better." Kanan said, leading us to the mess hall.


	4. The Hard Work

Living on an asteroid is sort of difficult.

When you say you're going to wake up at 6 GST for breakfast with your new Jedi Masters, you expect it to be dark outside your window.

Instead, the sun blinds are down and behind them, you can see the sun beating down on you.

This morning I wasn't so lucky. I've been able to sneak out early in the mornings for weeks now without waking him up.

But this morning I bumped into his arm while walking out and woke him up.

I apologized right away, and he mumbled "No problem kid." before rolling over.

_That dumb sun is just right there._

I raise my hand to block the light and keep walking to the meal hall.

When I get there, the familiar sights greet me.

The skeleton staff awake at this unreasonable hour, plus Kanan and Ahsoka talking at the far table.

Always in the same spots.

Kanan and Ahsoka always have the same breakfast.

Caf for both. Sugar for Ahsoka, straight for Kanan.

Kanan gets a spicy omelet with all sorts of peppers and meat in it.

Usually he makes me get something similar.

Ahsoka has the Iktotch Toast, which I may try. It's bread dipped in egg batter and cooked, then soaked in syrup.

Then they get another cup of caf while they make me run the length of the station.

It's 3 miles long overall. They put this dumb tracker on me, and track me as I run.

If I don't run down every hallway, every room, they make me do it again.

I've done that since we started training 3 weeks ago.

Last week they took me to the exercise room and started having me do stuff in there.

It's going okay, but I'm getting worse with Rex and Echo.

Thank goodness I haven't trained with Sabine in forever.

Last time we were in the shooting range, I just couldn't find the target.

It was embarrassing. I said sorry to both Echo and Rex, who shrugged it off.

They know what else I'm doing.

I spot Ahsoka and Kanan and walk over, but don't sit.

_I'm usually their busboy._

As they say, 'I gotta pay my dues'.

"Morning." I say with a smile.

"Morning Ezra. Sleep well?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yeah."

"You got Hera mad at me kid. She misses you." Kanan said with a straight face.

I smile and shrug.

"Sorry."

"You'll be stopping by on your run today." Ahsoka smiled.

I smile.

_For a former Jedi, Ahsoka is warm._

Loving.

Kanan can be cold sometimes when he's in Jedi mode.

Ahsoka's naturally kind and always to give a push in the right direction.

"Are you hungry?" I ask.

I am.

"Yup." Ahsoka said happily, looking to Kanan.

"Can you get the salsa today please?" He asked.

I give him a funny look but nod and turn to the kitchens.

Where the crew of chefs are already working on something.

"Morning kid! We saw you come in, so their stuff will be up in a second. What'll it be for you?" The head chef waved to me while messing with the massive pan in his hands.

"Normal omelet. And you wouldn't happen to have salsa for the one your making would you?" I ask.

He let out a massive laugh. "Salsa? Is it not hot enough?"

"I don't know...he's weird. We've gone over this." I smile.

He's a good dude.

He gave me a key to the pantry a few days ago. I've been waking up hungry. When I mentioned that to him he couldn't get to his key ring fast enough.

I blink, and I've got the normal three plates coming to me.

"Yours is coming up kid."

"Thanks!" I call out, kicking open the door.

Balancing the plates, I make it back to Kanan and Ahsoka's usual back table and deposit their food in front of them.

"More caf?" Kanan asked sheepishly.

I took his cup and smiled, then walked back to the kitchen.

Where I'm greeted with a big omelet and the pot of caf.

"Call them what you will, they are predictable." He smiled at me, taking the cup and refilling it while I grabbed my food.

"Thank you."

"No problem kid. Good luck today. Get after it."

I smile all the way back to the table, where Rex and Echo have joined us.

"Morning." I say respectfully, noticing that they both look like they just woke up.

They both mumbled a hello to me, then simultaneously get up and walk to the kitchen.

Kanan shook his head and Ahsoka laughed.

"It's so easy to trust them. So many memories." Kanan said quietly.

Ahsoka bit her lip and nodded.

"You'll work thru it."

"I'm trying. I knew what I was getting into when I told Hera we'd do this. But I didn't sign up to be working with soldiers."

Rex arrived just in time to bite his lip and hang his head.

"We know you're working on it. Until then all is forgiven sir."

"Absolutely." Echo added, sitting next to him.

Kanan gave them a light smile, and everybody dug into their breakfast.

…

…

"You're getting a super shot of training today kid. Keeping you on your feet." Kanan said, finally breaking the minutes long silence.

"Why?"

"Just to change things up. And what we were going to teach today works with what they've been pounding into your head." Kanan said, smiling at Rex and Echo again.

"More 'knowing yourself'? I still don't know how to defend myself." I counter.

"All of you Jedi are the same when you're young. Hunted or not. You want to go go go." Echo shook his head.

"I just don't like wasting time." I reply.

"We're moving forward today. Not far, it's a small step, but we are moving forward." Rex told me.

"Can I get a hint?"

"Yeah. Look at yourself. Analyze yourself physically and mentally. You'll figure it out." Kanan said, smiling.

I groan and take another bite of my omelet.

Ahsoka smiled as Echo got to his feet.

"Caf anyone?"

"Please." Ahsoka replied, handing him her cup.

"Analyze kid. C'mon." Kanan pushed me.

I keep eating, and listen to Kanan.

_Physical._

I'm not strong. But I am fast.

Agile. Good reflexes.

Athletic.

Mentally I…I don't know. If you're talking about force powers I'm not good. Like Kanan always says.

I'm smart. I love using terrain when I fight.

Last time we were fighting that smuggler with Lando I had to stop myself from shooting those barrels of fuel.

_Would have been a quick win._

But Hera would have been mad at me.

And it worked out in the end.

I finish off my omelet, and start grabbing everyone's dishes.

"Uhm…is this normal?" Echo asked as I was gathering everything.

"Yup." Ahsoka said simply.

"It's called paying your dues." Kanan added.

"Dues for what?"

"It's just part of it."

I scoop up all the dishes and walk back to the kitchen.

Where, like normal they're almost immediately taken away from me.

"Thanks!"

"Thank you!" I say, turning back around.

When I get out the door, I see Kanan smirking and pointing.

_Dang it._

Now the running.

I sigh, then start out the door at a light jog.

_Let's start out at the bottom and work up._

I run to the nearest stairwell and start down.

Elevators are unfortunately against the rules.

I run the entirety of the lowest level, B3, doing my normal routine of waving politely at whoever I see.

_It's got to be weird to see a kid running around every day._

Wait.

I don't even know where Hera is.

How am I supposed to say hi if I don't even know where she is?

I know she, Kanan and Sabine aren't in my wing of the station.

We're in Red Sector, Level 3.

I don't really know the people around us. Being friendly probably wouldn't be a good thing.

I find myself thinking about what Kanan and Ahsoka are up to, bringing Rex and Echo into today's training, and before I know it, I'm making a side trip to the mess hall to ask where Hera is.

The moment I pop in, Kanan waved me over.

"Blue Two." He said simply.

"Form could use some work." Rex frowned.

"No it doesn't!" I say, quickly exiting so they can't force me to do pushups or make me run differently.

Blue Two.

There are 4 sectors to every floor, divided by color.

I'm in Red.

There's Green, Blue and White sectors on every floor also.

Blue Two.

Basically I'm a floor above, plus a short walk from Hera.

_Good to know if I need to talk to them._

I finish up the first level, then purposely go to the third level.

_Once I start talking to Hera, I won't want to run the top floor._

It'll be better and easier to run it now, and finish up by saying hello.

I laugh at the sound of Zeb's snoring as I pass, then slip down to the second level.

I pause briefly to watch the sun dip below the lip of the crater, then jog along the floor, looking for the designation.

I assume it'll be "Hera Syndulla".

Mine's Ezra Bridger and Zeb Orrelious.

I pass by what apparently is Sabine's, and finally I find it, with a surprise.

"Kanan Jarrus and Hera Syndulla".

_Same room?_

That's nice I guess.

They try to give the rest of us advice and take care of us like parents.

_But…my last biology class is in the front of my mind._

I shake my head and knock on the door.

I feel something beyond the door, which I'm guessing is Hera.

Ahsoka and Kanan told me that every person has a signature in the Force. We've been focusing that in some of my meditation sessions.

The only two clear Force signatures I have are theirs. Everyone else is kind of murky, like they're behind a filter.

The door in front of me opened, and Hera lit up.

"Ezra!"

"Hi. Heard you missed me." I smile back at her.

"Of course I did…come in!" She waved me inside.

Where the contrast in the front room makes me laugh.

One side of the room is pristine and meticulous.

The other has datapads and loose sheets of paper everywhere.

"So…which side is who's?" I ask with a smile.

"Neither."

"Huh?" I ask, as Hera is walking to a little kitchenette they have.

_Mine doesn't have that._

It's just a room and bathroom.

"Sabine and I have been putting our heads together on a project for the rebellion."

"About what?"

"A starship design. It's one that was scrapped in the Clone Wars."

"So it's Sabine's mess." I say.

"Yeah. Are you training already? You're all sweaty." Hera said, looking me over.

"Ran every level of the station." I say.

"Oh my. Are you thirsty?" She asked, already reaching in the cupboard.

"Sure. Thank you."

"Somebody has to watch over you kids." She said simply, filling a glass with water and handing it to me.

I take a sip and realize that actually, I'm really thirsty.

I drain the glass, then move to get more.

"Sorry, didn't realize how thirsty I am." I say shyly.

"Don't be sorry." Hera smiled at me, taking the glass from me.

As she's filling it back up, the front door opened.

I turn and see Sabine carrying a datapad.

"Oh. Hey Ezra. Good morning. You're up early." She smiled at me.

I shrug and take the glass back from Hera.

"Not really. Kanan and Ahsoka have been toughening him up."

I almost spit the water back up in a rush to defend myself.

"Hey!" I say, as my nose burned.

"I thought they've been training you in the afternoons and nights." Sabine said.

"And in the mornings." I add.

She gave me a weird look, but started grabbing up some of the datapads.

"Then how are you training with Commanders Rex and Echo? There's not enough time."

"I'm training with them too."

Sabine rolled her eyes.

"They decided to train you two separately right?" Hera said.

_I think she knows that._

They told Kanan and Ahsoka that awhile back.

"Yeah, because I'm a lot more experienced in fighting hand to hand than he is." Sabine said, then turned to the door.

"I'm getting breakfast. I'll be back." Sabine said simply, then walked out.

_That could have gone better._

What's her deal?

"Uhm, it's not my business, but is there something I should know about between you two?" Hera asked.

I sigh and put the glass back on the counter.

Hera immediately snatches it up and refilled it.

"Kind of. I exaggerated how Kanan got saved at Mustafar. She's been mad ever since." I sigh.

Hera looked at me sympathetically and put her hand on my shoulder.

"Kanan told me that you did very well. You just got thrown more than you can handle."

"Yeah." I say, nervously rubbing the scar on my cheek.

I thought that the marks that the Inquisitor's lightsaber made would fade.

_They haven't yet._

To my surprise Hera grabs my face and turns to get a better look at the marks.

…

"That from his lightsaber?"

I nod.

"I was doing okay, then I made the mistake of looking at Kanan to see what I should do next. Then his lightsaber was on me. I barely blocked it, and fell off the platform. Remember why I wasn't responding to you when you were radioing me?" I ask.

"Yeah, you scared me half to death." She said, looking serious.

"It's because I landed on a platform so hard that I whacked my head and got knocked out. The first thing I felt was my face, then heard your voice."

"Ezra…" She said softly.

I shrug and sip the glass of water.

"We'll talk to her. I promise. You just keep working. Alright?" Hera said softly.

"I will. But I don't get why she doesn't believe that I'm training basically all the time."

Hera shrugged, then hugged me.

"Don't worry about her. Control what you can control. And that is your training. She'll come around."

I smile, and she smiled back.

"I probably need to go. It's joint training to start today." I say sadly.

"Door's open if you need to talk Ezra. Anytime." Hera told me, taking the glass.

"Thank you." I smile.

Just as I am about to turn around and leave, I feel one of the two force signatures I can actually feel reliably.

Kanan.

I turn just as the door opened.

"Did I take too long?" I ask as he walked in.

"No. Just came to tell you that we'll be in the armory."

"We just got done. And I need to talk to you later." Hera said simply.

Kanan suddenly turned serious.

"About what?"

"Sabine. I'll tell you later." Hera replied.

"Sabine?'

"I'll tell you later." Hera said, leaving no room for discussion.

"Alright." Kanan nodded, then led me out of the room.

We made it into the lift to the first level before he said anything.

"So, what'd you come up with for today?"

"The lesson?" I ask.

He nodded.

"Well, I thought about what I'm good at and what I'm not."

"Give me an example." He asked simply.

"I'm fast. I'm not strong."

Kanan smiled.

"What sort of fight would suit you?"

"One that my opponent isn't super strong and uses that as his main attack." I say.

Kanan smiled.

"I think you got a lot out of that little fight with the Inquisitor. But that's the sort of fight I think you would thrive in. He wasn't extremely powerful. I pushed him off his mark."

"That's not your game. In the datapad, you said you were form III." I say, unable to hold it back.

That's the form that's best for deflecting blasters.

He said that he earned it because he faced droid a lot more than people.

Kanan smiled wider.

"You're studying that datapad. Good. I'm glad."

"I like learning more about the Jedi. The Empire doesn't want people to know this stuff. It's my own way of rebelling."

"You're doing a lot more Ezra. Tell me more about this lesson."

Kanan pressed his hand against the identification pad for the armory.

"The other thing I really came up with is something you already know."

The door opened, and Kanan beamed.

"The kid's on fire." He said to Rex and Echo.

"Really now?" Rex asked.

"He's hit both points that I mentioned to you guys. Speed over strength and using your surroundings."

Both clones smiled.

"Good job Ezra. We'll have to stop repeating the importance of knowing yourself every five seconds I guess." Echo said.

"We'll have to find something else to beat into his head." Rex said.

_I hope he's joking._

Ahsoka.

I turn to face the door right before it opened to reveal her.

"Sorry I'm late. Can't stand those meetings." She said quickly, walking past me and hopping onto the same crate Sabine did in our first lesson.

"You haven't missed much. Bridger officially knows his personal strengths. Time for the fun to begin."

"Fun?" I ask the room.

"We're officially branching out and starting to specialize in stuff Ezra." Ahsoka smiled.

"You needed to know your strengths in order to use them in combat." Kanan said.

"Both…kinds of combat." Rex added.

"They work hand in hand at times." Kanan said, turning to face Rex.

"Very true General." Rex said.

_He backed down._

"Now Ezra, out of the six lightsaber styles on the datapad, which one do you think suits you best?"

Form I is the basics of lightsaber usage.

II is duel centric.

III is for overall defense.

IV is super acrobatic and offensive.

V is blaster defense and counter attack.

VI is kinetically controlling your lightsaber.

_I'd guess IV._

"I'd say Form Four." I tell them.

…

"You're partially right. It's the acrobatic form, and that would play into your hands. But why wouldn't we use it?"

…

_Blast. I think it's the one that stinks against blaster fire._

"It's tough to handle blaster fire." I guess.

"Correct. When will you use your lightsaber the most?"

Against somebody else that has a lightsaber.

"Against another opponent that has a vibroblade or lightsaber." I reply.

Kanan smiles.

"Exactly."

"Form II?" I ask.

"Form II. We're also going to throw in some form III so you can handle blaster fire. But knowing how to duel, really duel will benefit you most." Ahsoka said.

"Which reminds me." Echo said suddenly.

I turn to see him pull out my blaster.

"She's all fixed kid. Needed a little better power transicoil, which really was it." He smiled, handing me my blaster.

I take it back and turn it over in my hands.

_I can't even tell that he messed with it._

"Blade still good?" Rex asked.

_He wasn't in on this?_

"Absolutely. Kid?"

I activate the lightsaber part, and it immediately springs to life.

I can't hold back my smile.

"Thank you."

"Try the blaster." Echo replied.

"And for the love of Alderaan try to hit the target on the far wall." Rex added.

Kanan and Ahsoka laughed.

"You heard?" I ask.

"Oh we heard. Heard you could hit the broadside of a super cruiser." Kanan teased me.

I sigh, then line up a shot and pull the trigger.

A powerful blast shot out of the barrel and finds its mark just a little left of center.

Rex let out a cheer, and Ahsoka clapped.

"There's hope for you yet Bridger! How about we chalk up the last two weeks to the fact that you didn't have your blaster?" Echo smiled.

"Let's do that." I say, jumping on the opportunity.

Echo smiled and Rex laughed.

"Did you ever make those blueprints?" Rex asked.

"I did." Echo said, pulling out a data chip and handling it to me.

"So now he can make more than one of those crazy things?" Kanan said in disbelief.

"I…wouldn't recommend dual wielding that." Ahsoka said, sounding very nervous.

"No, I mean he can make another one of those lightsaber pistols if it breaks it." Echo clarified.

"That's a bad thing?" Rex asked.

"I haven't decided yet." Kanan replied. "It's such a unique design I'm still not 100% sold on it."

_I believe in my design._

…

"I don't know about the generals, but we're going to start teaching you ways to use your agility and speed in hand to hand combat." Echo said.

"So no more punching droids?"

"Not as much." Rex said.

"But you're not going to punching us either. We'll find something to stand in as an realistic opponent." Echo added.

"Oh dang it. I forgot to talk to Hera about that." Kanan suddenly said. "Sorry."

"No issue at all General." Rex said graciously.

"I think that's it. Rex?" Ahsoka asked.

"I don't have anything else General." Rex said.

"Go take a break in your quarters Ezra. We'll get started after lunch." Kanan smiled at me.

"Alright."

A nap sounds good right about now.


	5. Vengeance

I take a breath and try to center myself.

_Just 5 more._

I open my eyes and focus on the 45 pound weight in front of me.

Lift…

The weight rises up into the air, and I try to ignore my exhaustion.

I step forward and push, and the weight rockets into the padded wall across the weight room.

I jog over, grab the weight, and do 5 curls with each arms.

Then finish with 10 pushups and 10 sit-ups.

4 more now.

I walk back over to the other side of the room, with the weight in my strong hand.

I drop it, then sit down and grab my water bottle.

_It's got to be around 6:30 now._

My lesson with Rex and Echo finished around 3:30, I grabbed a nutria-bar from the kitchen and then came here around 4:00.

6:30 is my guesstimation, since I've completed lifting weights with my hands and am almost done with the Force training.

As long as I don't fall asleep the moment I lie down on my bed like I did last night.

I was supposed to do some reading for today's lesson with Kanan and Ahsoka, and instead I slept.

Kanan said this morning that he came into Zeb &amp; I's room to tell me something, only for me to be passed out, datapad on my lap.

_At least I didn't get in trouble._

We mostly worked on footwork today. A little sparring at half speed.

Okay…

_4._

I sit up, and repeat my process.

Focus. Lift. Visualize. Push.

This time I power thru the push, and it momentarily sticks in the wall before falling to the floor.

I'm done with my curls and halfway thru my pushups when my comm starts beeping.

_Of course I'm in the middle of the set._

I quickly finish my pushups and situps, then scramble to my comm.

"Here. Sorry." I say.

"It's okay kid. You done down there?" Kanan's voice replies.

"Three more sets." I say, force pulling my water to me at the same time.

"Well not anymore. Clean it up quickly, then come to the main deck. Briefing time."

_Briefing?_

"Briefing? Did I miss you say that earlier?"

"No. See you in a minute kid."

Click.

Huh.

I let out a breath, then make up a final exercise on the fly.

_Let's try pulling the weight to me, then curls as I go to put it up._

That's all I've got out.

I toss my water bottle to the side, and focus on the weight.

I struggle for a moment lifting it so far away, and then getting it going in my direction.

Kanan and Ahsoka haven't taught me how to lift heavier objects. Just stuff like lightsabers and well, water bottles.

I'm fine until it's about halfway to me.

Then I realize that I pulled it way too fast.

_And I've got a 45 pound weight coming straight at me._

Oh shit.

I jump to the side, keeping my left hand stretched out so I at least have a chance of catching it.

Unfortunately, the weight smashed into my wrist.

OWWWWWWW!

I yelp in pain, and grab my wrist.

_That really hurt._

Good going Ezra.

After a moment, I let go and take a glance at my wrist.

_Well, it's not like purple already._

I try turning my wrist, but the pain makes me stop quickly.

Great.

_Looks like I'll have to talk to the medic._

And since I don't know where that is, I'll have to ask Kanan.

I drop the weight in its holder with my right hand, then pull my water bottle to me, and gently put it in my left hand.

_Even that hurts._

On my way out the door I flip off the lights, and pull my comm to me and swap hands with the water bottle.

_I'm an idiot._

I'm smarter than this. They haven't taught me how to safely pull heavy objects to me.

Of course I got hurt.

They're not going to be happy.

About halfway there I'm passed by Chopper, who's speeding somewhere.

"Oh, hey Chop. Long time no see." I smile.

He made a few quick beeping noises, then a single long one and wheeled over to me.

And grabbed my wrist.

"OW! Chopper! That hurts buddy!" I jump away from him.

He made one loud noise, then sped off.

"Chop! Chopper!" I call after him.

Good going by me.

I'm on a roll here.

I haven't seen him since we got here. And the first thing I do is yell at him.

When I get to the comm center door, Chopper…

_Is already there._

Making quick beeping noises.

"Kid! There you are." Zeb said, quickly waving me over.

"Chopper's freaking out about…something with you." Kanan said, as Zeb gently grabbed my arm and looked at my wrist.

Even when he tried turning it, pain shot thru my arm.

I winced and straightened my arm.

Causing Rex and Echo to come over.

"Call for a medic." Rex told Echo, as he took over for Zeb.

I walked over to the center console and leaned against one of the support beams.

"What'd you do?" Ahsoka asked.

I sigh, then said "After Kanan called me down, I decided it'd be a good chance to pull my weight to me and put it up faster. I got it up and pulled it, but did it way too fast, tried catching it with one hand and it smashed into my wrist." I say.

"Can you turn it?" Rex asked.

"Barely." I say.

The door behind us opens, and I turn to see Sabine walking in.

"What's going on?"

"The kid hurt himself with the Force." Zeb said with a frown.

Sabine whipped her head around to look at me.

"It was a weight Zeb." I say, then hang my head.

"On their way." Echo told Rex.

Rex nodded, then turned to Kanan.

"You want to start the briefing sir? Or wait?"

"We can start it. If the medic wants to pull Ezra aside, we'll fill him in." Kanan replied.

"Sorry." I say sheepishly.

"Live and learn." Ahsoka shrugged.

Kanan nodded.

"Okay everyone. All this stuff is classified. But since it relates back to us, we all thought we should be the ones to tell you." Hera began, and I look around.

She's talking to me, Zeb and Sabine.

Rex and Echo have stern looks on their faces.

"Is this why you had that meeting earlier couple of hours ago?" Sabine asked.

"Yup." Kanan said.

I glance over at Rex, who has his arms crossed.

"I'm sure you all remember right after we first got here, and our introduction to Senator Organa and Mon Mothma, right?" Hera said to us.

I nod.

The door behind us opens, and a guy in all white came in carrying a case.

I raise my right hand, and he walks over to me.

"Wrist?" He asked.

I nod, and he immediately begins inspecting it.

I turn back to Hera, who is looking at me.

"Well, unfortunately things have changed.'

Changed?

"The Empire has made a move on Lothal." Kanan said solemnly.

I hung my head, and I hear Sabine gasp.

"Who is leading the attack?" Zeb asked.

"The 501st Legion."

I turn to Rex and Echo.

"Not to bring up a sore subject, but I thought that was your battalion." I ask them.

"It was." Rex said simply.

_He doesn't like it._

"Do you know the leader?" Zeb asked him.

"I don't know. The man who I ceded control to may not still be alive."

"Name?" Ahsoka asked.

"Appo."

Ahsoka pulled up a holo terminal, then rapidly typed Appo's name in.

…

"Nope. KIA on Kashyyyk." Ahsoka read out.

"Ceded control?" Sabine asked.

To my surprise, Echo smiled.

"After a battle on Umbara, then Captain Tarkin was notified that I was the primary one behind our technical insubordination of our Jedi General. He wasn't like Commander Tano, and essentially used us clones as expendable toys, racking up the highest clone fatality numbers in the entire war. Tarkin placed me under review after multiple men under my command died. Or thought to have died." Rex said, then smiled at Echo. "After a few back room meetings, I was no longer the 501st Commander and essentially taken out of the end of the conflict. Something that was a stroke of luck looking back on it."

A moment of silence followed.

I glanced at the medic.

_Who was taping my wrist tightly._

I didn't even notice.

"As I said, Lothal is under the tight grip of the 501st. They are using the typical Imperial tactics, but only in certain spots of Capitol City and Tarkintown."

"We think they're looking for us." Kanan got right to the point.

…

"So…the Empire is terrorizing Lothal because of us." I say.

It's our fault.

"It's not our fault. This is the Empire's doing kid," Echo said strongly.

A tap on my shoulder gets me to turn.

"Place ice on the wrap every 25 to 30 minutes. You should be fine within 3 days." The medic said to me, handing me an ice pack.

"Oh. Okay. Thank you." I say.

"No problem. Happy to serve." The medic replied, then bowed to Ahsoka and left the room.

I put the ice on my wrist and look back to Ahsoka and Kanan.

"Unfortunately, that's not even the worst part. Our source on Lothal has told us that the Emperor's enforcer, Vader is on the planet."

Rex and Echo stiffened.

Ahsoka ignored them and continued.

"At this point, our tracks are well hidden. All assets on Lothal are secure. With the exception of the communication tower."

"My tower." I clarify.

"It's not yours anymore Ezra. They leveled it."

"They WHAT?" Zeb said incredulously.

"They leveled it. Along with all of Tarkintown."

I…

_My home's gone._

I can't believe it.

"They couldn't have. People would protest and be in the streets." Sabine said.

"Not with star destroyers surrounding Capitol City and the Empire's best enforcer on the planet bashing skulls together they aren't." Ahsoka said simply.

"Unfortunately, and for now…we're deeming Lothal a lost cause." Kanan said quietly.

"Kanan!" I say.

We can't just give up on Lothal.

_It's home._

"Kid, we can't do anything."

"We can't just give up either!" I hotly reply.

"We're not giving up. We're just going to have to focus elsewhere for a while." Kanan said calmly.

"Then what are we going to do? Sit here forever?" Zeb asked darkly.

"No. I've secured us a place in the Onderonian cell so we can continue to build up our strength and analyze places to hurt the Empire."

I hear somebody laugh, and turn to see Echo smiling and Rex laughing.

_What is so funny?_

Nothing is funny right now. My home is gone.

"What's so funny?" Kanan asked.

"General…did you happen to speak with Mr. Bontiri?"

Ahsoka's face turned stern.

"He was my contact."

"Of course he was." Rex smiled.

"Rex." Ahsoka said tiredly.

"I'm not seeing the importance." I confess.

Sabine said something quietly in Mandalorian.

"What was that?" Kanan asked her.

"ori'vod alit." Sabine replied. "His name is familiar."

"General Tano and…Lux Bontiri spent a portion of the Clone wars fighting together." Rex smiled.

"And bonding." Echo chimed in.

_Bonding?_

"The rules of the Order were never in question, and are obsolete now. Commander." Ahsoka said shortly.

"You loved him." Hera put the pieces together.

"He chose another in his fight for Onderon's freedom. Which turned out to be a waste when the Empire was born." Ahsoka said bitterly. "Anyway, all the Order's stance on love did was cause loyal Jedi to stray and question themselves. It's one thing I don't miss."

Whoa.

"Regardless, we'll be going to Onderon in a few weeks' time. Tentatively, from there we'll begin furthering the Rebellion's cause. Directly or otherwise. Are there any questions?" Ahsoka asked the room.

_I'm not asking anything._

This is a lot to take in.

Lothal, plus one of my Masters'…was once in love?

The other is in love right now!

_Makes me feel a little better about Sabine._

Despite her complete indifference.

At least I've got her still.

_Unlike Ahsoka apparently._

"Alright. Now you can't discuss this with another member of the station's staff. Officially, we left three days ago." Kanan said.

"Left? Wouldn't we be on the dossier?" Zeb repied.

"No. But in case this station falls, that is our story." Kanan replied.

Rex rose to his feet, which got everyone in motion.

Hera came and stood by Kanan, who is still frowning.

"Hey." I hear somebody near me say.

I turn and see Sabine smiling at me.

"Got a minute?" She asked.

"Yeah…what's up." I smile and ask her.

"C'mon." She replied, starting towards the door.

I nervously follow her out the door and into the turbolift.

"How's your wrist?" She turned and asked me.

I shrug. "Doesn't really hurt right now."

"You might want to take that ice off soon. Having it on too long can be as bad as not using any ice." She said as the lift stopped on the 3rd level.

Red sector.

I follow her out of the lift and over to the window.

Before long, she glanced over at me.

"You should be mad at me."

_Oh._

We're talking about this I guess.

"Annoyed yes. Not mad." I sigh.

Sabine's shoulders slumped slightly.

"I'm sorry. I…" She began, then stopped and glanced around.

"Can we go to the armory?" She asked me.

"Why?" I ask.

"Nobody will overhear. Go get your datapad too."

Then she just walked away.

_What…_

The day girls start making sense, the Empire will fall apart.

_That's a fact._

Nevertheless, I walk my room and grab my datapad, then go to the armory and place my hand on the scanner.

_Access Permitted._

The screen turned green and the door opened, revealing Sabine again.

"Hi." She smiled happily.

"Hi again." I shake my head as the door shut. "What's the big deal Sabine?"

She nervously smiled and shrugged. "I…I'm not good at admitting when I'm wrong. It can come off wrong."

"Okay."

"I just wanted to be away from everyone in case you get mad at me."

"The only thing I'd get mad at is why you're mad. I don't know why."

Sabine immediately started pacing.

_I hit the target._

"I'm scared that you're wasting time. And that they're also driving you into the ground."

"Wasting time?" I ask her.

"I…maybe it's how I was brought up. There weren't any Jedi. They all got beat. You won't be able to use that stuff most of the time, like Rex said. When I hear Rex and Echo joke about you not being able to hit anything, I can't help but worry that…you're not going to be ready."

"I'll be ready. I've been a lot better since I got my blaster back."

Sabine immediately looked lost.

"They took it? I thought they were gonna ask."

"They did. Ahsoka said yes."

"And it works."

I nod, pulling it out.

_Might as well show her._

I line up a shot down the makeshift range we've created, and take it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sabine jump slightly before my shot hits just to the left.

"That wasn't bad."

"Told you." I smile at her.

"What about fighting? Like hand to hand?" She replied.

"I'm still learning the basics from Commander Rex and Echo."

She bit her lip.

"I could…teach you some stuff if you want kid."

_She would?_

"You would?"

"Yeah. I can't be covering for you all the time kid." She smiled.

"You won't be." I frown.

She's back to the doubting in me.

_Great._

Before she can reply, I asked "Why'd you tell me to bring my datapad?"

"Oh, I found a way to get the holonet on them, and not just the Imperial Feed."

"Okay. I'll pass on the hand to hand stuff."

Sabine quickly looked shocked.

"W…why?" She asked quietly.

"I don't want to mess up my fundamentals. They probably aren't up to your standards anyway." I say bitterly.

I hand her my datapad then tell her "I'm going to go meditate before I go to sleep. Need to let my stupid wrist heal." I say, then smile at her.

"Okay…Good talking to you Ezra." She replied, before I start towards the turbolift and the meditation room.


	6. More Questions Than Answers

(A/N: Hey you guys. This chapter has spoilers from the recently released episodes of Star Wars: The Clone Wars named "The Bad Batch". They're on the Star Wars website if you would like to watch them for yourself. I'm still working to get everyone perfectly in character, particularly Sabine and Ezra's dynamic. If you have a question, feel free to ask it in a review or PM me. Thanks for reading.)

…

_That's the air kicking on._

Seconds later, I hear the climate control open the vents, and cool air poured in.

And Zeb's snoring.

The cool air hits my face, and I slightly jump, which fully wakes me up.

_I don't want to know what time it actually is._

Keeping my eyes firmly closed, I feel around my nightstand for my datapad.

…

…

Crap.

I forgot.

_Sabine has it._

I sigh and just lay here for a second.

_I don't think I'm going to be able to go back to sleep._

Using the Force I probe around to feel if anyone else is awake.

…

…

Ahsoka's moving.

…

Kanan is too.

And I think Commander Rex and Echo are too?

I open my eyes and sit up.

Hopefully it isn't a completely ridiculous hour.

I throw on a shirt and some pants, then walk out into the hallway.

_They're in one of the meditation chambers on the other end of the station._

I sigh, and start that way.

At some point, I see the time.

2:22 GST.

_Good going Ezra._

Slept for a solid 3 hours before waking up.

I've had a couple of nightmares about my parents while I've been here. Usually they don't bother me. I've been having them for years.

But add in that lady's screams that I heard back when Senator Organa and the Princess came, and I've been sleeping terribly.

…

I finally find the correct meditation chamber and open the door.

The room went silent as I walked in, then Hera and Kanan hopped to their feet.

"Ezra?" Kanan asked.

"What are you doing up?" Hera demanded softly, walking over.

Rex, Echo and Ahsoka are all looking at me strangely.

"The climate controls woke me up, and I couldn't get back to sleep. I sensed you guys here so I decided I'd take a walk." I say.

Hera softly wrapped her arms around me. "Well grab some warm blue milk and—"

"Actually, hold on Hera." Kanan said softly.

"Why? It's too early. He needs to go back to sleep."

"He's been sleeping badly. I've felt him awake super early ever since we got here. And I think he needs to hear this." Kanan countered.

"Hear what?" I ask him.

Everyone turned to Ahsoka.

"If you think he can handle it." She told Kanan.

"I think he can, but he's also going to get a facefull of it eventually. Might as well hear it from us." Kanan argued.

"I would like to tell our side. I imagine usually we're the villains." Rex said.

"One of them, yeah." Kanan said.

Hera frowned and put her hand on Kanan's shoulder.

"Fine." Ahsoka said.

I move to sit by her and next to Rex across from Kanan and Hera.

"What are you talking about?"

"The Clone Wars." Kanan said.

"Weren't you both padawans or something?" I ask.

"Yeah."

"You two didn't know each other though. Unless Echo or I missed something during a mission." Rex said.

"Wouldn't surprise me. I spent most of the last part of the war being turned into a cyborg." Echo scowled.

I whip around to look at him, while Kanan and Hera leaned forward.

"What?" Hera asked matter of factly.

"I…" Echo started, then stopped and turned to Rex.

"Maybe you should tell the story? The details are a blur now."

"Sure. Jump in if you have a comment though." Rex said, then shifting in his seat.

"During a key mission…Echo was hit by a laser cannon. The shield he was carrying didn't help. His helmet rolled away from the blast. We all, General Skywalker, the other clones, Commander Tano everyone thought Echo was dead. Until after the Commander had left the Order, that a signal from Skato Prime containing Republic battle strategies had Echo's signature on them. We went to find out the source. What we found…wasn't what we were expecting."

…

"He…was in a stasis chamber. Hooked to more computers than I could count. Legs gone. One arm too. Looked dead. But he was alive."

"I don't really remember anything until you said I never stopped being a soldier." Echo shook his head.

"How do you have arms and legs then? Like normal ones?" I ask.

"Cybernetics kid. They've made a bunch of progress in the last few years. They can match your skin color, make them respond like the real thing, hot and cold, pretty much everything." Echo smiled.

"I've never been more proud of a solider than I was of you. You were the reason we were able to get off that slimeball and win Anaxes." Rex smiled at Echo.

"What did the Separatists use you for?" Kanan asked, looking concerned.

Echo looked to Rex.

"I…had a battle algorithm. It was extremely effective in creating general strategy and anticipating flaws. Echo had it on him when he got blasted. We think that the Separatists captured him, found the algorithm and thought of a way to use it."

"A disturbing, sick way." Hera said darkly.

"It wasn't completely terrible. I've been able to eradicate all copies of the algorithm from the Empire's databases. And I've modified it for our own uses." Echo replied.

"So it was you, plus two Jedi?" I ask.

"No. We had a special clone battalion named "The Bad Batch" alongside us." Rex told me, as Echo laughed.

"Those guys…they're something else." Ahsoka said with a smile.

"You know them?" Kanan asked. "I've never heard of them."

"Black ops. They were clones that went wrong, but in interesting ways. Like super strength, extreme accuracy, unparalleled technical abilities, and so on. They didn't even all look alike."

"Were you there?" Hera asked Ahsoka.

"No. That was shortly afterward."

"After what?" I ask.

"I...Well I left the Jedi Order." Ahsoka said.

_WHAT_

"What?" I say, hopping to my feet.

Ahsoka shrugged.

"You know how everyone calls her General Tano? That's why." Rex said.

"Why'd you leave?" I ask her.

"Ezra!" Hera snapped at me.

"Ezra, I'm sorry. But that's my business. It…wasn't a fun time." Ahsoka said, not meeting my eyes.

_That's weird._

She always looks me in the eye.

"It's not our business anyway. I don't even know. I just know the shockwaves that came after that." Kanan said firmly.

"Same. The next few missions felt like we were missing an arm." Rex said.

Ahsoka however, was looking at Kanan.

"Aftershocks? I've never heard about what happened right afterward."

Kanan looked surprised.

"Well, uhm word spread like wildfire. Apparently some people saw you and Master Skywalker talk just outside the gates, and you walked away. Rumors flew around, and after about a week the Council didn't have to tell us what had happened. We just knew." Kanan said.

"Where were you at the time?" Echo asked.

"With my Master on a diplomatic mission to Omereth."

"I thought Omereth was a water world." Rex stated.

"It was. Not much there. Pretty much a wild bantha chase." Kanan replied dismissively.

"Who is this Skywalker guy? I heard you say his name earlier. Is he a part of a cell?" I ask Kanan.

…

"Not to our knowledge. No more questions about Ahsoka's past. It isn't easy for her kid." Kanan said forcefully.

I turn back to Ahsoka and see that she looks calm.

"Sorry." I say.

"It's alright. But your Master is right." Ahsoka said simply.

"I told you he wasn't ready for this." Hera smacked Kanan in the ribs.

I nervously turn back around to look at them.

_I've already lost this round._

"I thought that—" Kanan started.

"Hey Ezra. How's the wrist?" Rex asked, gesturing me to come over.

I get up and sit next to him and Echo.

"It's alright. The ice and stuff really helped."

"Good. No stiffness?" He asked.

"A little bit. Nothing too bad. I did everything fine today."

Echo still grabbed my arm and started testing how flexible it was.

He did two or three tests, then let go of my hand.

"Seems fine. No lingering tendon damage or anything." Echo said to Rex.

"Alright Ezra. Time to go back to bed. We're leaving tomorrow after all." Hera said.

"We are?" I ask.

"Yup. Going to Onderon, with a short pit stop to pick up supplies." Hera told me.

"Will anyone else be coming too?" I ask.

"I'll be with you." Ahsoka shrugged.

"We'll catch up in a day or two. No big deal. Your training isn't done yet." Rex smiled.

Good.

_I feel like I really just started._

"See you tomorrow kid." Kanan waved.

"Night." I say, trying to hide my disappointment.

I let my head hang when the door shut and I'm out of their sight.

_I don't know anything about the Clone Wars._

I had 4 veterans of the Clone wars in the same room as me. And all I learned about is how one of my masters might not actually be a Jedi. And the other is part robot.

Good going Ezra.

Instead of going to bed, I grab a drink and a snack from the kitchens, then go to the room Kanan had me deflecting blasters in.

_I'm not tired. Might as well do something._

I force pull the droid to me, and set it to emit 1000 bolts at me.

That should be enough to get me to a reasonable time.

I walk over to the wall, where my helmet is in my assigned space then put it on.

3…2…1.

I activate the probe droid first, then my lightsaber.

_And then try the tough part._

Kanan and Ahsoka don't want me to focus on the probe or the blaster bolts. They want me to use the force and sense them, and then act accordingly.

_Trust your instincts. You'll have them and your training in the heat of battle. Nobody will be able to help you._

Ahsoka.

She's a powerful Jedi. Stronger than Kanan. I can just feel it.

That's probably because she was trained longer than Kanan.

_I think._

Kanan usually follows her lead during our training sessions.

Ahsoka's always positive and reinforces me, even when I'm constantly screwing things up.

Kanan is usually my sparring partner.

My lightsaber training has mostly been footwork. They've been running me thru what basically are dance moves as I swing my lightsaber like I'm attacking.

Also I've been running thru these ladder things that they lay on the ground. I have to step into, and out of each one. If I'm too slow, I have to do two more.

Ahsoka, Kanan and Echo have turned down the power to my lightsaber so that if I do hit Kanan it will only shock, not cut him and cauterize right away.

I've done okay. I just keep reacting. Ahsoka keeps telling me to think.

_You don't need to win every strike. It's a check. A block. Don't be afraid to stretch the battle out._

Kanan said it another way. I'm merely stopping their progress. A temporary blockade that allows me to make a move or give ground.

It's all defensive based so far. And it's driving me crazy.

When I talked to them about that, they both got onto me.

Said I wasn't looking at it right.

_Lightsaber combat isn't a method to kill Ezra. When properly displayed, it's an impenetrable defense. It can be used offensively, but the defense is more important._

I just know that if given half a chance, the Inquisitor would have finished me. If I was given ten chances, I might have finished him once because of pure dumb luck.

When I'm not doing lightsaber training with them, they've been working to teach me how to shield my thoughts.

That's been fun, except for the headaches that they keep giving me.

_Can't do anything about that though._

They are messing around in my head.

…

No more bolts?

I pull my helmet off and cautiously approach the droid.

"It's me kid."

I jump and turn to see Kanan, Hera and Ahsoka standing in the doorway.

"Oh. Sorry. I'll go to bed." I say quickly, hurrying to put my stuff away.

"No…you'll want that on Onderon. Take it with you back to your room." Ahsoka said.

"Are you okay Ezra?" Kanan asked.

"Yeah. Just not tired." I shrug sheepishly.

_I feel like they've caught me breaking a rule or something._

Ahsoka steps farther inside and lets the door shut behind her.

"Are you sure?" Kanan pressed.

"Yeah. Just not tired."

"Or is this about Sabine?" Hera asked.

I frown at her.

"It's about her." Ahsoka said quickly.

"It's not about Sabine!" I reply quickly.

"You guys have been fighting. It's okay if it is." Hera said evenly.

"This isn't about Sabine guys. I promise."

"What about you avoiding her Ezra?" Kanan asked simply.

…

That I am guilty of.

I've been working pretty much around when Sabine has been eating, and instead worked out or some other sort of training.

I haven't seen her in about a week.

"I just don't want to see her. She'll find another way to insult me." I say darkly, turning to the containers in the wall.

"Ezra…she talked to me about you guys talking last week. She didn't mean to upset you about your training with Rex and Echo. She just doesn't…she wants you to be ready." Hera said softly.

"Well she isn't good at saying that." I tell her.

"Ezra, Sabine's a year older than you, but she's not perfect. Remember that." Kanan said.

"I know she's not perfect, but she keeps on finding ways to dismiss what I've been doing. And it makes me angry."

"What did I tell you?" Ahsoka asked, sounding like she was smiling.

"Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering." I reply.

Suddenly, I can feel her happiness thru the Force.

_I answered correctly._

…

Might as well tell them.

It is true I guess.

"I'm tired of being dismissed by her. That's the best way I can put it." I say, then brace for their reply.

…

"That's perfectly understandable Ezra." Hera said after a moment of silence.

"I know I'm not supposed to like her. It's not the Jedi way." I say.

"The Jedi way doesn't matter anymore Ezra. The Code used to forbid attachment, but we were supposed to be emotional and compassionate. It was a double standard that did nothing but harm. That doesn't apply to you Ezra." Ahsoka said.

"I…" Kanan began then stopped and sighed.

"For what it's worth kid, I'd just focus on your training. If it works out with Sabine, then great. But you can't sacrifice your training for her."

"I'm not. I've been doing more training because of her." I counter.

"Is that what you've been doing?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. When I know she's eating or something, I've been doing something productive. Just like she wants me to."

"Ezra, she does care. I promise you that. That's not the issue." Hera told me.

"It might just not be time. I…yeah. Maybe it needs time." Ahsoka said.

_That sounded weird._

"And…keep this in mind. Not every girl you like is the one. I fell for a lot of girls before I met Hera." Kanan said.

"And we don't talk about them, now do we?"

"Nope." Kanan said cheerfully.

_Maybe that's it._

Maybe it's not meant to be.


	7. The Real Problem

_Deep breaths._

I focus on the hum of the engine and try to relax.

Hmmmmm.

Hera told us the plan right after we jumped into hyperspace.

We're going to a planet named Ord Mantell and stopping long enough to raid an Imperial Outpost, then jumping to hyperspace and Onderon.

Zeb and I got kicked out of our normal room by Hera, who gave it to Ahsoka. So Zeb snagged the tiny guest quarters. And I found myself in the gunnery at the bottom of the ship.

I actually don't mind it. Nobody except Chopper ever comes down here. It's quiet except the engines and nobody is going to come down here.

Currently I'm lying down in the gunnery and trying to focus the Force.

_It's a lot clearer out here in space. _

I wonder why? You would think it would be less clear because there's nothing living in space.

Blink Blink.

I push myself up yawn and trudge over to the comm unit.

_I wonder why Hera didn't just comm—_

Oh.

I shake my head and focus.

_It's the plan for our raid._

Kanan and I are the ones getting into the warehouse.

Sabine and Zeb are together like usual providing us cover.

Hera will stay on the ship and be our getaway.

_Huh._

Ahsoka isn't mentioned.

Maybe she's above a simple smash and grab.

I hit the microphone and press the button for the cabin.

"How far away are we?" I ask.

"10 minutes or so." Hera replied.

_That fast?_

Okay then.

I quickly use the fresher, then climb up the ladder to the main deck.

When I get to the cockpit, the door is already open, with Zeb and Sabine standing in the doorway.

"—would you like the distraction to be messy or clean?" Sabine asked.

"I don't really care." Hera said.

"Clean preferably. It'd be a sign to the Empire that the Lothal cell has moved off world." Ahsoka said.

"But they'd leave Lothal alone then." Zeb reasoned.

"No they wouldn't. They haven't done that to cells they've squashed." Ahsoka said.

_Squashed?_

"Make it clean Sabine."

"Got it."

"Get in position. Just make it look smooth coming off, and follow me until we reach the outpost." Kanan told us.

"How are we going to get in?"

"Slip in between guard shifts." He replied simply.

"Thank goodness for good intel."

"Hopefully it's better than the intel we got before Mustafar." Sabine says.

_Exactly._

"We gave you what we had. You all did exceptionally." Ahsoka said evenly.

"By the skin of our teeth!" Sabine replied quickly.

"Sabine!" Hera said quickly.

"What? You were frustrated too!" She said right back.

"We all were. But it was for a purpose. A larger goal." Hera said strongly as we entered the atmosphere.

Kanan simply stood. "We can talk about this later. But we've got to get to work if we're going to Onderon."

I step aside for him as he walked to the cargo bay.

Sabine ran off, I assume to grab her helmet.

I use the time to double check I have everything.

_Lightsaber._

Check.

_Emergency Rations._

Check.

_Flare._

Check.

_Smoke Grenade._

Check.

I've got all my clothes, comfortable shoes and slingshot.

_Haven't had to use it in forever,_

It's kind of like an emergency thing now.

I'm in trouble if I lose my lightsaber and blaster.

_I guess I could use the Force, but that'd blow my cover._

My lightsaber would do that too I guess.

Sabine comes rushing in as Hera is putting us down, nearly causing her to run straight into the doorway.

I laugh and smile at her.

"Gotta get that out early I guess." She shrugged.

The ship set down, and the wait begins.

_One._

_Two._

_Three._

I glance at the door, and see the compressed air and oxygen mix come out from the door.

Then it opened, and Kanan led Sabine, Zeb and I out.

I take in my surroundings and try to get my bearings.

It's cold.

This hanger is small.

_Weird._

I guess Hera got approval as a passenger transport and not a cargo ship.

As we cross the threshold into the spaceport, the Ghost's engines roar back to life.

_I assume she'll meet us at the outpost._

The Stormtroopers guarding our hanger ignore us as we walk by.

_Ahsoka told me to reach out using the Force while we're here._

Now's as good a time as ever.

I'll be too busy when we're at the depot.

I slip behind Zeb and Sabine and try to focus my thoughts.

…

"Welcome to Mannett Point. Governor Saresh reminds you that due to the Imperial Armed Forces, we are now celebrating unprecedented peace and prosperity…"

_At the cost of how many stomped underfoot?_

…

I feel…

Dishonesty. Like there's a black market nearby.

Fear.

And Pride.

I think the locals believe in the security the Empire has provided.

They must be enjoying this "unprecedented peace".

They must not know the truth.

Kanan mentioned that the change from the Republic to the Empire didn't change leaders.

_How can they not question him?_

Nobody is above being questioned. How can they just go with everything he puts into law?

I glance around and see the sights of a market, with locals contently shopping.

No rush, without a care in the world.

Wordlessly, Sabine and Zeb wave to Kanan, and then split off.

I take a few quick steps to walk beside Kanan.

…

"You feel them Ezra?" He asked me.

"Yeah. They aren't worried about anything."

"Because nothing has happened here in years. It's been quiet since the Clone Wars. Nobody your age here knows anything other than the Empire and its safety."

"Is it like this most places in the galaxy?" I ask.

"Yes and no. If the war really affected a planet, you can still feel the effects. The people walk differently, act with more purpose."

"Here they don't really have one." I say.

"Exactly. This could be you if you didn't have such vocal parents Ezra. And if they didn't disappear. Don't forget that we all could be them. We can't be too quick to discard any person."

"Because they don't know anything different?" I ask.

Kanan smiled, and Sabine and Zeb walk out of an alley about 20 feet ahead of us.

Just as I start to wonder why they disappeared—

BOOM!

I whip around and see a gigantic fireball erupting out of a building a few blocks back.

Stormtroopers start rushing towards the building, yelling out commands.

"Get three units out here! I think it's a gas leak! It just went up!"

"Where did that come from?"

A clap in my direction gets my attention, and I look to see Sabine and Zeb ducking into a building, with a hanger attached.

_Oh snap._

We're here.

I hurry inside behind Kanan, pulling out my lock pick.

"No time for that." Kanan said brusquely, grabbing his lightsaber.

I slide my pick back into my jacket and run to keep up.

We slip into the storage room, and Kanan cuts away the security cameras and locks in seconds with his lightsaber.

I grab a pallet of crates and start pushing.

Beside me, Sabine and Zeb are doing the same.

Kanan goes ahead to ensure that we're not walking into a bunch of Stormtroopers.

We did that once. So now we check ahead of time.

_We can't lose this shipment._

Ahsoka would probably be mad.

Kanan grabs the door and yanks it open for us.

When I get inside, I see that the Ghost is already here.

Hera pops out from the Ghost and hustles to us, grabbing my crate.

"We're all ready except for Fulcrum."

"Where's she?" Kanan asked, as we all start for the ship.

"She—"

I freeze in place.

_I…_

I know the feeling behind me.

By the time I'm looking at Kanan, he's already telling Hera to get to the ship and turning around.

I try to shake off the cold that surrounds me, but can't.

"Do you feel it?" I ask, turning around also.

I don't know what it is!

Has to be an animal.

Kanan grabs his lightsaber just as the…whatever it is…feels like it's getting closer.

Gushh…Shhhh…

_Is that…_

Gushhh…Shhh…

A figure in all black calmly steps thru the door.

And ignites a blood red lightsaber.

Gushhhh…Shhh…

_It's breathing._

I pull out my lightsaber and try to think.

What is…that?

_A person?_

I look to Kanan, but he's already moving towards the figure.

Before I know it, Kanan has made the first move, but the Figure bats his slice away with a one armed swing of his own lightsaber, hitting Kanan's shoulder guard and causing sparks to fly up.

Kanan regroups just in time to block a power strike from the cloaked figure.

Kanan spins out of the lock and makes an aggressive move towards the enemy.

Which he turns into a saber lock.

_He's got at least 5 inches on Kanan._

Power is his game.

GET OUT OF THERE!

As if he can read my thoughts, Kanan spins out again, and then makes a lightning fast stab towards the figure's midsection.

_WHAT—_

The figure simply side stepped the stab, and grabbed Kanan's wrists.

I blink, and Kanan's yelling and flying towards the wall on the side.

"NO!" I yell, running towards the black figure.

I don't get more than 4 steps in before he grabs me with the force and pins my arms to my sides, then pinned me against a walker leg.

_Oh no._

This is bad.

Really really bad.

"Your master has deceived you…into believing you can become a Jedi." The figure said, in the deepest voice I've ever heard.

I try to move, but can't at all.

Then my saber arm is slowly pulled towards me.

_Towards my neck._

Stop.

I focus myself on my arm and throw all my energy into stopping…my own arm.

Stopppp…

_It's coming right for me…_

STOP.

STOPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP!

_It's not stopping._

I'm gonna die.

And then I collapse off the girder, and hear the figure make a noise.

I pop up and see Sabine, with both guns out and pointed at the figure.

She fires off another powerful shot right on target, but the figure deflects them both back at her.

"AHHHHHHH!" I hear Sabine scream and fall over.

The figure starts to close in on her.

_Wait._

NO!

I quickly reignite my saber and jump between them just as he's raising his lightsaber at Sabine.

I manage to slip my lightsaber in and block the finishing blow.

But he keeps pushing.

I grit my teeth and put my entire strength into fighting back.

_It's not going to last long._

I'm not strong.

Gushhhh…Shhh…

_What is this guy?_

I'm so close to him that I can see the details of his mask.

_It looks like a skull._

Finally, he lets up a slight amount, and I push him one footstep farther from Sabine, who is still down.

Then a black blur comes flying at me, and I flinch in time for the figure to grab me by the throat.

Choking me.

I try to breathe and free myself, but I'm stuck and end up making a gagging sound.

_I can't breathe._

It's a vicegrip.

"I am TIRED of your insolence…" The figure growled, bending me backwards, choking me with the hand on my throat, despite me trying to fight back.

_Now I'm going to die._

A voice then barged into my head.

_YES. THIS IS HOW YOU DIE._

I see red coming at my throat, and I close my eyes.

And then I'm on the ground.

_What's going on?_

The figure let out a yell, and tumbled a few feet away.

I breathe and see Kanan, standing tall.

He reignited his lightsaber.

"Get on the ship. Both of you." He ordered us.

I get to my feet.

"No. I won't leave you." I say, pulling my lightsaber out again.

I'm not letting him fight this guy alone!

"It doesn't matter Jedi. Soon, you and your crew will all be dead." The figure declared, in the same mechanical, deep voice.

With the breathing.

Gushhhh…Shhh…

"Any last pathetic words?"

"Yeah. I've got a couple." A familiar voice called out.

Then another figure dropped in between Kanan and I and the figure.

_Ahsoka!_

Where was she?

We could have used her a little while ago.

The figure stopped for a moment.

"The Apprentice…I was under the impression you had fled from the Order like a scared youngling." The figure goaded.

"Strong words from a Sith. Where is your master? A robot only serves." Ahsoka demanded.

"I am not a robot…Jedi."

"I'm not a Jedi. They cast me out. But you apparently knew that." Ahsoka replied coldly.

"Leave, or be destroyed then." The figure said strongly.

"No." Ahsoka replied, just as strong.

The figure attacked with a lightning fast force push.

Ahsoka quickly repelled it, no harm done.

"Impressive…apprentice. You have grown strong."

"How do you know me?" Ahsoka growled out, sounding angry, beginning to walk in front of the figure.

"You live."

_Huh?_

…

Ahsoka suddenly went still, then screamed "NO!"

What?

…

"It is true." The figure replied. "Search your feelings. You know them to be true."

"Pad…What would Padmé think?" She asked, looking horrified.

_Why is that name familiar?_

"Did you say—" Kanan begins, then was silenced by the dark figure.

"Do NOT…say that name."

"You…have no hold over me. Lord Vader." Ahsoka said strongly.

_What?_

"I have all the hold over you, and your friends. And you all are about to die."

…

Ahsoka crouched down, tapped a button on her wrist and force pulled her lightsabers to her.

The familiar sound of them activating gives me goosebumps.

_Whoa._

The figure reactivated his lightsaber, and moved towards Ahsoka.

In seconds, they've attacked, parried, countered, feinted and even flipped.

The action finally stopped as Ahsoka blocks a powerful downward strike and yelled "GO!" at Kanan and I.

I just stand there and watch as Ahsoka and the figure battle it out.

Then Kanan pushed me.

"She'll be right behind us! Go!"

I backpedal as fast as I can while watching Ahsoka and whoever it keep fighting.

This time, Ahsoka is in control. She is pushing the guy back; forcing him into defensive blocks and making him give ground.

_Ahsoka looks like a whirlwind._

The Ghost's engines roar to life, and the ship suddenly rises a few feet.

Then Ahsoka grabs him with the force, and sends him rocketing towards a walker.

The figure stops himself, but then Ahsoka brings the walker down on top of him.

YES!

Then a loud noise rockets above us, and I crouch down instinctively.

_TIEs?_

Looking up…

Those aren't TIEs.

_It's another kind of ship._

Looked like a backwards Y.

Ahsoka comes sprinting towards us, as the fighter drops a torpedo right at the walkers.

Kanan grabs Ahsoka and we quickly race inside the ship.

Explosions rock the outside of the ship as we speed away.

I collapse in the doorway, next to the supplies.

Kanan and Ahsoka race off.

_I…_

What just happened?

…

Who was that?

…

I sit there for I don't know how long, in a haze about what just happened.

Only when the ship starts doing evasive maneuvers does my brain finally start working.

_We're in trouble._

I need to get to my guns.

We aren't out of this yet.

I scramble to my feet and sprint full speed towards my temporary bunk, dodging Zeb and Chopper.

_Three._

I can feel them around the ship.

_I don't think there's more._

I strap in as fast as I can and press the button to lower the gunnery so I can actually help.

Behind me, I hear the comm click on.

"Ezra, is that you?" Kanan's voice asked.

"Yeah! Trying to help!" I tell him.

…

They aren't close right now.

I don't have a shot.

"There's 3 TIEs. We're trying to jump into hyperspace before they send an entire squadron after us."

"Got it."

I feel one of them trying to avoid the shots up top, and diving down.

_Towards me._

I line up my shot and take it.

Before my eyes, the TIE darted into my line of sight and right into my shot.

BOOM!

_Okay._

That makes two.

"Who got that?" I hear Ahsoka ask.

"The kid. He's below."

"Where are you?" I ask.

"I'm up top!" Ahsoka replied, voice rising as I hear her fire.

BOOM!

_Where's Hera?_

I feel the last TIE to my right.

He's going to fly right in front of the cockpit and try to scare Kanan.

_Then he's going to come right to me._

I prepare to blow this guy out of the galaxy, lining up a shot.

BOOM!

_What?_

I crouch down and look up to see the leftovers of an exploded TIE.

_Kanan must have felt the TIE too._

And blasted him.

The guy did fly right in front of him.

_Made it too easy._

I climb out of the gunnery and press the button for it to rise back to the ship.

_I need to talk to Kanan._

Who was that guy?

I don't see Zeb, Chop or Hera and Sabine on my way to the cockpit.

Instead I bump into Ahsoka as she's also walking towards the cockpit.

"Good shooting Ezra."

"Thank you." I smile.

I follow her into the cockpit, where Kanan is leaning back in his chair looking exhausted.

I take the seat in the back, while Ahsoka sits next to him.

"You okay?" She asked.

"Yeah…just a little thrown off." He replied.

I glance at the armor on his shoulder to see a gigantic cut in it.

"Was that what sparked?" I ask.

Kanan looked down.

"Yeah. I wasn't expecting him to be so fast. And strong."

"Really? I kept him off Sabine."

_If I can push him back, strength on strength, then he could have._

"Yeah, then he grabbed you by the throat and nearly broke you in half like a twig Ezra." Kanan frowned at me.

I nervously swallow, and my throat twinges in pain.

"How'd you get him off? I got there right before I dropped down." Ahsoka asked.

"Threw my weight at him. It knocked him off balance and did the job. Gonna feel it tomorrow though."

"You don't know who that is Ezra." Ahsoka said. "That's Vader. The guy that we thought was on Lothal."

"I guess our intel is wrong."

"When we get to Onderon I'll comm Senator Organa. I need to talk to him anyway." Ahsoka said simply.

"His name is Vader? Where's he from?" I ask.

"Nobody knows. Most people that meet him end up dead. We only know about him because we watch the Holonet closely. He pops into one or two shots a month, shutting down a rebellion and 'maintaining order'." Kanan said.

"What was with his breathing? That's the weird thing." Kanan turned to Ahsoka.

"I don't know."

…

"The fear…the anger…the hate…I haven't felt a presence like that since…" Kanan said quietly.

"The Clone Wars." Ahsoka finished his sentence.

"But not even then. My master and I bumped into Count Dooku once, and he didn't feel like that."

"That guy felt like a black hole. One minute we were in the hanger and okay, then suddenly all I felt was cold." I say.

"That's a full blown Sith." Kanan said.

"I…don't know what he is. General Grievous was mostly machine, but he couldn't use the Force. Something isn't right." Ahsoka shook her head.

_She looks shaken._

"Did I do alright?" I ask Kanan.

Kanan turned to me, with a strange look on his face.

"Alright? That's what you're worried about? Ezra, we were lucky to survive."

"I know but—" I begin, but Kanan cut me off.

"You should have died twice. Twice! Once with your saber, and Sabine bailed you out. Then she got her armor blasted thru, you saved her, and then you nearly got broken in half! So no, I don't think you did alright." Kanan snapped at me, looking angry.

"You're here though. So we can learn from this." Ahsoka said calmly.

"Ezra…" Kanan began, then stopped and clutched at his head. "Everything you did was off instinct. Which is okay, but that's how it was at Mustafar with the Inquisitor. You didn't use any of your training. It was all athleticism and instinct. Think."

"It'll take time. I didn't learn to think while fighting until after I left the Order." Ahsoka said.

"Ezra, what was his main fighting style?" Kanan ignored Ahsoka and asked me.

"I...I don't know. I was too busy trying to fight him off."

"You had chances. It's not like you're going to get to size him up. During your saber lock with him, he gave himself away to anyone who knows the forms."

"What was he?" Ahsoka asked.

"Form V. He threw some other elements in there too as well. Very good fighter." Kanan said simply, and then turned back to me.

Ahsoka sat back and seemed to ponder that.

"I may be being too harsh Ezra. But…you can do this. Not like today though. You were afraid. That's why you went back to your old self."

"I'm not afraid." I say firmly.

"That's what worries me. You say you're not worried, then one day we'll meet Vader again, and—"

"That's not going to happen." Ahsoka said, reaching out and grabbing Kanan's shoulder.

Knock knock.

I turn around and the door opened, revealing Hera and Sabine.

_Sabine's who arm is wrapped in ice and clear stuff._

Ahsoka hopped to her feet. "How's your arm?"

"It's alright." Sabine shrugged, taking one step in.

"I put some kolto cream on it and bandaged her up. I want her to see somebody on Onderon as soon as we can though. I'm not a doctor." Hera said, walking up and taking Ahsoka's chair.

I hop up and offer Ahsoka my chair.

"Thanks." Ahsoka said.

"Good job today Ezra. Sounds like you did well." Hera smiled at me.

I nervously shrug.

"I can do a lot better though." I say.

_Kanan and Ahsoka are right here._

I wonder why she said that.

_You can hear thru that door._

I've done it myself, trying to figure out who Fulcrum was.

Kanan leaned back. "I'm the one that sucked today. I should have done a lot better. I let him play his game."

"You can't blame yourself too much though—" Ahsoka begins, but then I feel Sabine behind me.

I turn to get a better look at her arm.

"Hey, can you come with me for a second? I never got to give you your datapad back." Sabine said to me.

"Uhh, sure." I say.

Sabine stopped leaning on the doorway, and led me back towards her room.

Wordlessly, she let me in and grabbed my datapad.

"Here you go. I thought I'd paint it for you. Looked too boring with just black." Sabine extended it to me.

I smile and take it.

_Sabine went crazy on it._

All sorts of colors and designs.

"Thanks Sabine. It…looks great." I say.

_I don't know what else to say._

"There's more when you activate it."

"You got thru my password?" I ask.

Sabine cocked her head to the side and smiled.

"1234 isn't a good password Ezra."

I try not to blush in embarrassment.

"I don't want to forget it."

"Then make it your birthday or something." Sabine said

_That's actually not too bad._

I nod and smile.

"How's your arm?" I ask.

"It's okay. My armor is wrecked though. Burned right thru it, plus one of the bolts hit me between my plating."

"Ow…I didn't know that's what happened. It was all a blur to me." I say.

Sabine shrugged.

"Thank you though. I…probably wouldn't be here if you hadn't shot at him." I say sincerely.

_Don't mess this up Ezra._

This is kind of like a second chance for the Mustafar disaster.

"I should be thanking you. You saved me from him. I…" She gulped and looked scared for a split second.

"You got hit. Don't beat yourself up. I'm just glad I got there in time."

Before I know it, Sabine's wrapped her arms around me and has her head buried in my chest.

_Uhh…_

"No…thank you. You saved my life. I don't care what Kanan says. You did great."

I hang my head, almost on her shoulder.

_When'd I get to be taller than her?_

I get my bearings, and Sabine's still hugging me.

I'm an inch or two taller than her.

_Wasn't I shorter than her on Mustafar?_

"I knew you guys heard him." I say quietly.

_She's hugging me._

"I think he's more mad at himself than at you." Sabine said, then let go and look up at me and smiled.

"I don't know about that. He's pretty mad." I say.

_He had some good points._

"Let's go see when we're getting to Onderon. I'm hungry, and I want my stupid arm fixed." She smiled at me, then led us back towards the cockpit.


	8. Missing In Action

"Okay, who's got the Ace?" Kanan asked, leaning back and asking the room.

Hera shrugged.

"I've got it." Zeb said.

He silently played it, and the wheels of Spades, or whatever this game is called started spinning again.

The strategy is simple. Somebody plays a suit, and everybody has to follow that suit if they can. Everything is equal basically, but Spades beat everything.

_Hence the name._

We've been forced to find creative ways to pass the time since we got here to Onderon. Everybody was concerned about us being tracked, and that the Empire would put out a Capture Notice for all of us, so we've been driven underground basically.

Just hanging around the Onderon Rebel base.

Ahsoka almost immediately to talk to Senator Organa, then promptly disappeared.

_She still isn't back._

Kanan and Hera hustled Sabine to the medical area, and she spent the night in the medical wing.

She's fine now. Can use her arm without any issues. Unfortunately her armor is completely shot.

She showed me it a couple of days ago, and I don't know how, but the way Darth Vader deflected Sabine's shots melted right thru her armor and right onto her arm.

_It's kind of a miracle that she isn't scarred or anything_.

"Help me out here Ezra." Sabine called out to me.

_I've got to pull my weight._

It's me, Sabine and Chopper against Zeb, Hera and Kanan.

I said I'd win 2 hands.

I haven't won any so far.

Hera and Zeb have thrown out a 4 and 8 of hearts.

_If I go high, I should have this._

I toss of my jack of hearts.

Then Zeb tosses a 3 of Spades.

I turn to him, furious.

"Zeb!"

"haran gra'tua." Sabine scowled.

Hera's eyebrows raised.

"I tried." I say, as Chopper expresses his dismay.

He doesn't have anything.

The door behind Zeb and Sabine opened to reveal—

"Hey!" I hop up.

"Hey kid. How are you holding up? We heard you bumped into a pot of trouble on Ord Mantell." Rex smiled at me, as Echo clapped me on the shoulder.

"I'm alright." I shrug.

"Where have you guys been?" Sabine asked

"In the Core. Poking around a potential gold mine, in a manner of speaking." Echo explained.

"And that would be…?" Hera prodded.

"Can't say right now. But it's looking good."

Chopper suddenly dropped his cards and wheeled out of the room.

"I got you. Spades?" Rex asked, coming to sit down.

"Yup."

Echo joined him, and we fell back into the lull of the game.

"Is the general back?" Echo asked, after a few rounds.

"Nope." I say.

"We don't even know where she went." Hera said.

That caused Rex and Echo to exchange worried looks.

"That's strange. After…she left the Order and we found her, she always tells us where she's going." Echo said.

"We assumed she'd talked to you." Rex added, throwing down the queen of clubs.

Sabine grabbed the hand, a win for us.

Kanan shrugged, and Rex put down a low spade.

"Starting with a spade?" Zeb asked him.

Rex simply smiled, and Echo looked to Sabine and I.

_He wants us to capitalize._

Hera throws a higher spade, and then Sabine beats it.

Kanan simply puts down a jack of spades.

"Done and done." Kanan said, starting to gather the cards.

I flick my queen of spades on top of the pile, and then extend my hand to him.

"Yup."

Sabine let out a little laugh, and clapped her hands.

"Yes! That's exactly what we were looking for there! Good play." Rex said, as Echo gave me a high five.

"I swore I flushed everything out." Hera shook her head.

"Kid has a good poker face." Kanan said.

"Told you he's good. He's a sneaky gundark." Zeb said darkly.

"That's a compliment if I've ever heard one." Rex smiled at me.

"Looks like it's going to come down to the final game." Zeb added.

Our little scoreboard that Hera has been updating shows 470-455.

_Unfortunately, they are leading._

Chopper isn't exactly the best player.

Kanan gathered all the cards, and started shuffling.

My eyes end up on Sabine, who is messing with the tight jacket she's been wearing a lot since she got out of the medical wing.

I don't know what she's going to about getting new armor.

_In the meantime, she looks great in just normal pants, white shirt and that brown jacket._

Sabine looks over at me before I can take my eyes off her and smiles at me.

I shyly smile back and find my cards.

…

_This is good._

I have either a jack, queen, king or ace in every suit.

_But I don't have the ace of spades._

That's really good.

Having ace of spades lights you up as a threat.

"Who has the ace?" Echo asked.

Kanan nonchalantly throws it in, and everybody burns their lowest spade.

Kanan then puts out a heart out and calmly looks out.

…

I suddenly feel my mind get poked with the Force.

_No._

I glance over at Kanan, and he's looking at the card Echo just put down.

He's trying to find out what I have I think.

That's not happening.

Sabine trumps everyone, and we take the hand.

I'm trying to decide what I'm playing when I feel Kanan trying to force his way in and find out what I'm thinking.

_No._

I'm not a datapad.

I focus on my mental shielding and turn back to my cards.

_Huh?_

Sabine just threw out a three of clubs.

Unless she's trying to burn out high clubs, I don't understand what she's doing.

That's got to be what she's doing.

I see something coming towards me out of the corner of my eye, and I turn to look.

_Oh. Kanan's floating a pencil towards me to distract me._

I take one hands off my cards and stop the progress of Kanan's pencil.

_I think Hera's going to cave, and either Echo or I will get to beat her._

Process of elimination.

Hera does just that and throws out a 6, beating Sabine.

Echo puts down a 8.

Kanan puts out a 9.

"Oh really…" Rex sighed.

Kanan smiled, and looked to me, still floating the pencil.

I toss my King out and take the hand.

Hera sighed and leaned back in exasperation.

_We're close._

Everyone has two cards left.

I toss out my highest spade, the jack.

_Hopefully it'll hold._

Zeb couldn't beat it.

Sabine played low.

Hera smiled and tossed out the king.

"I knew one of you had that…" Rex said, shaking his head.

He sadly tossed out the queen.

_We were screwed either way._

Jeez.

Last run.

Hera started with a 7 of diamonds.

Rex played a 5.

Kanan plays womp rat and goes with a 4.

Then he simultaneously ramps up the mental attack and with the pencil push.

I lock my mind down, and block the pencil, then give Kanan a look.

Kanan is staring at me.

Keeping eye contact with him, I toss out my ace.

"OH COME ON!" Hera yelled in frustration.

"Yeah!" Sabine beamed.

Kanan frowned, and the pencil dropped to the ground. His metal attack abruptly ended.

Hera reluctantly updates the scoreboard to show the final score.

500-470.

_We win._

The door opens again, and Ahsoka leaned on the doorway with a smile.

_She's with a tall, muscular man with brown hair._

"You've moved on to pushing him to multitask?" Ahsoka asked Kanan.

"Not really, I just wanted to win and pushed him."

"He batted it away pretty well I thought." Echo smiled.

Rex meanwhile, is looking at Ahsoka's friend.

"Is that…who I believe it is?" He asked her.

Ahsoka smiled widely and nodded.

"Everyone, this is Lux Bonteri. Former representative of Onderon in the Imperial Senate."

Kanan and Hera both perk up.

_Wait._

Is this…

I quickly look him up and down, and he's smiling at Ahsoka slightly.

_This must be the guy Rex and Echo were teasing Ahsoka about back on Polis Massa._

"Kanan Jarrus. This is Hera Syndulla, along with the rest of our crew." Kanan said, then gestured to Sabine, Zeb and I.

Kanan and Bontiri shook hands, then he turned to Echo and Rex.

"Name?" he asked politely.

"Rex."

Bontiri's eyebrows shot up.

"Really?" he smiled.

"Yup. You've grown up kid." Echo smiled. "Echo."

"Part of Senator Amidala's security if I remember right?"

Rex nodded and smiled.

Bontiri smiled, then turned to Sabine, Zeb and I.

He shook my hand, and Zeb's hand, asking us our names.

Then he bowed his head to Sabine.

"May I know your name?"

Sabine…nervously swallowed.

"Sabine. Sabine Wren." She said quietly.

Bontiri took a step back.

_Why does she look nervous?_

"Really?" He asked quietly, shock all over his face.

Sabine nodded.

"Is there a problem?" Kanan asked, moving next to Sabine.

"Uhm…sort of." He said, keeping his eyes to the floor.

"We'll be in the mess hall if anyone needs us…" Rex said, then he and Echo fled the room.

I look from Sabine to Lux.

"What's the problem?" Ahsoka asked, placing a hand on Bontiri's shoulder.

"I…" Lux bit his lip.

"Her father…is a friend of mine. An old, old friend back on Mandalore."

_Her father?_

"Father?" Hera said breathlessly.

Sabine…

All she's ever said about her family is "The Empire."

Literally.

"Yeah. I…I've seen Miss Wren before. At her home four years ago."

"You…have a family?" Kanan gently asked Sabine.

Sabine kept her eyes on the floor and nodded.

"They…you'll see in a bit. It's good to see you Sabine." Bontiri said softly and smiled at her.

Sabine shyly smiled back at him, then returned to looking at the floor.

"Can we still show them around town?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yeah, we can. We'll have to leave Zeb here though. People are very anti-alien right now." Bontiri said, looking resigned. "I'm sorry."

"What about me?" Hera asked.

"Unfortunately, people will likely overlook you as Kanan's slave girlfriend or something. But Zeb looks intimidating. He will get arrested if he goes out into the markets."

"I understand. Just grab me a fruit and we'll be okay." Zeb told Kanan.

"Got it." Kanan said.

Ahsoka started out the door, and Lux quickly followed.

Kanan and Hera leads Sabine and I out.

AS we're weaving thru the halls, I gently get Sabine's attention.

"Is everything okay?"

"Yeah…I…Can I explain later?" She turned and asked me.

"Yeah. Sure." I say.

Sabine smiled and kept with me as we keep walking.

When we walked out of the building, Lux began speaking again.

"We are approaching the capitol of the planet Onderon, Iziz. It's a walled city due to the jungle beats on the outside of the walls. Contrary to popular belief, the beasts actually are tamable. We've taken advantage of that, along with the popular opinion to operate relatively freely deep within the jungles."

"And no patrols catch you?" Kanan asked.

"There are no patrols. As you can see, we've pretty much the last thing before the jungle." Bontiri said, gesturing around us.

We're on a paved road, which is the only way in or out to the building we just came out of.

On either side are gigantic crevasses going down, and surrounded by levels of dirt.

"Was this previously a strip mine? The walls seem like it." Hera said.

"Yes. When the Empire rose to power here, one of the first things they did was strip mine the surrounding area for metals. This is one of many around the planet." Bontiri said, sounding sad.

Huh.

"What has the Empire been up to here?" Hera asked.

Bontiri sighed and continued walking.

"Mostly the mining. They seized the primary arms factories and nationalized them, then created Jyrenne Base, an Ordinance Base and training garrison on the other end of Iziz. Other than that, nothing out of the ordinary. Aliens thrown from any position of power and under foot, and those are the lucky ones."

_Jeez._

"I know Onderon is Mandalore's sister planet. How has that affected Iziz?" Kanan asked.

_It is?_

"They have made efforts to drive Mandalorian culture underground. They've mostly been unsuccessful. 80 percent of the population can trace their heritage back to the Great Galactic War if they want to."

Sabine smiled next to me.

_She…is acting a little strange._

"However, they have removed the greatest hunters from the planet by contracting them out to the Empire directly or indirectly to some shell company."

"They've made you dependent on the Empire's might." Hera said.

Bonteri nodded. "Many are resentful of that fact. When I got sick of it and started building a resistance a few months ago I couldn't go to the market without finding a new recruit."

Ahsoka smiled. "The people here are fiercely proud and don't like depending on any greater organization more than they have to. Wouldn't you say that's why our little group gained traction so fast?"

Bontiri smiled at her and nodded.

"Only a few months?" Hera asked.

Bontiri nodded.

"Well, I suppose we haven't been a cell for much longer either." Kanan said to her.

"Now when we get into the city proper, what rebellion?" Bontiri said strongly, then flashed blindingly white teeth.

_Okay._

Of course we're not going to talk about a rebellion when others are around.

Who does this guy think we are?

Sabine clearly is thinking along my lines, and has one eyebrow quirked and isn't looking pleased over at Bontiri.

He noticed and said "Not that I think you'll speak up, just making sure everyone is on the same page."

Sabine rolled her eyes.

"I'm sure you don't." Hera said simply.

_She's not buying it either._

We walk for a few minutes in silence, and massive walls are looming larger with every step.

"I'm sorry if I offended any of you. I…can have difficulty getting my point across to people I have just met. I don't believe you will accidentally betray us, but you get my point right?" Bontiri turned and said finally.

"Yeah, absolutely." Kanan spoke up.

Ahsoka smiled, and Lux looked relieved.

"Great."

Moments later, we walked past a large gate with something inscribed in a foreign language.

"Six gates?" Sabine asked.

"Why yes. How did you know?" Bonteri asked as we walked by some Stormtroopers.

I quickly get a feel for their thoughts as we pass.

_A little strange for newcomers at this hours._

Good.

They don't think anything is off about us.

I'm pulled back into the conversation by Sabine's voice.

"The arch above the gate had one of the pillars inscribed."

"Pillars? Of What?" Hera asked.

"Pillars of Mandalorian society. Ba'jur, Beskar'gam, Aliit, Ara'nov, Mando'a, and, Mand'alor."

"Basic translation?" I ask.

_I think this is important._

"Education and armor, self-defense, our tribe, our language, our leader." Sabine replied, looking at me.

I nod.

_Makes sense I guess._

I don't know much about Mandalorians.

I probably should look it up on the Holonet when we get back.

_All I knew before this is what I learned at Polis Massa._

Before long, we were in the middle of the city streets, and we couldn't talk much because of the sounds of everyday life around.

Iziz is the opposite of Ord Mantell in just about every way.

It's loud, people are everywhere and they're happy.

"Business must be booming!" Kanan said.

Bonteri nodded.

I glance over at Sabine, and she's looking at me.

_Beaming._

I don't think I've ever seen her smile so big before.

This must feel a lot like home to her.

…

I wonder why she left.

After about 20 minutes of meandering around the market, including Ahsoka buying some fruit and promptly squirting it at Bonteri we end up slipping into a side street.

After walking for a few minutes, Bonteri waved us into a darker alley.

"Uhh…" Hera started, but was cut off by Lux.

"Sabine. You need to be the first one to see this."

Kanan, Hera and I all turn to her.

"What?" Ahsoka asked.

Bonteri didn't reply, and simply pointed at a poster, stuck to the building next to him.

Sabine walked over…then covered her mouth.

Then made some…noise.

Kanan rushed to her side and looked at the poster.

"Hera. Come look at this." He said strongly, as Sabine bit her lip.

Ahsoka joined them over at the poster

There's a poster just like it right across from everyone else.

_No reason to crowd the—_

…

…

…

_Oh no._

It…

It's a missing poster.

Missing: Sabine Wren.

Last seen: 29-5-3271

There's a bunch of information listed, height and weight and home planet.

_Mandalore._

But I…I can't look it away from the picture.

_It's so…weird._

Sabine is in a Imperial Cadet uniform, with long brown hair and a happy smile.

_Sabine was a Imperial Cadet?_

I…

No wonder she was so good at the Academy at Lothal!

I tear myself away from the poster to see everybody is still around Sabine.

"—almost two years ago. You said you know her parents?" Kanan said, turning to Bonteri.

"Yes. I last saw them a few months ago."

"And?" Sabine blurted out.

"Everything is fine with them." Bonteri said softly, putting his hand on her shoulder.

"I…" Sabine began, then touched the poster.

"They probably think you're dead." Ahsoka said.

Lux shook his head.

"That's not a thought that would go thru her parents heads. They have the utmost faith in her."

"Did they mention Sabine when you saw them? At all?" Kanan asked.

"No. I avoided the topic. Like all traditional families, they observed the black month in honor of her."

"aay'han?" Sabine yelped, sounding horrified.

"Translation?" Hera asked.

This time Sabine covered her mouth with both hands.

_With tears in her eyes._

"The black month is observed when a family has lost a son or daughter."

…

_They do think she's dead._

I glance at Sabine, and she looks more defeated than I've ever seen her before.

…

"I think we should go back and get some dinner." Ahsoka said.

Kanan and Hera nodded, and Bonteri and Ahsoka led us back towards the crowded street.

_Wait._

We probably will need this poster.

Sabine…her parents should know she's okay.

I quickly grab both the poster I was looking at, and the one Sabine saw, stuff them in my jacket then rush to catch up with Sabine in the back.

The entire walk thru Iziz, Sabine blindly just walked, nearly colliding with several shoppers.

Finally she came out of her own head and snapped.

"We need to go back! I didn't grab one of those posters."

Lux turned around, looking sad.

"Next time Sabine. It would look very strange if we stopped and went back for apparently no reason."

"That's ridiculous. We'll catch up with you." Hera said darkly, turning around and grabbing Sabine's arm.

"Hera…I think Lux is right." Kanan said.

"It's okay. Next time." Sabine said quietly, looking down at the ground.

Hera opened her mouth, then her shoulders sank.

"Fine…"

We walked along for a few minutes before I slip my hand inside my jacket.

"Sabine." I say quietly.

Her eyes dart to me.

"C'mere." I say.

She shook her head, and then clearly rolled her eyes.

_She…_

She thinks I'm going to say something stupid.

_Like the stupid, love struck boy._

She thinks that I think she's vulnerable. And that I'm going to try and take advantage of that.

…

That hurts.

_A lot._

"Thought you might want this." I say bluntly, then stick the poster of herself in her hands.

I focus my eyes on the road in front of us, but still hear Sabine's small sound of surprise.

"I…Ezra." Sabine said.

I glance over at her, trying to mimic her look over at me, then turn back to the road.

Sabine obviously missed the point, because she walked right next to me, looped my arm with hers and laid her head on my arm.

Whatever.

_So much for saving her life changing anything._


	9. Perception is Reality

(A/N: A note for the reader to keep in mind. What Ezra is reading has been vetted and reviewed by the Empire. If it looks like something doesn't fit right, or is just plain wrong (Great Galactic War), that's the Empire's rewriting of history. If you have any questions or comments, feel free to review and/or PM me. Hope you enjoy the chapter. –James)

"Mandalorians are primarily identified by their armor, notably by the visors on their head. Armor can be constructed out of any durable metal, but preferably out of the rare Mandalorian iron _beskar_."

Again with the visors.

_Almost every article on Mandalorians, their culture, everything mentions their visors in some variation of "T-shaped"._

Not to say that I'm not finding a lot of interesting information. As it turns out, Mandalorians and Jedi have a history.

A bloody one.

Seems like every few hundred year or so, there was a war between the Jedi and the Mandalorians. The articles and data logs I found aren't exactly clear on why they went to war, but every time the Jedi won.

I think somebody has tampered with all of these documents though. There hasn't been one mention of the Sith that Kanan told me about, or the Force, and most of the problems of each era are laid at the feat of the Jedi.

Take the Great Galactic War. That supposedly was a massive war between a Jedi splinter group, the Mandalorians and the Jedi. Apparently the Splinter group, led by some guy named Malgus won the first part of the war, started peace negotiations with the Republic, then invaded Imperial City (then known as Coruscant) and held it hostage so that the Republic would have to concede to their demands.

The article I read primarily blamed the Jedi, saying that they fell asleep on the job, didn't protect the Inner Rim and highlighted a few examples of active Jedi that were double agents, actually serving for the splinter group.

I don't quite buy that. Jedi aren't perfect, but they're better than being led around on puppet strings and getting blindly attacked.

But that stuff was about a thousand years ago. Finally the Republic bombarded Mandalore, turning parts of it into a desert.

After that, there was apparently a split in the whole society.

Most Mandalorians changed their way of life, turning from a conflict driven society to a peaceful, more normal society. The ones that didn't were exiled to a moon, then came back to Mandalore proper and a group named "Death Watch" attempted to retake power at the end of the Clone Wars.

Then the Empire was "born", Mandalore was retaken and Death Watch was defeated.

_That's what the HoloNet says at least._

What I really wish the HoloNet would talk about more is that change in society.

_It doesn't make sense._

They bombed, so a battle-driven society is just going to change almost every aspect of their lives?

That doesn't make sense.

Maybe it plays into what Mr. Bontiri said about "traditional families".

After all, he fought in the Clone Wars.

Knock Knock.

I glance in the doorway to see Sabine.

_Her HAIR._

"Your hair…" I say, sitting up.

Sabine smiled at me.

"You like it?"

It's…blue.

"Yeah…why'd you change it?" I ask.

_It was perfect._

Not saying that this doesn't look great, it's just…

It's so much darker.

_AND BLUE._

"I needed a change. I…I don't know really. I've been drawing a lot since we got into that mess on Ord Mantell, and I just needed to change my look. Does it really look alright?" She asked, sitting next to me.

Closer up, the tips of it fade to green.

"Yeah, it looks great." I say.

Sabine smiled happily, then looked to my datapad.

"What are you…" She asked, grabbing it and starting to read.

_Uh oh._

I nervously get to my feet and grab my water that's over by my desk.

My eyes rest on the poster of Sabine that I taped to the wall.

"You looked up Mandalore?" Sabine finally asked.

"Yeah. I don't really know anything about it. And since you're from there, I figured I probably should learn something about it." I tell her, still looking at the poster.

_Her hair still gets me._

She looks so happy.

"That's really thoughtful of you Ezra."

I shrug and force myself to turn and face her.

She's looking at me with a slight smile.

"Did you learn a lot?" She asked.

"Yeah. I'm not done, but parts of it didn't seem right. I think the Empire edited it to tell the story they want us to think." I tell her.

"I think I can hack into the Holonet and see what these articles looked like before the Empire edited them."

"You can?" I ask.

"Yeah, if you can give me specific articles." Sabine said, looking down at my datapad.

_Which reminds me…_

"I really like how you painted it Sabine. Thank you again."

Sabine smiled again and looked up.

"Glad you like it Ezra. How about that password?"

"…I'm having trouble remembering it."

It took me three times to unlock it this morning.

Sabine laughed and shook her head.

Then she stood up and cocked her head to the side and pointed behind me.

"You took another poster?"

I glance back even though I know what she's talking about.

"Yeah. I figured you'd need one, and it couldn't hurt to have one as a reference."

She came and stood next to me. "You're just being really thoughtful today."

I laugh and smile. "I guess Sabine. Even though…"

Dang it.

Talked too much.

_I told myself that I wouldn't bring this up._

It's my opinion.

She doesn't need it.

I don't even know why she left and if she can go back.

"Even though what?" Sabine asked me, looking up.

I shake my head strongly.

"Ezra." Sabine said to me.

I shake my head again.

Sabine walked in front of me, stood on her tip toes and said "Ezra. What is it?"

"It's my opinion. Doesn't matter Sabine."

Sabine looked hurt for a brief moment, and then got off her tip toes.

"I want your opinion. Talk to me."

"Sabine…" I groan.

_I really don't want to._

"We haven't trained in a while. I'm more than willing to subdue you until you talk."

No.

_She'll beat me._

"Fine, I'll talk I'll talk." I say quickly.

Sabine smiled.

…

"I…I think that you should get ahold of your parents. Maybe even go home. They should know you're okay."

My mom and dad would want to know I'm alive and okay if I was in her spot.

Sabine looked taken aback, but surprised me by not shooting me down.

"Yeah…it's so hard though. We're a rebel cell. And a family. We're both training. I can't just go flying off to go home."

"You're smart. Encrypt a video file or something and get it to them using the HoloNet." I suggest.

"That's not a bad idea."

"It's not my business anyway." I say.

"No…Ezra I kind of made it everybody's business by keeping it a secret. It was a matter of time until we found one of those posters."

I shrug.

…

_She came for a different reason than to show off her hair._

Even though this has turned into kind of a deep conversation.

I can feel it.

_Best to be direct._

"What's up Sabine?"

I think somebody needs me.

"Nothing. Just came to talk to—oh! No, Kanan and Ahsoka wanted you to go see them. I think you're training."

I nod and pull my lightsaber to me wordlessly.

"Sorry I forgot." She said as I start out the door.

_They get mad at me when I'm late._

"No problem." I tell her as she hurried to catch up.

We walked for a bit in silence, then I feel Kanan and Ahsoka down the hall and a few turns away.

"They're this way Sabine. Thank you." I smile at her.

"How'd you know?" Sabine asked, looking angry.

"I felt them."

Sabine quickly looked confused, then just as quick shook her head.

"Oh yeah. You and your magic powers." She smiled, walking away from me and waving her fingers at me.

_Magic powers._

"Bye!" I call after her.

I guess she's still not a big believer in the Force.

…

I stop briefly before I meet Kanan and Ahsoka, taking the time to put everything else aside.

_It's not going to help me in there._

I need a clear mind.

"Hi." I say to Kanan and Ahsoka when I walk in. "Sorry I'm late. Sabine and I talked for too long."

"No problem Ezra." Ahsoka turned and smiled at me.

"You ready to restart your training?" Kanan asked.

"Yup." I reply simply.

"Great. We're going to be focusing more on lightsaber combat and the ideas behind it." Ahsoka said.

Yes!

Behind her, Kanan pulled two hilts to him, then tossed one to me.

"These are real training blades. I want you to try and defeat me." Ezra told me.

Uhh…

"Okay?"

_I'm fighting him?_

Before it's all been at half speed.

"Don't hold back Ezra. Remember your basics. They will bail you out when you're in a bind."

Kanan finished her point by pointedly activating his blade.

Then he charged.

_I know his main form._

Sorensu. Form III.

_I should make the aggressive move._

But that'd play right into his style.

Kanan makes the first move before I make a decision, forcing me to start off on the defensive.

My style can do both.

I parry multiple strikes by Kanan, then spin out and give myself a moment.

Slashes and cuts.

I make a strong move forward, and Kanan falls into his defensive stance.

My assorted slices at both his right and left sides and easily blocked.

I try the same move that he tried against Vader, the lunging strike towards his midsection.

Only for it to have the same result, and for me to be staring at Kanan's blade between my eyes.

I let out a yelp, then do an emergency jump up and over him.

I hear Ahsoka make a noise, but I block it out.

_Think Ezra._

How do I beat that defense?

The only thing I can think of is to make him go on the offensive and play the game he doesn't want to play.

And draw this out if necessary.

I come out of my thoughts to see Kanan smirking at me.

"Well Ezra?" He asked, gesturing grandly and extending his arms out.

I stay silent.

_He told me that talking only hurts yourself in a duel._

Wait.

_I can push him off me using kicks._

And the Force.

I've just got to repel him with one hand.

He's stronger than me, but he's using a weak offensive style. That should balance out.

Kanan set his jaw and charged me.

Block. Parry. Block.

I try a riposte designed to give me an opening by simply altering the path of his blade.

It catches Kanan by surprise and he starts to jump out of harm's way.

But not before I catch him right in the chest with a kick to the chest.

I hear the air come out of him right before he landed, almost on all fours.

"YES!" Ahsoka clapped.

Kanan rose to his feet again, looking frustrated.

In response, I grab one of the storage crates on the side of the room.

"Whoa!" Kanan called out.

"Ezra, no! Stop!" Ahsoka took a step forward.

I set the crate down. "Is that not allowed?"

In the brief moment before Ahsoka replied, I can hear Kanan's heavier breathing.

"Not now. I like the idea, but this is just dueling for right now. No using the Force to fling things across the room at each other."

"And that's a game you don't want to play most of the time with a more powerful force user." Kanan said. "I can easily pin you with your own crate. Softly or violently."

"You want to continue?" Ahsoka asked me.

"Yes." Kanan said strongly.

_I've made him mad._

Immediately Kanan charges again, and I set up for a block.

Only for Kanan to basically tap my block, then spin around me so fats I barely see it.

I whip around and Kanan is midway thru a downward strike.

I block it, but the sheer power forces me to back down.

_Get out._

I flip out onto the top of a pile of storage crates.

_Use the high ground._

In response, Kanan pulls a blaster to him and opens fire.

Oh crap!

I deflect the bolts, not really caring where I'm sending them at the moment.

_I don't know if the walls can take it, or if sending them back at Kanan is okay, or what._

Before long, I end up deflecting one back at Kanan as a test.

He easily deflected it, and then grabbed me with the Force.

"HEY!" I yell before he flung me off the crates and onto the ground.

I go skidding into the far wall, hitting it hard and losing my lightsaber somewhere along the line.

Right after hitting the walls, my whole line of sight turned into two moving parts, fading right and left, then moved to become one again.

_In time to see Kanan coming with his lightsaber._

I recall my lightsaber, only to realize that I lost it as I was flying backwards.

Kanan easily snatched it and leveled the blades at my heart.

"I win." He said, deactivating the blades.

I immediately hop up, trying to not yell in his face.

"You cheated!" I say, fighting for calm.

"No I didn't." Kanan replied.

"You used the Force! Ahsoka said you couldn't do that!" I say.

"No she didn't. She just said we couldn't use the Force to fling objects at each other." Kanan replied evenly.

"No! She meant it as the Force. Period!" I snap, still face to face with him.

Ahsoka kept silent, a few feet away.

"Ezra, I could have easily beat you right away. That jump? If I raise my blades then your legs are gone. _Mou kei_."

_Dismemberment._

I remember. It was on the stupid datapad.

"But you didn't! Then you cheated!" I repeat myself.

"I didn't cheat Ezra. You did very well." Kanan smiled at me.

Which only makes me madder.

"You really did do well Ezra. That was exactly what we have in mind for you. I'd grade you as an A today." Ahsoka said.

I'm not looking at her, but I know she's smiling.

"It's Bantha Fodder! And you know it!" I finally lose my cool, yelling at Kanan.

"Ezra!" Kanan said, looking surprised.

"Ezra!" I hear behind me.

I turn and see that Rex, Echo and Hera walked in without me noticing.

"You apologize right now." Hera stormed up to me, jabbing me in the chest with her finger.

"I'll pass. How about you explain how you beat me? Huh?" I say, then turn around and storm out.

_So ridiculous._

I need to find that training dummy Rex and Echo mentioned a few nights ago.

_I need to hit something really hard._

I haven't trained with them in awhile either.


	10. Double Double

I take another bite of my nutrifruit porridge and survey the scene around me.

It's a mix of the base's staff, plus the training class that just got out of a class led by Rex and Echo and supervised by Mr. Bonteri.

Several people have referred to him as the "Insurgency Specialist". Which would make sense if he's been fighting most of his life.

He fought with Rex, Echo and Ahsoka in the Clone Wars all those years ago, and here he is now.

My lesson, the first since we got here is in a half hour or so.

And I've got until then to try and center myself.

I have done a pretty good job since I yelled at Kanan.

I'm far enough away to realize that yeah, Ahsoka only said that I couldn't use the Force only heavy objects and that I couldn't propel them at him.

_She didn't say that we couldn't use it._

I still think that he did fight dirty. I can't move him, but he can toss me around all he wants.

I haven't gotten a chance to say sorry for yelling at him. I've seen him when we've all gone into town and picked up supplies for the base, but no real chance to apologize.

Sabine's been really nice though. We've watched movies on the Holonet the last few nights, and had some sort of pop snack.

_I never had it before then._

Sabine said that she and her family used to make some over the stove before a big swoop race.

It was good. I probably won't put the spice she put on it.

_She likes things a lot hotter than I do._

I'm not really looking forward to her giving me a hard time today. I fell asleep during the movie last night, and when she woke me up before she left, she said that I was snoring.

_Which is super embarrassing._

I'm not like Zeb, who can almost raise the dead, but I'm embarrassed.

This isn't helping me.

_I need to focus._

I know that Rex and Echo are going to say something to that effect. How you need to always maintain your own calm.

Control what you can control and all that.

I finish off my porridge and take it over to the dish disposal area and put my bowl and glass on the moving conveyer belt.

As I'm walking towards the tunnel that leads into the jungle, where the martial lessons are, I feel a familiar figure pop out of a hallway a few feet behind me.

I recognize it right before it calls out to me.

"Hey." I smile at Sabine.

"I was worried you weren't going to turn around. I thought you were somewhere else mentally."

"No, just trying to figure out who was behind me."

Her eyebrows furrowed. "How'd you know somebody was behind you?"

"The Force."

"Can you always do that?"

"Yes." I tell her calmly.

_I don't think she likes it._

"What else can you do?" She asked, looking at me suspiciously.

"Get the feel of a room, see what people are thinking, if there's da—"

"You can read people's thoughts?" Sabine's eyebrows snapped down, looking mad.

"Not their thoughts, but general stuff. Like their mood—"

"Have you used it on me?" Sabine said, stopping me in my tracks.

"I…once?" I say nervously.

She immediately looked furious.

"WHAT? WHEN?!"

"Sabine—"

"Stop making excuses and talk!" Sabine growled, hitting me in the chest with an open fist.

I'm so shocked I take a step back.

"Couple of days ago when you showed me your new hair. I felt that you didn't come just to show off your new look." I say flatly.

_Jeez._

Now she's hitting me?

"You little _chakaar_! _besom shabuir osik_!" She scowled at me, then made another move to hit me.

I sidestep it.

"What does that even mean!" I ask.

"It means that you should stop getting so freaking excited! _Haar'chak _Ezra!" She yelled at me.

_Excited?_

I…

That's it.

"That's below the belt. Let me know when you grow up and start letting go of things I did in the past. Okay? I've already said sorry. I'm tired of it." I snap at her, seeing her face bloom into shock, then storm away from her.

It took her a few seconds to catch up.

"Ezra, stop. We need to talk ab—" She said, face full of regret.

No we don't.

_You've said more than enough._

I need to learn some Mandalorian. That way when she yells at me next time I'll know what the hell she's saying.

I block her out.

_Calm Ezra._

I'm about to have a blaster in my hands, more than likely.

I can't be angry with a weapon in my hands. Something bad will happen.

"Ezra, I'm sorry. Come on. I got—"

Mad.

I hope we don't do hand to hand combat. I'm not sure I'll be able to keep my anger out of my blows.

_I've kept lifting weights and stuff. So I'm getting sort of strong._

I kicked Kanan away from me without having to put everything into it.

"You know what, I give up. Be stubborn. I'm sorry I got mad. Okay?"

I ignore her and step in front of her as we reach the combat area.

There's a fair number of people here.

_I'd say 50 or so._

I dismiss the eyes that immediately fall on us.

_If I can avoid being ashamed on the streets on Lothal, when I'm openly stealing, then I can do this._

Most of the eyes fall on Sabine.

_Have at her boys._

She's too big a handful for any of you too.

_Believe me._

"Alright. Everyone is here." Rex said, gaining everyone's attention.

I glance over to the side and see Echo talking to Bonteri.

Bonteri nonchalantly waved his hand in greeting, causing Echo to look over and do the same.

I give them a half smile and raise my hand also.

"Everyone, these are two new recruits from Lothal. They've been in a scrap or two, but everyone can use more training." Rex told the group, gesturing to Sabine and I.

"Grab your weapons and move to the range." Bonteri called out.

I look over to Sabine, and she's already about ten feet away.

_And still walking._

I turn away and find the shooting range.

Trying to ignore Sabine's Force signature among all of the guys, I slip into the last stall available.

It's the end stall, with the stone wall on my left and everyone else to my right.

About 30 feet away is a target.

_Rails?_

The target that's up is on a platform.

It must be a movable target. Closer for short range weapons, farther for a sniper or something.

Bonteri instructs us to grab the rifle on the platform separating us from the range, and to open fire.

My first few shots stray to the left. I compensate with my feet, and my next shot is right down the middle.

_Bullseye._

I hear a mechanical whirring sound, then see the target jump back around 10 feet.

_Okay._

I readjust, and hit the bullseye again.

The target moves back again.

I barely let it reset before I fire off two quick shots.

Bang Bang.

The Force let off a subtle alert before the target jumped up and to the right.

I adjust and take another shot.

Bang.

To the left.

_Bang._

I feel it start to move down, and I arrogantly fire as its moving.

_And still hit the mark._

The target powered down, and moved back to its original position.

I lower my blaster and glance to my right.

Everybody is looking over at me.

_Most of them looked stunned._

I see Sabine's head among about 5 boys', and I look back to my target.

"Get back to work!" Rex called out loudly, startling everybody.

The sounds of blasters firing start up again, and I turn to see Echo and Rex smiling widely while walking towards me along with Mr. Bonteri.

"That was quite the show. Ezra right?" Bonteri said, moving to shake my hand.

"That's me."

"Good shooting kid." Echo told me.

"Thank you. Am I done?" I ask.

"This part yes. You made all the shots we preprogrammed into the target. Once everyone hits them, we'll speak to them for a moment then—" Rex told me, but was cut off by the sound of yelling and shots being fired.

"YEAHHHHH!" The guy next to Sabine yelled, and then shot his blaster in the air.

What an idiot.

_Is he trying to blow our position?_

Beside me, Echo sighed.

"He's an idiot, that one. And a bully." Bonteri told me.

"And the thinks he's a lot better than he actually is." Rex said.

That statement is backed up by the fact that almost everyone is done.

"Why is Sabine over there?" Echo asked. "People would have moved for her to be next to you." He looked at me.

"You didn't see her walk away from him? She's mad at him I'd bet." Bonteri immediately said.

I turn and give him a glare.

_Thanks._

"Mad? We saw you two laughing it up two nights ago leaving dinner? She looked so happy. I thought you guys were past this?" Rex looked at me.

That gets Bonteri's attention and he asked "They've had problems? I thought they were dating!"

"They're done." Was Echo's reply. "The group, that is." He added hastily.

Rex led the three of them back into the middle of the staging area we're in, and began to speak.

"Alright everyone, good work. Remember that it's not a speed run. It's about hitting all of the targets with the least amount of shots. You must be in control while firing this weapon, both before and after use. You are holding a deadly weapon in your hands. People's lives can depend on where you place a blaster bolt. If you are not under control, then I have no interest in teaching you." Rex said simply.

_Control._

Of course.

"Return to your stations. Next drill is 10 shots. Try to hit the middle of the target with each shot. Each shot is equally important, so don't let a good or bad shot affect the one after it, both ways." Echo ordered.

I turn and start back to my station.

_Hera. And Kanan and Ahsoka._

They're here.

_That doesn't matter._

I've got shots to take and a target to pepper.

Well, a bullseye to pepper.

I retake my spot, and grab my blaster.

"When have you been practicing?"

Sabine.

I don't look over at her.

"I thought you were with your friends on the other end? Shooting at the sky." I say flatly.

Sabine let out a laugh. "Yeah, no. I know the difference between being friendly, and having ideas of taking me back to their place."

"Too exciting for you?" I ask sarcastically.

Immediately I feel her hurt thru the Force.

"…Yeah, something like that." She said quietly.

I hear Echo call something out, and people begin firing.

Stupid.

_Bang._

Stupid.

_Bang._

Girl.

_Bang._

If she wants to go and flirt with complete jerks, then she deserves what she gets.

_Bang._

Exciting.

_Bang Bang._

She deserves everything she gets.

_Bang._

Being nice gets you nowhere with her.

I quickly take my last three shots, finishing my perfect round and place my blaster on the ledge while ignoring more stares.

_I need some water._

I walk over to the fountain and take a drink.

…

"So you just are gonna walk in and show us all up huh?" I hear a voice call out to me.

I ignore it, but stop taking a drink of water.

"Hey! I'm talking to you! Turn around!" The voice said, then a hand on my shoulder spun me around.

Revealing the idiot that was firing into the sky.

I gently shrug his hand off my shoulder. "Calm down man. I'm just feeling it today." I say simply.

No need to get mad.

_This isn't meant to send a point to you anyway._

"Yeah, sure. You and your little girl friend just had to come in and make me look stupid!"

"No, that would be you doing that." I tell him.

_I don't control you._

Moron.

"No. You don't get it. You and that girl came in, you shot perfect, she was a bitch and—"

WHAT

"What did you just say?" I say quietly.

_He did not just call Sabine that._

Stay calm Ezra.

"I didn't say anything."

"What did you call her?" I demand, getting right up in his face. "She's the best fighter here!"

I'm mad at Sabine, but nobody, NOBODY calls her that.

"Get out of my face boy. I didn't say nothing." He said dismissively.

"What did you call her?" I repeat myself.

Then I get hit in the ribs.

I take a half-step back and gain my bearings.

His arm is half extended.

He hit me.

_I've had enough._

Before I can make a move, he's already moving to punch me in the face.

I block it with my forearm.

He tries a punch with his other hand to my ribs.

I duck down and block it.

_Nope._

Let's let him punch himself out.

I don't need to fight him. Just block.

_I could use some practice._

I take a step back, and the crowd that's suddenly around us scrambles to make room.

Punch. Block.

Kick. Duck.

Counterpunch. Deflect it to the side.

I keep it up, trying to bait him into exhausting himself.

_I don't think this guy is dumb enough to do that._

So I've got to bait him.

Which is something I can do.

Think.

_It's supposed to be my specialty._

Block.

Duck.

I block a counterkick with my knee and dodge a punch.

To counter, I spin awa—

BAM!

I hear my face crack and my head snapped back.

_He got me._

With a full kick to my face.

I stumble back, and try to regain my footing.

I feel something warm start running out of my nose.

_My nose is bleeding._

Screw this. I'm going on the offensive.

_Technically, the counter offensive._

He throws a wild punch, which I barely have to try and dodge.

"C'mon! Fight!"

I duck another kick, then immediately throw a punch where his head should be.

Unfortunately, it's only a glancing blow.

I hear the crowd let out a gasp, and press my advantage.

He lets out a kick fly, and I duck under it and land a body blow.

_He's favoring that side._

I spin around him and punch the opposite shoulder.

He yelped, and punched directly above my head.

"Nope!" I taunt him, popping back up.

You want to play?

_Let's play._

I read about a tactic used by Sith called Dun Möch that is used to undermine and demoralize an opponent.

It's all about using mental tactics to make your opponent less precise and effective.

_Lets see if it works against a non Force user._

The principles should still apply.

He lets loose a barrage of kicks and punches that I evade and don't even have to block.

I spin away and spread out my arms. "Thanks for the breeze!"

He lets out an enraged scream, and fakes a punch, only to try and get behind me.

I spin and meet him halfway with an elbow to his face.

Which sends him right to the ground.

The air came right out of him, and he immediately let out a loud, high pitched noise.

Before I can move, I get shoved away by someone.

I blink and see that it's Ahsoka.

"GET UP. HOW DARE YOU."

I don't hear his reply, but I feel somebody put the arm on mine firmly.

I turn and see it's Kanan, looking down at the guy on the ground.

_Uh oh._

I might be in some trouble.

"TELL EVERYONE WHAT YOU SAID! TELL HER!" Ahsoka yelled, pointing to my left.

I turn and see Sabine looking shocked.

The guy is silent, still holding his face.

"Fine! You know what! Be a coward. Spineless wimp. No wonder Ezra made you look like a fool."

Hera nodded to Rex, then Kanan grabbed my shoulder and started leading me back towards the tunnel.

I hear Rex and Echo start to reorganize things right before we walk into the tunnel.

When we get in, I can't hear them anymore.

"You're just having a bad week, huh?" Kanan smirked at me.

I sigh. "I guess so."

"Did he really say what you thought he said?" Hera asked Ahsoka.

"He did." Ahsoka replied firmly.

Hera let out a breath. "You should have hit him harder Ezra."

"I didn't want to hit him!" I tell her quickly.

"We know. We saw everything." Kanan said calmly.

"You chose to be on the defensive, and were doing a great job of it until you spun at the wrong time." Ahsoka said. "How is your face?"

I shrug, and then notice the warmth on my face.

I try to wipe it away, and my hand comes back red.

_Dang it._

"I think it's a nose bleed. Not a broken nose." Hera said, turning to get a good look at me.

"Try to breathe thru your nose." Ahsoka instructed me.

I do as she said, and immediately it feels like I tried slicing it off with my lightsaber.

"Ahhh!" I yelp, crouching down and grabbing my face.

_THAT HURT._

Almost more than the kick to the face.

"I take it back." Hera said simply.

I take a deep breath and try to calm down.

"I'm sorry for yelling at you. You were right." I say to Kanan.

Kanan, to my surprise smiled.

"It's alright Ezra. You were caught up in the moment and got mad. You're human."

"It's not good that you yelled, but it's okay." Ahsoka said.

Hera added "You did bend the rules though."

Kanan grinned. "I knew that Ezra would think that the Force in general was off limits because we told him that he couldn't lift that crate. And I knew that I'd be able to take you by surprise. So, I guess you're right."

I roll my eyes. "That's what I thought this morning."

"You got some perspective after the heat of the moment. As long as you're strong enough to let it go, then there isn't a problem Ezra." Ahsoka said, putting her head on my shoulder.

"But today is different." I say sadly.

I got in a fight.

A FIGHT.

_And won, but that's almost beside the point._

"Yes. You were right." Ahsoka said simply.

I stop abruptly and turn to her.

"What?"

"You were right Ezra. He shouldn't have said that."

"I'm not going to let anybody say that about Sabine, but I got in a fight." I say.

"He deserved to get put on his back though Ezra. You had Sabine's back, and that's the important thing." Hera said.

"You always need to have her back" Kanan said.

"She'll have your back. She's already proven that she does. I'm sure she will too."

Yeah.

_Sure._

I roll my eyes, and Kanan stops with his foot on the first step into the base.

"What?" Hera asked.

"She's already mad at Ezra."

"What?" Hera said incredulously.

"I'm not saying a word. She'll get mad at me for talking." I tell everyone.

"I have no problem finding out for myself." Kanan said.

Leaving the method unspoken.

_By using the Force._

"And you already know part of the reason why." I say simply.

…

"Seriously?" Ahsoka asked, as Kanan is looking at me strangely.

"I don't understand it. She's just mad. As always." I say. "Can somebody show me where to get my nose fixed?" I ask tiredly.

Kanan and Ahsoka look to each other, then Hera said "I'll take him. Go straighten her out." Hera ordered Kanan.

Kanan nodded, then he and Ahsoka went back the way we all just came.


	11. Containing the Whirlwind

In.

Out.

I keep sorting thru the Force signatures.

_I'm trying to see if anybody here believes that the Empire is onto us here._

It's not that I believe that we've been compromised, but I think that I should at least be aware of the possibility that we're no longer safe.

For such a scary thought, it's helping me concentrate.

_When I started doing this, I couldn't really get past the sheer number of people in the base._

But now I'm getting to be able to focus on individual people.

I'm trying to focus on the people that are involved in communications and surveillance. They're the best bet to know if we're in trouble.

And it keeps my mind off of Sabine.

_I think I've come to the end of the road._

It's clear she's never going to look at me the same way I look at her.

I'm 16. She's 17. Neither of us knows what love is.

I had the realization the other day that maybe I'm just meant to be the best friend.

Heck, right now that'd be quite a achievement.

I looked up what she said to me two day ago.

"You little _chakaar_! _besom shabuir osik_!" translated, is "You little thief! Unhygienic bastard!"

"_Haar'chak _Ezra!" is simpler. It's just "Dammit Ezra!"

Add those two together, plus her unrelenting mentions of my mistake on Mustafar and you don't have to try hard to get her point.

I'm just going to calm, nice and do what I can for her.

Nothing extra, there's no use in expending energy when all it will get me is nothing.

I'm just going to try and work to be the best Jedi I can possibly be.

_Sabine's already trying to damage the plan. _

I don't know what Kanan and Ahsoka told her, but she's tried three separate times to pull me aside and talk to me.

The first time I felt her coming and caught up on my blaster deflection practice.

_If Kanan tries to fire on me again, I'm going to make him pay today._

I'm sure they'll tell me afterward that I'm not allowed to hit him with his shots.

She tried twice yesterday. The first time I was working out, and told her to come back later.

_Helped that I was flinging things across the room when she came in._

When she tried to fulfill her promise, I went to the shooting range and practiced with my blaster.

_I haven't decided if I'm going to let her catch up to me today._

I'm scheduled to train with Kanan and Ahsoka, but that's all I have planned.

_Enough on her._

I'm trying to keep her out of my head, and here I am focusing on her.

_Get out._

And stay there.

I saw you flirting with those guys at breakfast yesterday morning. Your words are hollow.

To use a Mandalorian phrase, _ganar jehaatir, duraanir solus._

You speak lies, and are a contemptable idiot.

_And I refuse to waste anymore of my time._

The galaxy needs to be saved.

And I need to focus in order to help save it.

I hear the sound of Chopper whirling in.

_He's supposed to let me know when I'm supposed to meet Ahsoka and Kanan._

He loyally let me know just that.

I open my eyes and get to my feet.

"Thanks Chop. Remind me to get you a memory upgrade." I tell him.

Beep beeeep boop bop.

I laugh.

_If it'll help me understand you ridiculous people, then alright._

He wheels alongside me until we reach the split in the hallway.

I take the left, he goes right.

"Later Chop!" I call out.

He toodled a farewell back, and I smile.

He's got an attitude, but he's definitely one loyal droid.

_You could do a lot worse._

I follow the hallway until I reach Kanan and Ahsoka's Force signatures.

_Hera's in there as well._

"Hi." I say to everyone as I walk in.

"Hey Ezra. How are you?" Hera smiled at me.

"I'm alright. How about you?" I ask her.

"I'm good." She replied.

"She's going to watch the sparring today." Kanan said, then smiled over at her.

"She's kind of the judge." Ahsoka joked, causing Kanan and I to laugh.

I slip off my jacket as Hera said "After the excitement you guys created last time, I figured I should see what all the fuss is about."

"I'm not fighting this time though." Kanan reasoned.

"Huh?" I ask.

"Ezra, we were thinking after last time. Not that you didn't do well, but you know Kanan's fighting style." Ahsoka began, before Kanan jumped in.

"We've talked about it even."

"Right." Ahsoka said. "So we're removing that factor this time. This isn't about winning or losing. It's meant to be a test of your skills. Last time wasn't a true test."

"It's like taking a test when you have the cheat sheet next to you. Am I on the right track?" Hera asked.

"Yeah. He did the right thing by recognizing my style and adapting to beat it. One of the things we want to do though, is to make him do that on the run, in the heat of battle." Kanan said to Hera.

"I haven't seen any other styles in live action though." I say. "I'm going to look ridiculous."

"Focus on your basics. Control what you can and let the Force guide your next move." Ahsoka said.

The door behind me opened, and I turn back to see Rex and Echo race in.

"Have you started?" Echo asked.

"Nope." Hera said.

"Good! We wanted to be here for the show!" Rex smiled, as he and Kanan climbed atop two storage crates.

_The same ones I jumped on last time._

When I look back to Ahsoka, she looks apprehensive.

"Rex, be sure to stay out of the way. Okay?"

"Absolutely Commander." Rex told her.

I quickly scan the room.

_We should have plenty of room._

It's essentially an abandoned hanger, albeit a small one. Longer than it is wide.

_So I can give ground if I need to._

Last time I saw Ahsoka fight was against that Vader guy.

_She drove him back._

While looking like a whirlwind.

I think I'll need that space.

"Uh oh. He's thinking." Echo says, bringing me out of my thoughts.

"Good." Kanan said simply.

I turn away from them and search for my training saber.

_I walked out with it last time._

I came back later that night and put it in the corner, on top of two crates.

_Now I don't see it._

I cast a general pull over the area strong enough only to grab the saber and not the crates, and it came flying out from between them.

"Dang it. He found it." Kanan said, then snapping.

"You hid it?" Hera asked him.

"He put it on top of those crates. I wanted to see if he'd get mad it wasn't there."

I turn and give him a brief glare.

_Everything is a test it seems like._

I let out a breath and gather my wits.

I did some more research on my own style, as weird as that sounds.

It's supposed to be primarily economical. Simple, but deceptive movements.

If I can do that, and be as precise as last time, I should be okay.

_The other thing I recall, is that I'm supposed to relax._

Tense movements can give an opponent an opening they've been seeking.

In front of me, Ahsoka unclipped each of her sabers individually.

I pull mine into my hand, activate the blade, then hold it in front of me, saluting her.

_Time to see what she's made of._

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Rex and Echo settle in.

Kanan is perched a few feet away from them, but on top of a second crate as well.

Hera is where she was when I came in.

"Rules?" I ask.

"No flinging crates. Force pushes and pulls are allowed. No headhunting with a blade or with a punch or kick."

Hera nodded.

_Seems fair enough._

When Ahsoka activates her blades, I block everything else out.

I should be okay, but I don't want to make it easy for her.

_Then I'll be training at half speed for a month._

Ahsoka quickly sprinted at me, both blades raised.

I move into position to block the move.

_Gonna be powerful._

She's stronger than—

_WHOA!_

At the last moment, Ahsoka dips her entire body, and made two strong horizontal slashes,

I scramble to block the first, and jump back a few feet.

Ahsoka wasted no time and came on the attack again.

Again, I rush to block the horizontal slashes.

She quickly spun around me, then swung at my shoulder.

I guess where she's aiming, blindly try to block it, then turn as fast as I can.

Her blade crashed into mine, then she kicked me in the shoulder.

I kind of catch myself, ending up with in a three point stance.

Ahsoka smiled. "Nice block."

I don't engage her, and she continues her assault.

It's the least I can do to block it.

_Think Ezra._

If I figure out her style, I can work out how to effectively attack.

I dodge and block slash after slash, only to get blinded by a kick directly into my ribs.

_That's what I get for spinning and turning my back to her._

All I've figured out is that she's holding her lightsabers wrong.

And that she just keeps coming.

Ahsoka makes another calculated charge, and I keep giving ground, trying to buy time.

Only to find myself in a corner.

Ahsoka hesitates for a split second, then presses her advantage.

In response, I move forward to get space, deflect her blades, then jump to the wall and vault over her.

Behind me, I hear somebody saying…something.

_No idea who._

I let out a breath and gather my thoughts.

_How am I going to stop her?_

It's like controlling a storm!

"Well Ezra? Are you going to attack or give ground until you get tired?" Ahsoka asked simply.

_She's leaving out the possibility of her getting tired._

I'm not playing my game.

She's making me use two hands, limiting my options when blocking her.

Ahsoka seemed to decide that I'm not going to reply, then moved forward again.

This time, I make a conscious effort to block her with one hand, then finish her assault abruptly by pushing her off me a couple of feet.

To my complete confusion, Ahsoka let out a grin. Then moved back in.

I continue to block her and give ground.

_I can't get a riposte in because it's a horizontal slash._

I don't know how to handle those.

All I've faced is vertical or diagonal.

_I need to test her defense at least once._

After a few blocks, I quickly sneak in a quick cut.

Ahsoka quickly curled up and blocked it with both blades.

_Huh._

It wasn't a strength attack.

And I have space now.

I move to attack her left side, accompanying it with a spin.

She easily blocked it.

Impulsively, I take out of her book and improvise a horizontal slash.

_She doesn't really have anywhere to go._

She's blocking everything with both blades.

"Oh!" I hear her call out, then turn completely horizontal to avoid my blade.

She then…force pushed me away with her feet and landed heavily on her back.

_Okay._

That was something.

"Yes Ezra!" Kanan said, making me realize that I'm now standing even with them.

_I need to take advantage of this._

Why not do the blast and slash?

_If the Inquisitor has trouble with it, then it should help me._

I quickly pull a blaster to me as Ahsoka rises to her feet. But before she can charge me, I open fire on her.

Just like with my cuts, she shrunk up and blocked the bolts next to her body.

_I wonder why she's doing that._

I quickly charge myself and slash and her right side.

She blocked, and I transition into a kick.

Ahsoka blocked that with the bottom of her lightsaber, then slashed at me.

I shoot at her, causing her to give ground again.

"YAH!" She yelled, making a strong, vertical move forward.

I deflect it and miss with a cut aimed at her shoulder.

Then I shoot at her, forcing her to give ground.

Ahsoka then let out a deep breath and charged.

I shoot…only for her to practically ignore it, block it and keep sprinting at me.

I try to turn the negative into a positive but slashing out at her.

With one blade, she blocked it.

With the other, she slashed at my blaster, cutting it cleanly in half.

_SHOOT_

I spin away, take one look at my ruined blaster then fling it away.

When I look back to her, Ahsoka is smiling.

Then she moves in again.

I also move forward, meeting her halfway.

She compensated by blocking me with one blade, while going low with the other blade.

I block it with a force push.

In a flash, Ahsoka kicked at me, hitting my saber directly and sending it behind me.

I turn to find it, then catch it with one hand.

Only to find Ahsoka now behind me, with her arms above my shoulders and her blades even with my neck.

_I'm done._

We both stand there for a moment, my arm still outstretched.

_She won't hit me, but I can't move._

Then Ahsoka deactivated her blades, and I deactivate mine.

She won.

Ahsoka walked out from behind me, and back towards where everyone is standing.

_Looking surprised._

I angrily fling my training blade away from me, and then walk to go get it.

_Dang it!_

"_Haar'chak_!" I yell angrily.

I should have known she was trying something the moment she made a move with just one saber.

The moment I moved to grab it, she had already won.

_I should have thought of that._

I pick up my training blade, then walk back and place it where I had after my last duel here.

When I turn to look at Ahsoka, I see that she's talking to Kanan, Hera and Rex.

Sabine and Echo are listening.

_Sabine._

"Don't be too frustrated. She's had a lot more practice than you." Kanan said, reaching out to grab me by the shoulder.

"I know, but I don't like losing." I say.

"You didn't lose." Hera said quickly.

"Yeah, the General was just saying how impressed she was by how quickly you improvised." Echo said, looking to Ahsoka.

_Huh?_

"But you said I wasn't attacking." I say, gesturing grandly behind me.

"That was my attempt to throw you off and try to do something dumb."

_Well that failed._

"If I had to score it like a shockboxing match, I'd say Ahsoka won 2-1 out of three rounds." Hera said.

Both Rex and Echo nodded at Hera.

"What happened in the first part? I missed the start." Sabine asked.

"Ahsoka bombarded Ezra with horizontal slashes. He gave ground until he finally made an aggressive move." Kanan said.

"That was the first portion of the fight." Ahsoka said.

"You came in as Ezra was blasting away at her. That was the second portion."

"And the third was after the commander turned that blaster into scrap." Rex said.

"What do you do if you get attacked with all of those slashes?" I ask.

"I'm going to leave that to you to find out on your own." Ahsoka said mysteriously.

Really?

I cock my head to the side and look at her.

Ahsoka simply smiled and looked away from me.

"How did the dummy treat you?" Echo asked Sabine.

"It treated me well. I can't say I did the same." Sabine shrugged.

_She's still on dummy training?_

She's way past me. Why is she still working with a dummy?

Rex laughed.

"How about we all go grab a bite to eat? I'd say this is a success." Hera suggested, smiling at me.

_Kind of._

I take a deep breath and try to let go of my frustration.

It's not going to help me.

I'm done fighting for the day anyway.

"Actually…I need to talk to you and Kanan. If that's okay." Sabine said.

Hera looked taken aback, while Rex and Echo looked surprised.

"Sure. What is it Sabine?"

…

"I want to go home and visit Mandalore. As soon as I can."

Whoa.

Kanan's shock is easy to see, and the Force rings with it.

Ahsoka and Hera are pretty much the same.

"That's good Sabine, but I don't think that's a good idea. Especially alone."

"I wasn't planning on going alone. Ezra's coming with me."

WHAT?

Instantly, I feel everyone look at me, and I quickly hide my shock.

_WHAT?!_

"He is?" Ahsoka said, leaning over.

"Yeah. He gave me the idea by telling me that he thinks I should tell my parents that I'm okay."

_So she's pulling me into her idea._

I…

I'm flattered, but…she was just calling me a dirty bastard the last time I saw her!

I feel Kanan start trying to poke around inside my head, and I shut him down.

_I want to go._

I think it'd be good for Sabine to go home, and to learn more about her.

Maybe it'll help me get along with her better.

Hera opened her mouth, but then reconsidered and turned to Kanan for help.

"I don't know Sabine. This is totally out of the blue. I think this is something that is a good idea, but needs to be thought out." Kanan stepped up.

"Maybe have Kanan or me come with you." Hera added.

"No. Ezra's coming. It was his idea. He can protect me if he needs to." Sabine said simply.

I smile, then look at everyone's reactions.

"Help me out here." Hera appealed to Ahsoka, Rex and Echo."

"I'm staying out of this." Rex said.

Ahsoka let out a heavy breath. "I don't see why they can't go to Mandalore. We'll have to use regular transport to get them there. I'll talk to Lux and—"

"We can al get together and talk this out." Kanan said strongly.

"I want to go soon. The less time we give anyone to catch on the better." Sabine rebutted.

Wow.

"Let's get everybody together and talk this over at dinner. Okay?" Hera compromised.

"Okay!" Sabine lit up.

By the time I gather up my jacket, everybody has already left the room except for Sabine.

"So we're going to Mandalore?" I ask.

She smiled. "I tried warning you yesterday, but you got all busy" She said evenly.

_Busy._

"Oh. Sorry."

"Let's eat. I'm hungry. And you have to be too." She said, waving for me to follow her.


	12. Home Sweet Home

"The capitol, Keldabe is headlined by MandalMotors, the renowned starship design firm. Its relationship with the former capitol, Sundari before the Empire's reconquering of the Outer Rim remains strong due to the company."

I glance down the page and see that the next topic is architecture.

"I think we can skip architecture." Kanan joked next to me.

I smile. "Yup."

Wordlessly he grabs the datapad from me and starts typing.

I glance around at the unfamiliar scene around us.

_I'm so used to traveling on the Ghost that traveling with other people is very strange._

Sabine easily convinced Lux that going to Mandalore was a good idea, but that was the easy part.

Everyone wanted somebody else to come along with us. Hera and Kanan volunteered themselves, Lux and Ahsoka volunteered and Rex and Echo volunteered.

_I was sure that I'd end up on the sidelines._

We ended up talking the rest of the night about it, mostly because nobody gave any ground to anyone else.

The next day we ended up contacting Senator Organa, who called in his daughter.

_The princess._

Although she does annoy me, I do have to admit that she's very good at finding a solution.

We ended up around a holoterminal in a conference room. I was surprised they let me in, but I wasn't going to volunteer to leave.

In the conference room, the Princess listened to what Sabine wanted to do, then each person's argument for joining her on Mandalore.

Everyone's arguments basically ran like this: Sabine should go home, but I shouldn't be her protection. We don't know what things are like on the ground on Mandalore, and they should be there to protect Sabine.

_Everyone danced around the part that shunted me to the side._

Then Princess Leia asked Rex and Echo the right question.

Is Ezra capable of defending Sabine until reinforcements arrived?

After a brief pause, and exchanging looks, they answered yes.

Nobody else could fight them because apparently they're the leading combat experts in all of the Rebel cells.

The argument then shifted to the fact that I've never been out on my own, and neither had Sabine.

Sabine quickly countered and said that she had survived and thrived until she met Kanan and Hera. Which blindsided Ahsoka, Bonteri, Echo and Rex.

They pressed her on it, but Kanan and Hera stood up for her saying that they thought that a founding principle of the Rebellion was that people's pasts don't matter.

I stood there amazed as the Princess then calmly picked everyone's arguments apart. And then she stunned me.

_By saying that I was the best option to protect Sabine and remain undercover._

Everybody seemed to resign to the Princess' decision, but then came up with a strategy.

We're going to stop at Mandalore's moon, Concordia and Sabine and I are going with Lux to get fake identities from a sympathizer that works in the administrative area of the spaceport.

Then we're going down to Keldabe, where Sabine's family is.

One of the unexpected points of contention was where I'm going to stay.

Sabine was adamant that her parents have a place, but the others were on my side.

I don't want to force myself on them.

In the end, with the Princess' help we compromised. We tentatively got a room for me that's relatively close to where Sabine said her parents are.

It's not going to be all fun in games though. In the week we're going to be on Mandalore we're supposed to judge the strength of the Imperial forces there. From what both Sabine and Bonteri said, most Mandalorians are not big fans of the Empire.

_No reason for us not to take advantage of that._

I quickly check the time on my datapad as Kanan scrolled own the page.

Sabine and Hera are behind us, while Ahsoka and Lux are up closer to the front.

We should be getting there soon.

The last major point we discussed was me specifically.

_I can't use the Force on Mandalore._

Period.

Kanan mainly pushed for me to become normal again for just this week, and I couldn't do much about it.

Rex and Echo backed him up, saying that Order 66 is still in effect, and fought to keep my lightsaber on Onderon. To no success. The Princess that I should have every advantage short of the Force at my disposal in case an emergency arises.

I assume that if such an emergency does occur, they've got a plan. The meeting with the Princess ended before we got to that part.

A light bump makes me sit up in my seat and glance out of the small window next to us.

_Red._

We must be in the atmosphere.

Kanan handed me my datapad, and I put it into my bag.

Nothing to do now except wait.

I can feel Kanan using the Force like he has all flight, making sure that nobody around us has bad intentions.

I feel the retro-thrusters kick in, and then we set down.

Almost immediately the volume is deafening and everybody is attempting to get off at the same time.

Kanan stays sitting down, and has his hand on my shoulder so I won't get up.

_I guess we're going to wait._

We wait until most everyone has passed us, then Ahsoka and Lux stand up, getting the rest of us moving.

To my surprise, everyone but Lux stops at the door.

"Be safe." Hera suddenly hugged me.

I hug her back and see that Ahsoka's talking to Sabine.

"I will."

"You better. Or you'll be in trouble." Hera joked.

"And you don't want that." Kanan said beside me.

I turn to see him with his normal smirk.

"Ezra…feel free to lean on the Force as your guide. And may she be with you." Kanan bowed his head.

I smile nervously and nod.

Ahsoka did the same, and I nod again.

"C'mon now. Administrator Brooks is waiting on us." Bonteri said simply.

I wave to everyone, and then follow Bonteri.

The spaceport beyond is quite packed, with seemingly every species. Somehow though, Bonteri weaved his way thru the crowd, leaving Sabine and I to catch up.

"You ever thought of waiting?" Sabine asked, sounding unhappy.

"Can't be followed. You know that." He replied simply.

Sabine turned to me and rolled her eyes while shrugging her shoulders.

I laugh and smile.

_When she wants to be, she can be really funny._

Sabine smiled back just as Bonteri said "Ah, just the man I'm looking for!"

I glance ahead to see that Bonteri is talking to a man next to the registration kiosks.

"Mr. Bonteri! It's an honor and a pleasure to see you well." The man greeted him.

"I can say the same my friend. How's the home life?"

"It's great! The children are in the Academy and doing well. Shall we go to my office?"

Bonteri nodded, and his friend led us back into a office set away from a group of work pods.

He happily invited us in and held the door for us. When we were inside he shut the door and locked it.

"Alright now. I've got everything here. As Senator Organa requested, the names are not changed, but the origin planets have been changed to look like they came from the Mid Rim planet Balmorra."

"The weapons manufacturers?" Bonteri asked simply.

"Precisely. Miss Wren?" The administrator asked.

Sabine perked up, and he handed her a blue book along with some papers.

"And Mr. Bridger."

I take it, then open the book.

There's a picture of me, from I don't know where. I'm glaring at the camera.

_Weird._

"The alibi will hold since your trip had a stop on Balmorra. In those papers is enough faked identification to fool a Moff, including places of higher institution and the fine arts, occupations and parental information. You should have no further issues."

"Will they ask us for these on Mandalore?" Sabine asked, holding the blue book.

"Yup. They'll scan them using one of these machines here and then hand it back to you." He replied, patting a telescope looking machine.

"Why do you have one of those in here?" Bonteri asked.

"I usually only see people when there are extreme or strange circumstances. That's your reason for coming here officially."

"Won't they see our names on Mandalore and be suspicious since we saw you?" I ask.

"No. The Empire's so big that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. And my name is a good one. They will see that you saw me and assume that you're another strange case that I sorted out." He smiled at me.

_Okay?_

I'm not totally reassured.

""Anything else? How's your girlfriend Lux?" He asked Bonteri.

"Uhm, Ahsoka and I are fine. We keep on chugging."

"When are you going to ask that girl to marry you? The married life isn't that bad!" He smiled at Lux.

_Uhh…_

"I've asked, believe me. She doesn't think that it's the right time." Bonteri said calmly.

"Well she'll come to her senses. I'm just glad you've found her after what happened with Steela. She would want you to be happy Lux. You know that."

"I know."

On that note, Lux stood, causing the rest of us to follow his lead.

"Thank you." I tell him before I walk out of the door.

"You're welcome my young friend! Safe travels!"

…

_What a weird guy._

He was always smiling.

"I hope you'll understand when I tell you not to repeat what he said." Bonteri asked us as we walked deeper into the spaceport.

"Of course. Not our business." I say simply.

"I didn't hear anything." Sabine added.

He smiled and led us to a small starship that is waiting for us.

"Bonteri?" The pilot asked.

"Yes sir! Thank you!" Bonteri said.

"My pleasure!"

I turn to Bonteri, who is smiling.

"Be safe. Have fun. See you soon." He said, then saluted, smiled and walked off.

"You two ready?" The pilot asked Sabine and I.

"Yeah."

"Great! There's a built in entertainment system for your viewing pleasure. We won't be in the air long but feel free to use it." He said.

Then he started towards the cockpit.

I let Sabine walk into the ship before climbing aboard myself.

_Wait._

Do I sit next to her?

Or across?

I hesitate, then sit across from her and set my bag next to me.

Moments later we take off.

_I can hear the pilot's comm chatter thru the wall._

"Pilot 845637 you're cleared for takeoff to Keldabe."

That's reassuring.

When I focus back in on our little area I see that Sabine's playing with the straps of her backpack that she brought with her.

"You nervous?" I ask.

She immediately jumps and looks to me.

"Oh, uhm…I don't know. I guess I am."

"Excited?" I compromise.

She happily nodded, then I leave her to be with her thoughts.

It must be so strange to be in her position. It's her first time back I assume since she left home.

_What could have caused her to leave?_

I'll never ask her that, it's way too personal. She can tell whoever she trusts the answer to that question.

_I don't think she trusts anyone that much._

I can't imagine how she's feeling. Her parents…

My parents.

I've been thinking about them off and on since I found out that I was going to meet Sabine's parents.

I can't imagine the spot they must have been in. I'm 7, and they…they're opposing the Empire.

I don't mean to criticize those who can't defend themselves, but why? Just hang low until I'm older! Until I can understand why, and then fight?

_Instead you leave a seven year old kid to survive on the cold, heartless streets of Lothal._

Easy Ezra.

_I'm getting too worked up._

I take a deep breath and let my anger out into the Force. Instantly I feel my nerves smooth out.

Maybe I'm the nervous one.

I just hope that Sabine's parents take this well.

Sabine would never admit it, but she is a bit emotional.

And if her parents freaked out…

I don't know what she'd do.

The sound of Sabine grabbing her backpack made me realize that we've landed.

When we get out I'm expecting to see the pilot, but he doesn't come out.

And Sabine's waiting for me.

"Sorry. Lead the way?" I offer.

"Keep up?" She countered.

"Ok."

I keep up with her, trying to be careful to watch for when she does take a turn.

_This place is packed._

The exit is in sight when we reach what looks to be a checkpoint.

Sabine pulls out her little blue book beside me, and I quickly take out the same.

Before long, Sabine's waved forward.

Sabine smiled at the lady at the kiosk and handed her the book.

…

She waved Sabine thru, then called me up.

"Next!"

I walk up and try to put on a nice smile.

"Hello. Papers or passport please."

I hand her my book like Sabine did.

She opened it to a page with a code on it and put it under the machine I saw on Concordia.

Bing!

"Have a nice visit to Keldabe! Next!" The lady called out.

Sabine smiled at me as I walk to join her.

When we reach the spaceport's exit, I'm bombarded with the sights of a HUGE city.

Every kind of building, of every material, speeder traffic, vendors set up. Whole 9 yards.

_The sounds of everyday life._

I glance over to Sabine to see that she's smiling.

"Welcome home."

She looked over to me and smiled. "Thanks."

"I'm assuming you know where you're going?"

She nodded, then started off into the madness.

"It's not that far! Just a few blocks away!" She told me as I hurried to catch up.

Okay.

_I need to keep my eyes out for pickpockets._

This would be beyond perfect conditions to grab a ton of credits.

_You probably could live off a day's picking for awhile._

It's so unlike Lothal.

"Anything I should know before you get home?" I ask.

Sabine seemed to consider this, then said "No. You'll do fine!" and smiled reassuringly.

_I'm not reassured._

She kept us with the crowd for a few minutes, then suddenly she veered off to a side street.

And a neighborhood.

_Where'd this come from?_

It was markets and crowds like five seconds ago!

"Does this place have any order? At all?" I ask.

Sabine shook her head. "This is what you get when you build and build for thousands of years. Neighborhoods sandwiched into a city, nothing where you'd think it is. But it makes some sort of sense eventually."

_Okay._

Makes sense.

We walked a bit further until we reached a large gate.

Sabine pulled a card out of her back pocket and flashed it at a screen.

The screen lit up green, and the gate opened.

It worked after all of those years.

Next to me, Sabine looks pleased.

"We're right here." Sabine pointed to the three story building set back from the street.

I smile. "Cool."

"You can sense where people are right?" She asked me.

I turn and face her in bewilderment.

"Wait…you want me to check if there's anyone in there?" I ask.

"Yeah. They may be at the market." Sabine answered simply.

I open my mouth to protest, then give up and focus my attention on her house.

…

"Three people."

Two large signatures and a smaller one.

_I've only bumped into a few of those._

Little kids.

Huh.

Sabine lit up. "Great. Here's my idea. Tell me if you like it."

I nod and focus on her.

_And not the Force signatures in the house a few hundred feet away._

"So I jump the fence and sneak to the back door. I'll comm you, you ring the doorbell and buy time. Then I'll surprise them. What do you think?"

Sounds great.

"Sounds good. But what am I supposed to say?" I ask.

"Great!" Sabine lit up, then moved towards the fence.

"Hey! What am I—"I begin, right before she vaults over the fence.

_Great._

I'm terrible when I get put on the spot.

Well…

Maybe use the poster of Sabine?

I went into town before we left and grabbed another one.

_I guess I'll use that._

It's only buying time.

Nervously I walk to the building Sabine pointed out to me.

_Man those people are RIGHT THERE._

Beep Beep Beep.

_MAN._

Sabine!

_Already?_

I let out a breath and walk to the front door and hit the doorbell.

Instantly I feel one of the people on the left move towards the door.

I set my face right before the door opened to a red haired woman with long hair and a serious expression.

"Can we help you…?" The woman said, with the threat of a challenge behind it.

_Great._

"Uhm, yeah. I'm Ezra Bridger. I came to ask ab—" I begin, pulling the poster out.

"You can stop right there if you're going to finish pulling out that poster son." A large man said authoritatively.

I freeze.

"Uhm, sir—" I start, but the woman cuts me off.

"Is that why you're here?" The woman asked.

My mind is blank and I open my mouth, only for the man to cut me off.

"Close the door honey." He tells the woman.

"Mommy? Who is it?" A small voice asked.

_A little girl's voice._

"Nobody sweetheart…" The woman told the girl, shutting the door at the same time.

Then I feel Sabine swing in and land.

_I only hear her clear her throat._

Everyone turned around, then froze.

The Force reacted violently, becoming as happy as I've ever felt it.

Then the woman covered her mouth and said something in Mandalorian.

The little girl came flying out towards Sabine.

_Screaming._

Sabine bent down and hugged the little girl.

Then her parents rushed over.

"By the gods…_ad'ika_?" Sabine's dad asked.

"Hi Daddy." Sabine smiled, looking like she's about to cry.

Her…little sister is still hugging Sabine tightly.

"Let her go sweetheart." Sabine's mom said to her.

"NO!"

I laugh, causing all of them to whip around and look at me.

"GET OUT!" Her mother yelled, then pulled a blaster off a nearby table and—

I quickly duck down and start to dive for cover.

"Mom! No…he's okay." Sabine said.

"Explain." Her dad said, eyes not moving from me.

Can I book that room now?

_This might not have been the best idea._

"He's a friend of mine. He came with me. Right Ezra?" She asked me.

I nervously nod.

"Then why does he have one of those infernal posters?" Her mom demanded, pointing to me.

"That…I told him to buy time so I could surprise you. Sorry." Sabine said quietly.

"That true son?" Her father asked me.

I nod. "Yes sir. She…had me buy time. Sorry."

Sabine's mother turned to Sabine.

"Can you explain this?"

"Yeah. Not with the door open though." Sabine said.

Her mother huffed out a breath. "Fine. Come in. Shoes off at the door."

I nervously slip inside and take my shoes off, closing the door behind me.

Sabine gently pried her sister off her and led everyone into a sitting area.

I nervously find the closest chair and sit on the edge.

"I…" Her father began, then ran his hands thru his hair looking shocked.

"How?" Her mother asked. "We thought the worst _ad'ika_."

Sabine swallowed nervously. "I know. I…we were on Onderon a couple weeks ago, and we found a few of those posters. I didn't know you guys tried looking for me."

"Onderon? Lux is there." Her mother stated.

"Did you try to find him Sabine?" Her father asked.

_Bonteri and her father are friends._

That's how he knew Sabine in the first place.

"He found me. That's how I found out in the first place."

"How'd you get to Onderon?" Her mother asked.

"I…are we bugged?" She asked.

_Bugged?_

"No. Checked a few days ago." Her mother immediately replied.

"Why? What's going on Sabine?" her father asked.

"Are you in danger?" Her mother asked.

"No. I…I found the Rebellion."

Immediately, both her parents looked stunned.

"You did?" Her mother breathed out.

"How?"

"It's a long story. But me and Ezra. We're part of a cell. We were on Lothal. But we attracted too much attention and have been hopping from planet to planet ever since."

"So it's really happening? People are rebelling?" Her father asked.

Sabine nodded.

_Uhh._

Sabine. I know these are your parents, but are you SURE this is okay?!

"You don't know?" I ask.

Her mother turned and shook her head. "No. The Empire closely monitors all media. There was a rogue transmission a few months ago, but nothing other than that."

"That was us." Sabine told her parents.

"You're kidding." Her mother said, looking back to me.

"I thought his voice was familiar." Her father said to her.

"Ezra was the voice, yeah." Sabine said.

Suddenly her father stood and walked to me.

"I believe I owe you an apology son. Carid Wren." He extended his hand to me.

I stand and shake his hand. "Ezra Bridger sir."

Her mom quickly hopped up also and shook my hand. "Bo-Katan Kryze. This is our daughter Sophine."

"Sophie!" The little girl piped up. "I'm Sophie!"

I smile and wave at her. "Hi."

"Hi!" She beamed at me.

I laugh, and her parents sit back down.

"So…you found the rebellion. Have they treated you well?"

"Yeah. They've treated me well."

"What other members are there in your cell? I'm assuming it's not just you two." Her father asked.

"It's us, Hera our pilot, Kanan, Zeb and Chopper. Chopper's a droid, Zeb might be the last Lasat, and Kanan's…" Sabine started, then trailed off.

"He's a former Jedi." She then finished before her parents could interrupt.

"Survivor?" Her mother immediately asked.

"Yes. He was young when all the Jedi were killed. He doesn't use it much anymore."

"Hmm." Her father said.

"I hope you've helped him. The galaxy's done the Jedi a great injustice."

"I have Mom. He doesn't talk about it much. I can't tell you much." Sabine shrugged.

"Do you make stuff go boom?" Sophie asked, looking up at Sabine.

Sabine lit up. "Yeah! It's pretty and goes boom!"

"Yay!" Sophia beamed, then clapped.

I can't help but smile.

"What do you do son?" Mr. Wren asked me.

"Uhm, well, I help out on the ship. Fix stuff and protect everybody."

"Now. He used to be a terrible shot." Sabine teased me.

I nervously shrug as both her parents laugh.

"So…how long are you here on the planet?" Her mother asked.

The room suddenly got very tense.

_I think I saw Sophie grab onto Sabine's shirt._

"We're here for the week. We're supposed to check on the Imperial presence here. Onderon is very anti-Imperial and they've heard that it's the same here." Sabine told her.

"It's heavy, but still confined to the City of Bone." Her father answered.

"Is the rebellion interested in starting something here?" Her mother asked.

"Because you know—" her father began, but Sabine cut him off.

"Yes, I know."

_Whoa._

Her father seemed to accept that.

"Know what?" I ask.

Sabine quickly gave me a dirty look.

_What?_

"We're not exactly the biggest supporters of the Empire on Mandalore. They've enslaved us and are desecrating the planet." Her mother told me.

"More like raping it." Her father growled.

"It's gotten worse?" Sabine asked, looking shocked.

"They've taken over the courts. Any crime leads to servitude in the mines or the city until you've shaped up. Most never come out." Her mother said.

"They're trying to grab the board at work too. But we're fighting them." Her father added.

"Stay here Sabine. You'll be safe. We'll catch you up."

"We want to help." Her father said.

"Yeah!" Sophie cheered.

"Okay. Ezra—" Sabine began, but I cut her off.

"I've got a place. I don't want to impose on you all. You've already done enough." I say, getting to my feet.

"Whoa there son. You're welcome to stay too. We've got the rooms." Her father said, grabbing my arm.

"Don't let him leave Daddy." Sabine said, and then looked at me.

"You're staying."

"Sabine—" I reply.

"No." She replied.

_Fine._

"You must be hungry. I was about to star t dinner." Mrs. Wren said, standing up and starting to the room behind us.

_Well, kind of._

It's the kitchen, and right behind us is the counter.

"Yeah, I'm hungry." Sabine smiled.

"You've grown." Her father smiled, following her to the kitchen.

"And your hair!" Her mother called out, causing them both to laugh.

"I like it! It's like a blueberry!" Sophie bounced into the kitchen.

_She's so happy._

"_di'kutla_! We don't have enough of those rolls Carid." Sabine's mom said.

"I bet he eats like a bantha too. Growing boy. What else do you think we'll need? The market's still open." Mr. Wren asked.

"The stew'll be fine since we cooked for leftovers. We'll need more dust corn, maybe blue milk? And ice sticks for them." Mrs. Wren replied.

Her father nodded. "You want to go with me kiddo?"

Sophie shook her head. "I wanna stay here with Sabine!"

Both her parents smiled, and Sabine bent down to hug her.

"I don't blame you. I'll be right back." Her father said, then ducked out a side door.

I glance back to the scene in front of me.

_I guess this is what normal is supposed to look like._


	13. Motivations

Keldabe is…strange.

I've never felt anything like it.

Lothal and Tarkintown didn't like the Empire. But I don't know what it _felt_ like.

Unfortunately we got booted off Lothal before I really learned to read the pulse of large groups of people.

Polis Massa was calm. Almost sterile. Outside of those Force…echoes with that screaming woman it was almost static when I wasn't training. Nobody was acting in a manner to affect it.

Ord Mantell was proud but had a dark side.

Onderon is elusive. I can feel the battles that were fought, but there's so much there that I can't get thru the emotions.

Keldabe is proud, but I can't get a feel on what.

I think it's their Mandalorian past, but I don't know for sure. I would ask, but it's probably a bad idea to ask so boldly about their culture.

_Most of the things I've read portray the Mandalorian people as easily provoked._

I don't want to make anyone mad that I don't absolutely have to.

_I'd prefer not to start trouble and fight._

I turn my focus from the city at large to the house.

Sabine's parents gave me a room on the second floor. My room is on one end, while Sabine's is like jutting out on the complete other end.

I don't know what's on the third floor. I didn't get a tour or anything.

Sabine actually gossiped with her Mom about some people they knew while her father went and shopped at the market.

Sabine's little sister bounced off the walls the entire time.

When dinner started, Sabine explained to her parents what she did right after she left home.

From how she explained it, she just left without any warning. She didn't talk much about it.

She ended up on a planet named Vandyne where she worked a normal job at a cantina sort of place. Then Hera and Kanan literally just walked in one day.

Sabine said that the moment Kanan walked in, she knew something was different about him.

He apparently stopped a few regular customers from hitting on her (a daily occurrence apparently), she bumped into them leaving work and she took off with them.

Her parents didn't press much on that topic, but did on why she left.

_Her mom especially._

Sabine was a durasteel wall in response. She just said "The Empire made me leave." over and over.

I REALLY wanted to use the Force and try to figure out if that's true. I don't doubt what she said about meeting Kanan.

_But I didn't._

If it's good enough for her family to accept it without question, it'll have to be good enough for me.

I really like how open they are to each other. Her mother explained to me as we gathered up the dishes that early on they made a promise to always listen and try to build each other up.

There's enough people trying to crush you and push you down outside.

I offered to do dishes, but they made Sabine do it.

After dinner Sophie and her parents went to the Holoterminal and started working on reading basic, Mandalorian along with doing math problems.

I kept my distance, mostly keeping Sabine company. But the little I heard between dishes made it clear that Sabine's parents have been doing this for a while.

Not long after that, Sabine's dad showed me to my room and I said goodnight to everyone.

_I don't want to impose on them. They're being very kind to me._

When I woke up this morning, I was the first one awake. So I started meditating and focusing on Keldabe proper.

The first time I stopped I realized that Sophie was awake by her Force signature moving around on the ground level.

I opened the door slightly in case she needed me or something and went back to meditating.

Now her parents are awake, but I don't think she's talked to them.

I smile and focus myself.

_She's coming up the stairs._

…

I busy myself with my bag and hear her footsteps.

When she walks into the doorway I look up and smile.

"Hey Sophie. Good morning."

She smiled at me.

"Morning. Can you help me?" She asked.

"Help with what?"

"Mommy put all my juice glasses up high. I can't reach them." She told me, looking sad.

"Have you tried climbing to get them?" I ask.

"Daddy always knows when I do that. My feet leave marks on the…table thingy." She said.

_The counter._

She'd have to stand on it.

"Sure, I'll come help." I smile at her.

"Thank you!" She beamed, then did a little jump for joy and started to the kitchen.

I catch up with her at the bottom of the stairs and let her lead me to where the glasses are.

When we reach the cupboard, she frowned and pointed at it. "I'm too small."

I open the cupboard and grab a small cup out with a lid on it.

"Like this?" I ask her to make sure.

"Uh huh!" She replied right away.

"Can you get the juice or do you need help?" I ask.

_No need to waste time waiting to get her juice._

I remember that as a little kid while I waited for my cartoons to come on.

"I can't get that either."

"Okay." I say, closing the cupboard and open the conservator.

Sophie answers my next question before I can even ask it.

"The purple juice please."

As I grab it I read "Bug Juice."

_Bug Juice?_

When I turn back to Sophie, she has a huge smile on her face and has her arm extended with her cup.

I take it and fill it over half way, then hand it back to her.

"Yay! I got extra!" She beamed.

"You usually don't get that much?" I ask.

_I didn't want to short her._

"I usually get half. But I get another glass too."

"Oh. Okay."

Sophie just walked into the living room and jumped onto the couch.

"I'm gonna watch cartoons. You can too if you want." She told me.

"Okay. Thanks Sophie." I tell her.

It can't hurt to relax.

I used to like a cartoon called Gabba Jabba. It was about a group of pirates that were against a Hutt named Gabba Jabba. Most of the episodes were focused on that.

I sit down on the reclining chair as Sophie started up the Holoprojector and turned it to the channel.

Before long, I'm settling in while Sophie keeps giggling over the jokes and situations.

It isn't until an extremely weird scene in the girls fresher that my mind starts moving again.

_Was it really this…weird when I watched?_

The group are chasing some criminals (ironic, since they're criminals themselves) and blindly charged into the fresher, ignoring the changing girls as they raced thru trying to catch their enemy.

_If they did that they'd have half the security force on them._

It's not until the end that I really get annoyed and realize what the intended meaning is.

"At least we didn't run into any Jedi!"

"Yeah, they would have gotten us for sure!"

"No!" said another. "Some stormtroopers would have saved us like they did at the end of the Clone Wars!"

"Yeah! They're the true heroes!"

"Protecting our freedom!"

"And our liberty!"

"And our fun!"

The group let out a cheer, then it faded to the credits.

A noise behind me made me jump out of my skin.

I turn and Sabine has a slight frown on her face.

Sophie scrambled to her and hugged her before I can say anything.

"You don't have to watch with her if you don't want to Ezra." Sabine's mom said, now in the kitchen.

_When she'd get here?_

I must have spaced out.

"Yeah. It was better when we were kids anyway." Sabine said, then glancing sadly at me.

_I feel like I've been attacked._

I grew up with this.

Sophie is the second group of kids that is growing up with it.

No wonder people hate the Jedi.

_They're being brainwashed into it._

It's all they know.

"Where's Daddy?" Sophie asked her mom.

"In his workroom sweetheart."

Sophie immediately ran upstairs.

"She doesn't actually believe that stuff, right Mom?" Sabine immediately asked her Mom.

Her mom let out a sigh.

"Some yes, some no. She's never understood why nobody likes the Jedi, especially since we've always taught her that Jedi are good. But she's at an age that she knows the idea of good and bad, but hearing different things confuses her."

Sabine frowned.

"It might help if you said something good about them Sabine." Her mom told her.

"I don't know if she'll listen to me."

I glance over at her and give her a strange look.

_She obviously doesn't see the way Sophie looks at her._

It's like Sabine hung the moons and the stars herself.

Mrs. Wren smiled. "Tell her. You see it."

"See what?" Sabine asked, turning to me.

"Every time she looks at you, it's like you hung the galaxy or something."

"Really?" Sabine asked, looking surprised.

Sabine's mom nodded, as Sophie thundered back downstairs.

"He's up there." She smiled.

Sabine and her mom laughed.

"Thanks honey."

Sophie smiled again, then wordlessly went back to her cartoons.

"You aren't going to work?" Sabine asked.

"No. I'm here. I cancelled my classes this week."

"Classes?" I ask.

Sabine's mom looked up from the batter she's working on and said "I teach self-defense and combat classes 4 times a week."

"And that won't be weird?" Sabine asked.

"No. People will assume it's about Sophie. Unless somebody sees us down at the market today. Then they'll know why."

"What does your dad do?" I ask Sabine.

I know he mentioned something about a board yesterday when we got here.

"He designs starships at MandalMotors." Sabine said.

"He's a starship engineer." Mrs. Wren added.

"Oh. Did Bonteri mention him in those meetings?" I ask Sabine.

Sabine shrugged.

"What do you mean?" Sabine's mom asked me.

"Before we came, I think Mr. Bonteri said that he wasn't the most well-known designer, but he's the best."

"You might be right. He did some work on _Mand'alor_'s ship, along with some other high profile projects."

_Isn't Mand'alor_ the leader of all Mandalorians?

Working on his ship is probably a big deal.

Sabine glanced over at Sophie, then turned to me and said "You can go check out the workroom if you want. I think you'd like it since you're always tinkering." while smiling.

_What?_

I tinker sometimes, but not always.

"Okay." I play along, then glance at the holoprojector.

_They're chasing a guy in robes._

Oh.

I go upstairs quickly and try to make it look normal, then knock on the 3rd floor door.

"Come in!"

I open the door and slip inside.

_Whoa._

They didn't do this place justice.

_It's basically the same size as the armory back on Polis Massa._

But it's all polished concrete it looks like, without the barrier for the shooting range either.

"Ezra! You've found my playground!" Mr. Wren smiled at me. "What do you think?"

"No wonder you're the best designer." I reply, looking around.

It looks like he can test prototypes in here, and even has an enormous Holoprojector off in one corner with blueprints all around on the walls.

"Excuse me?" He asked.

I glance back at him to see that he's looking at me with a curious expression.

"Mr. Bonteri said before we came that you're the best starship designer."

"Oh. I don't know about that, but that's kind of him. I just work as hard as I can on every project." He shrugged.

I nod and keep looking around.

_I don't think he minds._

"You into this sort of thing?" He asked me.

"Kind of. I'm good at fixing stuff." I tell him.

When nobody was around on Lothal I used to hang out in a garage sort of place and just mess with stuff.

The owner didn't care much because most of the stuff was broken. If I made off with it, there's no real loss.

Most of the time I left it when I fixed it. The only time I took it is when I didn't have anything to eat at my tower, so I traded it at the market for some credits to get food.

_Good or bad, I don't regret it._

My eyes settle on a holocamera sitting on a table.

_It looks perfectly fine to me._

"Did you sleep well son?" Sabine's father asked me.

I turn to him and nod. "Yes sir. Very well."

"Good. Things can get a little loud around here early in the morning on the streets."

We are close to the market, so I guess so.

"What's wrong with the Holocamera?" I ask.

Mr. Wren let out a sigh. "Oh I don't know. Sophie was playing with it a month or two ago and it just stopped working. I haven't been able to figure out what's wrong with it."

Hmm.

"Could I take a look at it?" I ask.

"Sure. Are you good with this sort of thing?" He asked me.

"Sort of. I've fixed the communications on our ship with our astromech a few times. I'd just like to look at it. I don't know if I can fix it."

Mr. Wren smiled, got to his feet and handed me the Holocamera.

"Thank you." I tell him, taking it.

"No problem. Worst that happens is that you can't fix it and I have to go buy a new one. Which I was planning on doing anyway. If you do fix it, I can return the new one and get my credits back." He shrugged.

Click.

I look away and glance around.

_What was that?_

"Hey you two. Come down. Breakfast's ready. And I don't want to wait." Sabine's voice came thru a speaker near the door.

"On our way." Her father said.

The speaker clicked again, and then was silent.

"Ezra, I've learned over the years at work that the best way to have people learn and get better at something is simply to give whatever it is, be it a Holocamera, or a ship design and just let them work." He said, walking with me to the door.

"Really?"

"Yup. Not telling people how to do something lets them apply critical thinking naturally. As opposed to when you tell somebody to think critically or how to do something, you usually get a blank face and a robot." He smiled.

"I guess that makes sense. Less pressure."

"That's one of the things it does, yeah. Which helps everyone in a workplace. Or in a larger group. It can work wonders." He told me as we reach the living room.

"Oh good, you're here." Sabine said as her mother is flipping panna cakes and Sophie is carrying silverware and dumping it on the table.

Mr. Wren barely laughed before saying "That's enough sweetheart. Let me help you set the places."

"Okay!" Sophie replied happily.

"Have fun up there?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"Yeah." I say noncommittally.

"I'm letting him tinker with the holocamera to see if he can get it working Bo. It sounds like he knows a little thing or two about electronics and wiring."

Sabine subtly poked her head and looked at me, smiling.

"Alright. Are we picking up one today though?" Sabine's mom replied while putting more batter on the grill.

"Uh huh."

"Why do we need to buy a holocamera?" Sabine asked.

Behind her, I see something for the first time.

Sophie looking sad.

"We want to take pictures before you fly off into the stars again." Mrs. Wren answered.

"Yeah, the last pictures we have of you have long hair." Her father said.

"And now it's blue!" Sophie smiled.

"Just like Ezra's." Her mom said, looking at me and smiling wryly.

"Ezra's hair isn't blue!" Sophie immediately said.

"Yeah, it's darker." Sabine chimed in.

_It has been getting darker._

"It's dark blue then." Mrs. Wren replied simply.

"What kind of syrup do you want sweetheart?" Sophie's dad asked her.

"Can I have the _boyy'lo_?"

A moment passed, as both of her parents calmly looked at her.

"Oh. Please!" She added on.

I smile and Sabine plucks the syrup out of the conservator.

"Sit Ezra. I'm almost done here." Mrs. Wren told me.

"Okay." I say, then slide over to the table.

I sit where I sat last night at dinner.

Mr. Wren at the head of the table. Sophie's at the other, flanked on either side by Sabine and her mom.

I'm next to Sabine.

"What do you want?" Sabine asked me.

"Uh, can I have some caf?" I ask.

Sabine nodded and busied herself with the cups.

In front of me, Sabine's mom deposited a mountain of panna cakes and started dishing them out.

"It looks like a lot, but they're not that filling sometimes. Help yourself." She told me, as she gave Sophie 3.

Sophie's smile is almost as big as her pink colored plate.

Wordlessly Sabine slipped beside me, putting my caf down with some blue milk as a sweetener.

_She remembered._

Before we left Onderon we got caf in the market, and I put some milk in it.

It's too bitter otherwise.

I see both of Sabine's parents' notice the milk and the coffee, then go back to preparing their food.

Her mom is putting butter and carbosyrup on Sophie's panna cakes.

Her dad has scooped up some of the zoochberries and putting them on his panna cakes.

Sabine finally sits next to me and grabs the butter.

Wordlessly, everyone starts eating.

_Another thing I like about Sabine's family._

They don't start eating until everyone is ready.

Everyone was quiet for a moment as they ate, then Sabine's Mom spoke up.

"Now sweetheart, I love the look you have right now. But where is your armor?"

Immediately I tense up.

_Oh._

"It, uhm…kinda got ruined." Sabine said quietly.

"How?" Sabine's father asked matter of factly.

"We were raiding a smuggler's compound, got detected and somebody shot thru my armor. I think they modified their blasters with kelvacyte or something.

"So it burned thru?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"Yeah." Sabine nodded.

Sophie is looking nervously at Sabine.

"Well then, you decided a good time to come home." Her mother said simply.

"I don't know what I'm going to do for armor, but I really don't need it right now. Ezra and I's cell is underground for now."

"You need some armor. We'll ask around today." Her father said, then taking a bite.

"Dad. I—" Sabine started, but was cut off.

"Sabine, we've got credits saved up. Don't worry."

"It's not that. I don't want you guys to buy it when you could spend it on other things." Sabine said, looking tired.

_She doesn't want to fight this battle._

"How about my helmet?" Her mom changed gears.

"It's fine. I've got it all with me if you want to take a look." Sabine said.

How?

"You do?" I ask.

"I had a feeling Mom would ask. She helped me with it last time." Sabine replied.

"And I'm getting you a jetpack this time."

In response, Sabine let out a groan. "Mom…"

"It may save you Sabine. I'm not taking any chances."

"Especially if you bump into more smugglers." Her father said wryly.

Sophie giggled and I shake my head, then set my fork down.

_I'm full._

"Set your dishes in the sink Ezra. Sabine will take care of it when we get back from the market."

We're going right after this?

"Immediately?" Sabine asked.

"We want to avoid the Imperial rush." Her father said.

Oh.

Sabine nodded in understanding, then grabbed my plate away from me and took Sophie's.

Sophie got up too and took her glass over. "Thank you."

Sabine smiled, crouched down and gave Sophie a big hug in reply.

"Alright, so supplies, new armor and a holocamera?" Mrs. Wren asked her husband as she took the rest of the dishes and deposited them near the sink.

Sophie and her father led the way out the door, while Sabine hung back just a little and smiled at me.

I smile back.

_Such a nice family._

This is what it's supposed to be like.

We're about a third of the way there when Sabine says "Oh, before I forget. Daddy, I need your help later."

"With what _ad'ika_?"

"I've been working on a project. I was wondering if you could take a look at it."

"What is it?"

"A ship."

Both Sabine's parents stopped dead and turned around.

"What kind of ship?" Mr. Wren asked.

"It's a prototype. Hera and I have been working on it, but we're not master ship designers. Do you mind looking at it?" She asked with a smile.

Her father smiled "I'd love to. A prototype?"

"Yeah. The original designer was arrested before he could finish them. We've been trying to make it ready for mass production."

"You've helped?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"I've tried. I picked up a little helping Dad out, but I'm not super good."

Mr. Wren laughed and smiled.

"Sounds like a plan. Is tomorrow okay?"

"Yeah! Just before I leave."

"Definitely." Her father replied.

We started walking again, and before long the market was upon us.

_And it's busier than yesterday._

"The market's open every day but a couple of days a week there's market days! Best place to find something short of Nar Shaadaa!" Sabine said over the noise of the crowd.

Her mom nodded in agreement while keeping a hand on Sophie.

I follow everyone thru the crowd as they weave thru easily, trying to watch out for Sophie at the same time.

_I'd look like a jerk if I was alone._

Sabine's family just seems to know where the crowd is going to move.

Before long we've picked up a ton of groceries and put them in a basket Sabine brought.

_Sabine is right._

They do seem to have everything. From food to Holoprojectors to educational services to medical stuff…

I've never seen anything like it.

The sound of Sabine's father's voice makes me look to him.

"Ah, just the man we're looking for! Mr. Dala!"

A man with a receding hairline turned, then lit up.

"Carid! Great to see you! And—oh."

He's looking at Sabine.

"She's returned from the stars! It's great to see you darling."

"Thank you." Sabine replied.

The man turned to Sabine's parents.

"This is wonderful! After all this time… I assume you're here for something?" He asked.

Sabine's father nodded.

"Can we go inside?" Sabine's mother asked.

There's a pavilion sort of thing behind us.

"Absolutely." He replied, then led us in.

I glance at Sabine, who looks at ease.

Once we're inside, he checks around to see who is around, then turns to Sabine's parents.

"How can I help? I want to help Carid."

Instead, Sabine's mom spoke first.

"Sabine needs new armor, minus the helmet."

Mr. Dala nodded in understanding. "Done growing?"

"Not yet." Sabine replied.

"Alright. Any specifics? You can contact me about her sizes and everything later by holo if you'd like." He asked.

"Some metal that cannot be burned thru if that's possible." Her father asked.

"Heat resistance…bumped into a criminal or two darling?" Mr. Dala asked Sabine.

She nodded. "I think they modded their blasters."

"Had to have. Lightweight I assume?"

Sabine's mother asked.

"Alright. I only have one more question, then you all can be on your way."

Okay.

"Was she traveling?"

_Huh?_

I can't hide my confusion, and Sabine looks lost also.

"Yes." Her father said.

…

"So it is happening then." Mr. Dala said calmly. "_atiniir no shya di'kuts_."

I don't know what that means.

"She's here judging their strengths and numbers. Then she'll report back." Sabine's father said simply.

"Okay…_jai'galaar'la sur'haii'se_?"

Sabine's eyes snapped wide open.

Her mother's eyebrows snapped down, and her father bit his lip.

"Not to be dismissive…but has she _earned _that honor? I'm not sure." Mrs. Wren said.

_What honor?_

"I'll discuss it with the leaders…but I believe she is. There is no higher priority right now than fighting the Empire."

I glance over at Sabine, and she still looks stunned.

She nervously bowed, Mr. Dala did the same, then he shook Mr. Wren's hand and left without another word.

…

"Uhm…what just happened?" I nervously ask.

I don't know.

Sabine quickly looked at me.

"I'll explain when we get home. The Imperials will probably be in the market soon."

"Yeah, we should buy that camera and go home." Her mom agreed.

"I can buy it. You all go home." Mr. Wren countered. "You have all of the groceries after all."

"But"

"Good point. Alright. Let's go home." Mrs. Wren said, then leading the way back into the market.

This time we cut thru a few alleys and get back home within 10 minutes.

"Can I help put them away?" I ask politely once we're all back inside.

"No. Sabine, explain to the poor boy what's going on." Mrs. Wren said simply, handing Sophie some fruit.

"C'mere…" Sabine said, walking past me and upstairs.

I wordlessly follow her all the way to my room, where she shuts the door behind us.

_Uhh…_

I don't know how that's going to go over.

"I…" Sabine started, then quickly stopped.

…

"Let's do this. I'll explain it the best I can. Then you need to look it up. Because I won't do it justice." She finally said.

"Alright. What's wrong Sabine?" I ask.

To my total confusion, she smiled.

"Nothing's wrong. They're honoring me. I'm getting my jaig eyes."

(A/N: Sorry I'm posting so late. I live in Tornado Alley and today we've had 3 Tornado Warnings. I'm fine, but my planned writing time was rudely interrupted. I'm going to start putting translation for the Mandalorian phrases and words that I use in a chapter. I pulled all of this off the Star Wars Wiki, and I highly recommend if there's anything you don't understand. Hope it helps! –James)

_Ad'ika _\- kid, lad, boy, sweetie, darling, son, daughter, child

_boyy'lo_ – a sweet fruit, commonly turned into jelly, jam or a flavor of carbosyrup.

_atiniir no shya di'kuts _\- We endure these oppressors no more.

_jai'galaar'la sur'haii'se_ – Shriek Hawk Eyes; Jaig Eyes


	14. What Makes the Clock Tick

I flip thru the book and find myself at the same section that I keep ending up on.

_Society._

Personal and societal betterment thru combat and battle against worthy opponents.

The HoloNet said the same thing, but I trust this book more.

_It's an actual physical book. _

Last time I had one in my hands I was flinging it away.

But that was a long time ago.

The HoloNet didn't really help me with the whole Jaig eyes thing. It wasn't even on there.

I eventually swallowed my pride and asked Sabine for help. Luckily her mom was also in the room and pulled a book out of their library.

_I've been reading it off and on ever since._

It's got a lot more information than the Holonet, that's for sure.

_Especially about the Clone Wars._

When I first started looking at the history section, consisting of the last 250 years, I was scanning mostly. Until I got into the Clone Wars section and saw a familiar name.

"Jedi Commander Ahsoka Tano foiled the assassination attempt of Naboo Senator Padmé Amidala and foiled the plot, allowing the anti-corruption efforts on Mandalore to continue."

There's all sorts of information here. I've reread all of it multiple times to try and remember it all.

I found that Skywalker guy that apparently is her master.

I also found some guy named Obi-Wan Kenobi. But that part wasn't so good.

Apparently…near the conclusion of the war, things must have just gone completely insane.

Out of nowhere, the Death Watch that had risen in response to the pacifist government (apparently that DID happen) allied with two Zabrak Sith and captured the Duchess of Mandalore, a woman named Satine Kryze.

_She's got to be related to Sabine's mom._

Same name. And there can't be THAT MANY Kryze families on Mandalore.

Sorry, got off track. They captured the Duchess, and Jedi Master Kenobi came to battle Death Watch and save the Duchess.

_Unfortunately, he didn't succeed._

The battle for who would rule Mandalore seemed to rage on until the Empire came and declared martial law, annexing the planet in the name of its citizens.

The book was published a year after that, so really that's where it stopped.

I almost can't get enough of what's actually going on here.

Sabine said that there's a lot I don't know about, and I don't think she's been more right about anything.

_There's so much going on, and this is just one planet._

I want to ask Sabine about all of this, but she's been working with her mom on her new armor.

It hasn't come in yet, but they've been looking thru tons of pieces of armor.

I've kept out of their way mostly. Watched cartoons with Sophie and fixed the Holocamera.

_I don't know how, but Sophie tripped a little switch inside the thing that basically shuts it off and makes it unresponsive._

Her dad's been up in his massive workshop working on that ship Sabine and Hera were working on back on Polis Massa.

_I don't know if they've worked on it since._

I put the book aside and sit up on my bed.

Ever since we got done with dinner (breaded bantha steaks) I've been up here reading.

_I wonder what everyone is doing._

I get my wits about me and probe around with the Force.

…

Sabine's Dad is pacing back and forth upstairs.

Sabine's…super happy.

_Her signature usually isn't so positive and bright._

Downstairs Mrs. Wren and Sophie are gathered around what I'm assuming is the Holoterminal.

_Probably working on more reading stuff._

I focus my attention back on Sabine.

_Why is she so happy?_

…

I think she's moving. I don't know for sure though.

Usually it's obvious. Like a hallway or something.

Sabine's just…going around in random patterns.

_I think._

I walk to my door and poke my head out to see that she's got her door half closed.

Her dad got mad at her for closing the door yesterday after we got back from the market. He was nice about it, but it was still awkward.

_We trust you but we don't know what you're doing behind that door._

I understand…but technically she's an adult here on Mandalore.

She got that honor years ago.

Out of curiosity I walk towards Sabine's room and glance inside.

…

_She's dancing!_

She's going around in random directions and…dancing.

Making motions with her arms and everything.

_I didn't know she danced at all._

I glance at her ears and see she's got wired coming from them.

Must be listening to music.

Suddenly, she turned around and looked thru the doorway.

I duck out of the way, but not fast enough.

_I know she saw me._

Sabine pulled the wires out of her ears and opened the door more.

"Hey. Was I loud?" She smiled at me and asked.

"No. I just kinda peeked in and saw you dancing. Sorry."

"Don't be sorry. Did I ever show you my room?"

"No." I shake my head.

She waved me inside and opened her door with her foot.

I walk in and immediately two things jump out to me.

_Wow. She was constantly painting when she lived at home too._

_This…is not the Sabine I know._

There's a big Galactic Empire logo on the opposite side of the room. But it's colored in red, blue and purple.

The rest of the room is an off shade of gray, but it's covered in papers stuck to the wall with pins.

I laugh when I see her bedspread.

_Pink._

"Don't laugh. I was a lot younger." She said defensively.

_What part?_

Oh.

I take a half step closer to the wall behind her bed.

Off to the right…Sabine painted a red outline of a heart. With four pictures inside.

_Of the same guy._

One is of them a lot younger.

One is of them both in armor and smiling widely.

_The last two…_

They're both in the standard Imperial Cadet uniform.

In the one on the left they're both smiling.

_Sabine's taller than him._

In the one of the right she's kissing his cheek.

I try to set my face right before Sabine jumped in front of me and the wall.

"Long time ago." She smiled a little too widely.

"I could tell." I say flatly.

_She left a boyfriend behind._

Snap out of it Ezra.

_You're supposed to be over her._

At least act like it.

"Do you like it?" She asked, moving slightly to completely obscure the heart mural.

"Yeah. Except for that." I say, pointing at the Empire insignia.

"Yeah…I was a believer. Unfortunately." She said, looking nervously at the ground.

…

"Here. Tell me if you like this." Sabine suddenly changed topics and put something in my hand.

_It looks like it goes in my ear._

I slip it in my ear and hear a little click.

Then noise BLASTED into my ear and I jump out of my skin.

"Crap, sorry." Sabine said quickly, pressing a little tab quickly.

The noise quieted down into electronics sounds and an unfamiliar voice.

"You ever listened to Core Drive?" She asked me, smiling slightly.

I shake my head.

_I never have time to listen to music._

I like it, but I've never really had a reason to.

Sounds stupid I know.

"I like it. It helps me focus on the paint."

"Really?" I ask.

This sounds like it's be really distracting.

It's almost senseless noise. With some singing breaking it up.

She nodded, then clicked the tab again, changing the song.

This one isn't nearly as electronic.

There's some to it, but it's mostly singing.

"C'mon. Dance." She told me then slipped an arm around my back.

_Uhh…_

I nervously copy her and look around.

_This is just asking to get yelled at by her._

I can almost hear her yelling at me for holding her too low.

_That'd look just great._

Sabine grabbed my hand and locked her fingers with mine, then started leading me around.

I try to go with her and be smooth at the same time.

Just as I think I've got the hold of it, she lets go of my waist and spins away.

Then spins right back and we fall back into the routine.

One, two. Back.

One, two. Back.

_It's a little like my lightsaber footwork._

"Loosen up…c'mon. I'm not going to yell at you." Sabine said softly, looking up at me and squeezing my waist. "Please?"

I try loosening up and go with what I'm learning here on the fly plus my lightsaber footwork.

Before long, she's smiling. Even better, I sense her spin before she even started it.

She let out an excited giggle in the middle of it, and then latched back onto me.

"You're learning…" She smiled, moving a little faster.

"Trying." I say. "I've never danced before."

"Never? Not with any girls back on Lothal?"

"No." I shake my head.

Sabine's expression doesn't change, but I feel her sudden sadness.

"You're really good for your first time. You can move your hand a little though." She said quietly.

I take her hint and barely move my hand down to the small of her back.

"Better. Right?" She asked.

I shrug nervously.

_Man she's close._

She let out a breath and laid her head on my chest.

"I'm not sure I believe you. You're too good for your first time."

"It's a little like my footwork when I lightsaber duel." I say.

_I don't know what else it could be._

"Really?"

I nod.

"No, keep talking." She said, looking up but keeping her head on my chest

"Why?"

"Your chest vibrates and it's nice." She said, moving her hand down my back.

_And onto my…_

She's grabbing my butt.

Why Sabine. Why?

I laugh nervously. "Vibrates?"

"Keep talking." She replied simply, smiling up at me.

"Okay. Your family is really nice. Thanks for letting me stay here."

"No problem. They like you."

I don't know what to say to that.

"Keep. Talking." She let go of my hand briefly to smack me in the chest, then scooted closer.

_Any closer and we'll be violating physics._

Two things cannot occupy the same space at the same time.

She's totally…

There's no room between us. And I'm trying to ignore the little tank top and shorts that she's wearing.

Thankfully she spins away from me, then I hear a knock.

Sabine darted back into my chest, then jumped back away and yanked the earphone right out of my ear.

OW!

_It's her dad…_

"Hey Daddy. We're dancing." She smiled at him.

"I saw that. Looks great."

"Thanks." Sabine smiled.

I…

I don't think I can talk.

"Would you mind if I borrowed him darling?" Her father asked with a smile.

"Yeah, sure!" Sabine replied, sliding her hands off me.

"I'll have him right back to you. Just want to look over the Holocamera with him for a second."

I nod and follow him out the door, trying to ignore Sabine behind me.

_She's not happy._

"Grab that Holocamera son. I'll be right upstairs." Mr. Wren said, then pointing upstairs.

I nod and walk to my room.

_My hands are shaking._

He's not happy.

Calm…calm down Ezra.

_It's not like I was kissing her or anything._

But she was glued to me.

All I had to do was tilt my head down and I easily could have kissed her.

I grab the Holocamera and quickly make sure the thing isn't going to betray me, then start upstairs.

That'd be the last thing I need right now.

I let out a breath and open the door.

"Hey son. You get that thing figured out?" Mr. Wren asked me kindly.

"Yes sir. It was just a little switch that was the problem." I explain, extending the camera to him.

"Really? That was it huh…" he asked, inspecting the camera.

"Yup." I nod.

…

…

I watch as he takes a practice picture, then looks at it.

…

"Easy son. I'm not mad." He said calmly, still looking at the picture.

I nervously laugh.

"I'm serious!" He said.

I shrug as he puts the camera onto his desk, then stands up and takes it out of his pocket, putting the camera on top of some papers on his workbench next to the open box.

"How does that ship look?" I ask.

_Small talk can't hurt._

I don't think it can.

"It looks great honestly. There isn't a ship like it in the galaxy. It'll take some time to get it ready for production, but it'll be out within a year." He answered, pulling up some diagrams on a projector.

He flipped thru a few of them, then closed it down.

"Son, would you mind if I ask you a few questions? My wife and I don't want to irritate Sabine more than we have to."

I try to hide my surprise and reply "Sure. I don't think she'd be too irritated though if you asked her."

Mr. Wren shook his head. "Have you seen her get mad?"

I nod.

"You know why then. And she's a lot more independent than the last time we saw her."

Oh.

I nod, not knowing what to say.

"So, you're both part of this rebel cell. It's five of you?"

"Yes sir." I reply.

"Jedi, Pilot, Bodyguard, Droid, you."

I nod.

…

"Should I be concerned about her safety? I don't want to prod too deeply, but Sabine wasn't very clear on what you all do to oppose the Empire."

"No…before we grouped up with the larger rebellion it was mostly raiding supply depots. Just being irritating since we can't do anything large scale."

"Define large scale."

"We can't…go take back Lothal. My home planet. Just anything that'd actually make a difference." I say, frustrated.

He nodded.

…

"I'm assuming that everyone on the crew gets along?" He asked.

I nod.

"We give each other a hard time, but it's all fun. We're a pretty close group." I say.

Mr. Wren smiled.

"That's good. Opposing the Empire is hard enough with people that you like I imagine."

"Exactly." I say, moving to the window closest to me.

It has a beautiful view of the city from here facing away from the market.

…

"I have to ask son. You and Sabine seem extremely close. Are you interested in her or dating?"

_Here it is._

I shake my head. "No sir."

"Really? Interesting…"

"Does it look like it?" I ask him.

"It really does. Bringing you to meet us, small gestures, dancing. It looks too obvious." He said, smiling.

Trying to keep me loose.

I shrug.

"I gave up on that a long time ago when she made it plainly obvious that it's not that way." I say, unable to keep my voice calm.

"I wouldn't be so quick to say that son. She doesn't do the little things for a lot of people. And she does them for you."

I shrug again.

"When she said she wanted me to come sir, I thought she was mad at me. She just said we were going." I say.

To my surprise, he smiled.

"Ezra, my wife said this to me about her and I think she's dead on with it. She's got a long memory and a short fuse."

_Okay._

"I'm afraid I don't understand that." I confess.

Mr. Wren smiled again. "She's probably not mad. When she does say something, it's because she cares and it's happened a few times. It might come out wrong, but it's because she cares too much. She used to do the same thing with Sophie."

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah, she used to help with Sophie when my wife and I were working full time. She did the same thing."

Huh.

"Any news on that ceremony?" I ask.

"Yes actually. It's going to be tomorrow night. You're welcome to come with us. I don't she'd let you skip it."

"I don't want to intrude though. And isn't this a Mandalorian only thing?" I ask.

He shook his head. "You're our guest. Won't be an issue at all."

Okay then.

"Thank you. I really appreciate that sir. It means a lot." I say.

"Our pleasure. It's the least we can do."

"Do you mind if I ask a question?" I ask him.

"Of course not son. What is it?" He asked, giving me his full attention.

"Why did you react so negatively to the poster? I don't understand."

"Oh. Well…" He sighed, then ran his hand thru his hair.

"When Sabine left, we had no warning. She just left for the academy one day and never came back. Everyone here freaked out. Searched around Keldabe for her, and all around the planet. No trace. So my wife and I burned a year of our retirement savings in an effort to find her with those posters."

Oh.

_This was a bad idea._

"It was true misery Ezra. I don't know how else to describe it. Eventually my wife stopped crying at night, we settled into a new life, tried avoiding the gaping hole she left behind and those posters just became a bad memory."

"So when I knocked on the door with one—"

"It was like I was cutting deeper into that wound. It'd been over two years. There was no hope."

I nod.

_Jeez I made a terrible first impression._

"And then there she was." I smile.

He nodded happily. "Part of me still doesn't believe it. Has she ever told you what made her leave?"

I shake my head.

"Hera, our pilot knows. I asked once and she said it's not my business. So I haven't pressed. Not my business." I say.

"Alright. What about your parents son? Neither of you have mentioned them." Mr. Wren asked me.

_Oh._

What now?

If I lie, there's a good chance it gets exposed later.

And that'll look wonderful.

"Uhm... I don't know where they are. They disappeared when I was seven." I say, trying to keep my voice even.

_It didn't really shake. So that's a plus._

…

"I'm sorry to hear that son. Have you tried looking for them?"

I nod. "Every place we've looked has been a dead end. That's what we did when I joined up with everyone. But we've kind of moved on to fighting the Empire."

If I find them, then great. I'm not expecting to.

_I've been on my own for 9 years. The rest of my life isn't going to kill me._

"You don't sound very hopeful son."

I shrug. "I mean…they…one day they were going to the market. And they never came back. It's been more years since it's happened than how old I was then. I don't see the point in looking back at what won't change."

…

"That's why I appreciate your hospitality sir. I just kind of came and you've had no questions really."

To my surprise, Sabine's dad laughed.

"What do you call this then?" He asked.

I shrug.

He smiled, then his expression turned serious.

"Last thing Ezra. My wife and I…we're afraid Sabine isn't going to pass along our message to the rebel leadership. We'd like you to do that if she doesn't cooperate."

"I don't really know the leadership. I've met a couple of them once really." I tell him.

"But you can give it to the Jedi. He'll know what to do with it."

I nod.

"Son…I wasn't here last time the Mandalorian people had a voice in choosing their government. I was on Alderaan at architecture school. My wife…well did you read that book?" he asked me.

I nod. "It's fascinating."

"Then you sort of know what Death Watch is."

"She was in Death Watch?" I ask.

"She broke off and defected to the Republic after her sister was assassinated."

"The Duchess?" I ask.

He nodded. "My wife never told me much about it, but she said that a Jedi came to save her. That's how we know what Emperor Palpatine says about them is a lie. The Jedi are a force for good."

I nod and keep listening.

"Sorry, got sidetracked. My point is, there is a lot of people here that are willing to take back Mandalore and declare our independence. Most of us would like to overthrow the Emperor also, and we want to join the Rebellion. But that can't happen if Sabine or you don't deliver our message." He said, looking me dead in the eye and handing me a small disk.

"I'll deliver it. I promise." I tell him.

"Thank you. And if you and Sabine ever find yourself in a tight spot, get ahold of Lux. He'll make a cover story and you two can stay here until the heat dies down."

Oh wow.

"That means a lot sir. Thank you."

He nodded, and then started guiding me to the door.

"Do you need anything son?" He asked me.

"No. I'm fine." I shake my head.

"Alright then. See you tomorrow then."

"Night sir." I say, then slip into the stairwell.

…

Dang it.

Sabine's door is closed.

_I guess no more dancing._

I slip into my room and collapse on my bed.

_I'm exhausted._

I didn't have the guts to say what I wanted to say for half of our conversation.

I'll protect Sabine no matter what.

_I hope he knows that already though._


	15. Closet Confidante

_Where is that shirt…_

I get off the bed and pace around, looking for the shirt that Sabine's father gave me.

Apparently I can't just wear normal clothes to Sabine's ceremony. After lunch both of her parents ducked out to the market, and came back with dark pants, a white shirt, a black jacket and boots for me to wear.

Sabine and Sophie both loved it.

_I'm not such a big fan._

I appreciate the thought, but they didn't have to go out and buy me an outfit just for this one night.

_There it is._

I change shirts, pull on the boots, made of some sort of leather and start downstairs.

"Sorry I'm late." I say to Mr. Wren and Sophie, who are just sitting in the living room.

"You're not late." He replied.

"We're waiting on Mommy." Sophie smiled at me.

Sabine has already left. Apparently it's tradition for her to be away from her family or unit before she's honored.

"Most of the ceremony is in Mandalorian, so I uploaded a program that'll translate it in real time for you." Mr. Wren said, handing a datapad to Sophie, who handed it to me.

"Okay, Thanks." I say.

He nodded and returned to the model of something he was fiddling on when I came down.

I flick around on the datapad, seeing that there's more than just the program.

Sophie scooted next to me. "Wanna play a game?"

"Sure." I smile.

Wordlessly she took the datapad from me and navigated to the logo of a cup.

The game loaded to a bunch of Mandalorian letters.

"You pick one of the three cups. If you're right, a ball is underneath it. If you're wrong it's empty." She told me.

"Okay."

Sophie tapped the screen and the cups started moving randomly.

_Oh. It's supposed to confuse you._

Next to me, Sophie scooted closer.

Then the cups stopped.

Sophie looked up to me.

"My turn?" I ask.

She nodded and smiled.

_Crap._

I wasn't paying attention.

I pick the cup on the left.

When the right cup rose up and revealed an orange ball, Sophie clapped.

"Yay! You're wrong!"

I laugh and hand her the datapad.

With a huge smile on her face, she restarted the game again.

And won.

She handed it back to me, and I restart it.

_I win this time._

Sophie clapped and took it back again.

We do this a few more times before we hear "I'm ready."

I look up, and almost do a double take.

_Sabine modeled her old armor after her mom's._

The helmet is the exact same as Sabine's but white, with blue surrounding it.

Her arms are the only big change from Sabine's armor.

Sabine has elbow guards but nothing underneath. Her mom has long sleeves and no elbow guards.

The only other main difference is her jetpack.

_Which Sabine doesn't want._

"Alright. Let's go kids." Mr. Wren said, then led us out.

To a waiting speeder.

_Whoa._

The driver opened the passenger side door for Sabine's parents, and I open the rear door for Sophie.

"Thank you." She smiled, then climbed in.

I hop in behind her, and Sophie zooms back to my side, buckling in and wordlessly continuing the game.

She's winning 6-3 right now.

Thankfully I win three in a row, and she only gets one.

"Lose." Sophie said simply but firmly as we're in traffic.

We're moving along, but there are speeders everywhere.

_And it's loud._

DANG IT!

Sophie giddily clapped and took to datapad from me.

"You winning sweetheart?" Her father asked.

"Yup!" She replied happily.

Her mother looked back and seemed content at Sophie concentrating.

I glance around and it seems like we're finally slowing down.

"We're here." Sophie's dad called back to us as we descend to what looks like a small building.

I take the datapad from Sophie, then we set down and I let her out.

_Okay, maybe it's not so small._

It's set down in a depression, so it looks small.

But it's actually pretty big.

Again Sabine's parents take the lead, and Sophie latches on to me behind them.

I can't help but smile.

_That might be the best thing to come out of this trip._

Her sister.

At the front door, two men in full armor open the doors and bow in respect.

Sabine's parents also bow, and I incline my head.

I want to be respectful.

_And this is a big day for Sabine._

When we get inside, I see that it's actually an arena, with an area in the center cleared out, surrounding to the rafters by seats.

_Are we late?_

I don't see a single open seat.

A man a few rows deep stepped forward, then beckoned us to follow.

Sophie inched closer to me nervously.

Can't blame her.

There's thousands here.

_Most in full armor like Sabine's mom._

Wow.

The room is mostly lit by torches set evenly along the walls, plus two enormous fires in the center of the arena.

We walk for what feel like forever until we reach the front, about 10 feet from the stage and find the first empty seats.

Sabine's parents let us go first, and I sit first, with Sophie to my left followed by her parents.

"Should begin momentarily." The man who led us down here told Sabine's father, then look his leave.

"Datapad?" Sophie asked her mom.

She shook her head.

"It won't be long sweetheart."

Sophie looked sad, but I pull up the translation program.

It's already set.

Quickly, I set it in my lap and glance around.

I don't see an empty seat in the house. I'd say that 75% of the people here are wearing armor like Sabine's mom.

There's a tunnel off to the our left that I assume Sabine's going to come out of that leads directly onto the stage.

This must really be important.

Suddenly a man in green armor began walking out of the tunnel.

Something in Mandalorian came over the loud speaker, and everybody sprung to their feet.

I scramble to do the same, also opening the datapad.

"Mandalorians, rise for our rightful leader. _Mand'alor _Shysta."

Some sort of anthem followed as the man walked to the center of the stage, then saluted the crowd and signaled for us to sit.

Everyone sits down, and he removes his helmet, revealing a young looking man with long-ish brown hair.

When he begins speaking, I look back to the datapad.

_I can't understand what he's saying, and he's going at light speed._

"Ladies and gentlemen…honorable people of Mandalore. Welcome and thank you for attending the sacred and honorable rite today.

In times such as these, there is truly no greater burden then opposing slavers, oppressors and those who seek our destruction. Today, we honor a youth that has done just that.

The actions performed by our honored one today range from destruction of Imperial property to valiantly saving countless lives. Any agents of a foreign power must leave now or risk the penalty of death and dishonor for all the years to follow in the tales and lore for the future generations."

_Mand'alor_ Shysta paused, and I look around.

_Nobody has moved._

"Today we honor a daughter of Mandalore. One that exhibits the ideals that exemplify our great society and will be necessary in order to ensure our survival in this age of tyrants.

She is the daughter of Clan Vizla, of Carid Wren and Bo-Katan Kryze, and of rebellion.

Born at the dawn of the tough times, it will be her that will help lead our people and the galaxy out of these times."

Then he gestured to his right, and three people come out of the tunnel.

_Sabine._

She's in the middle, and her armor…

It's got more orange on it. Plus long sleeves and the jet pack like her mother mandated.

_She looks pale._

Instinctively I reach out with the Force and my suspicions are confirmed.

She's very nervous.

I quickly use one of Kanan's Force bonding techniques to strengthen her will.

Immediately she looks better and more confident.

Once she's reached _Mand'alor_, she bows reverently and kneels before him.

"Sabine Wren…daughter of Mandalore." _Mand'alor_ proclaims.

What Sabine says in reply is too soft for the datapad to pick up.

_I barely heard it, and I'm right here._

"Do you accept the rites and responsibilities of the Mandalorian people and culture?"

…

I didn't hear her again.

"Do you swear to defend these honors, principles and people with your life if necessary?"

"Yes."

_Mand'alor _turned to his right, where Sabine's helmet popped up.

With two new little triangular marks above the eyes.

"Them I bestow the marks of a warrior and honor of Mandalorians across the galaxy upon you."

He placed Sabine's helmet onto her head, and she rose to salute him.

_Mand'alor _did the same, and everyone began clapping.

I glance to the side and see that everyone's smiling.

_Her parents look ready to cry._

_Mand'alor_ motioned to cut something , then moved off stage.

And towards us.

Immeidately the volume level spiked, everyone stood and began speaking amongst each other.

"I knew you'd cry." _Mand'alor_ said with a smile to Mr. Wren.

"I wasn't expecting to be met with such eloquence Fenn." He replied, shaking his hand, then setting his hand on his shoulder.

"This is the first time I feel like I've done the ceremony justice. On what, the fourth time?" He asked.

"I thought fifth, but it doesn't matter. Everybody eases into the position." Mrs. Wren smiled at him.

_Mand'alor_ then bent down and looked to Sophie.

"Well aren't you growing fast? You're getting tall." He smiled at her.

"Thank you." She nervously said, hiding partly behind my leg.

He rose again and locked eyes with me.

"_Mand'alor_ Fenn Shysta." He said, extending his hand.

I shake his hand and nervously say "Ezra Bridger. It's an honor sir."

"Honor's all mine son."

"Am I supposed to do something? I'm not committing some awful social crime am I?" I ask the group.

To my relief Sabine's father laughed.

"No son, the only major mistake you could have made was to address me without my title before I introduce myself. But you didn't do that." _Mand'alor_ Shysta said to me, smiling and clapping me on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I've seen worse." I hear Rex say, then set his hand on my shoulder from behind.

I whip around to face him.

_When di—_

Whoa.

"That's…interesting." I hear _Mand'alor_ say quietly.

It's not Rex.

But he looks literally like him.

_And Echo._

A clone.

"Don't say a word in front of me. He'll peruse my mind again if he senses I'm hiding something." The man commanded _Mand'alor_.

"Boba Fett. Son of Mandalore." The man said to me.

I try to reply, but nothing comes out.

"Who is he?" I hear Mr. Wren ask.

"His name is Vader. He possesses the skills of a Jedi but a temperament worse than the Zabrak's at the end of the Wars." Boba Fett replied.

_He…_

Who is this guy?

"Ezra Bridger." I finally get out, extending my hand.

He shakes my hand wordlessly while nodding.

He knows Vader.

_He knows what he's capable of._

My mind flies back to when he had me literally bent at the waist and at his mercy.

When I come back to reality, he's shaking Sabine's father's hand.

"The missile system fitting you did is working like a dream. I'm going to transfer some more credits to your account." Fett told him.

"That's not necessary, but I'm glad to hear it's performing. As I said, the system is a prototype." Mr. Wren replied.

"I believe it is necessary." Fett easily replied.

"You…you're with the Empire? I nervously ask.

Fett slowly turned to me, face expressionless.

"I work for whoever pays and meets my…requirements. The Empire is usually the highest bidder."

_Mand'alor_ spoke up. "His loyalty is not to them however."

Fett nodded and kept his gaze on me.

…

"Don't underestimate this one. He is strong. His appearance belies his true power." Fett turned briefly to _Mand'alor_, then back to me.

I force myself to hold his gaze.

_He's faced Vader. _

I think he knows that I have as well.

To my surprise, he grabs my right arm.

"If we meet again in public, do not hesitate in introducing yourself." Fett told me, lifting his visor with his other hand.

_It's a plain "T" design, but the helmet itself is worn._

There's flecks of blue paint underneath.

"Yes sir." I reply.

He nodded, then turned to _Mand'alor_.

"Are you staying with the little one?" He asked Sabine's father.

"Not long. I wanted to give Sabine time to receive the honors she deserves."

Both _Mand'alor_ and Fett smiled.

"We'll let you see to that then." _Mand'alor_ said, then shaking both of her parents hands.

I bow my head to Fett, then shake _Mand'alor_'s hand again.

And then we're walking amidst the crowd.

…

…

Wow.

"Speak up if you see her." Mr. Wren told us.

Sophie nodded attentively beside me, holding my hand.

…

"Ahh! With Atin too…" I hear Sabine's mom say happily, then point to the left.

_Oh no._

Even from a distance, I know who that is.

It's her ex-boyfriend. Not wearing armor.

_Well…_

Might not need the ex.

"Atin son…" I hear Mr. Wren say, sounding happy. "You've been absent. How have you been son?"

"Sir! I'm well." The man smiled, shaking his hand.

Then he hugged Sabine's mom and sister.

"You're getting so big!" He exclaimed, then tickled Sophie, who giggled and squirmed away.

"Ezra, this is one of Sabine's good friends from the Academy, Atin." Sabine's father introduced us.

"Atin Noux." He shook my hand.

"Ezra Bridger. It's a pleasure." I say warmly.

_I must hide my annoyance._

"How's the ranks treating you son? You're the only one I like!" Mr. Wren smiled.

"It's well sir. Got promoted to Commandant a few weeks back." He said proudly.

_OF COURSE HE DID._

"Congratulations! You're moving fast then!" Sabine's mom gushed and Sabine smiled behind him.

"It appears like I am, yes." He said humbly.

This guy.

"We aren't interrupting anything are we?" Mr. Wren asked.

"No, not at all. We had just finished catching up. She mentioned that you all were going to head back at some point so I invited her to get some caf later."

"Great!" Her mother said.

NOT GREAT.

"Well, I'll let you all make your graceful exit." Atin said to us, then shook my hand and hugged Sabine's mom.

He saved the best for last though, kissing Sabine's cheek before he walked away.

Sabine kept her gaze firmly on the floor but couldn't hide her blush.

"Shall we go? Or are you waiting to get adored on more darling?" Her father asked.

"No, no. let's go home." Sabine said quickly with a smile.

Sophie let go of me and attatched herself to Sabine's arm.

Sabine quickly scooped her into a hug before we walked outside to another waiting speeder.

I hold the door for them, then hand Sophie the datapad again.

After her first game, I make a move to take it from her.

_Gotta keep the game going right._

However, Sophie had other ideas and handed it to Sabine.

"Oh, so you wanna lose huh?"

Sophie giggled and started watching her.

I…

_I can't be mad._

It's her big sister. Her idol that just got honored.

I let my anger out into the Force then focus my thoughts.

_That man…_

I think he's worked for Vader before. And probably will again.

He…I was so shocked that I didn't even think of getting a feel for him with the Force.

The best way I can describe him is a force of nature.

_Mand'alor_ respected him from the jump, and he knew Sabine's dad.

_He worked on his ship._

He really is living up to his reputation.

I glance over at Sophie and Sabine to see Sophie holding the datapad and concentrating hard.

…

"YAY!" She exclaimed.

Sabine hung her head.

"I win again!"

Her dad laughed up front. "Good job sweetheart."

"You beat them both!" Her mom added, turning and smiled at her.

In reply, Sophie smiled happily.

"We're here already?" I hear Sabine ask.

"Traffic's light because everybody's still at the ceremony." Sabine's mom said, as her father gave a credit tab to the driver.

_Who refused it._

I hop out and let the girls out, but keep my gaze up front.

They spoke for a moment, then Mr. Wren shook the driver's hand and got out as well.

Weird.

_Really weird._

Sabine's mom lets everybody inside the house.

"Sophie, go get your jammies on. Alright?" She asked Sophie.

Sophie let out an indignant noise in response.

"I got her. C'mon sweetheart." Mr. Wren said, turning to Sophie.

Once they had disappeared, Sabine's mom smiled at Sabine, who laughed and nodded.

Mrs. Wren then disappeared into their room.

Sabine turned to face me.

"Hey. Mind meeting me on the roof after I get out of this?" She asked me, gesturing to her armor and smiling at the end.

"Sure. Roof?" I ask.

"Keep going up the stairs past Daddy's workshop." She told me.

"Okay." I say.

Sabine lit up, then I lead her up the stairs.

She stopped at the second floor while I power thru to where Sabine said the door to the roof would be.

When I reach a door that's practically horizontal, I open it.

To an amazing view of Keldabe.

_Wow._

It's nothing but gleaming towers, combined with residences and the night sky.

_It's beautiful._

I walk to the side of the building and look off.

_Doesn't look like that far a fall._

I might break my legs.

Maybe.

The sound of the door opening makes me look over.

Sabine poked her head out, saw me and smiled.

"Hey."

"Hey. Congratulations." I smile at her.

Sabine walked over to me and wrapped me up in a hug.

"I don't think I've ever been so nervous in my life."

I laugh. "I felt it. I was afraid you'd be sick." I joke.

"Me too." She confessed, then walked closer to the middle of the roof.

…

"What'd you think?" She finally asked me.

"Uhm, I didn't realize so many people would be there. The magnitude of it surprised me." I tell her.

"Did anybody tell you anything about it?" She asked me.

"No."

"It's the biggest honor you can get outside of _Mand'alor_ itself really. For bravery and honor."

I smile. "Congratulations."

Sabine looked at the ground. "Thank you."

…

"I…I met somebody. Is the name Boba Fett familiar to you?" I ask her.

Sabine shook her head. "No. Is he nice?"

"I…guess so. He looked exactly like Rex and Echo."

Sabine took a step back.

"Clone?"

"I don't think so. That's the thing. And he mentioned Vader."

"WHAT?!" She yelled, then covered her mouth and looked around nervously.

"He did? How?!" She asked urgently.

"I think they've worked together. _Mand'alor_ made it seem normal."

"Did he say anything to you?"

"Yeah. That I'm stronger than my appearance."

Sabine smiled and laughed.

"He doesn't know the half of it.

I sigh and confess something that's been on my mind since we got here.

"I know. That's the problem." I say. "Your parents have no clue."

Sabine bit her lip. "I know."

"After everything they've done…I feel awful. Plus Sophie." I reply quietly.

_What's she gonna think?_

"Don't worry about her. She loves you."

"But when she realizes I'm a big scary Jedi, that'll blow her mind. She's never met one." I say.

_Plus that show, and it could be an absolute disaster._

"I won't let that happen. Plus Mom and Dad…we'll make sure she's okay with it."

I nod.

_There isn't anything I can do about it right now anyway._

We're both silent for a moment, and I turn to the sky.

"So how was your friend? Your mom seemed happy to see him."

Without trying, I feel the fight come out of Sabine.

She let out a loud sigh. "Yeah. He's okay I guess. Mom was happy to see him. I don't think he's seen them since I left."

…

"Commendant huh?"

…

"Yeah."

_Just like those morons on Lothal._

Enough power to be a pain.

An Imperial desecrating a Mandalorian ceremony.

_Even though he swore silence during that ceremony._

"You don't like him." Sabine finally stated.

"I don't feel strongly either way. But the past worries me." I say, making my point without saying it.

_I want to see if she can take a hint._

If not, then I'll move on.

"I…we were kids Ezra." She sighed.

"But it was serious."

"As much as it could have been at that age, yeah." She said, sounding angry.

He's an Imperial.

_I think that's her natural leaning._

_Order over chaos._

That's a Mandalorian thing.

"I know you don't like it Ezra."

"I'm trying to not let it bug me. I'm glad you guys are still friends." I turn around and tell her.

She smiled slightly.

"It's a coffee date. Nothing else. We're gonna leave soon anyway."

_I know._

I didn't really want to until tonight.

"I know." I tell her, and then walk to the edge of the roof.

…

Behind me, I feel her watching me.

_Sadly._

"I took this conversation down a bad path. This is a happy night. I'm sorry Sabine." I say sadly, turning to face her briefly.

"No…we need to get this out. Otherwise we're going to get in another big argument and avoid each other for days. And I don't want to do that." Sabine said firmly.

I turn around, then walk past her.

"I know you don't feel the same way." I say finally, looking at the ground.

…

"But I do care. A lot Ezra. You know that."

"I know." I reply, looking at the buildings across the street.

Sabine sighed. "It's not the right time anyway. We…we're 16 and 17 Ezra. I don't know…"

…

"I can take it if you want to say it." I say quietly, steeling myself for it.

I don't love you.

_And I do._

_No matter how hard or how much I tell myself that I don't._

"I…nothing good ever seems to come out of it Ezra. Last time I had to leave him behind here. That wasn't easy." She said, voice shaking.

I don't have any words, so I stay silent.

"I don't want to lose you Ezra. I always want to be your friend and be able to trust you more than anyone else." She told me, sounding ready to cry.

I force myself to turn around and see that she looks like she's about to cry.

Without another word she ran into my arms.

I try to give her a reassuring hug.

"I…don't give up yet. You're doing so well and…give me time. At least." She asked, looking up at me.

"I can try and do that." I say quietly.

She blinked back tears then laid her head on my chest.

_Well, this is great._

I made her cry.

"Not yet…please. Don't make me lose you." She whispered, then sniffled.

"I won't." I say in her ear.

I see her smile and smile back.

After a moment of just holding her, I close my eyes give her a little space while still hugging her.

In response she grabbed onto me tighter, moving one hand to under my ear.

Then I feel warmth on my lips and freeze.

…

…

Sabine separated from me and looked up. "You didn't do anything."

…

"Uhhh…yeah." I sputter out.

_WHAT JUST HAPPENED?_

She smiled.

"I'm not your first kiss too now am I?"

"No…but I had no idea that was coming. You just said—" I say, but she cut me off by getting right next to my face.

"I changed my mind. One night isn't bad."

…

"You ready?" She asked me.

"For what?" I ask, head still in the clouds.

"Kiss me back this time." She said, barely above a whisper.

Then she pulled me in for another kiss.

…

This time I gather my wits about me and kiss her back.

In response, she pulled me closer and smiled.

_And kept kissing me._

…

Finally she separated from me and smiled.

"That's better." She whispered.

"Uhh…yeah." I reply.

She smiled and curled into my chest.

"Boys. So tongue tied."

"Hey!" I reply quickly.

_She just said no, then was kissing me._

Can you blame me for my brain shutting down?

She giggled. "I'm teasing."

I roll my eyes and adjust my arms around her.

…

"You know, you're not bad."

I laugh quietly. "Thanks."

"Girls on Lothal don't know what they're missing." She said into my ear.

_Haha._

Like I was looking for a girlfriend.

"I don't know about that." I say diplomatically.

Wordlessly, Sabine pecked my lips.

"Well I do."

I open my mouth to reply, but nothing comes.

"Not fair that you get to pepper me with kisses." I say, bumping into a wall.

"You can kiss me too you know. Just not too deep." She whispered, then smiled.

_Okay._

I smile, then tenderly kiss her cheek.

Sabine let out a heavy sigh, and then leaned all her weight against me.

"Just tonight though. Okay?" She whispered into my ear.

"Okay." I say.

In response, she kissed the scar on my cheek.


	16. Contact

_(Flashback)_

I pull out a section and smile at Sophie.

She looked at the pyramid pieces remaining, then gingerly started pulling at a section.

We're playing a game called Pyramid Puzzle. Triangular pieces are stacked in a vertical tower.

You try to pull out every piece.

_That's probably impossible._

Eventually somebody tips the tower and the whole thing ends up leaning or something.

To our left Sabine's parents are polar opposites of their first impressions.

Sabine's dad is alternating between pacing from the living room to the kitchen and sitting anxiously.

Her mom is scrolling thru some magazines on the holo.

"She's supposed to be back an hour and a quarter ago."

Mrs. Wren smiled without looking up. "They haven't seen each other in years Carid. Give them time."

He looked back at his wife, then let out a breath.

"This is ridiculous."

A tap on my wrist makes me look back at Sophie.

_My turn._

"Oops. Sorry." I say.

We've got a slight lean to the left.

_Let's try balancing it._

I scoot over to that side, place my fingers on it and barely yank on it with the Force.

_She's not going to know._

And it makes it easier to get out.

This is our third game, and Sophie won both. So I'm trying to get in the win column here.

I gently pull out my piece, but the entire thing wobbles violently.

Sophie lit up and gasped.

"Fall!"

Wobble.

…

Wobble.

…

_Whew._

I hang my head in relief and I hear Sophie sigh in sadness.

"Get him Sof." Her dad said.

"Trying Daddy." Sophie smiled at him, then focused on our pyramid.

She's just got that luck.

For a moment she just looked at it, then easily pulled out a piece.

And giggled.

"Can you not be good at something?" I ask jokingly before we both hear the sound of the door opening.

Sophie and I both react at the same time, and she made a beeline for the door.

_Unfortunately that beeline went straight through our pyramid._

Pieces flew everywhere and she ran right thru it.

"I'm home!" Sabine called out as pieces scattered everywhere.

"Sophie!" Her mother yelped, causing Sophie to jump in fright.

"Pick it up…" Her father said tiredly, walking to the door, with his wife behind him.

"I got it." I smile at Sophie, who didn't need to be told twice and took off towards the door.

Once everyone is out of sight and I hear them talking, I start pulling pieces to me with the Force and catch them.

I glance up in between every few pieces to make sure that they don't come walking in.

"It was good. We ended up getting a second cup. That's why it took me so long." Sabine said calmly, voice coming closer.

I pull the last piece to me and make a swipe at it.

_And miss._

I close my eyes right before it came crashing right into my left eye.

"OWW!" I yelp, and grab the left half of my face.

I hear quick footsteps hurry into the room and open my right eye to see Sophie looking up at me concerned with her mom poking her head around the corner.

"Sorry…poked myself in the eye." I say quietly, bending down and picking up the final piece.

When I stand back up I open my eye and blink a few times, focusing it.

"You ok?" Sabine asked , holding a cup of caf in a plastic container and looking at me.

_She's wearing makeup._

Like…noticeably wearing makeup. Blush, eyeliner and a little lip gloss I think.

_I don't know what the heck girls wear to make themselves feel pretty._

"Yeah. How was your coffee?"

"Fine. Sorry it took so long."

I shrug and turn back to the kitchen.

I was having fun getting beat by Sophie.

_And I'm thirsty._

"So how's Atin doing sweetheart?" Mr. Wren asked.

I bite my lip as I reach for a glass and then go to the fountain.

"He's okay. Told me all about what he's been doing with the battalion down in the City of Bone."

"Which is?"

"Keep order basically. Even the leaders aren't really told what's going on. They're just given orders, give orders and are told to keep order." Sabine said nonchalantly.

I shut off the fountain and take the pulse of the area while I sip my water.

…

I focus my attention on Sabine and probe again.

_She's lying._

Or hiding something.

Strike that, she's walking around the truth.

_She's trying to shut her mind down instinctively._

Who taught her that?

A tug on my shirt causes me to look down.

Sophie's smiling at me and holding a glass up.

"Sure." I smile back and take it from her.

Her smile remained as I get her a glass of water and hand it to her.

Sophie took it, then hugged my leg and walked away.

_She's so affectionate._

Has to be the byproduct of living in such a loving household.

I focus back in on Sabine, and she's mildly squirming.

Huh.

_I'll find out later._

I drop my attention and walk back into the living room carrying my glass.

"Well sweetheart, while you're all prettied up why don't I go get the Holocam so we can take those pictures." Mrs. Wren smiled at Sabine.

"I'm not prettied up. Just put on some eyeliner…"

_Yeah, that's bullshit._

I roll my eyes, only for Sabine to look over just in time.

"What? It's the truth."

"Looks like more from my chair." I shrug.

Sabine's eyebrows dropped, and she half heartedly threw a pyramid piece at me.

I let it hit off my chest and fall harmlessly to the floor.

Sabine's mom wordlessly went upstairs to get the Holocamera.

"Does it really look like I'm trying?" Sabine asked her dad.

"Afraid so." He answered.

Sabine said something quietly in Mandalorian while looking frustrated.

"I think you look pretty" Sophie said adorably.

Sabine smiled.

"Thank you."

I quickly look myself over in case I get dragged into a picture.

I'm wearing pretty much the same outfit I wore to Sabine's coronation. Black boots, jacket, white shirt.

Sabine's mom came back downstairs moments later and handed me the Holocamera, then turned to her husband.

"Where do you want to take these?" She asked him.

"Well…why not here?" He looked around, then replied.

Sophie quickly dashed to the couch and jumped onto it.

"Sophie agrees." I joke, getting Sabine and her dad to laugh.

"Okay." Mrs. Wren said.

I stand back as they get situated.

Eventually they turn to me.

Mr. Wren with his wife next to him and his daughters in front.

"Okay. One…Two…"

Click.

A small projection of the picture pops up, and I frown.

_Looks forced._

"Not look good?" Her mom asked me.

"Not bad…just looks forced." I say. "Maybe standing up?" I suggest.

They all wordlessly obey, and move towards the back door.

It immediately just _looks_ better.

"One…Two…"

Click.

…

Better.

"One more. That looked better." I say.

Sophie immediately squirmed, but was calmed by her mother.

…

Click.

I extend the camera to Sabine, who pivoted so everyone else can look at it.

"Looks great." Mrs. Wren smiled at me. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." I say. "Happy to do it."

"I want a picture!" Sophie piped up loudly.

"Okay—" Her dad began, then I got yanked on the arm and pulled.

_Hard._

I turn and see that it's Sophie.

"Sophina. Don't do that. You ask the boy." Her mother immediately said sternly.

"Sorry." She said, then smiled at me.

The little bit of annoyance I have evaporates, and I crouch down.

Her dad bends down and sets up.

"One…Two…Three."

I smile at the camera as he takes the picture.

He glances at it, then showed us.

I quickly smile.

_It looks great._

My smile actually looks decent, and Sophie looks just like she always does when she smiles.

"Goofy one?" Sophie asked me.

"Sure." I smile at her.

Sabine laughed quietly, and I glance at her to see her with a funny expression on her face.

_Okay._

I quickly make face, lips slightly out and looked at Sophie.

She quickly laughed, and I hear a click.

"Hey! Daddy!" Sophie immediately said.

"It was too good sweetheart. Couldn't pass it up."

I glance back to Sophie, and see that she has her face puckered, and is leaning her head to the left.

I quickly copy her.

Click.

"Alright. Let's have your sister take one Sophie." Her mother said.

Sophie dashed away from me and I stand as Sabine smiled at me.

"Whenever you kids are ready." Her dad said.

Sabine quickly wrapped both her arms around my waist and smiled.

I instinctively slip my left arm around her waist and smile.

"One…Two…"

Click.

Sabine simply moved to copy my position. One arm around my waist.

Click.

"Okay." Sabine smiled.

"Can we get a copy of those?" I ask.

Sabine looked back at me.

"Hera will want them. You know it." I say.

"Oh. Totally. She'll mom out over them." She smiled.

"Absolutely." Mr. Wren said, then turned to his wife.

"Do you want to start on dinner?" He asked.

"No, I thought we'd order in."

Sophie half jumped in the air and let out a squeak.

"Yayyy!"

_(End Flashback)_

The signal beam turned from yellow to red, signaling that we're descending into the atmosphere.

_Everyone needs to be seated and strapped in._

Beside me, Sabine is still asleep with her head barely resting on my shoulder.

I'm glad she's sleeping. The last 2 days we were on Mandalore she was awake every minute I was, and that's including when I packed last night.

_I was up until 1 GST_.

Turns out, I scattered stuff all over the house over the course of a week.

I found my datapad in Sophie's room, my jacket in Sabine's dad's office and some socks in their laundry.

Last night was really nice. We ended up ordering in some sort of delicious thing with rice, meats and sautéed vegetables that came in little self-serve containers.

While we ate, Sabine and her dad turned on a swoop race called the Boonta Dere.

Sophie and her mom ignored them, choosing to look at something on the datapad.

Some Dug ended up winning, from some planet named Tatooine.

"When has anything or anyone every come from Tatooine to become anything in this galaxy?" I remember Sabine's dad saying, causing Sabine to shrug and keep eating.

After that we played a trivia game called Quizlet, then Sophie went to sleep and Sabine and I started packing.

Our ship pops out of the cloud cover and Iziz comes into view, bustling with everyday activity.

_Feels like forever since we've been here._

I gently nudge Sabine, who jumped and looked around.

"We're here. Haven't landed yet."

"Oh." Sabine said, sounding sleepy.

I smile and try not to laugh.

As we lower back to the ground Sabine stretched, looked around and checked her hair in a mirror she pulled out of her bag.

We don't make a move when we land, and everybody jumps up to leave.

I wait patiently, and Sabine still sleepily looked around.

Until Sabine just hopped up and pulled her armor case out of the bin above us gets us moving.

I pull my backpack on and grab my bag, then lead us out.

_I wonder if they'll we waiting for us._

…

…

Behind me, I feel Sabine frown.

"No greeting party I guess." She said flatly.

"Guess so." I reply.

Sabine simply started towards the spaceport proper.

This morning was drastically different.

I was woken up by Sophie, who wanted to play a game with me.

_There are worse ways to wake up than Sophie smiling at me._

She let Sabine sleep in until her mom finished with the massive breakfast she cooked.

Her dad helped here and there, but also worked on the ship in the living room.

_That was actually fascinating._

Whatever the program is that he was using, he was pulling pieces off it in a way that looked like the Force.

It wasn't obviously, but I thought it was cool.

Sophie and I played the pyramid tower game again and split 4 games. The only noteworthy thing was how happy Sophie was the whole time.

Once Sabine was awake and we'd all eaten, Sabine's dad called for a speeder to take us to the spaceport.

Sophie and Sabine played their cup game on the datapad on the way there.

Then we had to say goodbye.

_That was not fun._

Her parents told me that I'm welcome any time, Sabine or no Sabine. I thanked them for everything, then got out of the way.

Immediately everyone almost fell apart.

Sabine didn't want to go. Her parents didn't want her to go.

And of course Sophie didn't. She first came to say goodbye, but ended up holding on to my shoulder and looking like she was about to cry.

I didn't hear what either of Sabine's parents told her. Then I hugged Sophie.

"I'll see you soon Sof." I smiled at her.

Sophie sadly nodded, squeezed my arm, then turned to Sabine.

And started bawling.

_I don't think I've ever felt so sad._

Sabine told her that she wouldn't be gone long, and Sophie said that she didn't want her to go.

Sabine said that she didn't want to either, then Sophie sobbed and tackled Sabine.

Sophie tried to stop crying, but couldn't.

_Can't blame her._

Eventually they called for us, and Sabine had to let her go.

_And now we're here._

Beside me, Sabine seems to be fully awake now, guiding me thru the crowded streets.

Our gate is in sight.

I keep quiet and keep carrying my stuff.

_Sabine isn't really in the mood to talk._

We quietly trudge our way to the base until the guards stop us.

"Identification."

Sabine and I hold up our little blue books, and they open the doors for us.

I let Sabine lead the way, and see that life seems to have gone on without us.

_It looks like another normal day._

People walking in every direction. Stopping and talking in the atrium, droids buzzing about.

"Seems like there's more people." Sabine commented.

"Yeah."

More activity. Normal activites, but more of them.

Sabine led us down to where we have to split up to find our rooms, and silently splits off.

I probe around on the rest of the walk to my room.

_I can't find Kanan._

Granted it's not as easy as it was on Polis Massa, since the walls are made of solid rock, but it does say something.

_He's not close._

I toss my stuff towards my bed, stopping only to force pull my lightsaber to me.

_Finally._

I missed not having it on my belt.

Every ten feet or so I probe again to find Kanan, Hera, Ahsoka, somebody I know.

_I missed them._

When I get to the split, Sabine's already leaning against the wall with a disk in her hands.

_Oh shoot._

I forgot mine.

"You didn't have to wait." I say quietly, causing her to jump in fright.

"Ezra…" She said, then punched my arm.

"Sorry. Why so jumpy?" I tease her.

"You scared me!" She rolled her eyes, then started towards the main building.

"Didn't mean to."

Sabine shook her head.

I probe our surroundings only to find what I've felt the last few times I've done it.

_Nothing._

Sabine still has that same feeling she's had since she got back from her coffee date, but I'm not too worried about it.

If she has a problem, I think she'd say something to me.

_That was one thing that did change._

We seemed to take a step forward.

"Are you looking for them?" Sabine asked me as we reach the atrium.

I nod. "No luck yet."

"Try now. I want to see something."

I give her a sideways look, then put my feelers out.

Ehh…

"I think I've got something. Up and to the right."

_I'm not sure._

It was super faint.

Sabine nodded and started that way.

"I didn't feel anything."

"You were trying to feel that?"

"Uh huh. Nothing." She said, sounding frustrated.

"I don't think it's a physical thing." I compromise with her.

Sabine shrugged, and we kept waking until Chopper just popped out on a doorway in front of us.

I turn to Sabine, and she did the same.

Then we looked away.

"Chopper!" We both call out.

Immediately he made a loud ,noise, stopped on a dime, turned and came to us at full speed.

_You're home!_

"Hey Chop. Good to see you." I smile at him, patting his dome.

"Do you know where Kanan and everyone is?"

Chop replied by head-butting Sabine's leg.

_Of course I know. Good to see you too…_

I smile and Sabine quickly backtracked.

"Missed you too Chop. I should have said that.

_People…_

Chop turned back around and started leading us happily, toodling from time to time.

I feel around us again, and I finally get a good read on them.

_They're next to the sparring room._

I don't say anything though, out of fear of getting the business end of Chopper's temper.

_I'm not feeling an electrical shock today._

At the last second, Chopper activated his jets and shot towards the door.

"Chopper!" Sabine called out, glancing at me briefly then starting after him.

I'm close enough to hear him when the door open toodle triumphantly.

_I WINNNNN_

"Win what Chopper?" I hear Kanan's voice, and I can't stop a smile.

"Maybe us?" Sabine poked her head in.

I reach the door in time to see Hera's gasp turn to a big smile.

"You're back!"

"Ezra! Good to see you." He said as Hera hurried to us.

"Hey kid. Long time, no see." Echo waved from a workbench on the side of the room.

Hera hugged, Sabine, then hugged me.

"Where'd you get the new clothes?" She immediately asked.

"Her parents." I say.

"Long story." Sabine chimed in.

"Chopper, go get everyone else." Hera ordered him.

Chopper immediately protested.

"C'mon Chop. Please?" Kanan asked.

_Whatever…_

He turned and wheeled out quickly.

"New jacket?" Kanan smiled at me, tugging at it slightly.

"Apparently Sabine's parents bought it for him." Hera told him.

Kanan looked mildly surprised. "Really?"

"Can we wait until everyone gets here?" Sabine asked.

"Sure." Hera said.

I walk off to the side and pour some water for Sabine and I.

"Thanks." She said when I get back to her.

"How was your trip back?"

Sabine shrugged. I smiled.

"It was fine. Sabine slept."

Kanan smiled and Hera laughed.

Sabine smacked my arm.

"Ezra!"

"I've seen her sleep. I thought it was cute." Kanan teased her, causing her to send a glare his way.

"I thought so too." I joke, then dodge her next punch as the door opened behind us.

"Ezra! You're back!" Ahsoka lit up as I turn back around.

"Finally!" Lux said beside her.

"Somebody who can actually defend themselves…" Rex groaned, and Ahsoka smiled at me.

"Training going badly?" I ask.

"Worse than badly." Lux groaned.

Sabine grimaced.

"So, talk." Hera said

"How was your trip?" Rex asked.

"It was good." I say.

"How was Sophie?" Lux asked with a smile.

"Sophie?" Hera asked, as Kanan and Echo looked back to him.

"Her little sister."

"WHAT?" Kanan yelped, looking totally shocked.

"She's great." Sabine beamed, and I nod.

"How'd we not hear about a sister?" Hera asked.

"I didn't want to spoil the surprise. And I knew that was who Sabine was really worried about. Last time I saw her she never let Sophie out of her sight."

Everyone laughed, and Sabine looked embarrassed.

"We got pictures." I say, sending a shock thru Hera.

"Let's see them!" She beamed.

Sabine pulled the Holocamera out of her pocket and handed it to her.

Hera tossed it to Echo, who plugged it into the Holoterminal.

"I'm betting she looks adorable." Rex said.

"You'd be right on that one." Lux replied, causing Ahsoka to smile and look at me.

Echo scrolled thru the screens that set it up, then the first picture loaded.

_Their first group picture._

"Oh come on." Hera said, as everyone else smiled.

"She looks just like her." Echo commented.

Then he scrolled to the next picture.

_Huh?_

"Huh?" I hear Sabine ask.

"Everyday life. I like it." Ahsoka said simply.

It's Sabine and I. Talking while she does dishes.

"That was before we took pictures…" Sabine said, looking to me.

Click.

Next is the other family photo.

I glance at Sabine to see her smiling.

"Looks like a good trip." Kanan said.

Click.

I quickly freeze.

_I don't understand._

Sabine does the same as everyone else either laughs or cheers.

…

HOW?

_It's Sabine and I dancing._

When I didn't know what I was doing.

"How? The camera wasn't fixed…" Sabine turned to me.

I shrug.

"You got got." Rex smiled.

"Her dad loves doing this sort of thing. Likes to keep things light." Lux said.

"You don't look like you know what you're doing." Hera observed as the clip keeps going.

"Because I don't?"

"You don't know how to dance?" Kanan asked.

"No, because I've had so much practice." I say sarcastically, causing Rex and Echo to laugh.

"Click it." Sabine ordered, and Echo moves to the next picture.

Of Sophie and me.

It's our unplanned goofy face-off.

_Sophie's laughing._

"Aww." Hera smiled, as Lux smiled.

"She looks like she had a good time." He said.

"I thought she did."

"What's she like?" Rex asked.

"Does she have Sabine's temper yet?" Echo asked.

Sabine replied by throwing her empty water cup at him.

"No, she never really got mad." I say.

Kanan laughed and Echo clicked to the next picture.

_Ahh._

It's Sabine and I. She's got one arm around me.

"That's a winner." Lux said with a smile.

"Makeup?" Kanan asked curiously.

Sabine immediately got mad.

"How does everyone just immediately know that?" She demanded, causing Ahsoka and Lux to laugh.

Hera shrugged, and Sabine let out an angry breath as Echo clicked on to the next picture.

Of Sabine and her mom looking up at a hologram.

…

"New armor?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yeah…I told them they didn't need to buy it. They didn't listen."

Click.

Whoa.

"Where's this at?" Hera asked.

_It's Sabine's ceremony._

She's kneeling in front of _Mand'alor_.

"Uhh…" Sabine said shyly, then looked away.

"Sabine got honored for her bravery by _Mand'alor_. That's him in the green." I say.

…

"Really?" Rex asked, as Echo doesn't looked surprised at all.

"Yup." I say.

"Congratulations." Ahsoka said to her.

"What'd you get?" Echo asked.

I shrug.

"What'd you call them?" I ask Sabine

"Jaig eyes."

Echo immediately jumped out his seat.

"Captain…that's what you got."

Everyone turned to face Rex.

"I know…that's interesting. Congratulations Sabine."

Sabine looked embarrassed.

"Is that something for bravery?" Kanan asked.

"Sort of. Usually it was given after extraordinary bravery in your actions in a life threatening scenario. It wasn't given out much." Rex said simply.

_Most people don't usually make it out of that kind of tight spot._

Huh.

Click.

Sophie and me again.

"Gosh she's cute." Hera gushed.

"Cuter in person." I say, then get a nudge in the ribs from Sabine, which I ignore.

_It's the truth._

Click.

"Ahh. That's the winner." Lux said.

It's the other picture of Sabine and I.

Both Hera and Kanan look over and smile knowingly at me.

_What?_

"So…before I forget, my parents wanted me to give this to somebody in charge. I don't know who, but I'm guessing it's important." Sabine spoke up, pulling out the data disk.

_So she is going to talk._

"Any idea what's on it?" Kanan asked, as Hera took the disk.

"My parents…they want to help us out." Sabine said simply.

_I'll say._

Keep my mouth shut as Echo loads in the data disk.

…

"Whoa." Ahsoka said quickly.

_It's a letter._

"To Whom It May Concern,

On behalf of all Mandalorians, it's an honor to contact you today. Your actions, both in spirit and in action combating the Empire deserve more than thanks.

They deserve to be returned by the people of this galaxy.

Currently our planet is getting pillaged and plundered for anything valuable, both above and below ground. They seek to drive us underground and into slavery. They seek to do this to the entire galaxy.

The Rebellion was only a rumor until our daughter, Sabine Wren returned to us from the stars and said that she had found that elusive hope that we've all been looking for.

We'd like to help. Be it covert intelligence, actual combat missions, any action we can take for the greater good would be happily undertaken.

Here on Mandalore the Imperial force is 200,000 strong, with near a million others enslaved to work in the mines or factories that we're sure they would use against us.

However, _Mand'alor_ Shysta is among the many Mandalorians that have had enough of this, and want to start taking steps to eradicating them from our sector, and the galaxy.

We understand if now isn't the right time to act. One wrong move would likely set the Rebellion back decades, and even farther with morale. If the time isn't right, we will wait. But we are ready.

Sincerely,

Carid Wren

Bo-Katan Kryze

_Mand'alor_ Fenn Shysta"

With their signatures attatched.

_Whoa._

The room stayed silent until everyone finished reading.

I glance at Sabine, and she looks very worried.

_This probably isn't what she wants._

Her family in more danger.

"Is that a holocom number at the bottom?" Kanan asked finally.

"It has a scrambler attatched to it."

_Untracable._

"Get that number on." Ahsoka ordered Echo.

"On it Commander." Echo said, typing rapidly.

I glance around to see that everyone is looking at the screen.

Tap.

I turn back and see Sabine looking at me.

"Can you get me more water?" She smiled.

I shake my head.

"Promise not to throw the cup?"

"No promises." She joked.

I smile and walk off to get more water.

Unfortunately Echo is too fast for me and opens up a Holocall.

…

Then Sabine's mom popped up.

"Hello?"

"Mrs. Wren, I'm Hera Syndulla. We're the group with your daughter?" Hera smiled.

Sabine's mom lit up.

"Wonderful. Hold on while I get my husband…"

Sabine's mom disappeared off screen, but we heard her hit the console on the wall.

"Carid, get down here. It's Sabine."

I don't hear a reply from him, but as I'm handing Sabine her water a scream comes across clearly.

"SABINEEEEEEEEEEEEE!"

_Sophie._

I smile right before Sophie comes FLYING into the frame.

Everyone here laughed and Sabine smiled softly.

"Where is she Mommy?"

"I haven't seen her sweetheart. She might not be there."

"I'm here!" Sabine called out.

Both Mrs. Wren and Sophie look in the direction Sabine is.

"I can't see you." Sophie frowned.

"That's on our end. Let me see if I can widen the frame we're transmitting…" Echo said, typing rapidly again.

"I'm here. Is it her or her group?" Her father walked into the room, appearing a moment later.

"Both I believe."

"Mr. Wren. Hera Syndulla." Hera said.

"It's a pleasure. Related to the late Cham Syndulla I take it?" Sabine's father asked.

Hera nodded.

"Got it." Echo said, right before the Holoterminal screen expanded.

Sophie lit up and dashed to where I assume she can see Sabine.

"Sabine!"

"Hey." Sabine smiled at her.

"How was your trip darling?" Her father asked her.

"It was fine. No surprises." Sabine said simply.

"Allow me to introduce everyone else…" Hera spoke up, then looked to Kanan.

"Kanan Jarrus sir. Nice to meet you."

"Ahsoka. You know me." Ahsoka smiled at Sabine's parents.

"Ahh yes. Lux." Sabine's dad laughed.

"Carid." Lux replied, as Sophie waved at him.

"You know us too." I smile.

"Ezra!" Sophie cheered, causing everyone to laugh.

"Sir. My name is Rex. It's a pleasure." Rex said, bowing his head.

"Echo, get out here." Ahsoka told him, and he walked around to stand by Rex.

"Echo. Nice meeting you all."

"The pleasure's mine."

"Now that we've got the pleasentries out of the way…this letter. It's real?" Ahsoka asked skeptically.

"Yes ma'am." Mr. Wren said.

"Troop numbers and everything?" Kanan asked.

Sabine's mom quickly turned to look at Kanan.

"You're the Jedi."

"I am." Kanan replied smoothly, as Sophie moved slightly closer to her father.

"Yes, all the information in the letter is accurate." Mr. Wren said.

"And you're essentially volunteering your services." Ahsoka said.

Beside me, I feel Sabine tense up.

"We are." Sabine's mom replied.

Rex and Echo nodded.

"Alright." Lux said.

"You knew this was coming." Hera said to him.

"I'm not surprised, if that's what you're asking." He replied.

"As we told Ezra, we're not the strongest Imperial supporters in the sector. We'd rather get them out of here." Mrs. Wren said.

Sophie nodded.

"Alright. Well…I'll get in contact with some people and start that process going." Ahsoka said.

"Thank you. We understand it's not wise to keep this channel open very long." Sabine's father said.

"Yes. But thank you for passing along your message. You'll hear from someone in the next few days." Ahsoka said authoritatively.

Both of Sabine's parents bowed their head, and Sophie frowned.

"Byeee!" She waved to Sabine and I.

"Bye!" I smile at her.

"Bye Sof." Sabine also smiled.

Then Echo cut the transmission.

…

"Well…I guess I need to contact Senator Organa." Ahsoka said.

Lux nodded, and they both walked out of the room.

Kanan and Hera exchanged glances.

Then I feel something heavy on my shoulder.

I turn and see it's Sabine's head.

I don't have to use the Force to know what she's thinking.

_This isn't what she wants._

She delivered the message like she was told, but…

It's not her idea of helping probably.


	17. Blood Trail

(A/N: Thank you to everyone for all the reviews and kind words. I appreciate them. I posted a picture of Atin - Sabine's Mandalore guy - and Sophie on Tumblr. The inforation to find it is on my profile page. Enjoy the chapter.)

Okay Ezra.

_Just lift the stupid bar._

You've done it 28 times.

You can do it two more times.

I exhale, then lift the barbell, with 75 pounds attached to it.

_One._

_Two._

I exhale and slowly bring it back to resting on my chest.

…

I knew this set of 10 would be the worst.

…

Exhale.

Lift.

_One._

…

_Two._

Exhale again.

_Whew._

I've already ran, so my legs are glad that I'm not doing more weight with them.

That was yesterday.

Unfortunately, Rex and Echo changed my weight schedule while I was "on vacation".

They've been teasing me about it. Saying a week off turned me soft.

_Okay._

Last one.

Exhale.

I lift the bar, which feels like solid durasteel at this point, and hold it.

_One._

…

…

…

_Two_

…

…

…

Exhale.

I slowly set the bar behind me, and slide out from under it, then practically collapse.

It's not just me. Both Sabine and I are…

Well I don't know a word for it other than domesticated.

The night we got back, everybody ate together.

Sabine and I got our food pretty fast, and waited for the others.

Who didn't wait for us. Then laughed.

Next morning Sabine and I woke up at pretty much the same time and ate together. Didn't talk much, just ate quietly.

Rex and Echo walked in at the very end and made an old married couple joke.

_I guess that trip had more of an effect than I thought._

A lot more than I thought it would be, for sure.

I didn't think I'd see much of Sabine's family.

And I've got a standing invitation to stop by, day or night.

Blindly, I stick my hand up and call my water bottle to my hand.

_It takes too much effort to sit up right now._

The water bottle is right where I expect it to be and it zooms into my open hand.

I sigh, then drink the rest of the water and toss it aside.

_Man…_

Okay.

_Time to take a page from the Book of Kanan._

I sit up and pause for five seconds.

Then I stand and find my water bottle that I just tossed aside. And pause for 5 seconds.

Then I go get it.

_Need more water._

I stop where I am and find the fountain near the door.

After pausing for 5 seconds, I go and refill my water.

Okay.

I turn to find my spot on the opposite side of the gym where I start my weighted Force training.

And count to 5, then walk over there and set my water down off to the side.

Weights.

5 seconds later, I walk to the dumbbell rack and grab my trusty 45 pound weights, and walk back to my spot.

I take one last deep breath, then set both weights about three feet in front of me, then return to my spot.

Alright.

_Break's over._

I focus, and lift the weight on the left to chest height.

Step and push.

The weight rockets into the gigantic absorb bags that we've put against the wall.

_I accidentally broke thru the wall the first time I did it._

And there are people back there.

I lift the right weight, then repeat the process.

Following my normal routine, I sprint over, do my 10 pushups but cut it off there.

On days that I focus on leg strength, I do half the reps, walk over, do 10 pushups, 10 situps and 10 curls.

Days like today I only do the pushups, so that my arms don't disintegrate halfway thru.

Finally, I pick up both weights and levitate them with me as I jog back to my original position.

Thankfully, it doesn't take me long to fall into the routine of the exercise.

Lift. Push. Repeat.

Run. Pushups.

Levitate. Jog.

When I complete the 10th set, I don't put the weights down at my spot, and instead carry them back to their holder.

And force myself to keep walking.

_If I stop, I'm not going to want to get up._

What I really want is food.

On my way out, I hit the lights and pull my water bottle to me, then start to the mess hall.

_It's never busy right about now._

Just after lunch but before people start thinking about dinner.

I'm so worn out that I don't really think about anything on the walk there.

I just walk.

When I arrive, I force myself to smile and perk up.

The people that work here are super nice, just like on Polis Massa.

They've seemed to memorize my routine, and my ridiculous appetite.

I've woken up at like 3 GST, came here, ate a full breakfast, went back to sleep, got up at 7 like a good little recruit and eaten another full breakfast.

Add in lunch, dinner and times like this that I just NEED FOOD, and I might see them more than they see their families.

"Hi." I smile, as one of the head cooks hands me a plate full of fruits and a couple of nutria-bars, along with the condiment that I've taken a liking to.

They said it's called 'ranch dressing', but it doesn't taste like a ranch.

_I think it's based off blue milk._

I can barely taste it.

Whatever it is made of, it might be the best thing in the galaxy. It's delicious.

_Oh hey, it's Hera._

She's just sitting in the back with a cup of caf.

All by herself.

_That's weird._

I weave my way back to her table, then sit across from her.

"Hi." I say as I sit down.

"Ezra! Hey. You look like a bantha just hit you."

I've already taken a bite, so I nod, then clear my throat.

"These exercises…they're exhausting." I tell her.

"Bad huh?" She smirked.

"Worse. If you ever see me…" I take a breath. "Collapsed against a wall for no real reason, don't worry. I'm just completely exhausted."

"And these are the clones exercises right?"

I nod, mouth full.

"I'm seeing Kanan and Ahsoka next."

_This is my "break"._

Break. Hah!

…

"Why are you here?" I ask, before taking another bite.

"Oh, no reason. Just needed a cup of caf. Mind if I come with you to see Kanan?" She asked casually.

_She's coming anyway._

She's just being nice and pretending to ask.

"Sure." I say.

Then she takes one of my tomatoes and dunks it in MY ranch sauce.

"Hey! I'm saving those for last!"

"It's just one…" She said, smiling.

I roll my eyes and go back to my grapes and banana, which I haven't cut up yet.

_Might not do that today._

I may just eat the thing.

"What are you doing today?" Hera asked after a few more moments of silence.

I shrug.

"Don't know?" She said, as I keep eating.

"We don't spar every day. Yesterday we did at half speed along with Force training. So we might do it again today. I don't know." I say.

Hera wordlessly took a grape and dipped that in my ranch.

I keep eating.

When I take my next to last bite, I notice that she's almost out of caf.

"Do you want more?" I ask, then pop the rest of my banana into my mouth.

"Ehhh…sure why not?" She shrugged.

I gather up my stuff, then grab her cup.

_I'll get her a to go cup._

I shoot a smile at the cooks as I set the dishes on the conveyor belt.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome! See you in a few hours."

"Set your clock to it!" I joke, filling a cup for Hera, then walking back out the door.

When I get out, I see that Hera's waiting for me by the door.

"Thank you. Maybe we should have sent you to Mandalore sooner." She teased me.

I laugh and smile.

_You didn't want me to go._

I wasn't ready.

Remember?

"Maybe. I enjoyed it though." I say evenly.

"Tell me, what's she like around her family?" Hera asked.

…

"It's nice. She adores Sophie. She gets along with her dad easily. It's just her mom she pushed back a couple of times."

"On what?"

"Armor. They wanted to buy Sabine new armor, since hers was wrecked, and Sabine didn't want that. Plus they wanted her to get a jet pack, and Sabine didn't want it."

"A jet pack could be useful in a tight spot. Any idea why she didn't want it?"

I shrug.

"What do her parents do?"

"Her dad's a ship engineer at some company. He's good. Her mom teaches self-defense a few times a week."

"Okay. Her dad helps design ships?" Hera asked curiously.

"Yeah."

"No wonder Sabine knew a little about ship aerodynamics…"

"She gave him the specs and design for that ship you guys were working on."

Hera quickly turned to me.

"She did?"

I nod.

"That's awesome Ezra. We were kind of stuck. Did he say anything about it?"

I nod.

"He said that he'd never seen anything like it."

Hera smiled.

"I think that means something since he's worked on a ton of important ships."

"Like?" Hera asked.

"_Mand'alor_, some Boba Fett guy and a few others. Everybody respected him for it." I tell her.

"_Mand'alor_…isn't that like some leader?"

I nod. "He's the leader of all Mandalorians."

"Huh. Then it's probably a big deal that he worked on his ship."

"I think so. As I said, everybody was very friendly and respectful."

Hera smiled widely.

"Hopefully we get to bring them more into the fold. I'd love to meet them. It sounds like a great trip."

I smile. "It was, and that's not even mentioning the markets and stuff. I had a great time."

The door to the combat room opened and Hera joked "We'll have to pin you down and coax the details out of you."

"Of the trip?" Kanan asked.

I glance at him and see Rex, Echo and Ahsoka behind him.

"No training?" I ask.

"No, we pawned them off on Pretty Bonteri." Rex said, causing Ahsoka to look sternly over at him.

"Rexy."

"Truth General. Can't make me take that one back."

Echo laughed and Ahsoka looked annoyed, but didn't reply.

"Yeah. Apparently Sabine's dad is a big ship designer on Mandalore and he's looking at our ship." Hera said, turning to Ahsoka, who lit up.

"Really?" She turned to me.

I nod. "He's good."

"Apparently he's helped _Mand'alor_, and some others."

"_Mand'alor_, Boba Fett, yeah—" I say, getting cut off by Rex and Echo both jolting to their feet.

"Did you just say—" Rex began, but was cut off by Echo placing his hand on my shoulder.

"Say that name again son."

"Boba Fett?" I say nervously, as Kanan and Hera look confused.

Ahsoka…

"What?" I ask.

In response, Ahsoka pinched the bridge of her nose.

"No matter what we do…it ties back to the War."

Rex and Echo are looking at me, jaws set.

"What?"

"We're missing something important." Kanan said.

"He looked just like you guys. That's the weird thing. Sounds like you too. I thought it was you for a second." I say.

Rex sighed, then looked to Echo, who nodded.

"General, lock that door."

Ahsoka waved her hand at the door, and I hear the click.

Kanan pulls his lightsaber to him and activated it.

"Talk. I don't like the sound of this." He said, sounding angry.

"It's…it's not bad. But it's sensitive information." Ahsoka said.

Apparently that was enough for Kanan, who deactivated it and clipped it to his belt.

"Okay…" I say nervously.

"What's the problem with Boba Fett?" Hera asked. "I've never heard of him."

"He's a bounty hunter. Sometimes works for the Empire. Nobody knows what side he's on. But there isn't one better." Ahsoka said simply, leaving no room for discussion."

"His father was the template for the clone army." Echo spoke up.

I whip back to face him.

"What?" I ask, unknowingly at the same time as Kanan.

"I knew that it was a 'one man army', but not literally!" He added.

"When the Kaminoans were contracted to create the clone army, they needed a template to start with. The person that wanted the army pointed them to a Mandalorian named Jango Fett. He gave them his DNA, and started training the first recruits. That's why many clones align themselves with the Mandalorians." Echo said.

"How do you know this?" Kanan asked.

"When I was plugged in on Skako Minor, I went thru as much info as I could before they fried me for the algorithm."

"The separatists had that?" Ahsoka asked, sounding incredulous.

Echo nodded.

"That makes no sense. That was OUR army." Kanan said strongly.

Ahsoka bit her lip.

"The end of the war was weird. The lines got so blurred." She said quietly.

"A lot of it ties into today." Rex said firmly to Ahsoka, who nodded.

"The man you met, is his son. Boba Fett is Jango's son."

"That's why he looked like you." Hera put the pieces together.

Rex nodded.

"Did you speak to him?"

"Yeah. He uhm…said I was stronger than I looked." I tell them.

_No need to create panic and say that he mentioned Vader._

Kanan, Echo, Rex and Ahsoka all smiled.

"Ezra…you've been paid a compliment by one of the most powerful men in the galaxy. Congratulations." Ahsoka said graciously.

"He knows Sabine's father. Interesting." Rex said.

"Yeah. Apparently her dad worked on a missile system for him. Works so well that Fett was going to pay extra after the fact. Sabine's dad said he didn't have to do that, but Fett overruled him."

Everyone looks impressed.

"Incredible." Echo shook his head.

"He's got friends in high places. And with _Mand'alor_ personally."

"Did he know him personally?" Ahsoka asked me.

"Seemed to. They shook hands and it seemed pretty informal to me." I shrug.

"Maybe they fought together." Kanan hypothesized.

I quickly shake my head.

"No. Ahsoka's dad didn't fight. When they were fighting last on Mandalore he told me he was studying on Alderaan."

Rex nodded, and Echo looked thoughtful.

"When'd he tell you that?" Hera asked.

I open my mouth, then shut it.

_Sabine._

"Ah! We've found something!" Ahsoka lit up.

"Tell us!" Hera smiled and prodded me.

"Fine. He pulled me aside to talk to me and ask, among other things…if I was dating Sabine."

Shock.

Rex and Echo have it written all over their face.

Hera looked thrilled.

Ahsoka…her face hasn't changed.

"He thought that?" Kanan asked, smirking.

"Yeah. She was really nice when we were there."

"Oh I'm sure. Putting a show on for her parents and all that." Hera rolled her eyes.

"It was small things. Like she remembered to give me milk with my caf. Stuff like that."

"You should take her to get some caf." Kanan said simply.

"Yeah. Go into Iziz and grab a cup." Rex clapped my shoulder.

"Or even go crazy and get lunch." Hera joked.

"Whoa now. We don't need such radical ideas. This isn't the place for a rebellion." Ahsoka joked.

I laugh nervously. Most everyone else smiles at least.

…

"Should we look into this Fett lead?" Echo turned to Ahsoka.

She thought for a moment, then shook her head and turned to Kanan.

"No, but I may need to borrow Ezra and Sabine for a day."

"Why" Hera asked.

"They need to know what started all of this." She replied, then paused and spoke again.

"They need to know what they're fighting for."


	18. The Other Side of Down

I shake my head and try to shake off my uneasiness.

Then Kanan walked in.

"Hey." He said, then hopped onto the weapons containers.

"General." Rex said respectfully, then bowed his head.

"Come to watch our training?" Echo asked.

"Yup. You always do it. Figured I'd return the favor." He said, with a hint of a smile.

In front of him, Sabine smirked.

Then Kanan seemed to notice the elephant in the room.

"Wait…you're not going to have them fight each other. Are you?" Kanan asked Rex and Echo.

"They're too good for anyone else." Echo replied simply.

"Even Ezra?" He replied skeptically.

I jokingly look hurt in Kanan's direction.

"Hey now, I just know that Sabine and you got separated because she's better than you."

"But Ezra is stronger now. This is kind of a measuring stick." Echo replied.

"And, like we said earlier, they're both much better than anyone else. So it's either have them hit us, or have them hit each other. We're choosing to not get hit."

Sabine smiled at me, and I nervously smile back.

_This isn't going to be fun._

I'm going to end up on my butt before long.

"Okay…whatever you guys say." Kanan shrugged.

"We'll stop Sabine before she puts the kid in the medical wing."

"I would hope so." I say, unable to keep my nervousness out of my voice.

"Alright. Enough talking. You ready?" Rex stepped forward.

Sabine wordlessly nodded, staring right at me.

I nod, and tug on my protective wraps on my hands.

He took three steps back, then raised and lowered his hand.

"Go."

I get into my stance, left foot first facing Sabine.

She did the same, then quickly sized me up and ran at me.

Right before she was an arm's length away, she stopped and quickly jabbed at me.

I block it, and don't give any ground.

_Whenever I did that against other people, Rex got mad._

I mean MAD.

Sabine changed tactics and let loose a quick kick, aimed for my knee.

Calmly, I take a step back, then jab at her right side, which she just exposed.

But I find air, and Sabine's moving to get behind me.

I whip around to see Sabine's foot coming right at my face.

Instinctively, I block it with my forearm and lift my arm higher.

_Now I have the leverage._

Huh?

I blink, and Sabine's on my ba—

My world quickly gets turned upside down, and I barely have time to give myself a Force Cushion before my head crashes into the ground.

The rest of my body tumbles to the left, and I'm left wondering what just happened.

"Are you gonna fight, or just back up like a little girl?" Sabine asked me.

In response, I glare at Rex.

_We all know this is a stupid idea._

I'm only here because nobody else can fight Sabine. And they're pleased with my progress.

I can see why they'd put me and Sabine together if I was mouthing off or something. But I haven't done ANYTHING wrong except for get better like I'm supposed to.

_And now Sabine's dropping me on my head._

"Sabine." Echo called out.

"It's the truth!" She said.

"Levels. Be conscious of that. See how he's frustrated?" Rex asked me.

Sabine quickly turned to look at me, as I'm still blinking away the little lights in my vision.

"Yeah?"

"He's mad at us for putting him here. Don't give him a reason to get madder."

"That'd be hard." I spit out, rising to my feet.

Sabine simply charged at me, and I don't hear what Echo said as I block a barrage of kicks and punches.

Finally I sneak in a blow to the shoulder, and even that's a glancing blow.

Sabine smiled. "See, you're getting better."

_I'd like to Force Push Rex into the wall his standing in front of right now._

I don't reply and press the non-existent attack that I have, and Sabine swatted it aside easily.

Allowing her to transition easily right into her counter attacks.

_Which are faster._

Although Rex and Echo said that I can't use the Force, I'm forced to dip into my Force Speed to dodge her attacks.

I come out of it just in time to get smacked in the jaw, causing my world to split into two pieces.

I woozily take a step back and crouch down, trying to find myself.

"Whoa there Sabine…" I hear, as my world is a Empire Day carnival ride.

Spinning and shifting and spinning some more.

_That's coming up soon._

My 17th birthday.

After what feels like an eternity, but probably isn't that long, I get back to my feet.

Sabine's in a defensive stance.

_Must have had her fill of hitting me I guess._

I gather my wits about me, then try to penetrate Sabine's defenses, but to no avail.

I did brush up against her hair with a kick, but missed.

My last gasp attempt to do something, is something out of her book.

Something that Rex and Echo haven't taught me, but Sabine showed me minutes ago.

I kick out at her knee, hoping to force her to retreat.

_Huh._

Sabine…caught it.

And is smiling at me.

Then I'm flying in the air, and slam into the wall.

…

…

Ow.

I close my eyes and bow my head, ignoring everyone's voices.

After a moment I notice the pain in my mouth, and taste salt.

_Great._

I'm bleeding.

I move to see if it's my mouth, but immediately my tongue twinges.

Then somebody crouched next to me and gently grabbed my shoulder.

"You okay?" Sabine quietly asked me, looking guilty.

I nod. "Bit my tongue."

_Get up Ezra._

I force myself to get to my feet, then help Sabine stand and turn to face the others.

"—possibly bringing somebody in, because I don't see the point in Ezra getting thrown around that badly." Kanan said, as I walked up.

Echo and Rex nodded.

"But you know what the intention was. Not to get Ezra tossed around."

"Yeah. I'm not mad about that. Forcing him to keep up and improving is what we're doing. But that wasn't this." Kanan countered.

I turn to look at Echo and Rex.

I barely hear Sabine make a noise, then I force myself to nod.

"I'm going to go eat." I say.

_I'd just like to leave._

"Okay." Kanan said.

Without waiting, I turn and walk out.

It hurts to walk.

_I knew that'd be bad._

Sabine probably feels bad. I hope she doesn't.

I flex my hands as I'm starting to get my wits about me.

_I've still got the protective hand wraps on._

I start pulling them off as I walk into the kitchen.

_Thankfully it's dinner time._

I'm done for the day.

I sit at my normal spot at our favorite table and keep peeling layer after layer of handwrap off.

When I'm moving over to my left hand, somebody sits next to me.

_Sabine._

I can tell by her pants.

"Hey." I say without looking up.

"Hey. You know they have stuff that gets those off easy."

I glance up at her.

"They do?"

She smiled and started helping me pull the pieces off.

"Yeah. It's a solution. You dunk your hands in it, and the wrap dissolves it."

"It doesn't hurt your hands?"

She shook her head, then pulled my hand to her and set it in her lap.

I sit there as she quickly and nimbly worked to get the rest of the wrap off.

Then she started massaging my hand and looked up at me.

"Food?"

I smile and nod.

Wordlessly she pulls me up then slips her hand in with mine.

Okay.

_I'm not going to protest._

Sabine orders a breaded bantha steak with gravy like we had at her house, with potatoes and some vegetable.

I order Kanan's monster omelet thing, minus the salsa and jalapeños, plus a salad and of course my ranch.

When we're walking back, Sabine gives me a weird look.

"A salad?"

"It's good." I reply.

"It's that dressing."

"You should try it. It's amazing!"

She rolled her eyes while swinging our hands back and forth on the way back to our table.

"So…"

I quickly laugh, then stop myself.

"So."

She has her head turned to mine and cocked to the side.

"Sorry…about that."

I sit down and try to play it off.

"It's okay. I'm gonna live."

"I didn't really want to, but they would be really mad if I didn't give it my all."

"I know. I'm not mad."

Sabine's just looking at me. Sadly.

_Cutely._

"You should be."

"I'm mad at Echo and Rex. They know you'd kick my butt." I say.

"Yeah. They don't really have a choice though."

I shrug.

"I tried ending the fight fast so I didn't really hurt you. That's why I threw you."

I smile.

"That did hurt."

Immediately she frowned.

"Is that offer for you to help me still on the table?" I ask sheepishly.

_I know Rex and Echo tried, but I didn't learn much other than pain._

Sabine lit up, then happily nodded.

"I'd love to Ezra."

I smile at her, then see that our food is ready.

I stand up and stop her from standing, then walk and grab our food.

I can get this.

I put her food in front of her, then grab her glass of juice that she filled earlier, along with mine and refill both of them.

When I walk back Sabine's just smiling.

"Thanks."

Wordlessly we both start eating, and enjoy the silence.

"Did you hear about this trip?" Sabine finally asked, mouth half full.

I nod.

_My mouth is full._

"How?"

"Idea came to Ahsoka during my training a couple of nights ago."

Sabine quirked her eye at me while taking a bite.

"I told them about Boba Fett."

Sabine quickly nodded.

"He looked just like them."

"Apparently his dad was the model for the clones. They got information late in the war apparently, from the other side."

"That's weird."

I nod.

"Then we got off on the late part of the Clone Wars, and Ahsoka wanted to show us what we're fighting for."

"Huh? I know who I'm fighting for." She said firmly.

"I think she means in general."

"Oh. Then why this planet? It's apparently been pacifist for years and years." Sabine said dismissively.

I shrug.

"Only time I've heard of it was when Senator Organa was pumping up his daughter."

"_She is arguably the best diplomat and orator in Alderaan's history at her age, and certainly the galaxy's best since the late Padmé Amidala of Naboo."_

Sabine rolled her eyes.

"She's a bit too stiff for me."

I smile.

_Makes sense, given where she comes from._

"You don't like 'The Princess'?" I joke, gesturing grandly.

Sabine copied my gesture.

"Nope. I don't."

I laugh and take a bite of my salad.

Sabine smiled at me, then shook her head.

"Must be a Jedi thing and salads."

"Hey. I did it for the dressing." I defend myself.

"It can't be _that_ good." She said skeptically.

"Have some." I tell her. "Try it."

In response, she took my fork, stabbed some salad and drizzled a fair amount of ranch on, then took a bite.

…

"Oh wow."

I smile.

She swallowed, then stole a bite.

…

"Blue milk base? Gosh I need to learn how to cook…" She shook her head, then took another bite.

"Do you want your own salad? Or just to steal the rest of mine?" I tease her.

She pretended to look hurt.

Then took another bite.

"I'm done…" She said, with smirk, mouth full.

I go to take a bite, but I don't have my fork.

Sabine and I realize the same thing at the same time.

_My fork is in her mouth._

She quickly popped it out.

"I don't have cooties." She joked, handing my fork back.

I open my mouth to retort, but stop myself.

"Say it."

_Fine…_

I don't know how she's gonna take this.

"I know you don't have cooties. If you did, I'd already have them."

Shock quickly bloomed onto her face.

"Ezra…" She smiled.

I try not to laugh.

"That's it. No more out of you. No kisses either."

I shrug and take the last bite of my omelet.

_Wasn't expecting any._

I quickly gather my dishes up, along with hers.

"Such a gentleman!" She smiled.

"Thank you." I curtsy, before walking off.

To her derisive laughter that made several people look over.

_Oh well._

She laughed.

When I get back from the kitchen, she's by the door.

"What do you have going on tonight?" I ask.

I'd be down to watch something on the holo.

"Actually…can we go to your room? I need to talk to you." She said, suddenly turning serious.

"Sure."

At least I've kept my room clean since we got back.

On the rest of the walk back we both keep quiet, and I try to ignore the nervousness Sabine's emitting like a light right now.

_And…_

I don't know what else. I don't know what that emotion is.

I unlock my room, follow her in, then want to stop time.

_I forgot the pictures._

I got a print of the pictures of Sophie and I, plus the picture of me and Sabine with both her arms wrapped around me.

Instantly she smiled when she got within sight of them.

"Ezra…I'm touched." She smiled, looking back at me.

I smile back and shrug, not knowing what to say.

"That'll be tough to explain to all those girls you bring back here." She joked.

"They'll just have to deal with it." I reply.

_It's not coming down._

I walk over to my bed and sit down.

"What's up Sabine?" I ask her.

The smile on her face slid off.

"Well…" She started, then stopped and leaned against the corner of the wall next to the closet and entry to my room.

She swallowed, then took a breath.

"You know that coffee date I had with Atin?" She asked me, looking like she's forcing herself to keep eye contact with me.

"Yeah?" I ask.

_Whatever it is, I'll let her tell me._

And not guess.

"Well…I didn't tell you the truth back home. It…wasn't just coffee."

Oh.

I bite my lip and nod.

Tears spring into her eyes.

"I…dammit…" She said, then grabbed her hair with her hand.

…

I open my mouth to reassure her, but then she gathered her strength again.

"I kissed him."

…

…

…

I force myself to look over at her, and not the foot of my dresser.

She still looks ready to cry.

"Okay…" I say calmly.

_We aren't dating._

No need to freak.

They had a relationship.

_I saw him kiss her cheek._

No big deal here.

"Cheek? Lips?" I ask for clarification.

…

"Lips." She said, voice shaking.

Okay.

"Okay. It's okay Sabine." I say, keeping my voice steady.

_Don't cry on me._

Then I will want to out kiss this boy.

And we already said there'd be no kisses tonight.

"I'm sorry. I—" She began, but I cut her off.

"Hold on. Let's follow this path." I say.

She nodded and swallowed.

"So you kissed him. I assume that you didn't just do this in the middle of Keldabe?"

_The way she said it made it sound more…intimate._

Her eyes widened, and she nodded.

_She's guilty._

That's what she was feeling earlier.

About this.

"Okay. Where'd you go?" I ask curiously.

…

"His apartment…"

Whoa.

"His apartment?" I ask, almost incredulous.

This is a little more then.

_They were really alone._

REALLY alone.

Sabine nodded, and a tear trickled out.

She feverishly wiped it away.

"Just one kiss in his apartment? Or more?"

_One kiss wouldn't make sense._

They went all the way back to his APARTMENT.

"…more." She whispered.

I hop to my feet and try not to pace.

"This is more than 'I kissed him' Sabine." I say, trying to keep calm.

_Getting harder._

"I know." She said quietly.

"So you made out with him." I make the logical jump.

…

Sabine nodded.

_And I feel like the supply vehicle that drops food off here just hit me._

"This is more then." I say.

"…Yeah."

"Why didn't you just say that at the start?" I turn back to her and ask.

"It sounds awful Ezra!" She replied, sounding a little hysterical.

"So? It's the truth!" I hotly reply. "Isn't that why you started all this? To tell me the truth about you and Atin's 'coffee date'?" I ask, holding my hands out.

She nodded, and a couple more tears popped out of her eyes, following the light but noticeable tracks on her face.

I corral my anger and turn back to my room.

"So you made out with him…for the hour extra you were gone?"

She…paused, the nodded.

"Why the pause?" I ask.

"Nothing!" She quickly replied.

"Sabine!" I reply right back.

"Stop using your Jedi powers—"

I immediately lose it.

"I AM NOT USING MY JEDI POWERS!" I cut her off.

Sabine jumped and flinched at my voice rising so quickly.

"Okay. I'm—" She began quickly.

"I'm using my brain Sabine. Something you apparently don't have. I'm using my brain to fill in the gaps here. Because what you said didn't exactly make sense! Is that okay with you?" I sarcastically ask her.

She silently nodded.

"Okay then! Great." I reply, again sarcastically.

"It got way out of too control Ezra. He wanted to show me his uniform and—"

"His _uniform_?" I say incredulously, cutting her off. "Oh come on."

_That's how Imperial soldiers on Lothal used to woo prostitutes_.

Come on Sabine.

I'm not THAT stupid.

"It's the truth!" Sabine said, voice rising slightly.

"I'm sure it is." I say bitterly.

Sabine quickly rushed past me, and I flinch.

Only for her to wind up on my bed, head in her hands.

"I'm sorry Ezra. So sorry. The guilt's been eating me alive since I got back. I couldn't keep it from you any longer!" She cried, then sniffled.

_Calm Ezra._

Breathe.

I force myself to let out a breath.

I don't want to ask any more questions.

_Even though I know the answers._

My mind's eye quickly paints a picture of Sabine, from the shoulder up, shirtless and letting out a cry.

I shake my head and walk to my dresser.

"I knew you wouldn't like it. I never should have kissed you. I knew you'd get mad."

…

_Wait._

Hold a second.

"How is the solution to you making out with Atin, _in his private apartment,_ wishing that you'd never kissed me?" I ask, turning to face her.

Throwing all the implication that I can into it.

_Because I know._

Dammit.

I'm using my brain.

"I…I guess it's not." She said, very quietly.

I barely heard it and I'm five feet away.

What I do hear shortly after, is a sob.

_I need to leave._

"I'm going to go meditate." I call to her.

I gotta calm down.

…

"Okay." She said, choked up.

I walk to the door, then pause with my hand on the doorknob.

"Sabine."

"Yeah?"

…

"You could have just said it." I spit out, then walk thru the door.

_I don't love you Ezra._

That simple.

And that way I don't tease myself for the next week about a fantasy world that I get to be and a Jedi, and I get to be with her.

I don't notice anyone on my way down to the room I've been using to meditate, but impulsively change course.

_To the weight room._

I wordlessly call my lightsaber to me, and the warm hum of its blade brings me closer to my senses.

_I don't even remember pulling out the combat dummy, but here it is._

And I'm practicing various moves.

I've been studying the six lightsaber combat styles again. Something Sabine's dad got me thinking.

"Mastery of one thing is expected. To know multiple makes you a true power."

He was talking about his work over dinner, but I think that the concept can be applied to lightsaber dueling.

One of the things I want to try next time I'm with Kanan and Ahsoka is to vary my attack angle.

Not just left/right/up.

And to just be faster.

Thinking faster and acting faster.

After I don't know how long, I shift over to just working out my legs.

_Even though I already did arms today._

Kanan mentioned before we left that I should do resistance bands, tying them to my legs and forcing me to fight them while Force pushing or pulling.

It takes me a few minutes to tie myself to the durasteel poles that make up the pull up bars, but finally I'm ready.

_Focus on technique Ezra._

I let out a breath, then extend my arm and call on the Force to push the weigh in front of me.

Immediately blue lightning flies out of my hand and engulfs both weights, catching the rubber handgrips on fire.

_WHAT?!_

I quickly retract my hands and stop calling on the Force.

The lightning stopped.

…

…

…

I think I'm done.

_That's got to be a dark side power._

But…I didn't call on how mad I am?

I need to ask Kanan tomorrow.

He'll be mad, but he'll just have to deal with it. Because this is an accident.

I pat down the fire still flickering on my weights, and notice that there's almost no effect on them.

_Still the same shape and everything._

You wouldn't know I just shot lightning at them moments ago.

Hands shaking, I set everything back up and move the combat dummy back into it's corner, then walk back to my room.

Sabine surely went back to her room to be alone.

_Maybe to holocall him._

He knows.

He knows she's a rebel.

And he's an officer in the Imperial Army.

_Commendant._

Calm down Ezra.

I let out a breath, then almost jump in disbelief.

…

_She's still in there._

Why?

I peek around my hall, and nobody's around.

Nervously, I open my door and slip inside.

To the sound of snoring.

_Oh._

I can't help but smile, even though it's pitch black in here.

She's asleep.

…

_I wonder why she didn't go back to her room._

…

I don't need to wake her up.

She said that the guilt's been eating at her.

She probably hasn't slept well.

I tiptoe across my room and pull the covers closer to her.

Sabine simpy snored and pulled the covers closer to her.

I smile and creep to my closet.

_I'm glad I have backup stuff._

A sleeping bag, blanket and a pillow from when I was on my own on Lothal.

Vacuum sealed so that I always would have a place to sleep, in the bottom of my backpack.

I smile as I pull it out, as the familiar smell of my tower comes out as well.

I used to use a forest air freshener to keep it smelling nice.

Quietly and slowly, I set up my sleeping bag and pillow then grab the blanket and lie down.

The familiar smell immediately makes me yawn.

_Maybe something good did come out of today._


	19. Tremor

(A/N: RIP to Mr. Christopher Lee. I've done a lot of research for this story, and that included watching all of Count Dooku's duels in Episodes II and III. His work in those scenes are masterpieces, and his filmography is one that's hard to top. You'll be dearly missed, Count.)

…

…

I'm awake.

Dang it.

…

I can't go back to sleep.

_I probably have to be somewhere._

…

…

Why didn't I set an alarm?

…

I roll over and look to my clock.

9:44 GST.

_Dang it._

I have practice with Kanan and Ahsoka in an hour and fifteen minutes.

_I have to get up._

I yawn and sit it.

_Wait._

I didn't sleep in my bed.

…

I lean over and immediately remember why.

The reason I slept on the floor is completely knocked out, with her mouth open.

_Is that…_

I glance to my right, and see that my drawer is open slightly.

It looks like she's wearing a shirt of mine.

Why?

Regardless, I get to my feet and stretch.

Then I freeze as Sabine snores, and moved her leg.

…

…

I don't think she's awake.

I yawn and start to think.

_I need to get out of here and not wake her up._

Thankfully I have light feet.

And my shoes are near the door.

I creep to the door, levitate my shoes, open the door, slide thru the opening and bring my shoes with me.

Then I slowly close the door behind me.

…

_Whew._

Okay.

Time to go get breakfast.

I pull my shoes on, slip into my jacket and start down there.

On the way there, my mind wanders to what Ahsoka said a few days ago.

"_No matter what we do…it ties back to the War."_

Everything that everyone has said about the Clone Wars to me sounds like madness. Lines being blurred, friend and foes being hard to distinguish, and of course what Kanan said after we had our encounter with Vader on Ord Mantell.

He hadn't faced a guy like Vader since that time.

Which had to be that Dooku guy, the one he said was elegant as a fighter.

_I think I'm using the same style._

In the combat materials Kanan gave me, Form II is constantly described as fluid, dance like and appealing to the eye.

_I'm sure I look like a gundark swinging a lightsaber._

The doors to the kitchen swing open, and as I'm expecting, the place is packed.

MY normal table is open, but that's just because people seem to sit in the same spots everyday.

_Just like Kanan and Ahsoka._

At least I'm not having to get up as early as I had to on Polis Massa.

That being said, this is my late day. Usually I have to be somewhere by 9.

I poke my head into the kitchen.

"Hi."

"Ezra! Good to see you. We'll start working on it!" The cook smiled.

I grab a cup and salute them.

"Thank you!"

Then I fill my cup with caf, grab some blue milk to sweeten it, and walk back to my seat.

I slip my datapad out of the pocket of my jacket and load up the HoloNet.

_Clone Wars._

Might as well start from the beginning.

The Battle of Geonosis.

…

Okay. So the battle began when the Geonosians captured a Jedi by the name…

It's that Kenobi guy again.

They captured a Jedi by the name of Obi- Wan Kenobi, who was illegally investigating Seperatist Factories on Geonosis.

Got captured, sentenced to death.

…

…

This is weird.

Somehow Jedi Anakin Skywalker, and Naboo Senator Padmé Amidala got wind of this, and broke into one of the factories in an effort to save him.

Which failed.

They got sentenced to death.

_These two Jedi seem to have their hands all over this freaking war._

And he was Ahsoka's master.

Sorry, back to this battle.

So the two Jedi and the Senator apparently killed the beasts that the Geonosians released to kill them, but were surrounded by whatever battle droids are.

_Sounds ridiculous._

I imagine them being a mix between a protocol droid and Chopper.

No wonder I've never seen one.

Then the Jedi came to the rescue of their comrades with 75,000 clone troops, and the Senator, sparking a battle in the Geonosian plains a few kilometers away.

The actions taken by the Jedi sparked the three year long conflict, climaxing three years later with their attempted coup of the Supreme Chancellor.

_Sure._

The problem is, I don't know what to believe and what to dismiss. I have hunches, but no real leads.

_My food's probably ready._

It doesn't help me any if I know that some of the information in the article is fabricated and one sided against the Jedi, when outside of that I don't know!

Sure enough, my omelet's on a plate under the heat lamps.

"Thank you!" I call out.

I hear a voice in reply, but I don't know what they said.

_Hey, they gave me potatoes too._

They gave me this potato side dish last week that they thought I'd like. It's a sliced up potato, seasoned and cooked.

And it's delicious.

I sit back down and glance back at my article.

…

…

Naboo?

_What's it doing on here?_

I tap the article, causing it to open up it's own page.

The Battle of Naboo was raged in 3621, between Naboo forces and the army of the Trade Federation.

_What's a Trade Group doing with an army?_

I tap the screen again, causing some information on the Trade Federation to pop onto the screen.

…

…

Well this article isn't worth a ton of credits.

It was led for many years by some race called Neimoidians. The article described it as a cartel, mega corporation and "similar to Czerka Corporation".

Then it goes down to information about the Clone Wars.

_Huh._

I'll get to that later.

I take a bite of my food and switch back to the Battle of Naboo.

…

AGAIN.

It's this freaking Kenobi guy.

Apparently he's not a Master yet. This was years before the Geonosis battle.

Him and another Jedi violated the peaceful terms of their negotiations with the Trade Federation, who then attacked Naboo.

The Jedi reached the planet, fought in the capitol city of Theed, using a people called Gungans as bait in the plains of the planet, won both battles and the safety of Naboo.

Then behind closed doors they dictated that a portion Naboo's plasma profits be donated to the jedi as tribute for their efforts.

_Now that I know can't be right._

I'm noticing a trend.

A local species is brought into battle with the Jedi, then the Jedi come out scot free.

_But again, I don't know everything._

Why did the Jedi have to go to the Trade Federation in the first place?

I don't think they just flew there.

Man I wish I could just have access to the real story.

_A real book._

Like on Mandalore with the book Sabine's Mom's book that she lent me.

I bet the Empire has altered every single document pertaining to the Clone Wars, since that's how the Empire was created.

_Forged in that fire._

_Huh?_

I…

I'm out of omelet.

_I guess I ate it while I read._

I glance at the digital clock above the door, then quickly hurry and drop my dishes off.

_I've got to be with Kanan and Ahsoka is 10 minutes._

I've got to talk to them.

Last night does have me a little gun shy about doing anything with the Force.

_I thought…_

Well, I'll talk to them about it.

I fall behind a few base personnel debating about something on a datapad.

…

We're not compromised.

It's something about day to day operation.

Their debate really picks up right as we reach the combat room.

"I'm telling you the water consumption…"

I smirk, then slip into the combat room.

"The water consumption man…" I joke, causing Kanan and Ahsoka to turn around.

"They've been on us about that." Ahsoka shrugged.

"I wouldn't be worried about that Ezra. How'd you hear about that?" Kanan asked me curiously.

"On my way here I was walking behind two people that wouldn't stop arguing about it."

Ahsoka accepted it and nodded.

"Ahh. That'll do it."

"I need to talk to you guys about something. And…" I quickly glance behind me. "It needs to stay between us."

Immediately they both look concerned.

"Why?" Kanan asked.

"We can do that, but we need to know why." Ahsoka added.

"I don't want anyone to freak out."

Kanan and Ahsoka briefly looked at each other, then back to me.

"Okay. What's going on?" Ahsoka asked.

"Last night…Sabine and I had an argument and—"

"Ezra…this needs to stop between you two. I'm getting tired of you two constantly being at each other's throats." Kanan said wearily.

"Can I—" I begin, but Kanan cuts me off again.

"You two need to have each other's back. And instead you're acting like children."

Then he took a step forward and got in my personal bubble.

And jabbed me in the chest with his index finger.

"I think it's you that's the problem Ezra. Stop it. This is your priority. You working to become a Jedi is the most important thing going on in this base. Get with the program."

I take a breath as our faces are inches apart.

_Easy Ezra._

He doesn't have a freaking clue.

"I am with the program." I reply calmly, and trying to keep it that way. "Last night I was training. Late at night. Like a good boy. And you know what? I tried to force push something, and LIGHTNING came out of my hand."

"What?" Kanan blurted out.

"Ezra—"

"NO!" I yell, causing them both to freeze. "I listened to you, you're going to listen to me." I order them, then continue.

"Lightning. It was at least an hour after the fact, and I thought I was calm. But it happened. I wanted to tell you so that people don't start thinking I'm gonna go Vader. And instead you yell at me."

Kanan opened his mouth, but I cut him off before he can speak.

"You're right. Involving you is childish. So I'm not going to do that anymore. Next time I'll keep it to myself. I'm almost 17. I've been on my own. I can handle myself. But you and Hera taught me to TRUST you. And now that's broken.."

_Congratulations._

…

…

Kanan turned away from me and ran his hand over the top of his hair.

Ahsoka looks like she doesn't know what to do.

_This was exactly what I didn't want to happen._

But he didn't let me finish!

I had to tell him!

I let out a deep breath and try to let my anger into the Force.

"It's not my business, but can I jump in?" Ahsoka politely asked Kanan.

"Go ahead."

"Ezra, you've got to trust Kanan. You've got to. He wants the best for you, just like Hera, just like Zeb, just like me. But nobody's perfect. He's not going to be perfect."

"I don't want perfection! I tried being up front and got cut off and yelled at." I say. "Why do it if that's going to be the reaction?"

"It's not going to be. Kanan messed up on that one. You did the right thing. When I was an apprentice, both me and my Master kept secrets. Dark ones. I knew his, but the fact that he didn't trust me enough to tell me broke my heart. And it didn't help when I got kicked out of the Order. When the going is tough, you've got to trust each other." Ahsoka told me.

Kanan wordlessly nodded.

_I can feel his tension._

"Can we get this lightning thing sorted out?" I ask.

"Sure. What exactly happened?" Ahsoka said.

"I was doing the resistance training. Just set everything up after working with the training dummy. I moved to Force Push the weight, and lightning came out."

"Then?" Kanan calmly asked.

"I freaked out. I stopped immediately, then put everything back and went to bed."

Ahsoka nodded and they both seemed to accept that.

Then Kanan stepped forward.

"Okay. Well, my Master taught me early on that the Force isn't inherently good or evil. Neither is anything you do with the Force. It's about intent. If I say…push Ahsoka—" Kanan joked.

"Not happening." Ahsoka smiled.

_He's not strong enough._

"But if I push her calmly, it's no big thing. But if I have bad intention, then that's problem that needs to be addressed."

"So it's not a dark side thing?"

Kanan grimaced, then looked to Ahsoka.

"I want to say it is. Can you think of any Jedi using Force Lightning?"

"No. The only time I encountered it, it was by a Sith. That being said, I don't think this is a huge issue. It literally was an accident." Ahsoka reasoned.

"Yeah. Force Push right?"

_He doesn't remember._

I roll my eyes. "Yeah."

"Then no big deal." Kanan said quickly.

"If it happens again, then we'll address it." Ahsoka said.

I guess that's a plan.

"Any other powers I should be on the lookout for?" I ask.

…

"I think that's a discussion for another day." Ahsoka said.

Kanan nodded.

"Can I do my own research?" I ask.

I feel like I probably can answer most of my own questions.

"No." Kanan said quickly.

"No Ezra." Ahsoka said immediately after.

"Why not?" I ask.

"There's many examples of well intentioned Jedi losing their way because they started digging into that fountain of knowledge." Kanan said.

I hear the door open, and Ahsoka's voice, but I don't look away from Kanan.

Really.

_REALLY?_

Looking into the dark side can turn me dark?

_I guess I am a child to him._

I let out a breath and look to the door.

"—We were thinking about what we can do with Sabine that wouldn't leave her bored and be a waste of time. So we thought about dueling with Ezra." Rex said to Ahsoka.

Oh, this worked out so well last time.

"Huh?" Kanan asked beside me.

"With the swords you guys have been using." Echo reasoned.

"Can she use them?" Ahsoka asked. "I don't know if she's trained to use them. Otherwise Ezra's going to destroy her."

"He's not going to destroy me. I had to prove I was good with a blade in order to become an adult in Mandalorian society." Sabine said firmly, with a glare to Ahsoka.

_Confident as always._

Sabine then noticed me, and her eyes quickly widened.

_And now she's nervous._

"Not these blades." Kanan said.

"Can I see one?" Sabine asked.

Ahsoka nodded then pulled one to her and tossed it to her.

Everyone took a step back.

…

Sabine inspected it, then activated and tilted the blade from side to side.

"Okay…so it's not weightless."

I try to hide my annoyance by going to grab a cup of water.

_I need to breathe._

This probably isn't a good idea.

I've never heard Sabine mention this part of her Mandalorian training.

I try again to let my anger out into the Force again, to more success.

_I'm still annoyed, but that's okay._

I'm better. That's the key.

"Okay. We can practice at half speed to begin." I hear Ahsoka say.

Sabine smiled.

I can't help but make a face to the wall.

I shake my head, then take my jacket off and turn to the group.

Which is clearing out for us and sitting over by the crates.

"Oh. Okay." I say, then pull my training saber to me.

The familiar feel brings a smile to my face.

_This is my element._

"Half. Speed." Kanan said authoritatively.

"Got it." I nod.

Sabine bit her lip, then started to my left.

Block.

She goes to my leg.

I bat it harmlessly away, then half jab at her.

Which she quickly and jerkily deflects.

I smile.

I let her make a few more basic moves, blocking them all calmly while giving ground.

Then I aim for the middle of her stance with a few swipes.

Block, Block, Block and spin.

By the time she's spun around I've already gotten to her spot.

"Heya." I smile.

I hear Kanan's distinctive clap.

Sabine laughed.

"Hi." She smiled.

"I've seen enough. Rex?" Ahsoka asked.

"If it's good enough to you, it's good enough for me." Rex conceded the point.

"Okay. Don't get too rough now. And no Force powers Ezra." Kanan said forcefully.

"How about physical stuff? Kicks and punches?" I counter, taking a few steps back and grabbing more water..

"Those are fine. Just not in the face or…below the belt." Ahsoka reasoned.

Sabine looked to her, then back to me.

I quickly get one more cup of water, then turn to face Sabine.

_She beat me handily on her turf yesterday._

I need to return the favor today.

…

I guess whenever we're ready.

_She's just looking at me._

I grab my saber again, ignite it, and salute her.

_Let's go._

Immediately she jumps out at me and swings down.

I calmly block it and slide to the left.

_III._

Short strokes, just like mine.

_One hand Ezra._

I come out of my reverie for Sabine to make another swipe at my shoulder.

One sidestep later, she's found air.

Frustration.

Swipe.

I play along and block it with one hand.

Sabine quickly leans back and bashes her blade into me.

_Whoa._

Let's just play with the power then.

I lean back due to her…blunt force, then spin out and away.

_That's my weakness._

Power.

But she doesn't know that. She doesn't know anything about lightsaber styles.

I deflect her jab, then spin away again.

Power on power.

Sabine grabbed the blade with two hands and comes straight down at my head.

I block it, but the sheer energy behind it pushes me into a retreat.

_I don't like that._

I'm taller. I'm stronger than her.

I aim a cut to her left, which she literally swung at and took a step back.

_Push!_

No, I can't.

I freeze, as normally I would have sent her flying with a push.

Sabine capitalized on my brain freeze, and bashed into me again, this time banging our arms together.

I spin away.

"Okay dancer boy. Is this how a Jedi fights?" She called out to me.

_She's not impressed._

Fine.

This isn't for her.

I let her comment roll off.

"He's in control." Kanan told her simply.

_Damn right I am._

She hasn't got close to me.

My only jab caused her to bat it away in a panic.

"Yeah right, he's barely done anything." Sabine said dismissively.

"His goal isn't to beat you aggressively Sabine. You're playing into his hands." Ahsoka replied simply.

I wouldn't say that.

I'm just reacting naturally and playing my game.

_Like I'm always told to._

Sabine rolled her eyes, the resumed her battering.

I block her twice, then I turn the tables.

I deflect her last blow, spin under her and jab at her shoulder.

She let out a squeak and dodged it.

_Okay, that was nice._

I press her with several vertical strikes, causing her to be on the defensive.

Block, block, block.

She attempted to extract herself by jabbing at me, but I deflect it and attack her in the same motion.

_Nope._

This time it's her that breaks the rally.

I feel as natural as ever. In a rhythm and in control.

The second one is the most impressive.

_Control._

I quickly swing downward at her, and she takes a page out of my book and tried turning into offense for her.

_Okay then._

I bat it aside and try again.

Block, riposte.

I go low, she blocked it vertically and physically shoved me away.

_Vertical._

VERTICAL.

…

That's how you counter Ahsoka's barrage.

Sabine quickly capitalized on my thoughts and struck downward at me.

I vertically block it.

_Uh oh._

I realize my opening right before she exploits it and I get kicked firmly right in the chest.

I parlay it into a flip and land softly.

Okay…

"You're distracted Ezra." Kanan said.

"I figured out how to counter Ahsoka." I tell him, right before Sabine resumed her assault.

Strike.

Block.

Riposte.

Whiff.

Jab.

Whiff.

I reset things with more vertical strikes, but Sabine blocked them, easier than last time.

_She's learning._

And I have to say…she's not bad.

Sabine resumed her battering ram tactics and I give ground again until she comes in a little too high, and I push back.

SMACK!

I take a few steps back, dazed.

…

_She hit me!_

With an open hand, because I opened myself up. But…

I blankly look over to the others, who are even with me and they look how I feel.

_Disbelief._

"Uhm…" Rex said, before Sabine started in again, this time diagonally.

I block her first three, then when she spins I move to meet her.

Only to get my arm yanked down and away from me.

I keep my focus on her in time for Sabine to SMASH her saber into mine and let out a yell.

"AHH!"

I push her away, shrug her arm off, and then go on the offensive.

It's quickly stopped by an elbow Sabine sends my way.

I sidestep it and jab at her other arm.

To find air.

_DANG IT._

Sabine quickly attempted to gain the upper hand with a two handed downward strike.

I crouch and block it.

Wait…

_Why am I crouching?_

I'm bigger and stronger.

_Why am I giving her an inch?_

I let out a breath, then slowly rise up and push back using my body.

She tried to halt my progress, but I don't budge and step forward.

In response, she spun away, only to find me right in her air space.

I vertically swipe down, causing her to commit to block it.

Then with my other hand, I bat her saber out of her hand and onto the floor.

I step on it, then level my blade with her chest.

_We're done._

Sabine looks stunned.

After three seconds, I deactivate my saber and bend down to pick hers up.

I wordlessly hand it to her, and she took, it, then looked up at me.

"Good fight." I smile.

She nodded, then let out a grin.

That was a lot more challenging then I thought it would be.

Clap.

Clap.

I turn and see that both Echo and Rex are standing and clapping.

_In approval._

I smile and try to graciously accept it.

I'm not good at that.

"Nice Sabine. I'm impressed." Kanan smiled at her.

"Thanks."

"And good job ending it Ezra. I admit I was starting to wonder if you could." Ahsoka smiled at me.

"I didn't like doing it so…physically, but I knew that we didn't have all day. I wanted to end it before you did."

_Really, that was my first try._

"It was calm though. I liked it." Kanan said, as Rex smiled at Sabine and Echo hugged her side.

_Huh._

"Hey Sabine…want to go into town?"

I feel Kanan freeze beside me, and Sabine stopped and turned.

"Uhm, I'm not ready to go out." She said quickly.

"Nonsense. You look fine." I counter, stepping towards her and away from Kanan.

"Fine…" She said reluctantly.

_Take this Kanan._

I walk out, and Sabine's not that far behind me.

Part of me expects her to turn and run away.

But we're out of the building and on the road into town before either of us says anything.

"Thanks for coming."

"I…No problem. If anything, I should thank you." She replies quietly.

I bite my lip.

"Hey. I shouldn't have yelled last night. You were honest with me. And I wasn't appreciative enough of it. I'm sorry."

"Is that what this is about? Because you don't have to apologize to me. I deserved it."

I shake my head.

"Maybe, but what, we're just going to have another week of silence? That's not a solution Sabine. We both know that." I counter.

_That'd be something children do._

And I'm almost 17.

"True. But I deserved it. It doesn't matter."

"It does to me." I counter.

Sabine began to counter, then stopped herself.

…

…

"Yeah, I don't like it. But it's just because I care. You had a moment with somebody that you care deeply about. That's not something I should get mad about."

Sabine seemed to consider this, but didn't reply.

"Whatever you did behind closed doors is your decision. And if you decide to…go home and drop this for good to be with him, then fine. It's your call." I say, voicing a thought I didn't let myself consider yesterday.

Sabine's default mode is Imperial. She started down her path because of her family, out of fear for them.

They're safe.

There is a possibility that she's not in it for a true rebellion.

And that's fine if she's just in it for the safety of her family.

_Nobody should judge her harshly for that._

"But you don't like it." She stated.

…

_We're at the gates._

I step around her, then wrap my arms around her shoulders.

She gasped right before I kissed her right by her left eyebrow.

"You're asking me to separate being your good friend and my heart. That's going to take time." I whisper.

Sabine took a breath, then wrapped herself around me.

"I don't want you to do that. I want you to be you."

"That's a battle Sabine." I say, then step away from her.

For a brief moment, Sabine looked like she didn't want to let me go.

_Then she did just that._

"Let's grab a cold drink, then we can go back. Okay? It's a treat to our hard work." I tell her.

Not a romantic thing.

She happily nodded, then started to the gates.

I follow her until we take our first step inside.

_Then the Force tugs at me._

With a warning.

I pause, half step, then keep walking.

But Sabine noticed, and looked over at me.

"What?"

"Not you." I say quickly, reaching out.

I don't like this.

_This hasn't happened before._

Sabine's brows snapped down.

And she pulled me aside, away from any potential people.

"What is it? You feel something."

I nod.

"I've never felt anything like this in the Force. A tug. Like a warning." I say, voice _barely_ above a whisper.

"Vader?" Sabine replied in the same quiet tone.

"That was different. I was too busy on the mission. The town was fine, we got to the hanger and I wasn't thinking about that. But I did feel him. That was cold. This is different. Like a jolt."

Sabine bit her lip but kept eye contact with me.

"You think we're in danger?"

I close my eyes and focus.

Sabine discreetly dug her fingers into my arms.

"I don't think it's us." I say, almost involuntarily off what I feel. "It's like a general thing."

"Like a weather warning." She made an analogy.

I nod.

And hit my comm.

"Kanan. Come in."

…

"Here. What's going on? Where'd you guys go?" his voice came out.

I scramble to lower the volume as Sabine cringed.

"In Iziz. Listen, I felt something in the Force."

"Felt something? Hold on."

I pause, and I hear voices in the background.

"You're in the holo so Ahsoka and the others can hear. What did you feel?"

"Like a general warning. The Force is jumpy. That's the best way to describe it." I tell him.

"Not immediate?" Ahsoka asked.

"No." Sabine and I both reply.

"Okay…be VERY careful Ezra." Kanan said.

"I'm going to tell Lux to get the Eyes in the Sky turned into town." I hear Hera say, then footsteps away from the holo.

"What are you two going to do?" Rex or Echo asked.

"Grab a drink and come back." Sabine answered.

"Alright. Just…keep your eyes out. Act on instinct. Use your training. Both of you." Kanan told us.

I glance down, and the familiar sight of my lightsaber calmed my nerves.

_I can protect her._

And it's not like I'm alone.

Sabine can fight like a devil if prodded into it.

I smile to myself, causing Sabine to look confused.

"You got us?" Rex or Echo said.

"Yeah. We're going now." I say.

"Alright. We're out."

Then the comm clicked, signaling the end of the call.

Sabine bit her lip and looked up at me.

"Well…shall we?" I ask, gesturing into town.

"Sure." She shrugged.

But sticking very close to me.

We begin walking back into town, and I try to focus myself.

I'm getting a drink with Sabine.

_It's a treat to both of us._

Just a drink. Not food, or a gift.

A drink.

"What are you thinking?" I ask her.

"Something cool." She replied.

"I agree. I don't want a caf." I joke, getting Sabine to giggle.

"Can we see if they have something fruity and cool?"

"Like something they'd have on an island?" I joke.

Which gets me smacked.

"Non-alcoholic." She told me strongly.

"I don't know. I saw you drink that wine back home." I say, looking dead ahead. "And I'm not going to say anything to anyone."

"Mom handed me the glass. You know that. It was something she and Daddy wanted to do. You declined." She specified.

"I've never had a drink. And I didn't think your parents was a good place to start."

"They wouldn't have judged. And it would have been safe. Plus, it was from Alderaan. That's good stuff."

I shrug.

"How'd we get on this?" She shook her head.

"Me teasing you. Tipsy." I tease her.

"Ezra!"

I smile and she lightly elbowed me.

Then settled into my hip.

I slip my arm around her hip, and she glanced up at me.

"Smooth."

"It was your first move. Plus I don't see you complaining."

She moved ever so slightly closer.

"No you do not."

I smile and focus on our surroundings.

That warning is still there.

_Just echoing, occasionally tugging for my attention._

We move with the crowd, which isn't too big, but is a crowd thru the streets.

Before too long, Sabine pointed at a laminate sign with the logo of a fruit.

"How about there?"

I shrug, then start us in that direction.

When we start to get close, I see that it's actually a drink cart with a decent line.

"That's a good sign." I say, and Sabine nodded.

I step into line and Sabine slips out of my arms, but no further.

_Okay._

The menu is directly ahead, lit in white light and surrounded by yellow neon, giving the entire cart a glow.

Under the "Sweet" category is something that jumps out at me.

_Lemonade._

Mom used to make that for me years ago.

I'll get that.

I glance at Sabine to see that she's trying to decide.

Instead of looking at her, I take in our surroundings.

Shops surround us on all sides.

Glancing back and to my left…

_Those are definitely Imperials._

They're in uniform, and eating together near the window in a restaurant.

_Officers most likely._

There's also bakery, glass working store and several clothing places.

"Next!"

Sabine steps forward, and I notice that they're talking to us.

"Yes, hi." Sabine smiled. "Can I get a Sucosa Twist? And…"

She turned to me.

"Lemonade. Please."

"Sizes?" The guy behind the counter asked, as behind him people were busily working.

"Medium." I turn to Sabine, who nodded.

"6 credits."

I dig into my pocket and pull out the credits.

"Thanks! Name?"

"Ezra." I nod.

"Got it. Next!"

We stepped off to the side, and I get an elbow.

"You paid."

"I have the credits."

"Are they _yours_?" She asked tactfully.

I nod.

I got them from her father.

They were at the bottom of my bag, neatly wrapped up.

_With a razor._

I guess he noticed, but I…I am starting to get a tiny amount of facial hair.

The note he attached is still in my desk.

When glance back down, I'm getting looked at.

_Softly._

"Really." She said.

"Really."" I tell her.

"EZRA!"

We both jump, then I go and grab our treats.

"Your twist thing." I joke, causing her to smile.

"Thanks." She said, then leading us towards the area of the cart with straws, sugars and lids.

I take a lid and straw from her and sip my lemonade.

_Wow._

Better than I remember.

When I glance back to Sabine, she's looking at me.

"I know we said we'd go right back, but wanna find a park or something?" She asked me.

"Sure." I shrug, simultaneously assessing our situation.

_Exact same._

Sabine wordlessly started towards the back of the cart and—

The Force SCREAMED a warning.

Time suddenly slowed to a crawl as I turn and see a black blur in the middle of the crowd.

_I know what's going to happen._

I grab Sabine, pull her to me and start to run.

When I feel the explosion, I yank her into my chest and cover her with my arms.

Then we're picked up and thrown.

BANG.

CRASH.

I smash into something hard, then roll.

I dig into the ground and try to stop us.

When we stop, I glance at Sabine, who looked up to me.

Then time came back in a rush, and sound EXPLODED around me.

Screams primarily.

I make sure Sabine's okay, then hop to my feet.

_And see carnage._

The bomb, whatever it was tore into the entire street.

Part of the building across from us is caved in on top.

The restaurant is just GONE.

_Wait._

That was meant for the Officers in that restaurant.

Oh damn.

I jog into the street and see a unfamiliar logo, along with something in Aurabesh.

"Fighters For A Free Onderon".

My stomach turns.

_This is for FREEDOM?!_

They're on our side?

The scene around me forces me back to reality.

There's a fire to my left, and people are lying everywhere.

The first real thing I notice is a group of adults trapped under a durasteel frame.

There's people around, but nobody's helping.

I quickly jump forward and yell.

"Hey! Help me grab this!" I say strongly, grabbing the frame.

A bunch people, both men and women, spring into action.

_We've got this thing._

"ONE…TWO…LIFT!" I yell, throwing my weight into lifting the frame.

The frame cooperates and the people trapped underneath it scramble out.

Moments later, everyone drops it.

_Whew._

I take a step back and reassess.

There's a lot of people moving around, but I don't see any authorities.

_Sabine._

I turn around to find her, and see her standing in the display for the glass shop.

_That must have been where we went flying._

Our eyes lock, and she nearly breaks my heart.

Simply by looking relieved.

_I'm okay._

I turn away from her and look around.

Stormtroopers.

And flashing lights.

_Finally._

About freaking time you guys get here.

I turn away from the incoming help and look around.

What else can I do right now?

I reach out with the Force and get bombarded with emotions unlike ever before.

Then I find it.

I turn to my left and see a young couple crying.

I can only hear part of what the woman is saying over the tumult.

"My…My…somebody….my…"

The man is simply crying and holding her.

_My baby._

I whip around and look where they are looking.

_The restaurant._

The upper portion is on fire.

_But not the ground floor._

Without a further thought I sprint towards the building.

Avoid the fire.

Find the kid.

Get out.

I'm halfway inside after dodging the brick and permacrete that's now the exterior.

_This place got blasted._

I look around…

And find nothing.

I completely turn around.

_Same thing._

My heart starts pounding as I jog deeper into the restaurant.

The fire's to my right and up a floor.

_The air is sucking it away, so I have decent visibility._

C'mon Ezra.

Where ya at baby.

…

NO!

…

WHERE ARE YOU?!

In a panic, I look around, then probe with the Force.

And find it.

I whip back around to the wall farthest from the fire.

There's a baby in a high chair, knocked over that's kicking and screaming.

I can't move fast enough as I scramble over.

"It's okay. It's okay, it's okay…" I say over and over again as I sprint to the front.

Then some Stormtroopers appear, and wave me forward.

The baby keeps kicking and screaming, while holding onto me with one tiny hand.

_But I think it's okay._

"You got it!" I hear, but press forward.

I need to get to the parents.

I ignore everyone and make a beeline to the young couple.

When they see me, they sprint to me.

The words don't even make sense. But the tears say it all, along with the baby grabbing onto his mom.

"Thank you." The father says, as the mother is overcome with emotion.

I nod, and take a step back.

Then a hand on my shoulder causes me to turn.

_Right into the mask of a Stormtrooper._

"Son, are you okay?" he asked.

I numbly nod.

"Boss! He's here!" The trooper said, then directed me into the street.

_Where there are vehicles everywhere people aren't._

I walk with the trooper to a man in uniform.

"Son, you've done a great thing! Those parents will never forget that!" The man said to me, looking right at me.

I nod respectfully.

"Is your family in the city?"

I

"Yes sir." I tell him.

"Go a few blocks and get into contact! We've got it from here!" I nod, and move to walk away.

But the man yanks me back.

"Thank you!"

I nod, then look back to the street.

_I need to find Sabine._

…

She's not—

"Ezra!" I hear somebody call out, causing me to turn.

Just in time for Lux Bonteri to grab me and pull me into his arms.

"I got him!"

Oh my.

He turns me towards the rest of the city, and I see Sabine and Kanan with a Stormtrooper.

"—Caleb! We're going home!" Kanan told him, as Lux released me.

The trooper nodded and turned back to the madness.

Without another word, we start back toward the base.

Sabine grabbed onto me and kept walking.

…

By the Gods.

I turn back to see that the street looks like a warzone, and water's being sprayed on the fire.

I turn back, and realize that my heart's pounding.

…

…

Nobody talks on the trip home.

Sabine simply clings to me, Lux and Kanan both look concerned yet ready to flatten anyone who tries to stop us.

We silently make record time back to the base.

The guards out front immediately let us pass and bolt the door behind us.

_We must be the last ones._

Kanan directs us to a back room on the ground floor.

Where everyone is.

They all see us at the same time.

Hera let out a soft scream, and sprinted to us.

Same for Zeb.

Ahsoka bowed her head while keeping her hands covering her mouth.

Rex and Echo both sat down and ran their hands over their faces.

"Thank the gods…" Hera said, tackling Sabine and I into a hug.

Zeb did the same, although primarily Sabine.

When they let us go, Kanan's standing next to us, and Lux is holding Ahsoka by the waist.

…

…

After what feel like forever, Kanan spoke up.

"What happened?"

"I…" I start, but stop.

_I need a drink._

I force pull some water to me, chug it then begin.

"We just gotten our drinks. And we were going to go find a park and sit down, then come back. The Force yelled a warning, I grabbed Sabine and then we got thrown." I say.

"I didn't know what was going on. We had just grabbed our lids, then Ezra tackled me. And we were flying in the air."

Everyone is just looking at us.

"So you barely had a warning." Ahsoka said quietly.

I nod.

"I don't know…time seemed to slow down. I turned and saw a blur. I immediately thought 'Bomb' and grabbed Sabine and started to run. When it blew I tried to protect her, then we got thrown."

"Then you ran off." Sabine said, turning to me.

_Looking terrified._

"I followed my instincts. I saw a hologram in the sky right afterward for "Fighters For A Free Onderon". Then I just…I don't know." I shrug.

Then I feel exhausted.

"The Stormtrooper said that you helped free 9 people, then save a baby from the back of the restaurant they bombed." Lux said, then turned to Ahsoka.

"They were after Imperials. And they got them."

The room was silent, then Rex or Echo spoke up.

I was too busy looking at Sabine.

_Who still looks scared to death._

I pulled her into a hug as he said "Fighters For A Free Onderon."

"That's our side." Zeb said quietly beside me.

"It is not." Hera snapped.

"It's against the Empire." Lux said evenly.

"That's not us. That's…that's terrorism." Ahsoka said.

…

_Against the Empire._

But not us.

"Not a cell?" I ask.

Lux shook his head.

"You need to get cleaned up." Kanan says to me.

"No I don't." I say.

_I'm fine._

"Ezra, have you seen yourself?" Hera asked, sounding concerned.

I shake my head and turn to the—

_Whoa._

I'm covered primarily in permacrete dust.

The left side of my head has blood trickling down, covering a majority of the top of my head.

My jacket and pants are torn to shreds.

My shirt has some sort of liquid smeared all over it.

_I hope that's Sabine and my drinks._

I look to Sabine, and she looks pretty much the same. With more dust and no blood.

I turn to Kanan, and my body immediately protests.

_With what feels like 1000 cuts, all over my body._

"Fine." I say tiredly, then move to follow him.


	20. Ressurection

"The wallpaper is some of Alderaan's finest, donated of course from House Thul as a gesture of good will." The aristocrat on the holo said.

"Oh be quiet. That wallpaper looks atrocious. It contrasts the trim. That's hard to do." Sabine said bitterly.

I smile.

"Do you see it?" She looked up at me.

"No." I confess.

"The blue's okay I guess. But the squiggly pattern thing? That needs to go." She said, with a touch of disdain.

I laugh, then quickly regret it.

_Ow._

"Oh. Okay?" Sabine propped herself on her elbow.

I nod, and Sabine lowers herself back down and lies on my chest.

This is how it's been for the last couple of days.

I spent the night of the bombing in the medical wing as they pulled shards of glass and metal from basically my entire body.

_Next time I dive to get away from a bomb, I won't dive into a glass shop._

It took them 6 hours to get it all out and treat all the cuts. And I looked a little like a human mummy.

They wrapped me in white bandages, against Kanan's wishes.

He wanted them to use what they used on Sabine, something called bacta.

The doctor overruled him, saying Sabine was hurt worse than I was and that it wasn't worth the bacta. Which I have to say, really hurt.

Not just the actual pain, but being told that your pain isn't painful enough. To a doctor.

When they finally released me, I found Sabine pretty much like she is right now.

Curled up in my bed after moving the small Holoprojector in my room to the foot of my bed.

Ever since she's…

Well, she's basically been taking care of me.

_And she did NOT like seeing me bandaged._

She ordered me to lie down and tell her if I need anything.

Now its two days later and I'm still here.

When Sabine first curled up next to me, I totally froze up.

I freaked. I'd just gotten poked, prodded and pained for hours on end, didn't sleep well and now had Sabine curled to me protectively.

Now it's been so long that her legs are intertwined with mine to the point that it took her like three minutes to get out of bed at dinner.

_Not that I'm complaining._

I was a little worried about where she was going to sleep. I wasn't going to kick her out of my bed, but I didn't think we should sleep together.

And not like her and Atin.

Definitely not that sleep together.

Then I fell asleep during an episode of this "Apartment Show-Off!" binge we've been on and made it a moot point.

I was Sabine's pillow.

Thankfully nobody's walked in. It'd probably look a lot more intimate that it actually is.

Sabine's only kissed me once: When we woke up yesterday.

"Grape?" Sabine asked me.

I smile and Force Pull a bunch of grapes from the bowl we took from at dinner and filled to us.

Then I extend a couple to her.

And she eats them out of my hand.

I laugh and lie back down.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome."

We settle back in, and our show returns from its commercial break.

…

…

"I'm starting to think we should find a new show." Sabine says.

I shrug.

"Speak." She told me.

"Up to you." I say diplomatically.

"Ezraaaa…" She whined.

"I don't care what we watch. I don't know any good shows." I tell her.

"But that's not a good answer."

"That's what I've got." I shrug.

Sabine sighed. "Remote?"

I laugh, and pull it to me.

"Yay. I don't even have to move."

"It's not meant for your convenience." I tell her.

"But I'm getting to use it like one. Thank you." She smiled at me.

I smile back, and she starts flicking thru the channels.

…

"Corellia 862. Let's try that." Sabine said, selecting it.

…

…

_Ugh._

Look like some kind of drama.

Sabine slipped her hand under the covers and started tracing random shapes on my shirt.

_Easy Ezra._

Due to my injuries, I've had to wear compression shirts all the time. Which feel way too tight. I've worn a jacket with them.

_It's supposed to help with blood flow or something._

Sabine likes it because it shows off my weight training.

That's not the point, but I might as well be shirtless. These shirts don't hide anything.

Sabine giggled at a joke, and ran her fingers along my stomach.

"Sabine."

_Stop._

Not a good idea.

In response, Sabine ran her foot up my leg.

"What? You want me to stop?" She asked, giving me her best Loth-Cat look.

"Please."

Sabine rolled her eyes.

"No. I think you're healed up enough to deal with it."

I open my mouth to protest and say that it's not a healing issue.

_It's a hormones issue._

And since she's been attached to me, I'm basically drunk on Sabine.

Bad idea.

"No." She said. "I have a question."

…

"Okay." I say nervously.

"How scared were you actually during the bombing?"

"I really wasn't. I was worried about you after we fell into the shop, but after that I didn't really feel anything."

In response, Sabine let out a breath.

"Nerves of Durasteel it is then."

Then she moved to sit…on my stomach.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

"Sitting on you." She simply replied.

Then she lowered herself to lie on top of me, while wrapping her arms around me.

"Now I'm lying on top of you." She told me, voice barely above a whisper.

I nervously swallow.

_Depp breaths Ezra._

You'll get thru this without too big an incident.

"Shh." She whispered, and then giggled.

Oh boy.

Stupid tank top.

_I was just getting used to bumping into her arm._

"Sorry." I quickly say.

"Don't apologize. You didn't do anything wrong. Just don't be nervous."

Are you kidding me?

"Sabine." I say, throwing all the meaning I can behind it.

"I know. Can you just enjoy it?"

I shrug.

"I don't want to mess up."

She smiled and scooted closer.

_Somehow._

"You can't if you just play along." She said, then kissed me.

_Play along._

I smile and kiss her back, expecting it to be a brief thing.

Until she breathed thru her nose and deepened the kiss.

…

When she broke it off, she simply moved her head to my shoulder and sighed.

I adjust my grip on her, moving away from her butt.

"Wrong way."

I start to protest, then put my hands barely above her butt.

She smiled contently, then said "Mine."

And kissed me again.

…

_Yeah, I can go with that._

This time it's a little more heated, and she moaned into the kiss.

"Ahh…so much better than Atin." She sighed into my ear.

I smile.

"Good."

"He's sloppy. Shoved his tongue into my mouth. You're firm, but…" She smiled.

And stuck her tongue in my mouth.

_Uhm…_

Curse my inexperience kissing girls.

_Doesn't help she's the second girl I've kissed._

"Mhmmm…" She moaned, deepening the kiss again.

_She's trying to get me to play along._

Nervously, I copy her and she immediately responds with a smile and tightening her grip on me.

…

…

She shot her hand down and slipped it under my shirt.

"Mhmmmm…"

I take a breath and keep kissing her.

_She's a good kisser too._

I…

_Don't think about that._

She's on top of you Ezra.

Making out with you.

Enjoy it.

My attention is distracted as she moaned again and pressed her abdomen into mine.

We kiss until the Holo beeps.

_OH CRAP._

Sabine scrambles off me, kneeing me in the stomach in the process.

OWW!

"Oh…thank goodness…not a Holocall." Sabine said, then collapsing onto my pillows.

I cringe, pull the remote to me and get my brain together.

_This better be important._

Click.

Hera quickly popped onto the Holo.

"Hey Ezra. Did I wake you?"

I shake my head.

"No. Couldn't find the remote." I tell her.

Hera looked from me to Sabine.

"Sabine?"

"Yeah?" She said.

_Sounding sleepy._

"You were napping."

I nod.

"Yeahhh…what's up?" She said, moving to sit next to me.

"We want to brief you guys on the meeting we just had."

"Okay. Where do you want us to go?" Sabine asked.

_Her eyes look unfocused._

"Second floor, take the hallway to the left off the lift."

"We'll be right there."

Hera smiled, and then the call ended.

And Sabine collapsed into the pillows again.

"Talk about a buzzkill…" She joked.

I laugh and smile at her.

…

"Ezra?"

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Lie down."

I comply, and she wrapped her arms around me.

"That's how it happened with Atin…one little kiss and it just exploded." She said, then laid her forehead on my chest.

_Oh._

"I told you I'm not mad." I say nervously.

"I know…but still. You're such a better guy. He'd already started moving on by the time we got interrupted." She said, slightly bitter.

_I don't think I want to hear this._

…

"I guess we have to go. Huh."

"Yeah."

She sighed, then got up.

Leaving to me sink into the pillow.

Sabine laughed and grabbed her jacket.

I reluctantly get to my feet and slip on shoes.

_I'm not supposed to wear long pants or sleeves, so I'll have to stick with my current outfit._

White shirt with black shorts.

When I turn to the door, Sabine waved for me to catch up.

"What do you think the meeting was about?" Sabine asked me as I locked the door.

I shrug. "Probably the bombing. Maybe our future here."

"Our future here?" Sabine asked, sounding incredulous.

"I was a little too visible." I say.

_All that time in the medical wing let me think._

That's the conclusion I came to. Senator Organa and the other Rebel leaders won't be happy.

Might send us to another base.

"You were saving people! So what? People weren't thinking about a rebellion anyway! They were making sure they had all their limbs!" Sabine countered.

"I know. But nothing's worth the risk of losing this base. I think I attracted too much attention."

She sighed, then frowned.

"I hope you're wrong."

I…

_I don't know what to say that._

Sabine glanced over at me as we reach the lift in the lobby.

I nervously shrug.

"I don't like moving around so much. I feel like that's more suspicious."

_What?_

We're moved twice in months.

That makes no sense.

"Really?" I ask.

"Yeah. We stuck to Lothal pretty much, even before we picked you up. Now we're bouncing around the galaxy."

_Maybe I'm just used to things always being tenuous._

My mind floats back to right after Mom and Dad left, and the Empire took our little house.

I basically was afraid to sleep because I didn't want to go to the orphanage.

_Everything I'd heard was bad._

Some kids never came out.

When I found my tower outside of Capitol City, that was really the first piece of safety that was mine for…forever.

_It feels like that was yesterday._

Even though…

No.

_It can't be 8 years can it?_

I walk beside Sabine as we follow the hallway, then go left per Hera's instructions

When the door opens, everyone turned to us.

"Hi. Sorry we're late. Somebody couldn't find his shoes."

_Sabine!_

I nervously smile as Rex chuckled and Kanan shook his head.

"No problem." Ahsoka said warmly.

"What was this meeting about?" I ask, changing the topic.

"Whoa now. How are you feeling Ezra?" Kanan cut across me.

"That's the more important thing." Echo added.

"I'm fine. Sore." I shrug.

"Sore when…" Ahsoka asked.

"When I try to lift anything with my chest or legs. That's really the only pain. My arms are just stiff." I reply.

"Anything we can do for that?" Ahsoka asked Lux.

He shook his head.

"No. Normally I'd say he needs to swim, to get some of those muscles going, but we don't have a pool. I think we'll just have to give him a few days more."

Blast.

Everybody seemed to accept that, and then Hera stepped up.

"Okay. Well answering your question, the meeting was about the group that orchestrated the bombing."

"Fighters For A Free Onderon?" I ask.

Lux nodded, then clicked the Holo terminal on.

_And showed the logo._

"How'd you find that?" I ask.

It's a bird.

_A really big, bird that look like it could make a snack out of people._

"The Empire. They got ahold of it when investigating the bombing." He answered.

"What is that?" Sabine asked, looking at the logo.

"It's called a Drexl." Ahsoka said.

"Oh!" Sabine said.

"You've heard of them?" Echo asked.

Sabine nodded.

"They're in Mandalorian culture. They live on Dxun, one of Onderon's moons."

"Which one?" Kanan asked.

_There's four moons._

"The close one. At a point in the calendar, they get close enough to share an atmosphere."

Huh.

_Fun fact._

"Interesting." Echo said.

Hera nodded. "The Empire lost 3 Colonels, 2 Captains and 6 Commandants in the bomb, so they've brought in 5000 infantry troops and senior officers from Mandalore to fill the void while the remaining officers run the investigation."

I hear the air come out of Sabine.

_Mandalore._

"We're taking advantage of the brief power vacuum on Mandalore to establish a cell on Mandalore." Lux said.

Oh.

I look over at Sabine, and she's got her hands in front of her mouth, albeit in fists.

"How'd you find all this out?" I ask.

"Informants here and there." Rex smiled.

"We wanted to ask you before we ask your parents Sabine. Do you know anybody in the Imperial Military on Mandalore?" Hera asked Sabine.

_Oh._

Sabine's eyes widened.

"Uhh, yeah. He's a commandant."

"How recently?" Rex quickly asked.

_A few weeks ago._

"About a month ago." Sabine answered.

Hera, Lux, Ahsoka and Rex all glance at each other.

"How sure are you of that timeline?" Rex asked tactfully, using a softer tone than usual.

"Very sure. He told me himself." Sabine replied strongly.

"I met him at Sabine's ceremony. Said the same thing there." I back her up.

I quickly feel Sabine loosen up beside me.

"What did you think of him?" Kanan asked me.

Ignoring my nerves, I reply immediately.

"He's fine I guess. Off the line Imperial to me. Her parents were pleased to see him. They got a caf without incident. I didn't see anything that worried me."

Kanan nodded and I smile inwardly.

"Coffee?" Lux asked. "I thought you were there for your parents? Why'd you go get caf with a stranger?"

"He's not really a stranger. Our parents were close, so we kind of grew up together." Sabine said, then threw on what I was expecting her to lead with.

"Is it a problem for me to go and get a cup of caf with a friend off planet?" She asked, slightly demanding.

"No. That's not where I was going with that. "Lux quickly backtracked.

"Do you think he'd be open to defecting?" Ahsoka asked the million credit question.

…

"No."

Everyone looked surprised at that answer.

"No?" Hera asked.

"Why not?"

Sabine sighed.

"You've got to understand the way the Empire's positioned themselves on Mandalore. They initially claimed to be in line with Mandalorian ideals of bravery, honor, all that. They brought in a bunch of powerful and prideful Mandalorians in a power play to back that up. And in response, a lot of Mandalorians bought what the Empire was selling. His parents were among those."

"And he can't be made to thinking our way?" Echo asked.

Sabine strongly shook her head.

"It's all he knows. His parents are still lapping up their propaganda, even as things get worse on the planet. When we got that caf, that's all I got. Pro-Empire talking points." Sabine spit out.

_Huh._

Interesting.

And worrisome.

_That's her default._

That's her guy.

"We'll have to use our backup plan then. Don't contact him." Ahsoka told Rex, who nodded.

"This is Atin right?" Lux suddenly asked causing Sabine and I to quickly turn to face him.

"Yeah." Sabine said.

"Who's that?" Kanan asked.

"Her…" Lux started then grimaced. "It was her best friend growing up. I've met his parents. I didn't know that was him."

Sabine shrugged.

"So she's not that far off?" Ahsoka looked up at him.

"She's right on the mark, as usual." Lux said, stone faced.

"I don't think they'd bring a shiny commandant to a place that they just had a deadly bombing. Keep the kid on Mandalore where it's nice and quiet." Rex said.

"It'd be easy to slip resources past a shiny." Echo added.

Sabine glared over at them.

Like she didn't like how they plan on using his inexperience against him.

"Are we in danger of being compromised?" I ask.

There is an influx of new Imperials on the planet.

"No. They're pulling apart "Fighters For A Free Onderon" piece by piece and making an example of them." Ahsoka said.

"We weren't connected at all. We aren't in danger." Kanan added.

"It really was a stupid attack. Bombing a restaurant then displaying your name and logo so…brashly." Lux said darkly.

"Eh. They're getting what they deserve. They were too reckless. Either that, or they didn't care about those civilians." Hera said.

Those poor people.

Just in the wrong place at the wrong time.

_That won't help what Lux is trying to do here._

"Just in case though, we're going on a trip when you feel better Ezra." Ahsoka spoke up, filling the silence that had just fallen.

I turn to her.

"I can go now."

She shook her head.

"We'll be doing some serious walking. We can wait."

"Where are we going?" Sabine asked.

_Wait, is this the trip Ahsoka said she wanted to take us on?_

"It's a planet in the Chommell Sector called Naboo." She answered.

Yup.

I nod, and Sabine looked back to Ahsoka.

"Anything we should know?" She asked.

"No. You'll find out everything you need to know when we get there." Ahsoka told us.

Okay.

Hera stood up, then Kanan stretched.

_I think we're done._

"Anything else?" I ask the room.

Lux shook his head.

"Nope. That's it." Hera said.

"Actually, come with us. WE want to show you a new addition to the range." Rex spoke up.

Echo nodded.

"Okay." Sabine said.

We follow them and Kanan out, down the lift and started down the tunnel.

"You up for a quick test Ezra?" Rex asked me as we walked.

_Not really._

I'd like to go back to my room and watch something on the Holo.

And I mean the Holo.

_Not the Sabine Show._

"Sure. As long as I don't have to run."

I think I might die if they run me thru a fitness test right now.

"No running. Just flexibility and pain tolerance." Echo said reassuringly.

"Stick your right arm straight out, then reach left. Tell us if it hurts."

I comply, and my chest protests about ¾ of the way there.

"Ow." I say calmly.

Echo glanced over at me.

"Can you do the same for the other arm?" He asked.

I do that, but pain shoots from right above my ribs shortly after I start moving.

"Ow." I say.

That actually hurt.

Rex's brows snapped down, and Echo frowned.

"I was afraid of that." Echo said quietly.

"Afraid of what?" Sabine asked, sounding concerned.

"Was the pain high or low?" Echo asked.

"High. Right under my collarbone."

Echo frowned.

"There's a muscle up there that lines the very top of your ribs. I believe that the reason your chest is painful is because you pulled that. It's not meant to be flexible."

"Huh?" I ask.

"It's more for protection than flexibility. Most of the time you never think twice about it. But it's one of those things that isn't meant to be messed with."

"It'll heal right?" Sabine asked.

"Of course. If it's hurting in even two day then we might have to get you looked at again. You should be fine by the middle of the week." Echo said as we approached the edge of the tunnel.

Rex and Echo led us out, and Sabine hung back to gently run her fingers over my ribs before walking out in front of me.

I glance around and see that there's a table in front of the firing stations with armor on it.

I walk up and get a closer look at the armor.

On the end is Sabine' helmet, which looks freshly painted.

Then…there's some beat up chest plates, identical looking pants, a helmet with blue on it above the eyes, some heavy duty rifles, some pistols and a helmet with the same markings as Sabine's above the eyes.

_Jaig eyes._

"Is this all yours?" I ask.

"Most of it anyway." Echo said, as Rex picked up his helmet and set it next to Sabine's.

Exact same markings, except Sabine's look chrome. And Rex's are blue.

"Have either of you ever wondered why we're with the Rebellion?" Rex calmly asked, moving to sit on the edge of the table.

"Not really." Sabine says.

"I haven't either, but that's more because the end of the Clone Wars sounds like a complete mess. Almost anything could have happened."

Echo laughed and looked to Rex.

"I think that's the best description to the end of the war I've ever heard."

"It's pretty accurate." Rex said, then shaking his head.

"Sabine, you know why Kanan pulled his lightsaber back when he first met us right?"

Sabine quickly looked confused.

"No…I don't."

Rex and Echo quickly exchanged looks, then looked down.

"I assume you know of Order 66 though."

Sabine nodded.

"Yes. It's when the Empire put down the supposed Jedi insurrection."

"Well…that's not what happened." Rex said.

"Huh?"

I nervously swallow.

"The last 'battle' of the Clone wars was on a planet called Utapau. There, a Jedi by the name of Obi-Wan Kenobi killed the last remaining Separatist General. Shortly after, all Clones in the field were given and Order numbered 66: Kill all Jedi Commanders in the field."

Sabine gasped.

"You…"

"Not us specifically…" Echo said slowly. "But yes. Clones like Captain Rex and I ended the Jedi Order."

"Why?" Sabine asked quickly. "I can't believe I never put that together…"

"It's a long story. But it truly begin after General Krell attempted to have clones kill each other on the battlefield. We thought that the people we were firing on were Sep forces. They were other clones."

…

"We ended up and taking him down, but that was against everything that a clone stood for. Technically, it was a mutiny. I was formally stripped of my Captain status, but not removed from the field. I, for the first time began to question the war, and my superiors. To truly ask why." Rex said.

"It sounds simple, but it wasn't supposed to be possible for us clones. We were meant to be an expendable army. Used, discarded, forgotten. Not really people." Echo said simply.

_Oh man._

Not people?

They're human! They are people!

"Then…the General was kicked out of the Jedi Order. That's her story to tell, but Commander Tano and I had fought side by side for over two years. To have our leaders, her peers discard her within a blink of an eye really disillusioned me. The relationship between a soldier and his superiors and his soldiers is one of trust and belief. And they lost me that day, honestly."

"So you left?" Sabine asked.

"No. We've got a while until then." Echo smiled.

"Okay." I say.

"I'm glad that we were essentially signed to General Skywalker and General Kenobi near the end of the war. They were as close to Ahsoka as they were with us. They were the last ones I respected."

"Not to interrupt…who are these generals?" Sabine asked.

"General Skywalker was Commander Tano's Jedi Master. In terms of pure talent and ability, he might have been the most powerful Jedi short of the Grand Master." Echo said.

"General Kenobi was the famed Jedi that was the eye of the storm. Calm, collected, but not afraid to scrap with us." Rex added.

"They were really the best of the Jedi." Rex said. "To make a long story short…we fought a few more battles, collected Echo—"

"Wait…what?" Sabine asked.

"I was a prisoner of war. And the Separatists experiment. I had a battle algorithm on me when I was captured, and they destroyed my organic body and made me an electronic slave."

Sabine's jaw is on the floor.

In response…Echo smirked and twisted his right arm near the elbow.

I involuntarily gasp as his arm just…comes off.

_Revealing a little horizontal…data port._

"Oh my…" Sabine whispered.

"Gone. They plugged me into computers. Part of my brain became a computer. That's why I can remember so many random details of things. My brain is…different."

Oh man.

"You mentioned it before, but…" I whisper.

"it's different to see?" Echo said, smiling at me.

"I don't mean that bad. I…" I shake my head.

"Don't worry about it." He said to Sabine and I.

"Right. The thing that changed everything wasn't a battle. It actually wasn't even a combat situation." Rex said.

Echo nodded.

"One day, as we were making an offensive on Ringo Vinda, a clone named Tup shot one of our Jedi generals at point blank range. For no reason."

"Huh?" I say, confused.

"Why?" Sabine asked.

"Well, one of our brothers named Fives asked that same question. He went to our home planet, Kamino and investigated."

"We were grown and trained on Kamino." Echo filled in the gaps.

"He discovered something called an inhibitor chip. It was implanted in a clone shortly after creation, in order to ensure a soldier's complete loyalty to the Republic and made it impossible to disobey an order…like Order 66."

My jaw drops.

_They were forced into it._

Sabine opened her mouth, but Rex cut her off.

"Just let me finish. That's all I ask."

Sabine nodded, and I glance at the armor again.

_On the inside of one of the breastplates…_

Oh man.

It's an Aurebesh '5'.

Numbly, I look back to Rex and Echo.

"He discovered all this, but before he could relay the information to General Skywalker or myself…Chancellor Palpatine had Fives murdered in cold blood, steps from safety."

…

…

Sabine just looks shocked.

"From what we know…Palpatine knew this. But covered it up. For what reason, we don't know. But Fives told me to remove the chip."

…

"So…I gathered up a group of loyal clones and we did just that."

"Rex, myself, Wolffe and Gregor." Echo said.

"Were you there when he was killed?" I ask Echo.

"No. Rex accidentally told the story a little out of order. Fives was killed, I was saved and given cybernetics, then we removed the chips." He replied.

"And?" Sabine asked.

Rex broke eye contact with Sabine and turned to the jungle.

"Order 66 was 5 days later."

…

Oh.

So close.

"The chip was here." Rex said, pointing at his head. "We woke up, and the Empire had been born. The Jedi were dead or hunted. It was all over."

_Oh man._

"Everything you knew…" Sabine whispered.

Echo and Rex nodded.

"Gone. In an instant." Echo said.

"Since we had been forced to go underground for the procedure, we couldn't go back to the Empire. And we didn't want to. So we tried laying low and figuring out what happened." Rex said.

"Not much happened for about six years. Then we found Commander Tano." Echo added.

_Of course._

That's why they're so loyal to her.

"We had been hopeful that she'd survived the Order, since she had left the order, but we didn't know you see." Rex said.

"She took us all in, and brought us into the fold of the Rebellion. Then, it was little more than an idea. She knew Senator Organa didn't like the Emperor, and didn't like how he was running things. So we joined." Echo said.

"For years more, we just watched and slowly found people. One here, two there. Some had means, most didn't. This is the most that the Rebellion's had in terms of power. And we'd be destroyed by a single Star Destroyer." Rex said, then gesturing to the table.

"I thought you'd want to see some of this. It's our gear from the war, plus Fives' stuff."

"How…how'd you get it?" Sabine asked.

"We stole it from the Republic after he died. It wasn't theirs." Rex said, unflinching.

I gently pick up the armor with the Aurebesh '5' on it.

"You saw the tag." Echo said, after a moment.

I nod, turning to look back at him.

"Was this your armor style?" Sabine asked.

"It was. Given to us by the Republic. It came in Phases. This is a Phase II helmet, but I modified the chest to integrate Phase I and II." Rex told us.

I'm still looking at this armor.

_I guess it's…Fives' armor._

There's a plate that is sticking out on both shoulders.

"You like it?" Echo asked me, putting his hand on my shoulder.

"Yeah."

"It's called a pauldron. It signified rank. Fives, like Echo and I was an ARC Trooper. That's what that signifies."

"It came in handy too. Remember when we were surrounded on Geonosis and a clanker shot that thing?" Rex asked, almost laughing.

Echo laughed. "Yeah! It reflected right off it and took out one!"

Sabine and I both laugh.

Sabine held up another set of armor, which is colored blue.

"That would be mine." Rex said, with a smile.

"Why blue?"

"It signified our troop company. The 501st, and Domino Squad. That's what we started out as."

I glance at Echo.

"You miss it. Don't you?" I ask.

Echo nodded.

"More than you know." Rex said.

Then he grabbed the helmet with the jaig eyes and put it on.

Echo bowed his head.

"Orders?" He asked, sounding half serious.

"Kick some Imperial butt. But not now. That's your standing mission."

Suddenly Echo snapped into a mode I've never seen before.

"Yes sir!"

Rex took off the helmet and smiled.

"At ease."

Echo loosened up.

"I like how yours are chrome. Gives you some style. You're a different breed than us." Rex smiled, pointing to Sabine's helmet.

Sabine smiled proudly.

Rex then grabbed the pistols.

"Boy I'm glad that they reversed the aging process."

"Huh?" I ask.

"When they created us clones, they couldn't wait a lifetime to create the army. It was started only a few years before the war. So they used a process to age us twice as fast in order to create the army. Not a problem since we were meant to be expendable for the War."

"That's something else we found out after the inhibitor chip surgery." Echo added.

Rex nodded. "It was a genetic thing. Fortunately, there was an easy fix. That's why we're not in our 60's, which we would be if not for the fix."

I quickly look at Rex and Echo.

_They look like they've seen a few battles, but not outrageously old._

Maybe 10 years older than Kanan?

"And we can fight. Which is something we can hopefully do soon." Echo said.

Rex smiled and nodded.

"We didn't bring you two just to tell you Fives' story. Although that was the primary point. We wanted to let both of you know something."

I glance at Sabine, and she's looking at me.

We both turned back to Rex.

"Given the situation, we kind of have to graduate everybody that we train. But you two are the only two that would have cut it for the Clone Wars."

I smile, and look at Echo.

_Who is smiling._

"You'd obviously be a Commander of us clones, but I think we would have gotten along alright." Echo smiled at me, then looked to Sabine.

"You would have been immediately thrown to Rex and the rest of us."

Rex laughed. "Yeah, she would have tore thru a normal company. They would have hoped we could fix her. Then we would have dominated those damned Seps."

Sabine beamed, and I smile as well.

"I cannot give you a higher compliment than that. Both of you would have fit into the 501st. Fought alongside us, General Skywalker and General Kenobi."

"Me?" I ask.

I'm not a good hand to hand fighter, and the blaster isn't my specialty.

"Absolutely." Echo said.

"Say that you're not a Jedi. You're normal. You can wield a blaster well and are getting stronger. If we gave you a month or two, you'd be right with us in a firefight."

I smile.

_Wow._

"Thank you." I say.

"Yeah. That means a lot." Sabine added.

Rex and Echo both smiled.

"I mean it. And I knew you two would realize the significance of Fives. I don't tell that story to just anyone you know."

"Other than Commander Tano, you're the only ones." Echo said.

Oh wow.

"Oh wow." Sabine said.

"Yeah." I say blankly.

"We can't be more proud of you. Yeah, your training isn't complete. But you're ready to fight. And that's the real accomplishment." Rex said simply, but with the force of a bantha.

"You'll learn that your training is never really over." Echo cracked a smile.

I jokingly groan, causing everyone to laugh.

"Uhm…one question." Sabine asked.

"Yeah?" Rex answered.

"What about the rest of the clones?"

_Oh._

Good question.

"Great call…" Echo said, looking impressed.

"Indeed. Well, remember after you got back from Ord Mantell how we weren't here?" Rex began.

"We had a mission also." Echo smiled.

"We'd found a potential…answer to that question. And it got answered."

Echo smiled.

…

_No._

I smile right before Echo says it.

"There's an entire group of clones that left the Imperial Army at some point or another, scattered across the Outer Rim. And they all say there's more."

"And they want to join us." Rex said, before smiling.

"No way…"

"We already have an army?" Sabine asked.

"No." Rex quickly shook his head.

"They didn't have the inhibitor chip removed, or the aging process reversed." Echo clarified.

"But those are two of our requirements for them to be allowed into the ranks." Rex said simply.

…

I feel like I'm saying this for the thousandth time, but…

Wow.

"So we're not alone?" I ask.

Rex shook his head.

"No. We're not alone. Give us ten years, and we could even have this disaster fixed right up. Then we can go off to a happy retirement."

Echo laughed.

"Hah! That's a good one sir."

"Aww." Sabine said quietly.

"It's not in our nature to rest on our laurels. Like you Sabine. Jango Fett, the clone template, was Mandalorian." Rex said.

"I assume you've already told her about that." Echo asked me.

"Yeah." I nervously nod.

"Hah. You two are going to be a fearsome team and a pain in the Empire's backside when we light this rocket."

I smile, and look at Sabine.

She's smiling too.

Maybe.

_Just maybe._


	21. Remembrance

(A/N: I posted some of the pictures to Tumblr from later in the chapter for those who are interested. Thanks to everyone who has read and/or left a review on the last few chapters. Enjoy Naboo.)

Bump Bump Bump Bump…

Outside the little window it's primarily red, with a small portion of black at the top.

We came into the system using civilian transport, but Ahsoka apparently knows somebody on Naboo that has a hanger, so we grabbed a private transport to get on the planet.

I yawn and try to stretch.

_I fell asleep on the way._

I couldn't sleep last night because…

_Well, because the girl sitting next to me wasn't next to me._

I didn't even think of it until it was late, and she'd already grabbed her stuff and left since I got cleared and was fine.

Funny how stuff just accumulates.

But I just couldn't sleep. I just tossed and turned and rolled over.

_Sabine's looking at me._

I glance up, feeling her eyes on me.

She smiled at me, then looked back up front.

I look away, to my outfit.

Yesterday as a treat, Sabine was put in charge of picking out some clothes for me for today.

Ahsoka specifically told us to wear dark colors today.

Not to mention I lost my new favorite outfit, the black jacket and darker pants.

Hera came with us, more to ensure our safety than anything. Even though she said that she thought she could help me pick out new clothes.

_She wanted to make me look good._

We ended up getting a bunch of stuff.

Three jackets, two black, the other a dark brown.

Four shirts. Black, dark grey, blue and white.

Then a ton of pants.

Black, brown, blue, grey, all sorts.

On the way back I mentioned to Sabine that I wanted to put a pauldron like Rex's on the shoulder, which led to us.

In my room.

Around the holo.

I was convinced that she was going to sleep in there again.

_She hadn't moved her stuff._

She brought up this outfit designer program from somewhere, and played with all sorts of combonations.

We ended up opting for a blue pauldron on my shoulder as an homage to Rex, Echo and all of their squad.

And it actually looked really good.

I'm keeping my knee guards and slingshot as an emergency measure.

Then Sabine jokingly asked if I'd be okay without her for a night.

I said yeah, and then she was gathering her stuff to go.

The only bad part was…that I could still smell her on my sheets.

And sleep was impossible.

I don't know how I ended up falling asleep, but it took awhile.

A hissing sound below us brings me back to reality.

_Oh yeah._

We're landing.

The entire ship shakes as we touch down.

Ahsoka steps back into the cabin as I let Sabine go first.

She smiled at me, then I stand to move out of the craft.

When I get out, I see a dressed up woman hugging Ahsoka.

"It's so good to see you. Thank the spirits you're alright."

"Thank you Dormé. How is the Empire treating you all?" Ahsoka asked.

Dormé frowned. "We manage like we always do. The Queen, as I'm sure you've heard is a puppet to the Regional Governor."

Ahsoka nodded.

"Let me introduce who I dragged along with me." Ahsoka smiled. "This is Sabine Wren, and Ezra Bridger."

"Welcome to Naboo. It's an honor." Dormé bowed her head.

I nervously copy her.

"Thank you." Sabine said.

"So the Empire controls things here?" Ahsoka asked.

"Yes. Because of the plasma. Palpatine's influence keeps them from destroying the planet, so they are forced to limit how much they can get. But it makes a difference."

I nod, and glance around as they keep talking.

This hanger is massive, with a polished stone floor and yellow Starfighters rising on either side.

_Impressive place._

I…

_Huh?_

I'm looking back at Ahsoka and her friend…but...

_There's another man next to her._

There's a haze around him. And nobody's acknowledging him.

This is weird.

Before I can speak up, the…man brought his hands to his lips to silence me.

…

Okay?

He's wearing a long, light brown robe and has long brown hair and a beard.

_What's going on?_

I keep one eye on him as Ahsoka and whatever her name is keep talking.

"Why a different hangar when we're leaving?" Ahsoka asked.

"There's a VIP coming in shortly. I slipped you all in beforehand, and the Queen allowed it because she owed me a favor."

"Ahh. Well you know…" Ahsoka trailed off, with a look in her eye.

"I'll stay where I am for now. It's where I belong."

"Fair enough. You know how to get ahold of me if you change your mind."

The lady smiled, and the man beside her bowed his head.

I bow, more out of habit than anything.

"The door that'll take you into the city proper is right off the first hallway. I can't go any further with you."

"That's fine. I know where to go." Ahsoka reassured her.

We start walking to the door, and the…man, ghost, whatever he is placed his hand on my shoulder and smiled.

Then he just disappeared.

_What?_

…

I don't even know what just happened.

Ahsoka led us out the door, and immediately we're met with the sight of what could be the prettiest city in the galaxy.

"Whoa…" Sabine said.

"Wow." I speak up.

"Welcome to Theed. Capitol of Naboo." Ahsoka smiled, walking ahead of us.

_Wow._

The buildings look like they're made out of stone instead of Durasteel, and there's plants growing everywhere I look.

"I don't think I've ever seen anything like this place before." Sabine said.

"It's the prettiest planet in the galaxy if you ask me. But I'm biased." Ahsoka answered.

"Why are you biased?" I ask.

Ahsoka's smile melted away, and she bit her lip.

"Well, have either of you heard of Padmé Amidala?"

The Queen and Senator.

_From Naboo._

"Yeah. Senator Organa mentioned her when listing off his daughter's resume." Sabine said.

"And she used to be Queen here. And a senator." I add.

Ahsoka smiled.

"How'd you know that?" Sabine turned to me.

"I looked into the Clone Wars. Her name, a guy named Kenobi and Ahsoka's old Master's names are all over it."

Ahsoka thinly smiled.

"We had some fun. It was entertaining."

We turn onto a larger street, and see more of the city.

Still gorgeous.

Beside me, Sabine slightly frowned.

"I guess they can't leave perfect alone, can they?"

Way off in the distance…is a Star Destroyer.

"Nope. I assume that's to monitor the plasma production." Ahsoka said.

Talk about ugly.

It's like a bruise on this gorgeous place. At least it's outside the city, but still.

_It isn't green, and it doesn't belong here._

"Anyway, Ezra you are right. Padmé Amidala was Queen of Naboo about 20 years ago, and led them thru the first invasion from a foreign power in a century. Later she went on to become Senator. Would either of you like to guess why I bring that up?"

I shake my head.

No idea.

"Well, today is Empire Day to the rest of the galaxy." Ahsoka said.

_Wait, really?_

It's my birthday.

"Hey." Sabine turned and smiled at me.

Ahsoka frowned at her.

"Well, over here. On Naboo. It's Padmé Amidala Remembrance Day." Ahsoka said, sounding perturbed.

_Oh._

"She passed?" I ask.

"Unfortunately."

"Did you know her?" Sabine asked.

"Yeah, a bit. She was one of my master's few friends outside the Jedi Order. He never told me, and I never asked. But they were close."

"What was she like?" I ask curiously.

_She's all over the Clone Wars stuff that I've read, fought off an invasion, and knew Ahsoka and her master._

She is important.

"Well, that's kind of why I brought you here. I think you two should know a little of what it was like before the Empire. You'll know what you're fighting for."

Makes sense.

_And it's basically what she said back when we were with Rex after we got back._

Ahsoka pointed off to the right, at an unassuming building.

"Amidala, Queen of the Naboo People Museum."

_We're going to…a museum?_

Aww man.

"How is a museum going to show us what we're fighting for?" Sabine turned to Ahsoka and asked.

Ahsoka frowned.

"You'll see." She said, leaving no room to argue.

_I don't think she liked Sabine looking to me when she said it's Empire Day._

Oh well.

It's kind of my fault.

I forgot my own birthday.

Ahsoka leads us inside, and a man just inside waved us inside.

There seems to be areas split off from one another.

'Trade Crisis'

'Early Life'

'Relations With The Jedi'

And others.

Wordlessly, Ahsoka walked off.

Leaving Sabine and I just standing in the archway past the entrance.

_Well._

Might start at the start.

I walk over to the area marked 'Early Life'

"Padme Amidala, born in 3607 to workers in the Refugee Relief and Reform Movement was raised to believe in the greater good and in people's ability to do good and right by each other. She quickly realized an aptitude in politics and rose to join the Apprentice Legislature by her 11th birthday. By age 13, she was recognized as the 'Princess of Theed', equal to Minister today. She was extremely popular by all Naboo and rose to the throne when Ars Veruna, King of the Naboo was embroiled in a corruption scandal relating to off world affairs and forced to abdicate the throne by Amidala's strong leadership."

Above us is a picture on the Holotemrinal of a young woman, in all red with stark white makeup and designs on her face.

_Looks royal all right._

Wow.

_She did everything right._

Corrupt King? Bye, I'm in charge now.

She couldn't have been old.

Next to me, Sabine stopped reading.

We walk over to the next area, labeled 'Invasion of Naboo'

"Rising to the throne at the age of 14, yet not the youngest Queen in Naboo history, Amidala was immediately tested. The Trade Federation, a galactic corporation in existence for hundreds of years acted aggressively by moving to tax major trade routes. Queen Amidala protest formally, appealing to the Galactic Senate. The body, mired in corruption and led by Chancellor Valorum did not act, allowing the Trade Federation to blockade the planet.

However, with the assistance of two Jedi, Qui-Gon Jinn and Obi-Wan Kenobi, Amidala escaped the blockade and flew to Coruscant to personally appeal to the Senate. Her pleas fell on deaf ears. In response, Senator Palpatine of Naboo persuaded her to motion for a Vote of No Confidence in the Chancellor. This action paved the way for emergency relief to be allocated for the Naboo.

Boosted by the action in the Senate and with the news that Senator Palpatine had been elected as the new Supreme Chancellor, Amidala returned to Naboo with the intention of retaking the planet. Using a two pronged attack of a space battle to deactivate the Trade Federation's droid army and an assault on the Royal Palace on Theed, Amidala gathered together the scattered Naboo defense and freed the planet."

This time on the Holoterminal is a picture of Amidala in a white dress holding up a glowing sphere with…a species I don't recognize.

_Everyone looks very happy though._

"Wow." Sabine said quietly.

I follow her over to the section titled 'Escalation of Tensions and the Start of the Clone Wars'.

And before I begin reading, I look at the Holoterminal.

It's a picture of three people. The woman on the left is Amidala I'm assuming.

The other two have lightsabers. Green and blue.

_It looks like a desert planet._

Red dirt and red background.

Amidala has three massive scratches on her back.

"After her early years in the Senate preventing aggressive actions against the growing Separatist threat in the shape of a standing army, it was the actions of a Jedi that plunged the galaxy into three long, bloody years of conflict.

Jedi Obi Wan Kenobi journeyed to the planet Geonosis on orders unknown and was captured by Separatist forces on the planet. Before his capture, Kenobi sent a distress call to his fellow Jedi on Imperial City. That message was intercepted by his Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker. Skywalker was on Naboo, overseeing now Senator Amidala's protection following a string of assassination attempts. Amidala convinced Skywalker to risk everything and venture out to the planet in an effort to save the Jedi Master. Despite their best efforts, the droid forces on the planet overwhelmed them and they joined Kenobi, sentenced to death.

However, before the Geonosians and Separatsts could carry out their executions, the Jedi Council brought over 200 hundred Jedi warriors and 50,000 troops of a new clone army that had been secretly commissioned by the Jedi Order years before and ended the executions.

The battle moved to the Geonosian Plains, where the Republic forces and Jedi won a decisive victory. But at a heavy cost: Galactic peace that had last for a millennia."

I look back up to the picture.

Okay, so the one on the right must be Kenobi.

He's older, is heavier and looks stronger.

_Skywalker must be in the middle with the green lightsaber and dark brown clothes._

"Skywalker. That's Ahsoka's master right?" Sabine quietly asked me.

I nod, and led her over to the next panel.

'Conclusion of the Clone Wars and Demise of a Queen'

_Oh no._

The picture is of Amidala, Kenobi and Skywalker, years after the Battle of Geonosis.

Clearly a professional photo, but it's interesting.

_Skywalker is HUGE._

I don't think you could pay me to duel him.

"After three long, bloody years of conflict that had touched every corner of the galaxy, the Separatist forces, near defeat made a last gasp attempt to win the conflict by capturing Supreme Chancellor Palpatine. In an assault on Imperial City led by General Grievous, they successfully breached the hastily constructed defenses and abducted the Supreme Chancellor. However, due to the efforts of the Imperial Navy, the General's ship was halted before it could escape the system.

There, Jedi Masters Anakin Skywalker and Obi Wan Kenobi made a heroic rescue attempt, forcing the General to flee and rescuing the Chancellor before the ship, _The Invisible Hand_ crashed back to the surface of Imperial City.

Shortly after, the Jedi attempted a coup of Supreme Chancellor Palpatine in an effort to seize power and join the Separatists. The attempts on the Chancellor's life were stopped by the lives of several Imperial Guards and clone troops. In response, the Supreme Chancellor declared all Jedi to be enemies of the newly formed Empire and moved to secure the peace and prosperity of the Jedi and ending the Separatist threat.

Tragically, in the aftermath of the attempted takeover of the Jedi and hunt for traitors, it was discovered that Senator Amidala was killed by a group of Jedi for reasons unknown. According to a report published by the Imperial Senate a year after her murder, it is suspected that she stood up to Jedi Master Anakin Skywalker, who was a ringleader of the Jedi plot to wrangle power from the people's representative, Palpatine and Amidala paid for the bravery with her life. The circumstances around her death, due to Naboo custom, remain a mystery."

…

…

Numbly, I look over to Sabine.

What?

…

_That's impossible._

The weird thing is, most of that matches up to what I saw online. This is a more pro-Jedi version of the Clone Wars, but…

There's no way he murdered Senator Amidala.

Sabine subtly elbowed me and pointed to an area closer to the door.

'Relations with Skywalker'

_Oh boy._

Ahsoka's standing at the display, looking pensive.

We walk over, and stand next to her.

"Padmé Amidala and Anakin Skywalker first met in 3631 after the numerous assassination attempts on Amidala's life. Supreme Chancellor deemed that Amidala deemed Jedi protection, and the Jedi Council assigned then Jedi Padawan Anakin Skywalker to oversee her protection.

In the coming years, Amidala and Skywalker would become close personal friends as well as prominent figures in the Clone Wars. The two were occasionally spotted in Coruscant eating establishments, and rumors of their romantic involvement were widespread despite the Jedi's opposition to its members being romantically involved, believing their duty was greater than a lifelong vow to one person.

Despite the Jedi's rule, Skywalker and Amidala were close on a intimately personal level. After Amidala's murder, several personal mementos from Skywalker, and it appears that Skywalker kept at least a temporary residence at Amidala's personal apartment."

When I finish reading, I look up to see Ahsoka scrolling thru pictures.

_I didn't know there was more than one._

There's one of Skywalker and Amidala, him standing behind her. Both smiling.

Then Ahsoka scrolls to one of Amidala holding Anakin from behind.

Lastly, there's one of them, on what looks like the Geonosis planet, looking into the distance.

…

Ahsoka turned to Sabine and I.

"You two done?"

I nod.

I could spend all day in here, trying to figure out which end is up, but I don't know if that would help.

She led Sabine and I out into the street and towards a bridge.

"The last part. About the end of the war. That's not true."

That makes more sense.

"That did seem sudden." Sabine said, sounding cautious.

"The Empire has to spin the end of the war a certain way. Truthfully, nbody really knows what happened. The aftermath is clear though."

"She had an amazing impact." I say.

Ahsoka smiled.

"Look around. Today is the 16th anniversary of her death."

I look around…and see it.

_Everybody's wearing dark colors._

Like it's…a funeral.

And it's quiet.

_Solemn._

I look to Ahsoka, and she nodded.

"Don't get me wrong. She deserves that museum, and all this honor, but she is the tragic story. The martyr that the Empire pushes to distract from the real story."

"Which is?" Sabine asked.

…

"I can't tell you."

"What?" Sabine and I both say loudly.

Causing everyone to turn and look at us.

"Sorry." I quickly apologize to the people closest to us.

In response, I get a glare and a shake of the head as they look away.

_Oops._

Ahsoka is biting her lip.

"I cannot tell you. If you are captured…they'll kill you for knowing."

"Who is they?" I ask.

"The Empire's leadership." Ahsoka said, then stopping suddenly.

Clip Clop.

Clip Clop.

Clip Clop.

_Huh?_

Ahsoka quickly stops as everyone around us does the same, and looks to the deserted road.

_We're just walking on the sidewalk._

Clip Clop.

Clip Clop.

It's a carriage. Pulled by…something.

"Oh, look…_gualaar_." I hear somebody say.

Clip Clip.

…

Oh.

It's a carriage.

Followed by a casket.

Clip Clop.

Clip Cop.

_Oh man._

Clip Clop.

Clip Clop.

It is completely silent.

Clip Clop.

Clip Clop.

Everybody stands and watches respectfully as the carriage slowly makes its way past us, and up towards a white building in the distance.

A minute or two after the carriage passes us, the crowd begins to walk again, but thin out.

"Let me tell you what kind of a person Padmé was." Ahsoka began. "She never mentioned anything about being the former Queen of Naboo. She was very humble. Very kind. When I first was Anakin's Padawan, she met me with open arms and did everything she could for me.

She trusted me with her safety, her thoughts and her beliefs.

When…"

She suddenly stopped and took a shaky breath while leading us away from the larger crowd and up to the white building.

"About eight months before the conclusion to the war, my master and I were called back to Coruscant to investigate a bombing at the Jedi Temple. We discovered that it was a rogue bomber, just some guy off the street, but when we did more digging, the signs pointed to the true mastermind behind the conflict being me."

WHAT?

"That's—" I begin hastily.

"Impossible. I know." Ahsoka replied, then paused.

"The Jedi Council immediately took my Padawan braid, banished me from the Order and turned me over to the courts. I expected to be convicted guilty, even though I didn't do it. I tried to find evidence of my innocence, but failed."

Ahsoka then took another shaky breath.

"To my complete surprise, waiting for me…was Padmé. She had an incredible defense prepped. Anakin must have told her every detail, because she had a bulletproof case for my immediate release and reinstatement into the Jedi Order."

…

"But Tarkin…wouldn't hear it. And neither would Palpatine. I was about to be convicted when Anakin busted in, having found the true culprit, who came in and spat garbage about how the Jedi orchestrated this entire war to gain power and orchestrate violence."

_But she never went back to the Jedi…_

"The Jedi offered me a spot back, but no real apology. One of the Masters essentially passed the blame onto "the will of the Force.", so I left. I couldn't believe in them, or in myself. I needed to find answers."

…

"I never should have left. If for no other reason than to save Padmé."

…

I look over to Sabine, speechless.

She looked back at me, looking shocked.

"I know that the Jedi were the "guardians of peace" and all, but whenever we do clean this mess up…it might not have been the worst thing in the world."

…

Huh.

_I want to ask more about that Jedi, but I don't think that's a good idea._

We briefly stop at a flower stand, where Ahsoka buys a bouquet of white flowers, then we silently walk to the white building, which upon closer inspection has a dome on it.

And is REALLY white.

When we start up the steps, Ahsoka said "You guys don't have to come in."

No.

"I want to." Sabine says.

"Me too."

Ahsoka slightly smiled, then led us inside the stone building.

_It's cold._

There's a small entry way, then a foyer with a blue stained glass painting of a brunette woman in a headdress leading to another room.

_That's where she is._

Sabine and I sort of hang back as Ahsoka sort of floats into the other room.

After a minute or two, we walk in.

…

There's a stone…coffin I guess, with a symbol carved on top.

It's really pretty.

Just like this whole planet.

Sabine glances up in the doorway to see a pot of flowers about 8 feet up.

…

…

Ahsoka gently put the flowers under the carved symbol, then stepped back and bit her lip.

_She's a mess._

I've never seen her anything close to being like this.

Gushh…Shhhh…

I freeze in disbelief.

Gushh…Shhhh…

Gushh…Shhhh…

I look over to Ahsoka, and she has a look of shock.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sabine move, and I glance back to see her pull her pistols out.

_Oh man._

Not here…

Gushh…Shhhh…

But we've got to defend ourselves and her from that…

Monster.

_Vader._

He's not getting the better of me twice in a row.

My powers have doubled since Ord Mantell.

I pull my lightsaber to me, but don't activate it.

Gushh…Shhhh…

Ahsoka activates hers right before he walks in.

Gushh…Shhhh…

"Leave. You are not welcome here." Ahsoka said firmly.

Gushh…Shhhh…

"I…not today." He said.

_I guess it's a he?_

Is Vader a guy?

I activate my lightsaber and take a half step in front of Sabine.

"No. I didn't give you a choice." Ahsoka replied strongly.

Gushh…Shhhh…

Vader slowly raised his hands into a clear non threatening position.

"I don't want to start trouble. Not here. Not today."

…

_I'm not sure about this._

"You're why nobody was here. I thought that was weird." Ahsoka stated.

Vader…nodded?

"This is supposed to be a secret. My master believes me to be across the system in Chommell Minor."

_Master?_

Sabine raised her pistols higher, causing Vader to look away from Ahsoka and to us.

…

…

And then he looked away.

"Obi-Wan told you."

_WHAT?!_

That…

"You know he's alive?" Ahsoka gave no ground.

"I was there." Vader replied simply.

…

He had to be in the Jedi inner circle.

_He knew Ahsoka, and Kenobi._

"Stop your line of thinking…young one." Vader says, in his deep voice.

Sabine turns to me.

I open my mouth, but no words come to me.

"So you'll do us no harm? And let us go?" Ahsoka asked, lightsabers still ignited.

"Yes. I'll inform my scouts that they saw nothing. You were never here, and neither was I."

_He wants to keep this quiet._

Gushh…Shhhh…

Then Ahsoka deactivated her lightsaber.

…

Okay?

I nervously do the same.

_I feel like I'm handing my life over to this guy._

Ahsoka started to the front entrance, then stopped right next to Vader.

Gushh…Shhhh…

He's got about 8 inches on her.

_You can't notice anything about him physically._

He's completely in black, and it belies his size.

The guy is enormous.

_6'7 at least._

Finally, Ahsoka looked away from Vader, and walked behind the stained glass.

I put my arms between him and Sabin as she followed, then walk behind her.

I feel Vader's eyes on us all the way out.

When I get outside, Ahsoka is looking around.

_He said he had scouts in the area._

…

I don't see anyone.

_And it's a pretty bare area._

Not many places to hide.

Ahsoka waved for us to follow, and before long, we're in the back of a ship.

Going home.


	22. Dancing At The Edge Of Their Memories

I deflect the blaster bolt, and step forward and feint to Kanan.

He moved to block it, and I retreat to block more blaster bolts.

Up.

_Back._

"Left!" Ahsoka called out.

Rex and Echo both fire on me, and per Ahsoka's instruction I have to try and send them at Rex, because he's to my left.

Bang.

Bang.

Rex dodges to first one, but the second one glances off his shoulder.

"Gah!" Kanan smiles before I make another attempt at him.

This is a lot like dancing. Partially scripted, and the Kanan part is just so I have a warm body to pretend to fight.

We're doing this for the blaster deflection because, if I do have to bring my lightsaber out in public, I'll probably be in an Imperial area and they'll be a shoot to kill order.

I send the next wave of bolts into the floor and pretend to go for the kill on Kanan.

"He wants my head! End him Ahsoka!" Kanan called out with a laugh in his voice.

"Right!" She laughed.

Kanan vaults over me, allowing me an easy block and deflect.

I miss Echo by inches at most.

"You let him have a clear shot at me?" Echo asked, as I fend off Kanan.

"Gotta keep you guys entertained!" He said, as I kick in front of him.

"We'd hate to bore you guys." I add on, causing them all to laugh.

I'm betting left.

"Right!"

_SHIT._

I party Kanan and attempt to get my blade over in time to send the bolts Echo's way.

But one slips past me and sends a hard shock into my left shoulder.

_It's over._

I angrily turn away, restraining myself from throwing my saber as far as I can.

"DANG IT!" I yell.

The exercise was to last until I missed one.

I hear Ahsoka say something as I bow my head and let my frustration out into the Force, which absorbs it.

Then I open my eyes up, toss my saber in the air and snatch it.

_It's over now._

"How long did he go?" Kanan asked, before gulping down some water.

"9:03."

_So eight minutes._

I let out an angry breath before pulling my water bottle and a banana to me.

"That's a lot better than I was expecting Ezra. Don't be frustrated." Ahsoka said calmly.

I swallow my bite of banana, then say "That's not why I'm mad. I thought you were going to say left, and you said right."

"You did seem to panic." Echo said calmly.

"Not that I noticed." Rex countered.

"That's good that you tried anticipating where she was going to say Ezra. You'll learn to use the Force and do that almost subconsciously." Kanan said.

"Yeah, you did quite well." Ahsoka smiled at me.

I smile.

_Well I guess I didn't totally screw it up._

"Did it look better?" I ask her.

She shrugged.

"More natural." She conceded.

"Now that looked fine to me." Echo said emphatically.

"No. He's been swiping. His form is about precision. It's not his fault, but using a lightsaber is a lot about just getting reps in and finding the form." Kanan told him.

"By swiping, you mean…" Rex said, then swept his arm horizontally.

"Exactly. He needs to be more like…" Ahsoka said, then gracefully swept her arm horizontally, stopped ¾ of the way, then changed directions. "The idea isn't power. It's all finesse."

Rex nodded.

"And he also need to keep working on his force powers so that he can capitalize on an opponent's mistake." Kanan added.

"Wouldn't he have to take one hand off his lightsaber then?" Echo asked.

"I'm supposed to be one handed. That's part of it." I tell him.

Kanan smiled.

"Some of the time. You're at the advantage when you have the hand free."

I finish my water, then get a refill.

…

"So. What now?" Rex asked Ahsoka.

"I fight Ezra. Try to push him." Kanan smiled at me.

Yes!

I've been wanting a rematch.

Rex nodded, and Echo gulped down some green concoction.

"What is that?" Ahsoka asked, looking a little disgusted.

"Vegetable smoothie."

_Huh?_

I look over at Echo and try not to laugh.

"That sounds terrible." I say.

"He hates vegetables. Says they ruin the meal." Rex says.

"They do." Echo says. "And I get more this way."

Okay.

"Whatever flies your starship…" Ahsoka said, then walks over to the storage crates.

I walk away from Kanan and towards my spot.

_No sweeping._

_Use my parries._

_Deflection is a means to an end._

I stop pacing and shrug my jacket off, pushing it to the side.

Kanan pulling his saber to him spurs me to do the same.

I salute him, then don't hesitate to make the first move.

Jab. Block.

He spins, and meets my swipe at his shoulder, then puts his weight behind him and forces me to back off.

_Just like Sabine._

Uses power.

But Kanan's specialty is Form III, defense.

I block three quick strikes at my waist, then spin out, and reverse course.

He falls back into his defensive stance.

_Vary your attack angles._

I try to probe his defenses at three basic angles, vertical, diagonal and horizontal.

Kanan got in front of each one, then sliced at my waist.

In order to avoid it, I use the fact that the ceiling is 20 feet tall and jump back as high as I can.

WHOA!

I duck and grab the rafter in a panic.

I didn't think I'd get this high.

My brain clicks into gear after a moment, and I realize that I still have my blade in my hand.

_If this was my actual lightsaber, I'd shoot at him and hang here for a bit._

Kanan raised his hand and threw something at me.

I drop before I find out what it is at top speed.

Cushioning my fall, Kanan jumps on me and tries bludgeoning me.

"What's the rule on the Force?" I ask Ahsoka as I block Kanan.

"Good!"

Without another thought I maintain the lock but pull one hand off to push Kanan away.

He does the same.

_No…_

He's going to win.

He puts more effort into the push and does win, breaking the saber lock.

I let out a breath and press the attack.

Jab, block.

Overhead slice, whiff.

_Blast._

Make him fight me.

I poke at his defenses, trying to get him to go on the counter attack.

Poke.

Deflect.

_Blast._

I lock his blade with the tip of mine and raise it up, then slice down, forcing him to make a decision.

Back down, or go against his style.

He lunges at me and creates option three.

_Kick me and stay in his style._

I turn the kick into a flip and land on one knee.

_KANAN!_

I attempt to move at him, but halfway thru my arm to my elbow goes numb.

I involuntarily drop my blade and make no effort to pull it back.

_It's over._

Staying on one knee, I refuse to look up.

_He's never ended the duel like that before._

If this was an actual fight, I'd need a new arm below the elbow.

_Because Kanan just cut it off._

Kanan let out a breath and pulls me up by the elbow.

"Not all bad."

"You cut off my arm." I counter.

Kanan kept his face calm.

"I didn't say it went great."

I pull my arm away and walk to the water station.

"I saw more aggressiveness." Ahsoka said.

"It was there."

"I couldn't find a hole." I defend myself.

"They were there. You usually went to the other side." Kanan said.

"The only thing that really bugged me was the footwork."

I freeze.

_What._

"Footwork?" Kanan said.

"Yeah. He was too athletic. Too purposeful." Ahsoka replied.

"Too purposeful?" Rex asked.

"He was telegraphing everything. I knew where he was going before he would move."

"I did see that. When he asked about the push he was already rearing back to get everything on it." Kanan said.

Despite myself I skip my saber across the floor in frustration.

"Ezra." Kanan said simply.

"I know." I reply, walking to go get it.

_No Force Pulls allowed._

By the time I grab it and come back, they've moved on.

"—that wasn't my big issue. He immediately flung himself at my defense. He never threatened me. Last time he did great because he made me go away from what I'm good at and do things that I've done thousands of times but aren't my strengths." Kanan said.

"So his approach was flawed." Echo summed it up.

"Exactly."

_They're right. _

I got excited off my success last time and tried to just beat him.

"Play your game" they always say.

_I played somebody else's game._

That's probably Form IV.

Attack based and can be used in dueling.

_But that uses power._

And I'm not that strong.

"Okay. Let it go. My turn." Ahsoka said, calmly putting a cup behind her.

"Two in one day?" Kanan asked as I walk back to my spot.

_Don't screw it up this time Ezra._

Vertical blocks to her strikes.

Use your damn parries.

Do. Not. Get. Too.

_Excited._

I let out a breath and turn on my saber.

Causing Ahsoka to do the same.

She's…

_I never figured out her style._

But going on the attack worked really well last time.

_I should go on the attack._

No.

I don't think anything else would look worse after how I just lost.

In humiliating fashion.

Ahsoka starts to me and I give ground in anticipation of her attack.

Then she changes her attack angle and comes at me completely vertically.

I move to block it, and she uses both her height and weight advantage against me.

_Fine._

I sidestep her, then move towards her and probe her defenses.

She blocked that, shrinking up like last time, then prevents me from going further by kicking out at me.

I give ground, and finally Ahsoka comes at me horizontally.

_Vertical._

I position myself and throw a block that I've never practiced before.

_Probably should have done that since I realized that's how you block that._

Thanks Sabine.

To my relief I lock one saber up, then Ahsoka swipes at my head with the other saber.

I duck, then push myself away from her to create space between us and spring back to full height.

Then I press the issue and go at Ahsoka.

_Who quickly begins backpedaling._

Jab. Block.

Slice. Deflection.

Ahsoka uses the energy of her deflection to close the gap between us.

I swipe out at her, and she bats my attack above me, then comes at my waist.

I jump over her, and then hear Kanan.

"Hold on!"

I freeze, looking back to him with my saber still ignited.

Ahsoka rises to her feet and extinguishes her blades.

"Ezra. No. It's not a sweep."

"Dang it." I say quietly.

"Right there, before you had to jump over her. You swiped down towards her."

"At her." I say.

Kanan shook his head.

"No. It was towards her. If it was at her, you'd be moving at her like you want to core her like a fruit!"

_Huh?_

Behind him, Ahsoka put her hand over her mouth so she wouldn't laugh.

"I'm serious! Am I wrong?" Kanan asked her.

"No. But I'm not a fruit." She replied.

Kanan shook his head, then turned back at me.

"Ezra, just because Form II is jabs and cuts, doesn't mean you have to stay exclusively to that. Try a stab, or a power strike. Be flexible, but at the same time be precise. Know what you're doing."

Oh.

"Okay." I nod.

_Don't be rigid._

Have a purpose.

That's why the swipe must be annoying him so much.

"Oh! And stop jumping OVER people. You try that in reality, and we'll have two pieces of Ezra!" Kanan called out, moving to sit next to Echo.

Sabine and Echo are standing.

Ahsoka nodded at me, and I reignite my blade and wait for her to do so.

When she does, we wordlessly slice and block each other to get back into the flow of things.

Then Ahsoka turns and comes down at me.

I block her, then twist and aim a cut at the middle of her ribs

Ahsoka makes a shocked noise, then jumps over me.

_Cut!_

I try to capitalize on her mistake, only to find air.

"Whew!" She taunted me.

I bite my lip and block her first move, then prepare for the counter.

_Then it never came._

Ahsoka laughed.

"Need a break?"

_She's trying to get in my head._

Meaning that I'm doing something right.

I discard her antics and strike diagonally.

Ahsoka blocked it with one blade, then came in to finish me.

_In the process opening her side up._

I kick her side, and jump on my advantage.

By the time she's up, I'm on her and forcing her to feverishly give ground.

Strike, block.

Parry, Deflect, Cut, Parry, Block.

Finally she flipped away from me, leaving us about where we started this thing.

"YEAH EZRA!" I hear Rex yell, and turn to see that we're basically equal.

"Make her play on your terms!" Echo smiled.

I let out a breath and jump at her.

Ahsoka goes against what she's done in the past and stands tall in response.

Block. Cut.

_Hey, that's what I do._

I parry it and move to disarm her.

Then she dropped one lightsaber and pushed my arm aside.

_OOH!_

I move forward to take advantage of the fact that she only has one weapon.

But she is backpedaling at full speed.

She moves to call her blade back to her.

Then an idea pops into my head.

I spin around, push Ahsoka back then grab my blade with two hands.

And hit her blade.

_It's now, for our purposes, in two pieces._

I turn to see Ahsoka scowling as she flung the lightsaber aside.

It's one on one now.

I move forward and lock her blade.

Ahsoka pushed me off my spot., and I come at her again.

_Not getting away from me._

Suddenly Ahsoka takes a familiar stance and I dodge a cut.

Hey!

I pivot, spin and try to overpower her.

We end up glaring at each other, about in the middle.

Then I get pushed ,only to come at her again.

Ahsoka got out a breath before I keep pressing her.

She reverses her grip and cut at me.

I pivot and slice at her legs, forcing her to vault away.

This time I'm ready for the push, and counter with one of my own.

I slide back a foot at most.

"I'm calling it." Ahsoka said, then deactivating her saber.

_That's it?_

I look to Kanan, and see that everyone's standing and leaning over to look at us.

"That's it?" I ask.

"Yeah. I lost the moment you took out my other lightsaber. We would have just danced around until one of us stopped. So I'm calling it."

_It's the second blade._

Huh.

"Good job. Looked a lot better." Kanan smiled, then leading us back to the others.

"He's such a natural if he finds that gear." Ahsoka looked up at Kanan.

"Makes me wonder if we messed up by choosing Makashi instead of Shien." Kanan replied.

"We can incorporate aspects of it. But I think he needs to be more aggressive. That's where I almost know we've messed up."

"I thought that was a bad thing against him." I ask.

"Just because he's a defensive tactician. After you took out my lightsaber, I was constantly under fire. That's where you're at your best."

"Against me you were forcing it. As Ahsoka said, you were tipping your hand. This last time, I was afraid you'd go headhunting. I had no clue where you were going."

"You tightened it up." Ahsoka smiled, before Rex smacked me in the shoulder.

"Look at you. Listening and making an adjustment."

"Thinking." Echo smiled.

I nervously smile back and grab some water.

"The kid beat you."

"Technically. I'm still working in single bladed combat. It would have just been a constant repeat of the end. He attacks, I block and push him off, he comes back. Again and again until one of us stopped."

"Sounds like a recipe for him to get frustrated." Echo said.

"Hey." I say.

"That's a good point. But that'd take too long." Ahsoka said.

"I'm saying it's a draw." Kanan said.

I open my mouth to protest, but Ahsoka put her hand on my shoulder.

"Seems fair to me. I did get one of my weapons sliced in two."

I sip my water, blood feeling like it's on fire.

_I'm in the zone._

"Can I borrow him? Or are you guys not done?" Sabine asked.

"No, have him. We're done."

I look over at Sabine as she smiled.

"Cool. Thanks."

Then grabbed me and pulled me to the door.

I turn and walk with her.

"Uhh…what's up?" I ask her once we're out of the combat room.

"I want your opinion on my armor. I just finished painting it."

"Painting it?"

"Yeah. What I did at home was a temporary thing. I changed it up a little bit."

I nod.

"What all did you do to it?" I ask, to make small talk.

Sabine turned to me, surprised.

"Couple coats of the main paint, then a clear coat to protect that. Then one more over that. But it's not that easy. You'll see." Sabine said.

"How can it not be that easy?" I ask.

"It's not like I painted each piece just one thing. I had to keep my designs."

"Same designs?" I ask.

In response, she slightly glares at me.

"Stop. You're ruining the surprise."

"Okay. Sorry." I say.

"You did really good I thought. Back there with Ahsoka."

This time it's my turn to smile.

"Thanks. Glad you got to see me not have my butt handed to me."

"Yeah, it was good to see you hold your own. But on the other hand, you're going against two masters, and you're kind of starting from the bottom."

I nod as we turn to Sabine's room.

"I'm not going to get in trouble for being back here so late am I?" I ask.

It's after dinner.

Everyone was in meetings so we had to wait to do the blaster training, which turned into dueling, which turned into two duels.

_I'm tired._

"I don't think so. And if we do, then oh well." Sabine shrugged, then unlocked her door.

I slow down a step behind her and walk in nervously.

_It's almost too clean._

Sabine stepped past me and shut the door behind me.

"Now stay here while I change. Be a good boy. No funny business." She smiled at me, then walked into the little fresher and shut the door.

I…

_That hurts a little._

I'm in control of myself.

I look around and see that Sabine's clearly treating this like a temporary residence.

No paintings, just sketches pinned to the wall.

_Hey!_

My attention is drawn to the pictures right next above her bed.

Like she had them at home.

…

This is nice.

It's the pictures of her family, plus the one of me making Sophie laugh (that's my favorite), the two pictures of us, then one of her and Atin…recently.

_Must have been that "coffee date"._

She's wearing makeup, so it must have been after she was under him at his apartment.

Feeling myself start to get annoyed, I look back to the other pictures.

…

I miss Sophie.

I miss how happy she always was, and how she bounced around when Sabine first got back.

Later on in the trip she wasn't as bouncy, but the energy was still there.

My comm beeped, and I glance down at it.

_One of those new security notices._

Just in case we do find unexpected trouble here, everybody's comms are receiving notices when shift changes happen, if somebody suspicious is approaching, if we're compromised, if we need to stay away, if we're under watch, etc.

It's a good system. I like it.

"Hey. Turn around silly." Sabine's voice says softly.

I turn around…and see Sabine in what looks like all new gear.

_Whoa._

There's a lot more orange.

Her helmet is basically the same, with a splash of it on the left side.

But her actual armor, there's a ton of it.

The left shoulder plate has a Aurebesh '5' surrounded by the old black and white checkerboard.

Long sleeves, and bigger wristguards, also orange.

Legs seem pretty much the same.

And…the jet pack.

"You look terrifying." I smile.

…

_Oh crap._

"Good. I plan to kick a lot of ass in this."

I laugh.

"You know, this is the only situation that I'd let anybody so clearly size me up. And you're the only one too. Lucky boy." She said, then ran her hands lightly thru my hair.

Uhh…

I nervously smile, not knowing what to do.

"I'm not used to this whole looking up thing."

Now I laugh.

"Sorry I grew."

"Are growing. You're gonna be taller than Kanan." She said.

I nod.

Her jaig eyes look really good.

"You really do look good Sabine. Nice job."

"Thanks. I need to break it in. New pants."

"Why?"

"You're not the only one that's been working out. The squat rack made me have to get new pants."

I…

"Now what am I supposed to say to that and not get hit?" I say defensively.

_Nothing!_

There's no safe ground!

"You don't have to say anything. There's always that option." She countered.

I shrug.

"Anyway. How about this? We wake up early tomorrow and train together. Then we can go into town and eat. I need to talk to you about some stuff, and we need to celebrate your birthday." She said softly.

"You don't have to do that Sabine."

"I want to." She said, then curling into my chest and looking up at me.

"You wanna go to your room and watch something on the Holo?"

"Sure." I say. "I'm pretty tired though. I might fall asleep."

"That's okay." She shrugged, moving to the door.

Silently, we slip thru the hallway from her room and to mine.

I shut the door quietly behind us and probe one more time to make sure Kanan's not around.

_I don't think he'd like this._

But that's his problem.

When I turn, Sabine's doing something with her leg.

"It's so…tight. Like plastered to my leg." She grumbled, then lifted her leg in the air and rotated it.

_That's good balance._

Not holding on to anything.

Then she took off her helmet and shook out her hair.

"I've been way too civilian like lately. My helmet feel weird."

"Weird?"

"I'm slow with my settings. I recoded everything to my visor and my wrists." She said.

"Jet pack?" I ask.

She nodded, then tapped her wrist three times.

The back of the wrist guard opened up on each wrist, revealing a missile.

Whirrr…

"Uhhh…" I say nervously.

It sounds ready to fire RIGHT NOW.

Sabine smiled, then tapped her wrist again and the missile disappeared.

"Mom got Daddy to order me this system. I've wanted it for a while too."

"And it's safe like that?" I ask.

Sabine nodded.

"Yup. Now C'mere and grab my waist."

"Huh?"

"Stand in front of me and grab onto my shirt when I lift my armor up. Please?" She asked.

I nod, then obey.

I get a flash of abdomen when she lifted her armor up, then I grab the white shirt under her armor.

Unfortunately I can feel her armor slip off her.

_She's uhm…_

There's no good way to say it. So she's growing too. In the right areas.

"Thank you." She smiled up at me.

I nervously smile, and she wrapped her arms around me.

"Loosen up. I'm trusting you. Trust yourself a little." She said softly.

"I feel bad. Like I'm doing something wrong. And you just told me to be a good boy." I tell her.

Just back in her room.

"You're being a good boy. So I give you small rewards."

Okay.

_Sure. Call them that._

"I feel like we're straddling the line of what's cool though."

That's…

That's stuff her boyfriend should know. And him alone.

_Call me old fashioned or whatever._

I've never understood guys that have multiple girls.

"You're on the right side of that line. We're not dating…but I trust you. Kind of hard not to after I slept in your bed for 6 straight days."

I laugh. "Yeah. It was a little weird not having you there that first night." I joke.

Kind of.

Sabine lit up.

"You too! I couldn't sleep at all."

_Oh really?_

"Me neither." I confess.

Sabine smiled.

I slip out of her arms and move to take off my shoes.

I've got them both off when I freeze.

Thump.

_That's…_

Keep your eyes on the floor.

I fiddle with my shoes as my heart rate skyrockets.

…

Sabine then laughed.

"You can look up now. And I can see you blushing on your neck."

I pop my head up to see that she's finished changing pants and now has shorts on.

"That's not fair. If I look up, I die."

"Mhmm…maybe." She conceded.

"Maybe." I say, and then notice that my middle drawer is open.

_That's where I keep my shorts, longer pants and some old shirts._

Mom's jewelry and Dad's shirt is in there.

And the picture.

"You…had stuff in there?" I ask.

She nodded. "Is that a problem?"

I…

_It kind of is._

I shake my head as I try to sort my thoughts out.

Sabine's already on her feet and walking to me when I say "I have some of my parents stuff in there."

Sabine suddenly stopped.

"Oh. I'm sorry. I didn't mean—" She quickly said.

"It's okay. I need to put it back on the Ghost."

I took it out last week after we got back from Naboo.

Sabine opened her mouth, but didn't say anything.

"It's not a big deal…I'll put it on the Ghost before we train tomorrow." I say, taking the little white box out and setting it on top of my dresser.

When I turn back to Sabine, she looks antsy.

"We should dig back into that Ezra. If we're going to be stationed here for another 6 months to a year, then we should actually do something useful."

I shrug.

We were never as happy as Sabine's family.

_At least not that I remember._

Now, most of what I remember is memories of my parents talking about frequencies and tactics and theories.

Sometimes yelling at each other.

I don't even know if the voices are right.

Wordlessly I slide under my covers and start the Holo.

_Enough of that._

Sabine turns the light off and slips under the covers and onto my chest.

Where she quickly grabs my face and gives me a chaste kiss.

_More like a nip than a kiss._

Then she settles in next to me.

I pull the remote to me and slip it to Sabine, who turns it to our favorite apartment show.


	23. Slow Fuse

I duck under a Sabine kick and she stands up fully.

"Nice. Use that athleticism."

I smile at her, and she wipes her forehead.

"A few more quick things, then one more round and we'll be done." She smiled.

I nod and pull my water to me.

"Okay. Keep your head close to your body. Several times you popped up and I had to stop myself from messing up your face. And in a real fight, they won't hesitate."

"Pop up?" I ask.

"You were trying to locate me. Which is good. But it's better to stay compact and keep your head next to your body, then get hit flush in your face."

_Okay._

"The next one is super simple, but is really helped me." Sabine said, then poked me hard in the ribs.

"Ow!"

"Breathe."

"What?" I ask.

"Don't forget to breathe. It's natural to suck in your breath before you get hit. Try to fight that. It sounds dumb, but you give yourself more cushion and bruise less afterwards if you just take the hit and don't exhale."

I give her a suspicious look, and she smirks.

"Just try it. It helped me."

"And the last one?" I ask.

She smirked.

"Don't look at a punch or kick as an attack on you. Look at it like an opportunity to turn the tables. Remember when I threw you?"

I laugh.

"Barely. After the brain damage and all."

Sabine smiled, then continued. "It was after you tried kicking me."

_Oh yeah._

"I was winning that fight, but what if I was losing? That would change the whole thing? You're dazed and against the wall, and I'm on my feet. They're at your mercy." Sabine smiled.

"Please don't throw me." I smile, asking nicely.

Sabine laughed, and took two steps back.

_Last Round._

I just need to not embarrass myself.

I let out a breath, and then nod to Sabine.

Who comes at me with a barrage of kicks.

I duck below the first one, and deflect the second one.

Sabine simply pivoted and kicked at my chest again.

I sidestep it.

_OH!_

Sabine sneaks a punch in, and I barely get my forearm up in time to block it.

"Ooh! Almost gotcha!" She smiled, as I jab to get her away from me.

It misses, but I get the space I want.

I move to try and back her into the corner.

_Don't give her a good choice._

I aim jabs at her left and right sides, causing her to back up further, then jam her into the corner with a kick.

Then I take a step forward.

_You're stuck._

"Well? You gonna do anything? Or are you going to pass up a chance at me, defenseless and in the corner?" She asked, with a glint in her eye.

_And a smirk._

I involuntarily move to wrap my arms around her, then Sabine ducks around me and slammed me into the corner.

"Hah! I win."

…

_Ow._

I gather my wits and turn to look at her.

Sabine's smiling.

"That hurt." I say simply.

She…

She baited me to think that I'd get a kiss.

_That's her look right before she kisses me._

"Sorry. I'm gonna go change, then we can go." She smiled at me, then started to the door.

…

Okay.

I stand there blankly for a second, then start to my room.

_Sabine said she'd wear her armor to break it in._

I should wear my jacket with the pauldron that Sabine just finished and put it in my room this morning while I was putting my parents stuff on the Ghost.

…

The more I think about them, and what happened…I don't think I want to dig into it.

_Whatever happened, the Empire took them because of it._

They wouldn't want me to get in trouble and potentially die for the exact same thing.

I unlock my room and quickly change into my jacket, pausing only to look in the mirror and to clip my lightsaber on my belt.

…

_I might need to actually shave._

There's a little dark hair on the bottom of my chin.

Too late now, I've got to meet Sabine in the lobby.

I lock up behind me and start to the lobby.

_Kanan._

"Kanan!" I call out before I reach the lobby.

He's heading upstairs with a cup in his hand.

"Hey Ezra. What's going on?" He smiled at me.

I shrug.

"Sabine's dragging me into town for my birthday."

Suddenly, Kanan smiled widely.

"That's a good sign."

I quickly frown at him.

"Not like that."

"You sure?" He asked, eyebrows arched. "Seems like a good sign to me."

"You don't need us, do you?" I ask.

"No. Just another meeting with General Sato." Kanan shrugged.

"That's why you grabbed the caf?" I ask.

He shrugged.

"Gives me something to do with my hands."

…

"I forgot." I say quietly.

"It's okay. Don't beat yourself up." Kanan put his hand on my shoulder softly.

"But still…this can't be what you want."

Kanan sighed.

"I want to go back to doing our thing again, but that's not possible. So, making a difference will have to do."

_Yeah._

"Any news on Lothal?" I ask.

"No, not really. They've been maneuvering ships in and out on a different schedule than other resource planets. That's the only noteworthy thing."

"So, nothing." I cut to the chase.

"Exactly." He said, sounding a little frustrated.

"Hey!" I hear Sabine's voice call out to us.

_And my stomach flips._

"Hey Sabine. I like the look." Kanan smiled.

I turn and see Sabine with her helmet on, walking to us.

"Thanks. I couldn't look at my old armor after Vader blasted it. I needed a change."

"Well you got that. Jetpack?" He asked.

Sabine nodded once.

"Does it work?"

"Yup." Sabine said. "Top speed of 80 kilometers an hour."

Kanan let out a whistle.

"Careful there kid. Don't want you zooming off too fast now."

Sabine laughed.

"Have fun. I'll comm you guys around 2 or something and let you know if anything's going on here."

"Sounds good." Sabine said.

"Thanks!" I say.

Kanan then jokingly saluted us, then started up the stairs.

Sabine laughed, then turned to me.

"Look at you…I love it!"

I laugh and nervously tug at the bottom of my jacket.

"Thanks. I like it too. Thank you for putting it together."

"You're welcome. I didn't do much. Just a few stitches here and there. Hopefully Rex will like it. I basically copied his pauldron."

"I know. That's my favorite part." I smile.

Even behind her helmet, I can tell she smiled back.

"C'mon. Let's go have fun. And I've got a story to tell you."

"A story?" I ask, as we start to the entrance.

"Yup." She said calmly.

_She's nervous._

I can feel it.

I look over at her as we start down the road.

"You know, I might have to move some stuff into your room. Did you sleep well?" Sabine asked me.

"Yeah. Sounds like you did too."

Sabine happily nodded.

"Like a Loth-Cat."

I stifle a laugh. "I don't think they sleep well. They're cute, but that's sort of it."

Sabine glanced over at me.

"I disagree. And since I can't sleep anywhere else, we might have to work something out."

I shrug nonchalantly.

_You say that, and I don't know what we are._

I…I'm enjoying this, but…

Suddenly I'm not so sure.

_Problem is, if I say something, she won't be as close or kiss me._

And I like that.

"We might. But I've got a bruise on my leg from you kicking me. That's a little problem."

Sabine froze up, then sheepishly smiled at me.

"Sorry…"

I laugh. "It's okay."

We slip thru the gates, and Sabine slides a step closer to me, and I wrap my arm around her waist.

In response, Sabine simply smiled up at me and tenderly kissed my cheek.

I smile. "I have to say. You've changed a lot Sabine. At first I thought you were going to push me out of the ship because you couldn't stand me. And now you've gone soft."

Sabine quickly blushed, and she smiled.

"Well…things have changed. I didn't like you at first because you came in and started hitting on me. Now…well…"

I smile and bite my lip.

"I'm not like this with everyone. You know that. But after I took you with me to Mandalore…I don't see why I can't be a little warmer."

_Warmer._

"Is that what we're calling this?" I ask, gesturing between us.

Sabine tensed up for a moment, then shrugged.

"I don't know. I…I'm just enjoying it."

Fair enough.

"Okay." I say.

_I can't exactly complain._

I'm not sure about this. I was fine until about 20 minutes ago.

And now I can't get it out of my head.

Sabine frowned, and studied my face briefly.

I smile at her, then she looked away.

"I got reservations at a place that has good pasta. Is that okay?" She asked me.

"Yeah. That's fine. You got a reservation?"

_How fancy is this place?_

"Yeah. They take people that walk in, but like it if you schedule ahead of time."

"So when you said yesterday that we'd eat, you'd already set this up?" I ask.

Sabine nodded. "I was hoping you'd say yes."

"I don't think you would have let me say no." I counter.

She can be stubborn.

Sabine nervously smiled. "I would have persuaded you."

I smile and shake my head.

Then Sabine gently points me towards the left side of the street we're on.

_There's a multicolored wooden sign advertising it's "famous pasta dishes"._

We go inside, where there's a girl about our age dressed nicely.

"Name?"

"Bridger." Sabine smiled at her.

…

The hostess found the name and nodded.

"Is the patio okay?"

"Yeah, that's fine." Sabine replied.

I nod and smile politely.

"Alright, if you'll just follow me…"

Sabine slid her hand in with mine as we move to follow her up the stairs and out to a patio.

_Nice view._

We're looking out at the rest of Iziz.

We don't see much of it since we stay kind of cooped up back at the base.

The hostess shows us to a table on the far end, away from any other people.

"Your waitress will be right out!"

"Thanks." I say, and Sabine smiled.

"Nice view. And the sun's out of our eyes too." Sabine smiled.

"Yup." I say, then look back at Sabine as she takes off her helmet and shakes her head.

_Her hair looks great._

"You know, the more I see your hair, the more I like it." I tell her.

Can't hurt to compliment her.

Sabine lit up.

"Thanks Ezra. I like it too. I'm trying to decide whether I should cut it again or not."

I shrug.

"Actually, that leads me right into what I wanted to talk to you about."

_Oh yeah._

"Oh yeah, I almost forgot. You said something about that yesterday." I mention to her.

"Yeah."

The Sabine stopped and played with her hair while looking out at the view.

…

Nervous again.

"Remember what I told my parents why I left home?" She suddenly said, still looking out at Iziz.

_What?_

"Yeah…something about a cantina on some planet. Why?" I ask.

Do I really want to know the answer?

_This isn't my business._

"Well, that's not what happened. At all."

…

"Okay…" I say apprehensively.

"I…" She started, then turned and stopped suddenly.

"Hi! My name is Venicia and I'll be your server. Can I start you guys off with an appetizer?" She said, smiling at me before casting a glance at Sabine.

"No, but I'll have a Sucosa Twist with some lime." Sabine said mater of factly.

"Okay. And for you?" The waitress stepped in front of me.

_She's pretty._

"I'll have a lemonade."

"Salt on the rim?" She smiled at me.

"Uhh, sure." I say.

"Alright. I'll have those right out to you." She smiled at me, then Sabine, and then walked off.

Leaving Sabine scowling.

"What?" I ask.

"The way she was ogling you. You were her entrée…" Sabine frowned, then crossed her arms.

Uhh…

I sheepishly smile and shrug at Sabine.

She shook her head.

"Anyway. Where was I?" She asked me, turning back to Iziz.

"Leaving home." I say.

"Oh yeah! Okay. Well it was kind of sudden. Did Dad tell you anything about that when you guys talked?" She turned to me.

"A little. He just said that it was very sudden. No warning."

Sabine nodded.

"It…it was just another day. I left home and rode my speeder bike to the Academy like every other day. Then our Taskmaster, Taskmaster Mly gathered all the cadets for a announcement."

…

"Six cadets died in a 'training accident', he said." Sabine said bitterly, using her fingers as quotation marks. "No details, no elaboration. And a reminder that with the recent tensions between the Empire and the general population, that there is a good chance that there would be infiltrators in our ranks. And that it is our duty to report them."

_Oh._

Oh no.

"I knew that was a lie when they started listing off the names. All of their parents worked with Daddy. At MandalMotors. This was when the Empire went from friendly and cooperative to outright taking our resources. People were mad. MandalMotors openly criticized the Empire and was one of the biggest critics when it changed from the Republic."

"And now six of their employee's children are dead." I say.

_They killed them._

"Exactly. They made it obvious to keep people like my parents in line. They wanted us to cower in fear."

…

"But…I got scared. I didn't really know any of them, but it made sense to me. And I knew what I had to do."

Oh no.

…

Sabine turns to me.

_I'm not gonna say it._

"…yeah. I ran." She said stuffily. "I didn't want them to reverse it and kill Mom and Dad or Sophie to send a message to me…maybe me running would help. So I grabbed my armor and hopped into the first transport I could without getting caught."

I let my shoulders slump.

Then our waitress came back with our drinks.

"What would you two like? Our special today is Sjjo basalmic." She chimed happily.

"I'll have the Alfredo Bowl with Gorgonzola please. And do you have _Hetikles_?" Sabine asked.

"Yeah, we do. On the side?" The waitress nodded while writing on a datapad.

"Yes please." Sabine said.

…

"And for you sir?" She beamed at me, revealing gorgeous teeth.

"Uhm, I'll have what she got. Without the side." I smile at her, handing her the menu that I never looked at.

_I'm just going with Sabine on this one._

"Okay. We'll get that going." The waitress smiled, then walked away.

"I should have ordered _Narcolethe_…"

…

"You hopped on a transport." I say to Sabine who nodded.

_I can't believe she's willingly telling me this._

I wonder why?

"Yeah. I didn't know where it was even going. Just that I was getting off planet. I fell asleep and woke up when we landed. On Alderaan."

"Alderaan?" I ask.

"Yeah. I scrambled off and found my way into some city. I don't remember the name. Then…"

Sabine bit her lip.

…

"Then what?" I ask.

_How bad is this?_

"This is where it gets really weird. I must have stuck out like a sore thumb. And looked scared. Because a woman came up to me and said that it looked like I was lost, needed some food and some directions and offered to bring me to her house."

"And you said yes?" I ask, incredulously.

That just sounds bad.

"I was scared! I didn't know what was going on. I was just running from the Empire."

I sip my lemonade and nod.

I don't really know what to do here.

_I'm just listening._

"So I'm taken to her house. Which actually was a gigantic manor with a huge grounds area. Then they brought me inside and did just what they said. Fed me, let me wash up and asked where I was going. I told them I was running away from a slaver. First story that popped into my head.

They said that I was welcome to say. The lady that brought me said her name was Markas Renless and that her family was one of the Royal Families of Alderaan."

Whoa.

Sabine suddenly smiled.

"Yeah. I had the same reaction. I thought I was gonna be a princess. But then they told me what they did after a couple of days."

…

Sabine chugged half her drink, then wiped her palms on the tablecloth.

"It was a house of Bounty Hunters and Assassins. They used to take out people that the Royal Families didn't like, and eventually they earned themselves a minor house and a quiet reputation to the right people. And that they wanted me to join them, since I had Mandolorian armor.

It sounded okay to me. I like fighting. The thrill of combat and all the typical stereotypes fit me. My artistic side is weird to them. So I nervously said yes, and they said they'd test me and train me to see if I would fit in."

"Whoa." I say.

_Sabine as an assassin._

Pretty and deadly.

Sabine smiled.

"The training took a couple of weeks. Maybe three. My hand to hand combat was already good enough, but they taught me to fight with a sword, how to infiltrate targets, even seduction of an enemy."

"Se..duction?" I ask nervously.

Sabine blushed and nodded.

"Then Markas came and told me the good news: I was in. They'd make sure my family is protected, I'd be inducted as a problem solver. For life."

"Uhm. Question." I ask nervously.

_She may not want me interrupting._

"Sure." Sabine smiled.

"Well…two. It's for life?"

Sabine sipped her drink and nodded.

"Okay. And what's a problem solver?"

"Problem solver was the entry rank. It was "Problem Solver", "Sock Puppet" "Halo", "Cipher" and "FWTD.""

"What?" I ask.

What's the last one?

"The last one?" Sabine asked me.

I nod.

"Fate Worse Than Death. That's the leader."

"Oh." I say.

_Wow._

Sabine smiled.

"Yeah. So I took it. But I couldn't be inducted for a couple of weeks until the members that were out on assignment came back. Everybody had to be there to approve my initiation…"

…

I sip my lemonade and wait for her to continue.

"And then, one day I was denied access to a Holocall. And I was pissed. They'd never done this before. I'd told them everything at this point. They knew I lied at first about the slaver, what happened with the Academy, everything. So I crawled into the ducts and found my way to the conference room."

Sabine paused.

"Where Markas and the others were talking to some stiff in an Imperial Uniform. Telling them who and how to take people out."

"Whoa. They weren't who you thought they were." I say.

That must have been a shock.

"Yeah. And I wasn't about to become an Imperial again, even in different clothes. So I packed the little stuff I had, plus my armor then snuck out one night and bribed a pilot to take me as far away as he could. Poor guy thought I was running from somebody bad. He took me to Vandyne and then I did what I told Mom and Dad. That was true."

"The working at a diner?" I ask.

"Cantina. But it sort of was a cantina. I didn't work the bar." Sabine shrugged.

"So that's how you met Hera and Kanan?"

She opened her mouth, then stopped.

I turn and see that our food is here.

"Here you go, sorry about the wait…" The waitress said, then put two plates full of pasta and alfredo sauce in front of us, plus a shaker full of a red spice for Sabine. "And this whenever you're ready." The waitress smiled at me, then slipped the ticket under my hand.

Not so subtlety.

I see Sabine fluff up in anger and I glance at the ticket.

_This is 37 credits?_

Its drinks and pasta. Not five star food.

_This is nice, but still._

At the bottom, where I would sign is a series of numbers, plus a pair of lipstick lips.

"No. You're not paying for this. This is your birthday lunch." She mutters, then snatching the ticket out of my hands.

Instantly, she looks furious.

"Oh really…"

I nervously dig into my food.

…

Oh wow.

This is good.

"You want this?" Sabine asked, looking sadly at me.

"No. I can't date a local girl." I shake my head.

Sabine smiled, then…took a credit stick out of her helmet.

"It's my personal favorite hiding spot. In case I do need something and I'm on the go." Sabine smiled at me, then put the ticket and credit stick aside and took a bite.

"Eat. But Kanan and Hera?" I ask.

I want to know how she met them.

Sabine lit up, noodle halfway in her mouth.

"Oh! I can tell this story! It's nice."

I smile at her and eat.

"Okay. So it was three months or so after I got to Vandyne. I usually worked the morning shift. 5-11. I was a waitress. Big smile, peppy attitude, all that!" Sabine said, putting on a fake smile, giving a thumbs up and leaning her head from side to side.

I laugh, food in my mouth.

"Hera and Kanan just came in. I don't know from where, but they sat at one of my tables. So I served them and they were nice. Tipped well. No big deal."

"Sounds normal." I say.

"Better tip, but yeah. Then they came in the next day. Same thing. Bigger tip. Same thing the next day, only later. Then they did it again. Even later. Even bigger tip."

_They're up to something._

I smile, and Sabine did the same.

"You see what they were doing."

I nod.

"Then they didn't come in. Part of me was relieved because I was afraid they were with House Renless. But the next morning when I came in, my boss said that 'my favorite customers' came in right after I got off."

Oh man!

This is great.

I can't stop smiling.

Neither can Sabine.

"I know right? So they came in about an hour before I got off. Ordered their food. Gave me a ridiculous tip. Their food cost 13, 14 credits. 20 credit tip. Just a stupid tip."

"Wow."

"When I got off, they were waiting for me out back."

Uh oh.

"Did you freak?" I ask.

She nodded. "I almost ran away. But then Hera said that they thought it was weird a girl my age was working at a cantina. I gave them some crappy story about working to keep my sister out of the Academy. Which they didn't buy."

Sabine paused to wipe her hands off again.

"Then…Hera said…"

Sabine swallowed the lump in her throat.

"She said…that a girl like me shouldn't be working my life away in some cantina. You only get one and that whatever I was running from, that I could join them right now."

_Oh wow._

Sabine sniffled, then wiped her hands again.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to get all sobby. But…that changed everything. Then we found Zeb, and four months later we were on Lothal and you stole our crates."

I laugh.

"That soon?" I ask.

Sabine nodded, having just took a bite.

"It seemed like a lot longer to me." I confess.

_Seemed like they'd been together for years to me._

"Nope. Just a few months."

Huh.

_Wow._

Wordlessly, the waitress slips in and takes the bill.

…

"Last call on those digits." Sabine said.

I shake my head.

…

I smile as Sabine subconsciously played with her hair.

_I'm basically done._

I can't finish the two bites left.

Wordlessly, Sabine steals my plate and the rest of my food.

"Oh good. I wasn't going to be able to finish that." I confess, causing Sabine to smile.

"This Gorgonzola is divine."

"I know, that's why that's all noodles. How'd you know about this place?" I ask her.

"I asked Lux."

"Lux." I say.

_He's Mr. Bontiri to me._

"Yeah. That's how I knew him before I left home." Sabine said, mixing her remaining pieces of gorgonzola with my noodles.

"Huh." I say.

Before she left home.

_Suddenly, that has a lot more meaning._

"I know that's a lot to take in. Sorry for dumping it all on you. But I wanted you to know." Sabine said, looking up from her food.

"Why?" I ask, before the answer hits me like a ton of bricks.

_She's leaving._

She's going home.

"You…" I say quickly, almost scrambling out of my seat.

"What?" She asked quickly, looking around.

"You…you're leaving." I say quietly.

…

Then Sabine tilted her head to the side.

"What?"

"You told me all this…so I would understand why…you're going back home."

_To be with Atin._

And live happily ever after.

My stomach sinks, and the puzzle pieces keep clicking together.

_That's why she's been so affectionate._

She's leaving, and doesn't want me to hate her.

"What? No!" She said, sounding bewildered.

_Wait, what?_

"No?" I ask.

"No! Why would I be leaving?" Sabine asked, looking totally lost.

"To go home and be with your family."

...

Sabine's just looking at me.

Then she slipped her hands under the table and found mine.

"No. I'm not going anywhere Ezra. I promise. If I was going anywhere, you'd be coming with me."

…

"Promise."

I smile and squeeze her hand.

"Well…I was worried." I say quietly.

"Don't worry anymore." Sabine replied.

Then she took her hand back and started finishing her last couple of bites.

"I'm not going to fit into these pants tomorrow." She mumbled.

I laugh, then quickly regret it.

"That wasn't for you to laugh at." She said quickly.

"Sorry."

"Not everybody can work out and gain nothing but muscle you know."

I shrug.

Sabine stares me down and eats her last bite.

_We need Sabine's credit stick back._

I see our waitress inside and stick my hand up to get her attention.

…

"I was just about to give you this back. Was everything tasting alright?"

"Yeah, it was great." I say.

"Good." She replied softly.

"Thank you!" Sabine said.

"You're welcome. And have a good day!" She said, then put the receipt and stick at my place.

"Bitch can't take a hint I guess…" Sabine mumbled, then grabbed both and slipped the stick inside her helmet.

"Want to grab a drink? My treat." Sabine smiled at me after slipping her helmet on.

…

"Can I take that up some other day?" I ask.

I'm not feeling it today.

"Sure." Sabine said. "Just tell me and we can come get something."

I nod, then stand and follow her back into the restaurant.

She grabbed my hand as we walk back down to the ground floor, then back into the street.

"Kanan never called. And it's 3:20." Sabine said calmly, as we weave our way back to the main road.

"Yeah. Guess he forgot." I shrug.

Sabine bit her lip, then let it go.

…

"Whoa." I say.

There's a gigantic walker blocking the road back to base.

_Imperial._

Sabine suddenly pulled herself to me, then slowly slipped us into a side alley.

"What?" I ask.

"Did you see what was behind the walker?"

I shake my head.

"No, I was looking at the walker. Why's it there?" I ask.

"You missed it. Behind it was a gigantic aural disruptor. Bigger than I've ever seen. It blocks all noise behind it. They're hiding something." Sabine said, then starting off into the alley.

"We need to find a way to get to the top of the quarry."

"Quarry?" I ask, trying to keep up with her.

"The base is in the bottom of a quarry. That's what those levels are. It's an old mine. The only bad thing about the base is that it'd be tough to get out because we're at the bottom."

_Uh oh._

"Come on." She growled, then slipped between two building and started sprinting.

I open my mouth to call out to her, but decide against it and run to catch up.

"Up!" She said once we're found the same brown stone the base is surrounded by.

We quickly started crawling up the slightly steep face.

Sabine gets to the top first, and pulls me up.

And then we run again.

Until we reach a cliff…or what I think is a cliff.

…

…

Oh.

…

"Oh no…" Sabine said quietly.

All I see is smoke.

And blaster fire.

The top right part of the building is on fire and is billowing black smoke.

Stormtroopers are everywhere. Marching down the road.

I turn to Sabine, and she's still looking down.

_That's a long way down. _

…

We're busted.

(A/N:Well, Siege of Lothal was a good episode I'd say. The only bad part is that we now have to wait until the fall for the rest of the Season.)

_Hetikles - _A very hot spice popular on Mandalore

_Narcolethe -_ Mandolorian alcoholic beverage; Equivalent to vodka.


	24. Double Double the Toil and Trouble

Smoke.

Blaster fire.

_That aural disruptor doesn't work out here._

It's loud.

I glance at the base, complete with smoking hole in the side, and see a blue streak blocking blaster bolts.

_Kanan._

Guess this is a lightsaber situation.

"C'mon!" Sabine said to me, then sprinted towards a group of Stormtroopers are loading a rocket launcher.

_Are we just going to—_

Sabine jumps down there and shoots two of them simultaneously.

I quickly follow and disarm a Stormtrooper then shoot another.

Sabine effortlessly grabs the rocket launcher.

"What are you doing?" I ask.

_She can't be serious._

"Evening the odds." Sabine said calmly.

Then she fires, and a rocket goes flying towards a large group of Stormtroopers.

Oh boy.

BOOM!

Stormtroopers go flying into the ravine on either side of the road.

I hear yelling, then we quickly are under heavy fire.

I ignite my lightsaber and Sabine ducked down, returning fire.

As I'm deflecting blaster shots away from us, the Force screams out a warning.

_Rocket._

I let loose a Force Push over Sabine's head, and the rocket smashes directly underneath us.

The rock immediately gives way, and I slide a few feet.

_Oh crap oh crap._

I hurriedly drag myself to a halt, then see that Sabine can't stop.

_All the rock around her is sliding down._

_She has nothing to hold on to._

"Ezra, I'm slipping! I'M SLIPPING!" She screamed.

I dive forward and reach for her.

_And completely whiff._

Sabine screamed before I quickly grab her with my left arm.

This isn't gonna last long.

_Oh crap._

Not good.

I can't lift her.

"SABINE! Trust me!" I yell, then grab her with the Force with my right hand.

"Trust what?!" She said, panicked.

Then I let her go and grab her with both hands using the Force.

_Levitate._

I block out Sabine's scream, and the blaster bolts all around us and lift Sabine up and to my left.

The moment Sabine is in reach of solid ground, she claws onto it.

But I don't let her go until her entire body is on solid, stable rock.

Then I roll and get to my feet.

I'm forced to reignite my lightsaber and deflect blaster shots immediately.

_This is a barrage._

Sabine got to her feet, dazed and confused.

Then she screamed and rolled away.

I turn and see a GIGANTIC_—_

I'm kicked in the chest and go flying down the quarry.

"EZRAAAAAAAAAA!" I hear Sabine scream.

Hurriedly, I stop myself on the boundary from one level to another and get to my feet.

_What the hell was—_

The massive…thing lands a few feet away from me.

And ignites a lightsaber.

_Holy…_

I reignite my own.

Power.

He looks like a mountain.

The…thing smiles at me, then ignites the other end of his lightsaber.

_It's the Inquisitor's lightsaber!_

Without waiting another moment the mountain lunges at me and slashes at my shoulder.

I block it and give ground.

Slice. Block.

He lunges at me, I deflect it and use his momentum to my advantage and spin around him.

_Now I know where I'm going._

I have the space to give ground.

_Play your game Ezra. _

And think.

I let out a breath before the mountain charges at me.

I take a half step back and absorb the bludgeoning blow.

The…thing leaned in closer and I have to use both hands to hold him back.

_Power._

I'm right.

The stance is almost Shien. But it's different.

I spin out of the blade lock, then advance on him with a diagonal cut.

He staunchly blocked it and didn't move an inch.

I kick him in the ribs…but he doesn't move.

"Heh." He laughed, then grabbed my leg and threw me behind him.

_Oh shoot!_

I regain my poise in time to land gracefully on my feet.

_And smile._

Reverse Dun Möch.

Immediately, I feel his anger skyrocket.

He lets out a roar and charges me.

I meet him halfway with a horizontal slash around knee height.

He quickly blocked it and pushed me off.

He telegraphs a powerful diagonal slash, and I give ground while blocking it, then change tactics.

_Gotta push him._

I have to win.

Kanan's not stopping this fight.

_This guy wants me dead. On the ground._

Quickly I advance on him with a half step and test his defenses with a cut aimed at his right shoulder.

In response, he bats it away.

_Like Sabine._

Hah!

I smile and advance with another cut.

He bats it away again.

Slice. Block.

He jabs at my waist, and I spin aside and turn him completely around.

_Now!_

I let loose a strong swing at the back of his neck as he's turning around.

He barely blocks it with the very tip of his lightsaber.

Looking even madder.

Without another step he ploughs into me and shoves me off my spot.

As I rise to my feet, he jumps forward.

I block his powerful slash with one hand and Force Push him off me.

No.

I let out a breath then jump on the offensive.

Cut. Batted away.

Slash. Blocked.

He finally took a half step back and I effortlessly change to my blaster and fire.

Terror filled his eyes as he jumped away from the first bolts, then blocked the next volley.

I switch back to my lightsaber, and the mountain…thing charges me.

I block his initial strike, and jab at his midsection.

Ruthlessly, he slams his arms down, harmlessly defeating my jab by slamming my arms down.

I dodge his slash, then pull my lightsaber close to my body and pivot around him.

He turns, and I reach out at the wrist closest to me, the one with the lightsaber.

My lightsaber cuts right thru his armor and slices his wrist off.

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" he screamed, then grabbed his arm with his left arm.

_The other arm._

He could grab it and keep fighting.

Without further thought, I slice off his other arm at the elbow.

"AAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He fell heavily to his knees, and I jam my lightsaber right into his chest.

I hear him let out one final breath…then Force Push him right off the level we're standing on and into the ravine.

…

I look up, and the Stormtroopers on the road are looking at where I just sent…whatever that was.

_Looked like a shark._

"Ezra!" I hear, as the Stormtroopers turn back to my position.

Sabine jumps down to me as the blaster fire starts up again.

"Those Stormtroopers!" I yell, then, block several bolts.

"We've just got to take them out!" She replied. "I've been trying, but they see it coming!"

_And I can't deflect it…over 75 feet._

If we're counting jumping down still.

Jumping outwards I'd say we're 15 feet away.

Not close.

…

I can jump it though.

"Can you get there?" I ask her, deflecting more bolts above us.

"Yeah! Can you?"

I smile.

"Yup!"

"You go first to distract them! I'll wipe them out from behind!" Sabine said.

Got it.

I walk back as far as I can, then run and jump out.

…

I land heavily and rise to my feet about 10 feet away.

Just wide.

_For whatever reason they've stopped shooting._

"Hey boys…Miss me?" I ask, then advance on them.

One of them yelled, and I hear "FIRE!"

I stop quickly, and deflect the shots flying towards my body.

Most of them are missing.

Badly.

I'm about three feet away when there's a massive explosion behind them, followed by a barrage of shots.

Most of the Stormtroopers fall, and I remove two with my blaster.

Leaving just a Stormtrooper with an orange shoulder guard.

_He's in charge._

I reignite my lightsaber and point it right at his chest.

"Okay. Here's how this is going to work." I bark out. "You tell us how many more troops are behind you, plus how many are here now. I let you go."

"Take your helmet off, buckethead. And air support." Sabine adds, leveling her pistols with the back of his head.

The Stormtrooper drops his weapon, and falls to one knee.

"Okay…"

Sabine suddenly freezes.

When I return my gaze to the Stormtrooper, he's taking his helmet off.

…

_WHOA._

"Don't kill me. I'll tell you what you want." Atin said, desperation in his voice.

Atin…

"How are you here?" I ask.

_I don't believe it._

"The…some bombing happened. I got transferred here and helped take apart some terrorist cell. Then we got a tip about this base. But somebody ratted us out. They knew we were coming." Atin says in a rush.

I tighten my grip on my lightsaber.

Atin turns around.

"Sabine. I know that's you. Please. Stop. Don't let him kill me."

"I…"

"Who tipped you off?" I ask, grabbing his shoulder and turning him back to face me.

"Some port worker. Said he was tired of helping Rebel scum." He said, face turning into a sneer. "Didn't know there'd be Jedi. Didn't know you were a Jedi either."

"Well, can't tell everyone. Or I'd be dead." I quip back at him.

"Whatever." He scowled at me, then turned back to Sabine.

"Sabine, _birika_, whatever it is that made you join is forgivable. If you're running from somebody, I can help you hide. I can help you run. Just talk to me and let me take out the kid so we can fix all this! We can fix everything. I promise."

I feel Sabine's shock in the Force, and I take my eyes off Atin to glance at her again.

"Excuse me?" I say.

Without another word, Atin whirls around and tries punching me in the head.

I duck under it, grab his shoulder and shove him to the ground, then pull my lightsaber back into my hand and activate it again.

"You try that again, you end up like your buddy down there." I say bluntly, gesturing to the ravine on either side.

Atin nervously gulped as I level the blade of my lightsaber with his eyes.

"Sa…Sabine. Baby. I love you. Talk him down. We can fix this." Atin said shakily, inching away from me in fear.

I let out a breath and look to Sabine.

_She's not moving._

Just looking at him.

"Offer's still on the table _commendant_. Take it before I change my mind." I scowl at him.

_He's beat._

He looks like he needs a new set of armor.

"Okay!" He yelps out in a high pitched voice. "I'm the last battalion coming. There's five more here to secure the premises and take any rebels into custody. Air support got delayed. There's a Star Destroyer coming."

Okay.

"I…I'm not running." Sabine finally spoke, voice quivering.

"You knew she was a rebel. You were at her ceremony." I add on.

"I'll go. Sabine. Come with me. We can both just run away. There's a bunch of ships at the spaceport we can take. Please _birika_. C'mon." Atin said, sounding slightly desperate.

_We need to move._

I'm not buying the part that he's the last batch of troops.

_I'd rather not kill him._

Sabine would never forgive me.

I can't just let him go. He'll probably attack me.

…

I glance at Sabine, and she's clearly nervous.

_Oh wait._

My slingshot.

That's my solution.

"Okay. Here's what we're going to do. Sabine's coming with me. Like she did on Mandalore. Willingly. I'm going to knock you out with this slingshot. When you wake up, we'll be gone. Come up with some clever lie." I say, then deactivate my lightsaber and grab my slingshot, pulling it back.

Atin opened his mouth, then gulped nervously.

I fire, and it hits his square in the forehead.

He slumps to the side, unconscious.

Sabine jerkily falls to a knee and checks his pulse.

"Sabine…" I say, leaving the decision up to her.

…

"Let's go. We need to find the others and get out." She said shakily.

I wordlessly turn and start forward towards the base.

The Stormtroopers in front of us have their backs turned.

_Hah._

I pull out my blaster and shoot two of them before they turn around.

I respond by igniting my lightsaber and I slice thru the rest of them.

Sabine attempted to help me with the last two, but her shots missed way wide.

_Wider than I've ever seen her miss._

I look ahead, and see that the remaining defenders are retreating.

_Only one more group in front of us._

We need to go.

Now.

I sweep the Stormtroopers in front of us away with a Force Push and sprint into the burning base, Sabine right behind me.

I probe quickly, then whirl around to where the tunnel is.

Where somebody in a blue blade is fighting somebody with a red double bladed lightsaber.

_There's another one…_

Kanan's fighting and allowing people to flee behind him into the tunnel.

His opponent suddenly spun around and started to one of the fleeing rebels.

_NO!_

I quickly ignite my saber and jump to block the killing strike.

The enemy turned to look at me, clad in all black with a funny looking hat.

Quickly, whoever it is flipped away, and I jump to avoid shots from behind.

I whirl around to see whose shots they are, and see something interesting.

_The person I saved is the moron I fought during Rex and Echo's training._

Sabine keeps firing and avoids our enemy by activating her jet pack and flying away.

"Sabine! Go! Hera and Ahsoka have gone ahead to fire up the ship! We've got her!" Kanan yelled.

"We'll cover you!" I add on.

Sabine lands behind us, and takes off.

In front of us, our enemy taps a button on her wrist and little tiny robots crawl towards us.

I take a quick strike at them, fearful of hitting Kanan or my own foot.

_Didn't get a single one._

"I got her!" I tell Kanan, and he took a half step back so I could engage her cleanly.

I slice down at her, which she blocks.

Reversing grip, I cut at her neck.

She ducks underneath it, then lashes out at my ankles.

I vault out of the way and fall into the tunnel entrance, covering Kanan and Sabine.

I let out a quick breath and locate them behind me before she appears again.

I back up, reducing both of our operating space.

_Efficiency._

I don't have to win this.

Just get everyone to the Ghost.

Then get her off me and get away.

I set my stance up and block her first strike, aimed at my throat and duck under the follow through with the other blade.

I slide forward and move towards her, aiming to make her back down.

She ends my advance by slashing at the air in front of her.

I slip back and move to block her slash at my shoulder.

Then I back to the small rise in the tunnel.

_About ¾_ of the way there.

I block another cut to my ankles, then look up.

_Uh oh._

I exposed my chest.

She ruthlessly kicked me, and I fly back, almost bumping into Kanan.

"10 more feet! You got her?"

"For 10 more feet." I reply, then step forward and engage the enemy.

I use a diagonal slash to get her in a blade lock.

_She's not as strong._

I push forward and slash at her knees, leaving her only option as a hasty retreat.

_Which she does._

I back up and suddenly feel the humid jungle air all around me.

_Okay…_

Quickly, she pops out of the tunnel and engages me.

Slice. Block. Cut. Deflect.

I spin away, then see the Ghost in the air out of the corner of my eye.

"JUMP!" I hear Lux yell.

I gather my strength and aim a push at her.

_She's sprinting to reach me._

I push out, then turn and find the Ghost.

Lux and Echo are standing at the air lock waiting to grab me.

I probe to find her, feel she's 15 feet behind me, then sprint and jump towards the Ghost.

Half of my foot finds the platform, and I move to grab it.

Thankfully Echo grabs onto me, and seconds later Lux grabs my other arm and together they pull me in.

"Thanks." I say, then hustle into the belly of the ship.

"There should be plenty of company! Star Destroyer behind us!" I call out, then dash towards my gun at the bottom of the ship.

It's empty when I arrive, and Hera's already gunning it.

"I've got five!" Ahsoka says over the intercom.

I reach out and confirm the number. With more behind it.

"With more coming!" I add, strapping in and turning to the closest one and opening fire.

…

Blast.

_Missed._

I swivel around and fire on the next one.

Got him.

Hera, or whoever is flying hopped on gas again and banked us to the left.

"Rex! Keep those TIEs off our backs!" Kanan said over the com.

"Working on it!"

Quickly, I feel him hit a Tie behind us.

_Leaving 2._

But there's another 6 coming.

I reach out and hit the button to lower me down farther so I can help thin out the TIEs behind us.

I quickly hit one on the side, and he plummets out of view.

Above me, I hear somebody coming.

Hera banks us back to the right, and Sabine tumbles inside.

"_Haar'chak_…"

"You okay?!" I ask, firing on a TIE.

_And missed._

"Yeah…" She said, then hit the comm.

"Permission to deploy the Phantom?" Sabine asked.

"Permission denied!" Ahsoka called out, and I hear Hera grumble in frustration.

_We've got to deal with these five TIEs._

There's a gap in between them and the next wave.

"HOLD ON!" Hera called out before she did a barrel roll.

Sabine frantically grabbed onto my seat and I reach back and grab her while shooting with one hand.

Bang!

Sabine laughed.

"You're a better shooter with one hand." She joked, as I return my focus to the TIEs.

"Yeah, well what can I say?" I say, firing at one before it explodes.

_Wasn't me._

"One more!" I hear Kanan call out.

_I don't see him._

I do a complete 360 turn, only for him to buzz us.

"Okay…" I growl out, as he turned and moved to fire on us.

I let loose a few shots before somebody up above hits him in the side.

He fell out of view.

I hear a yell, then the whole ship lurches.

_And we're in hyperspace._

…

…

I collapse against my guns and hang my head.

…

…

_I…_

…

…

I sit back up and turn to Sabine. Only for her to be right next to me and crawl onto my lap.

She wrapped her arms around me and hung her head on my shoulder.

…

She's shaking.

"It's okay…" I say, pulling her closer and putting my head on her shoulder.

…

"I…" She started, but stopped.

_Her voice shook._

I let out a breath and just hold onto her as she keeps shaking.

"It's okay. We're out of there." I tell her.

"Uh huh…"

…

…

I hold her close, and slowly she starts to stop shaking.

Then she took her head off my shoulder.

"We need to call home. So they don't call and reveal themselves by accident."

_Good point._

"Good call." I reply, then hit the button to bring the turret back to the rest of the ship. "Ahsoka and Hera can take care of the rest of the cells."

Sabine nodded and crawled off me to the comm.

I unbuckle myself and move to join Sabine as she's typing numbers into the comm.

Then she sat back and stared at the comm.

…

…

I glance over at Sabine nervously.

"Nobody home?" She shrugged.

Then the comm lit up, and a blue hologram popped up.

_Of Sophie._

"Hello?" She asked nervously.

"Sophie. It's us. Sabine and Ezra." Sabine smiled and leaned forward.

For the first time, I smile and feel the relief flow thru me.

_Whew._

Sophie lit up.

"Yayy! Hi!"

I laugh and Sabine beamed.

"Where's Mom and Dad?"

"Daddy's at work." Sophie replied, then dashed off.

We hear her hit the speaker on the far wall.

"Mommy! Sabine is the person that called."

"Tell her I'm cooking and I'll be right there baby."

Click.

Sophie darted back into our sight.

"Mommy's—"

"Cooking." I smile. "We heard."

She shyly smiled and looked down.

"What have you been up to today Sof?" Sabine smiled at her.

"I've played games on here with math…spelled words…helped Mommy with the laundry. We're supposed to go somewhere tonight I think." Sophie replied, looking up at us.

"What'd you spell?" I ask.

"I spelled rocks, datapad, camera, Mommy, Daddy, Sabine, Ezra, Mandalore…" She rambled on, fiddling with her hands as she tried to think of more.

"She did really good." Mrs. Wren comes into view, causing Sophie to smile.

"Sounds like it." I smile at Sophie.

"How are you darling? And…why do you look beat up?" Sabine's mom asked, then looked at me.

"Long story." I smile.

"Our base got compromised. We just escaped." Sabine told her.

Sophie jumped and gasped.

Her mom's eyes widened.

"Really…"

I nod.

"Yeah. That holo that we called you from? Don't call it again. Ask Daddy to wipe the incoming memory." Sabine said.

"Okay. I take it that you made it thru all right." Her mom nodded and asked.

"Yeah. We were caught off guard, but we're okay." I tell her.

"We were celebrating Ezra's birthday in the city. Came home to a surprise." Sabine joked, laughing at the end.

"I bet. But you're okay?"

Sabine nodded.

"It's your birthday?" Sophie asked me, smiling.

"It was last week, yeah." I smile back.

"Happy birthday!" Sophie said happily.

"Thanks Sof."

"How many candles Ezra?" Mrs. Wren asked me.

"17."

"Oh. So you're a little younger than Sabine."

"Not much." I say.

"You've got a little rip." Sabine said, holding my jacket sleeve.

_Dang._

I turn and see what she's looking at.

"Can you fix it?" I ask.

"Yeah. Totally." She replied.

I quickly look myself over.

_No other rips or cuts._

Just covered in the light brown dirt of the quarry.

"Sabine. I know it's probably not your call, but ask if you two can come here. You can lay low here while the heat dies down." Sabine's mom told her.

Sophie almost exploded.

"YAYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" She cheered, jumping in the air.

Then she disappeared out of the frame briefly, only to pop back in.

_She's running around._

I laugh as she keeps running around.

"I'll ask. You'll hear back from us." Sabine says, as I hear somebody coming down the ladder towards us.

I turn and see that it's Ahsoka.

"Hey Ahsoka." I say, as Sabine turned around.

"Hey. You called home?" Ahsoka smiled at her.

"So they wouldn't call back to base." Sabine replied.

She nodded.

"Bo. Hey Sof." Ahsoka smiled.

"Hi!"

"Hi. Heard you all had an exciting day." Mrs. Wren joked.

"Yeah…but we made it out all right. Minimal losses. We had warning, so we didn't lose anything really."

"That's good."

"I hate to cut this short, but we want to all get together and talk upstairs." Ahsoka turned to Sabine.

"Okay." I say simply.

Sabine frowned but didn't protest.

"Byeeeee!" Sophie said, jumping up and waving with both hands.

"Bye Sof." I smile at her.

Sabine smiled, waved and stuck her tongue out at her, causing her to laugh.

"Bye darling. Be safe. Love you." Mrs. Wren said to Sabine.

"Love you too Mom."

"You too Ezra. Be safe. Watch out for each other."

"We will." I smile at her.

Then Mrs. Wren ended the transmission.

…

I wordlessly get to my feet and help Sabine up, then follow Ahsoka.

We follow all the way to the main staging area.

"They called Sabine's parents. Told them not to call that Holo anymore." Ahsoka said to somebody as we walked in.

"Good thinking ahead." Lux replied.

"Sorry to keep you waiting." Sabine said, as most everyone is sitting.

Rex and Echo are standing off to our left.

"It's okay. We tried coming you, but it bounced back. So Ahsoka went to check on you guys." Hera smiled at us.

…

"What happened?" I ask.

"We got a tip, not five minutes after you two left that somebody had ratted us out. Gave us everything. How many troops were coming, from where, and when." Kanan started.

"We sent Rex and Echo to grab you guys' stuff."

"You grabbed our stuff?" Sabine asked, sounding stunned.

_WHAT._

"Yeah. We had two hours warning before they got here. It sounds weird, but we had time." Hera said.

"We got most everybody out that wasn't necessary, then tried to contact you guys." Lux said.

"But they had already jammed our communications out, and put a walker out to block the road coming in." Rex said, sounding angry.

"From there, we were trying to buy time to sneak Kanan out to get you guys." Ahsoka said.

"But just as I was about to leave, I felt you move." Kanan nodded to me.

"Move?" Sabine asked.

"I can probe out a lot farther than he can." Kanan clarified. "I knew right where you guys were. Just couldn't get there."

"How'd you find out?" Hera asked us.

"Well, we left the restaurant and walked until we saw the walker. They also had a huge audio disruptor so Iziz wouldn't notice what they were doing." Sabine explained.

"Ahh. Because they're not worried about us." Hera rolled her eyes.

"We ran to the edge of the quarry, climbed to the top and saw the battle had already begun."

"Which one of you fired a rocket?" Echo asked.

Sabine sheepishly smiled.

"That was me."

"Okay. We didn't know who, but that's how we saw you guys had heard the news." Rex smiled.

"How'd you get to me?" Kanan asked.

"Yeah, if you had to climb to the top of the quarry, then you've still got to get to the road." Ahsoka added.

"Well…we bumped into a guy like the one Kanan was fighting first." Sabine said, glancing at me.

I nervously smile.

Kanan and Ahsoka lean forward.

"Another one?" Ahsoka asked.

"How'd you get away?" Kanan asked.

Sabine suddenly beamed.

"We didn't. Ezra beat him."

The room gasped, Kanan's jaw dropped and Lux put his hands on his head.

"You what?" Hera asked, sounding incredulous.

"I beat him." I shrug nervously.

"You're kidding." Kanan said.

"Nope. I saw it." Sabine smiled.

"What happened?" Ahsoka asked.

"I don't know. It all was a blur to me. And I was really scared. But it looked to me like Ezra was in control. Then he cut off his lightsaber hand, neutralized his other hand, stabbed him and sent him into the ravine." Sabine said, then smiling at the end.

…

"Wow." Rex said.

Lux, Hera and Kanan look like they can't believe it.

Echo looked mildly intrigued.

"You think that was another Inquisitor?" I ask him.

I…

_Crap._

I don't know what they felt like.

Dang it Ezra.

"Yeah, I do. They had the same lightsaber style. The one I faced was a lot better than the one on Lothal. Footwork, precision with the blade, intent, everything." Kanan replied.

I nod and bite my lip.

"Did you happen to feel your Inquisitor?" Ahsoka asked me.

I shake my head.

"I never saw him coming. Ahsoka fired her rocket, then we got pinned down with blaster fire. Then they fired a rocket at us and we had to get out of that. When that was done, I helped Sabine up, got to my feet then BANG! Whatever it was kicked me in the chest and sent me flying."

"So he came out of nowhere." Ahsoka filled in the gaps.

I nod.

"He could have been sneaking up on us the whole time. I never felt him. Didn't feel either of them. I was just fighting." I confess.

_That's not good on my part._

"Don't feel too bad Ezra. Next time you'll have the awareness to use the Force more. Sounds like you immediately got jumped." Kanan reassured me.

"That's pretty much what happened."

"Then what happened?" Hera asked.

I turn to Sabine.

"Well, I jumped down to Ezra, then we jumped to the road and blew thru a battalion of bucketheads. Then…"

_Oh._

"Then…?" Hera prompted.

Sabine looked down and squirmed.

"We were wrong. We left the leader of the battalion standing. I thought it'd be good to seewhat we were up against and what was coming behind them."

"How were we wrong?" Rex asked.

"Her friend from Mandalore? He got transferred here. Said there was a Star Destroyer coming, and that he was the last battalion coming."

Kanan let out a short laugh.

"I bet."

"That must have been a shock though." Ahsoka said soothingly to Sabine.

Sabine shakily nodded, then returned to looking at the floor.

"He tried to punch me, so I shot him with my slingshot. I didn't want to kill him. Not yet, at least. And then we just kind of rushed to you." I say to Kanan.

Kanan nodded.

…

"Well I think we've had enough excitement for one day." Hera said, causing most of us to laugh.

"You said you grabbed our stuff?" Sabine asked Hera.

"Yeah. I'll show you." Echo said, then waved for her to follow.

…

"I think I'm going to go back down and lie down." I say.

"Good idea." Kanan said.

I smile at him, then wave to everyone and walk back downstairs.

…

_I think I want to just stare at hyperspace._

And do absolutely nothing.

I walk over to one of the storage compartments and pull out the backpack I put here this morning and grab my jacket and blanket.

_How is this all the same day?_

I settle into the little window, and before long I'm yawning.

…

…

I roll over and pull my covers closer.

I'm going to take a nap.

_That's what I'm going to do._


	25. Dissention

I walk back to the crew area, water bottle now in hand.

"So Zeb's a General?!" Sabine asked, sounding incredulous.

"Going to be, yeah." Kanan smiled.

"How'd we miss that?" Sabine asked.

"Yeah, we almost never saw him on Onderon." I say, settling in next to Sabine.

"Meetings mostly. We ran him thru a ton of battle simulations. First to see if he could do it, then see how good a commander he is." Rex said.

Huh.

_If I remember right, he came up with some battle…_

Oh yeah.

He came up with a battle algorithm that Echo had on him when he got captured by the Seperatists.

"How'd he do?" I ask.

"Really good. He definitely is good enough to lead troops." Echo nodded.

Ahsoka smiled as Lux's eyes followed Hera back into the room.

"Everybody ready?" Hera asked.

I nod, along with Ahsoka and Echo.

_Everyone else didn't really move._

Hera quietly typed in some numbers on the Holo, and stepped back.

Then a man in military clothes appeared.

"General Sato? Ghost home team, reporting in." Hera said to the man.

"Good, good. I assume that your evasionary tactics have met no Imperial patrols?" The man said, with a slight accent.

"Yes." Ahsoka nodded.

"Glad to hear it. There's been movement in a decent portion of the Imperial Navy to Geonosis for reasons unknown. A portion of the generals have been concerned about you being compromised in all their movement."

"Nope. Haven't seen a soul truthfully." Rex said.

I wouldn't know.

_I've been laying down pretty much all day._

I've just been exhausted.

The General nodded, then turned back to Hera.

"General Syndulla, do you have the reports about your crew's experiences escaping Onderon?"

"Yes. Transmitting them now." Hera replied, sticking a memory stick into the Holo.

…

"Alright. We just received them. They'll go down to the analysts."

Sabine glanced over at me, looking slightly worried.

We put together our reports together after I woke up from my impromptu nap in the gun turret yesterday.

I told it like it was, including Atin's words about taking me out.

_I didn't really register it at the time._

I think he would have actually killed me, if I'd messed up and given him the chance.

Sabine told pretty much the same story, but the way she worded it made it seem more out of desperation to escape with his own life.

_Which I can't blame her for._

I don't like it, but I'm not her. I can't tell her what to do or how to feel.

"What's our next move then?" Kanan asked.

I grab my water bottle and take a sip.

"Well, that's a complicated answer. In short, we're splitting you all up."

_Huh?_

"What do you mean 'splitting us up'?" Hera asked.

"How about this General? I can just give everyone their new assignments, as decided upon by High Command and the General Council. Then we can work from there."

Hera nodded, while Kanan is frowning.

I glance around to see Lux and Ahsoka, both looking slightly concerned.

Echo is just watching the Holo, while Rex is sipping on his cup of insta-caf.

Chopper is just quietly behind Hera and Kanan, in the entryway to the cockpit.

"Alright. General Syndulla and General Jarrus are both going to the planet Abafor. Mr. Wren sent in the final blueprints for the B-Wing to a manufacturer a few weeks ago. We're sending you to check up on the progress of the ship."

_Okay._

So, whatever Sabine's Dad was working on for us, is now called a "B-Wing".

Huh.

"Captain Rex and Commander Echo, you both will be reporting back to Safe Zone, in order to continue training incoming recruits."

"Yes sir." Rex said quickly, while Echo nodded.

"General Tano. You and Mr. Bontiri are free to go where you choose, per your agreements."

Sabine quickly glanced over at them.

_Huh?_

What agreements?

"Finally, Mr. Bridger and Ms. Wren will be going to Denon for an undercover infiltration operation."

Silence quickly swept the entire room.

_WHAT?_

"No." Kanan said quickly.

"They're not ready! Are you kidding me?" Hera sprung to her feet.

"No. We believe that Captain Rex and Commander Echo, along with Mr. Bridger's extra training have them ready for this operation." The General said simply.

"I disagree. Ezra's not ready yet. He defeated an hostile enemy, but they're not ready to be considered independent of the Ghost Cell." Ahsoka said simply.

Behind Hera and Kanan, Chopper made a noise of protest.

"Besides, we didn't teach them anything about infiltration. That's a delicate thing! If you mess up once, you don't come home." Echo said matter of factly.

"Exactly!" Kanan said, gesturing to Echo.

"SILENCE!" The General yelled, clearly agitated.

The room went silent again.

…

"Now. High Command and the General Council knew that the assignment for Mr. Bridger and Ms. Wren would be controversial with you all. However…let me remind you." The General paused.

…

"Mr. Bridger and Ms. Wren are both adults in the eyes of the galaxy, being over the age of 16. They have willing participated in the Rebel Alliance and joined of their own volition. Having done such, the General Council and High Command BOTH…have the authority, thanks to the bylaws, to utilize both Mr. Bridger and Ms. Wren however they choose and where they see a need."

…

_He's rendering their complaints moot._

"You knew this General Syndulla. You all did. Back on Polis Massa, you said that every member of your crew would willingly work on their own in order to forward the rebel cause. Do not forget that. The Council and High Command are simply utilizing their powers how they see fit and where they believe the two of them could make a large impact on the situation." General Sato said simply, but quite firmly.

"We believe something is going on. Something very large. This assignment, being undertaken and assigned to Mr. Bridger and Ms. Wren, is final, and of the utmost importance. The details have already been worked out, and will be sent to your ship shortly."

…

"All right then." Hera said simply, keeping her tone even.

The General smiled slightly.

"Any other questions?" He asked looking to Rex, Echo, Lux and Ahsoka.

Lux shook his head.

"No. I don't think so." Ahsoka said.

"Fair enough. The dossiers for each of your missions were just transmitted. Over and Out."

Then the Holo went dark, removing the blue light from the room.

_The other lights just seem dimmer now._

…

Kanan wordlessly let out a heavy breath and walked into the cockpit.

Hera quickly followed, and they locked the door behind them.

"Let's go see what we're dealing with, and go from there." Lux suggested to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka nodded, and I feel her agitation in the Force as she and Lux walk back to Sabine's room.

I turn to Rex and Echo, who are looking at us.

"Don't blame yourselves. This…this happens sometimes." Rex said, then put his hand on my shoulder. "Not your fault."

Sabine nervously shrugged.

"I guess we should look things over too. There's always a way to bend the orders if we need to." Echo said, looking at Rex.

"True. I suggest you two go do the same." Rex suggested to us.

"Thanks." Sabine smiled.

I nod.

"No problem." Rex said, then Echo starts back to my room.

…

Sabine wordlessly grabbed my hand and started back towards our makeshift area.

Since we had to all escape onto the Ghost, we had to change up room assignments.

Rex and Echo are in Zeb and I's old room.

Lux and Ahsoka are in Sabine's room.

_Everybody's stuff, plus a bunch of materials are in the guest room._

So Sabine had to move down with me.

We're making the best of the situation. She grabbed all the blankets she could and made a really comfy bed.

I didn't really do anything. As I said, I took a nap, and all that stuff happened.

I woke up to Sabine downloading something over a fueling station's HoloNet connection, wrapped up in a bunch of blankets.

As it turns out, they grabbed everything from our rooms on Onderon.

Pictures, clothes, sheets, everything.

Sabine was thoughtful enough to tap the pictures of Sophie and I, plus the two of us right by the gun turret to make it a little friendlier.

"So…Denon?" She asked me, turning to face me holding my hand.

Without another word, she grabbed my other hand.

I shrug.

"Never heard of it."

"Let's see then." Sabine smiled, then slipped off her shoes and socks and sat on our little fluffy blanket bed.

I sit next to her as she pulls up a galaxy map.

…

Denon.

Inner Rim.

"What's a ecumenopolis?" I ask Sabine.

"It's a city world. The entire planet is just one big city." She explained. "Imperial City is one."

"So when you look out on the horizon, you see buildings? No oceans or anything?"

Sabine nodded her head.

"Exactly."

"Huh." I say.

Sabine nodded, then pulled up our mission dossier, which just was sent down.

…

Arrival planetside…

TOMORROW?

I look up at Sabine, who's biting her lip.

…

I look back to the datapad.

From the spaceport, we're supposed to use the passports we had from Mandalore and go to an apartment.

Address: 4047589 Flash Ave. Apartment 5671.

_From there, there will be more instruction in the pantry. 3__rd__ shelf._

…

I guess that's to prevent information from falling into enemy hands.

…

I lean back and Sabine looks up.

"So…we're going to be on our own I guess."

"Yeah."

"Tomorrow too." She added.

"Yeah, seems a little fast. Don't you think?" I ask her.

Sabine shrugged.

"No reason to waste time. Plus everyone else probably needs to get going too."

"Are their assignments on there?"

Sabine shook her head.

"I tried getting them on here, but I think they encrypted the file so we can only see ours. That way in case we get captured we can't give away the information."

_I wouldn't talk!_

"I wouldn't talk." I shrug in exasperation.

"Ask Hera. I said basically the same thing to her and she said to trust her. We probably have heard too much anyway." Sabine rolled her eyes.

Whatever.

I lean back and fall into my pillows.

…

_We've got a mission._

Our own mission.

Sabine gently set the datapad down and laid down, head on my chest.

"You ok?"

I look down and see she's looking up at me.

I shrug.

"Got some stuff on my mind."

Sabine quickly frowned and curled closer.

"About the fight?"

"No."

I've had a clear mind about that.

"You…you did kill that Inquisitor. It'd be normal to feel guilty about that." She said softly.

"It was either me or him. I was in control of the fight, but he had such a strength advantage that he could have just tossed me into the ravine." I reply.

…

"From where I was and what Kanan taught me to look for when you were training, that's how it looked. But you never know." Sabine said simply.

"You must have been nervous." I say.

"I was dying. I wanted to shoot, but didn't want to do it and cause you to be at a disadvantage. IF you would have fallen down I would have jumped in." Sabine nodded.

"Like when I kicked him?" I ask.

"Yeah. He must have been built of like rock. It looked like a strong kick and he didn't budge."

"About 8 feet tall too."

Sabine sighed and curled closer.

…

…

_Might as well just tell her._

The first thought I had this morning.

"Sabine, I…" I start, causing her to look up at me.

"What?"

…

"Should we stop whatever…this is?" I ask, heart pounding.

…

Sabine sat up, face expressionless.

"You're nervous about this."

"Well…yeah. We never said was this was. We've just done." I say.

Sabine smiled at me.

"I'm returning your affection towards me. Is that a bad thing?"

I shrug.

"You're nervous." She said.

Then she crawled on top of me.

"Don't be nervous."

Quickly, I use the Force to find Kanan and Ahsoka.

_We'd hear them coming, but it's good to check._

"What if you meet somebody there though?" I ask her.

"That's a possibility. I could have met somebody on Onderon, but it didn't happen. You can always ask that question." Sabine replied.

"But then we'd be all messed up. And I don't want to lose you." I tell her.

"You're not going to lose me. I always want to be in your life. Somebody's got to keep you in line." She giggled.

I laugh and roll my eyes.

"Still though." I say again.

In reply, Sabine yawned, then wrapped her arms around my neck and came face to face with me.

"Be honest to me for a second?"

"Sure. Because I've been lying this whole time." I joke, then smile.

Sabine laughed, then gave me a brief, chaste kiss.

"This…this isn't about you wanting more is it?" She whispered into my ear.

_More?_

…

This isn't far enough for her?

I shake my head.

"No. I haven't thought about anything more. And I don't want to be that guy."

She smiled, then scooted closer.

"It's okay if you do. It'd have to wait until tomorrow night, but we could kiss a little more tonight to tide you over…" She whispered, then nibbled at my ear.

"Sabine…I don't want to be that guy."

"You wouldn't be. I know you. I love you. We all have needs."

"You…"

_She loves me?_

"Not like that. A little like that." She clarified, then gave me another chaste kiss."

…

"I'll let you know about tomorrow." I compromise.

_I…_

I don't know.

I've never done a girl like that.

"Okay. All you have to do…" She said softly, then grabbed my hands.

_And slipped them right up her shirt._

I freeze up, and she smiled at me, then put my hands on her back, holding onto her bra.

"That. That's all you have to do. And I'll know what that means. Okay?"

I nod, and Sabine rolled her eyes.

"You're so…good."

I laugh.

"You want me to be badder?"

In response, she quirked an eyebrow.

"Maybe."

I laugh again, then peck her lips.

"Ooh. I like it." She told me.

"Now for me to ask a question."

Sabine immediately moved to get away from me.

"Hey. It's fair. C'mon Sabine." I tell her.

She stopped, and I drop my hands down to her hips.

_Her skin is ridiculously soft._

"Fine. I know what you're going to ask."

"And why." I remind her.

She nodded, sitting up and moving to my stomach.

…

_Nobody's coming._

"Atin. You okay with what happened?"

Sabine shrugged, looking tired.

"I…he made up his mind. My first thought was maybe we could bring him with us, but no. He wanted to…kill you and run away with me."

I shake my head.

"He wouldn't have killed me. Couldn't have if he tried."

"You never know though." She quickly replied.

"I had the Force, and my lightsaber. And his blaster if I really wanted it. I would have been okay."

Sabine raised eyebrows.

"Somebody's suddenly confident."

"I was in control of the situation." I reply.

He was scared for his life.

And he tried to punch me.

_We saw how that ended up._

"Thank you for not killing him."

I quickly look up to see Sabine not meeting my eye.

"I wouldn't have killed him. I knew you'd hate me, and I don't want to kill anyone." I say.

Sabine shrugged.

"He tried to knock you out with one punch."

"And gave me a stiff breeze." I tell her.

"I don't know…you think he'll be okay?"

Despite my best efforts, I'm instantly annoyed.

"As long he's a good liar." I say.

…

"Sorry. I know you don't like him. But I've known him forever. I'm just a little worried."

I keep quiet, knowing everything I could say won't help.

Thankfully, the silence was quickly broken by the sound of the comm beeping.

Sabine scrambled off me and look at the screen.

Then smiled at me.

"We're going to eat together and talk about tomorrow. Starting that way now."

Oh cool.

_That'll be nice._


	26. Footsteps

…

I let out a breath and open up my eyes.

_Still in hyperspace._

Everything's ready to go. I've packed all my stuff that I'm taking. It's sitting on the other side of the room, where Sabine and I's bed used to be.

Before we folded it up this morning.

I glance over at the wall next to where you press the button to drop the entire turret down.

I moved the pictures of Sabine and I, plus Sophie and I right where I can see them.

…

I asked last night if I could take them with us and hang them up again.

They said no because if we get compromised, we'll have given away not just our identities, but Sophie's too.

_And that can't happen._

…

She looks so happy.

…

The whole ship's been down ever since when the reality of the situation set in last night.

_Sabine and I are leaving._

And we don't know when we're going to see everyone again.

I shake my head.

_No reason to focus so much on the bad things._

The Alliance is putting a lot of faith in Sabine and I to get this done.

What it is, we don't know yet.

But we have to get it done.

I turn behind me, hearing the sound of footsteps coming down the ladder down here, and see Ahsoka's familiar armor.

"Hey Ezra. All ready to go?" She asked as Kanan came down the ladder.

"Yup. All packed."

Kanan straightened up as Ahsoka smiled at the pictures of Sabine and Sophie.

…

"You'll see them again soon Ezra."

I nod.

"I know. What's up?" I ask as Kanan stood by Ahsoka's side.

"We just wanted to talk to you for a moment before you guys leave." Kanan said.

I begin to get out of my seat, but Kanan stopped me.

"No, you can keep sitting."

_Huh._

Usually he likes me to stand and listen.

"Okay." I say, looking to them.

"I just wanted to tell you a story that might help you on your mission Ezra." Ahsoka said, then smiled at me.

I quickly turn my chair around to face them.

"My master and I were on Felucia, a planet near a hyperspace lane in the Outer Rim. We were trying to take an outpost. Like normal, he let me cover the flank so we could take the outpost faster, and without being possibly outflanked. Everything was fine until I was hit with a stun bolt and captured by some Trandoshan bounty hunters wishing to test themselves against 'the best prey possible'."

"You're not prey. Did you have your lightsaber?" I ask.

"They took it away from me. But it was in the vicinity. Before long I was dropped onto a planet I'd never been to, and was running from them for my life.

But then, I stumbled upon a group in my position. Padawans that had been taken from battlefields across the galaxy and deposited on the planet. They'd been there for so long that they'd stopped using the Force. Stopped hoping for a rescue. Just waiting out the days until they were found again and killed."

…

"I didn't want to give up hope. I knew I had to get back to Anakin. So, over the course of few days, we drew the Trandoshan ship close enough, beat the slimy lizards and got back to Coruscant."

I smile.

"So you did it." I say.

Wow.

"Yup. I never remember Anakin being so relieved. He rushed right to me, and said that he should have done better. But it wasn't his fault. It was because of his training, his lessons that kept me alive on that rock and got me back to the Temple."

…

"I want you to keep that in mind when you're on Denon Ezra. We will be a galaxy away, but we're right beside you. In the lessons that we've taught you." Kanan said, then placing his hand on my arm.

"Remember when I disappeared after you all left Polis Massa?" Ahsoka asked me.

"Yeah. You didn't tell us where you went."

"I went to a planet…and spoke with an old Jedi Master. My master's master."

_Wait._

"That Kenobi guy?" I ask quickly.

_No way._

Kanan smiled widely.

"Precisely Ezra. Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi." Ahsoka told me.

"He's alive?" I ask.

Kanan and Ahsoka nod.

"Where?"

"I can't tell you, in case you're captured. You know that. Or I would." Ahsoka replied, looking sad. "But I asked him about my master."

…

"About what happened to Anakin."

WHOA.

"And?" I ask nervously.

…

"Master Obi-Wan told me that Anakin was in the Jedi Temple when Vader marched on the Jedi Temple. Anakin organized efforts for the younglings to escape the Temple and escape the ruthless battle."

…

"He…fought Vader to buy them more time. But Vader killed him. Nobody knows exactly how, but Obi-Wan told me that it wasn't a fair final blow. Like all Sith, he cheated. Unnaturally."

…

"I'm sorry. I know you were hoping to find him." I say quietly, reaching out and grabbing Ahsoka's wrist.

_Ahsoka looks like she's about to cry._

She sniffled, then let out a breath.

"Sorry. But…by doing that, Anakin became greater than Vader can possibly imagine. Sith are obsessed in the here and now. Anakin is at one with the Force, and can do more than Vader ever can." Ahsoka smiled at me.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Sometimes a Jedi that's become one with the Force can appear as a Force Ghost to guide a Jedi thru a difficult time. Or give support." Kanan answered simply.

"I know after I left the Temple, I separated myself from Jedi life for awhile. And it was an old Jedi that started me down the path to meet up with Bail, which led me here." Ahsoka smiled.

"Don't forget that even if you can't use your lightsaber, or the Force, that it is always your ally. You never know when someone will reach out with a helping hand." Kanan told me calmly.

"Always be ready to listen Ezra. Always keep your ears and your mind open. Don't stop meditating. Use this probe to practice your saber deflection. Every Jedi, including Anakin, will be with you." Ahsoka said, then bending down and placing a circular droid in my open hands, then closed my hands around it.

…

I look up and see Kanan looking down at me smiling.

Thunk.

"I guess we're here." Ahsoka frowned.

I nervously swallow.

I stand up, and both Kanan and Ahsoka both move to allow me to grab my bags and lead the way up to the airlock.

Where everyone else is waiting.

Hera's hugging Sabine and whispering something in her ear.

We hang back until she lets Sabine go.

Then I take a step forward and get a strong hug from Hera.

"I…be safe. Okay. Protect each other. Do what you do best Ezra." Hera said into my ear, then squeezed me again.

I hug her back.

"I will. I promise."

Hera let me go, tears glossing over her eyes and I turn to Rex, Echo and Lux.

Echo stuck his hand out to me.

I shake it and smile.

"Well…Commander. Your first mission." Echo smiled at me.

"Commander?" I ask nervously.

"You're a Jedi in the field. Can't hurt to give you the designation." Rex smiled at me, then clapped my shoulder.

Lux affectionately tapped my chest with his fist twice and smiled.

"You're more than ready. Both of you are going to run circles around these guys." He let loose a cocky looking smile.

"When we get to Safe Zone tonight, we're going to make sure that you two have an extraction crew constantly on standby. This looks like a deep cover mission." Rex said reassuringly.

"Your contact should have more information on what to do and how to contact them when the time comes. If they don't mention anything, ask." Echo said strongly.

"It will save your life." Lux said simply.

"But you'll always have an escape plan. And don't be shocked if the two of us are there with the group to get you. It might get hot." Rex smiled, elbowing Echo.

"Totally." Echo smiled.

Rex turned back to me.

"But Hera and Lux are right. You're ready kid. Go kill it. See you soon."

I smile, then nod and grab my bags and join Sabine.

She smiled back at me, then I turn around.

Kanan's now got his arm around Hera, who's leaning into him.

Ahsoka, Lux, Rex and Echo are standing next to them, looking at us.

Sabine waved to them, and they all waved back.

"C'mon. We don't want this to look conspicuous." Sabine said to me.

I nod, then wave.

And turn away from them.

…

I let out a breath and take a couple longer strides to catch up with Sabine.

"So." I say, not knowing what exactly to say.

Sabine smiled.

"You don't know what to do."

"Well…yeah." I say.

"We're going to get out of here, grab a speeder, then go to the address and see what's going on."

"And go from there?" I ask.

Sabine nodded, then pulled out here blue book.

I do the same, pulling it out of my back pocket.

…

I walk forward as Sabine steps past the checkpoint.

"Passport."

I smile and hand it to the man.

…

…

He hands me my passport back and waves the next person forward.

Sabine smiled as I walk to her.

We quietly walk to an area full of waiting speeders, then choose one.

"4047589 Flash Ave please." Sabine said cheerfully.

The driver, a species I've never seen before nodded and started the engine.

I strap in and look out at the city.

_It's actually really pretty._

The sun's reflecting off the Durasteel building, casting the entire skyline in a bright sunset-like glow.

We're hardly the only speeder out at this time. The traffic is multiple lanes wide, with some people breaking off from the primary lanes and going their own way to their destinations.

Electronic holo-signs dot the skyline everywhere I look. Signs for local casinos, who to vote for, a few stores, and even signs advertising other planets.

They probably had to pay extra.

I glance around when we start a smooth left turn and start descending.

…

We're moving towards a curved building with multiple landing pads, and stretches up forever.

_Actually…_

Where's the ground?

I assumed that the spaceport was ground level, but we flew out straight. Didn't rise into the air or anything.

…

Our driver dipped below a few landing pads and stopped on one.

Sabine handed him a few credits, and we both hop out.

Once we're out, he zoomed off.

"Gotta keep going I guess."

"Yeah. 10 credits per ride. You get 100 people, that's 1000 credits a day."

_Oh wow._

"That's a little bit of money."

"You're telling me." Sabine said as we move into the building and find ourselves in a lobby.

My jaw drops as I look around.

The floor's some black rock that's been polished to shine and has gold trim and designs cut in the floor, also lines with gold.

The room's set in a soft light from overhead lights.

On the other side of the room, there are a few corresponding signs.

"First 2 room numbers = Floor"

"Turbolifts broken up into 1-35. 36-70. 71-100. 101-135. 136-165."

"For questions, concierge services are available in each lobby."

I turn to Sabine.

"What's our apartment?" I ask.

"5671." Sabine said, pointing to the second lift.

I follow her as she presses the button for the lift.

The door opens immediately to reveal an empty lift.

Sabine gently taps the button for the 56th floor.

WHOOSH!

I quickly grab onto the side rail as we zoom upwards.

Even Sabine stumbled slightly before using the rail to steady herself.

Then we just stopped, and the door opened.

"Uhh…" I sputter out.

Sabine shrugged, then walked out.

I scramble to meet her as she's walking down a hallway.

…

_Where are the doors?_

There was one right when we got off, but Sabine walked past it.

And now there's just bare wall on both sides.

…

Finally there's a door on the left.

5671.

Sabine tested the handle, but it's locked.

"How do we get in?"

I shrug.

There's plants on either side, a door mat and a small painting to the left of the door.

Sabine bends down and checks the rug, and I poke around in the plant.

_Maybe they hid it so nobody would steal it._

…

Nope.

The painting.

I reach up and touch the side of it.

Immediately it gives a little.

_Ooh._

I press a little more, then spin the painting itself around inside the frame.

Revealing two silver rods.

I grab them both, then look at the door.

_There's a little hole above the door handle._

Sabine took one of the rods from me and stuck it in.

Beep!

This time the handle clicks softly when she turns it and we push our way inside.

…

It's dark.

"I've got it." Sabine says, before the room is bathed in li—

"Whoaaaa…" Sabine said, as I smile and let out a little laugh.

You've got to be kidding.

The floor is partially the same stone as in the lobby downstairs, but white. The rest of it is carpeted.

The part we're in is mostly enclosed, but has a walkway leading to a kitchen area on the right and a enormous pantry door on the left.

But that's not the best part.

The entire far wall is glass, with a sitting area and holo terminal.

Lastly, there's two hallways on either side.

"This is all for us?" Sabine asked.

I shrug.

"I…guess?" I reply.

_We don't need all this._

This is way over the top.

Sabine turned to me, smiling from ear to ear.

I smile back then walk to see where the hallway on the left goes.

…

Oh, it's a bedroom with a little hallways attached.

I set my bags down and walk past my bed to find a big bathroom, with shower, sink, closet and plenty of storage space.

_This is a place I dreamed of living in as a kid._

And now I'm here.

I look around a little more, from the fluffy bed, to the bathroom counters and tons of drawers.

Then I walk back to the main room.

_Sabine's not back yet._

I nervously grab the holo remote and turn it on, then flip it back off.

…

This place is huge.

I walk into the kitchen area to see plenty of cooking area.

When I open up a cabinet, I see more dishes and various things than I've ever seen before.

"All for us I guess." I hear Sabine say.

I close the cabinet and turn to her as she opened the pantry.

_Oh yeah, that's where our next move is._

When I step inside the pantry, Sabine's holding a small piece of paper.

"480 Coruscant Way. Suite 10. Ask for Mr. Brroka."

…

"I guess we go there and ask for him." Sabine said, then turning to me.

I shrug, then start back to the door.

When we're both thru the door, I pull out my key rod and let the door shut, then test the handle.

Locked.

"I guess we can leave it like that and always keep our keys on us?" Sabine asked me.

"Sounds good to me." I say.

This time, I quickly grab the side rail.

Sabine smiled at me, then rolled her eyes and pressed 'L'.

Quickly, my stomach falls out from under me and we're descending incredibly fast.

And then it's over, and the door is opening.

Sabine lead me back to the landing pad and flagged down another speeder.

By the time I'm sitting down, we're already moving.

Sabine settled in right next to me and looped our hands together.

I glance over at her, and she's smiling up at me.

"This is going to be fun."

"Hope so." I reply.

"And our little apartment is pretty sweet."

"It's not little. It's pretty big. At least my room is."

"Maybe…our room?" She smiled up at me.

I shrug, then look out at the skyline.

_I still need to talk to her._

I think I know what to say now.

Sabine squeezed my hand and I look to see we're approaching a building with multiple small "IS" signs, and Imperial logos.

_Imperial Security Force._

We slowly descended onto a landing pad, and quickly hop out.

The driver can't leave fast enough.

_He was already moving as my leg was still inside._

I nod respectfully to the soldiers guarding the landing pad, and one of them acknowledged me.

The other decided to be a jerk and be above saying hello I guess.

Quickly, I probe the area using the Force.

_I don't want to get surprised by Shark Bait's friend that we didn't beat on Onderon._

We don't know what happened to her.

Nobody of any significance in the Force is here.

I take a few steps to keep up with Sabine as we walk into the main lobby.

Sabine put on a happy face and smiled at the main receptionist when we walked up.

"Hi, can I help you?" She asked simply, looking bored.

"Yes. We're here for Mr. Brroka?" Sabine asked with a polite smile.

"Eighth floor." She said, as her desk lit up.

We started to the turbolift as she said "Imperial Security Force Headquarters, where do I direct your call?"

The door shut before she spoke again.

I glance around nervously as the lift rose, this time much slower.

_There's a barely noticeable security camera directly behind us._

Most people probably never see it and know they're being watched.

The door opened to reveal a office door.

"Office of Military Affairs."

_Great._

I open the door for Sabine and let her go first thru the door.

"Thank you."

I softly close the door behind us, then turn back to see a man gesturing to us to come here with two fingers.

I guess that's him.

I hustle to catch up and slip inside before he closed the door on me.

"Alright. I wanted adults, not to babysit for this job. But I got what I got. You two will listen and listen good. You understand?"

I quickly nod and sit down.

"I am General Brroka. This visit will be brief, and you should hope against hope that I never see you in this office again."

"Okay." Sabine says simply.

"That right there. Too informal girl. You're going to be infiltrating the Imperial Military. The greatest fighting force in galactic history. One slip like that could cost you your cover and your life. Do you understand?" He snapped at her.

_Whoa._

"Yes sir." I say stiffly.

Sabine straightened up in her chair.

"The official cover story for the two of you is that I've recommended the two of you for promotion fro Planetary Security into Offworld Operations. I strongly advise you review these files tonight before you go in tomorrow to begin the assignment. It would be wise to know what you've done and the accolades you've received. That would be an extremely easy way to blow it. And embarrassing to me professionally."

Well then.

"Understood." Sabine said.

"Your assignment is simple: To discover what exactly "Operation Remnant" is, along with any information you can extract about it. It was let slip by an officer with too loose a tongue at an Imperial function. That officer is now dead, and I was sworn to secrecy. Apparently it is a high priority not only on numerous Imperial controlled worlds, but to the Emperor himself. He must give yearly clearance for the project to continue."

General Brroka drank out of a glass in front of him, then continued.

"You should be working with youths your own age. That's why you're here and not adults as I had requested. You, girl. Your hair will have to change."

_What?!_

"My hair?" Sabine asked.

"Yes. Too rebellious. You'll have to change it before long. I'll make a note that your dyed it. But it is likely that it will have to be undyed."

Sabine looks crushed.

"Don't look so sad. I hope the Rebellion didn't send somebody who is soft. I won't feel bad shipping you back. I'd be doing you a favor." The general scowled.

"She…she's always dyed her hair for as long as I've known her. I'm sure she views that as part of her identity sir." I quickly say, trying to cover for her.

"Well, regardless, it will have to become not part of her identity." He said brusquely, before rising to his feet.

"My recommendation to you is this: Get in with the youths. I believe their nickname is "Adjustments". They like to hang out at the local nightclubs and dance to the popular Core Drive music from across the galaxy. That would be a good start. From there, I can't help you."

Core Drive.

_That's Sabine's music._

I glance at her, then look back at the General.

"Also, you'll each be getting a stipend from the Rebellion to buy food and other necessities. The apartment should be stocked, but you'll run out eventually. There is already two credit sticks in the silverware drawer of the kitchen."

…

He turned back from his mantle to look at us.

"Well? Go. I'm done."

_Okay._

I rise to my feet and walk to the door and let Sabine out, then close the door behind us.

To find Sabine with a disgusted look on her face.

When she opens her mouth I stop her.

"They probably are listening." I whisper.

Sabine abruptly closes her mouth, then nods.

Without another word, we go back downstairs and hail another speeder back home.

"He was cheery, wasn't he." Sabine said flatly once we've started back.

"Yup."

"Do this. Do that. Change your hair. Damn you. Get out. Stupid kids." She said in a deeper voice, looking grumpy.

I laugh.

"Not a bad impression."

Sabine smiled, then it slid off her face.

"I really hope they don't make me change my hair." Sabine said sadly.

"Me neither. I like it."

Sabine smiled at me, then it slid off again.

"Man, he was a jerk."

I shrug. "Not everybody we meet in the Rebellion is going to be nice."

"Didn't seem like he was a rebel. All that 'Greatest Fighting Force In the Galaxy' stuff? Sure sounding buckethead-y."

I laugh as we pull into our building.

We hop out and walk into the lobby.

"So…you wanna order some food? Watch the holo?" She asked once we got on the turbolift.

"UH, sure. I want to talk to you for a quick se…cond though." I wince as we fly up to our apartment.

Sabine quickly looked concerned.

"Okay."

I let her leave the lift first, then nervously swallow.

_I know what to say now._

It came to me last night, after what General Sato said about me.

Sabine opened the door, then closed it behind me and turned to me.

"So…what's up?"

Thump thump.

Thump thump.

"I…" I start, then shake my head and walk past her.

_I don't think I can look at her and do this._

Six months ago, I would have slapped myself for doing this.

"Whatever this is between us Sabine, it needs to stop." I say, looking at the sunset out the gigantic window.

…

"I was afraid you'd say that. You tried saying it before this. Didn't you." She said simply, voice normal.

I nod.

"I don't like this gray area. I want you, but you don't want me. You don't want us to be a thing. Whether you say that or not."

Sabine slowly stepped in front of me and looked up.

_With tears in her eyes._

"It's not because of what I said yesterday is it? We don't have to go that far Ezra. I was just offering because—"

"No. It's because…of you. And Atin. And all that crap I put in our way. It's a lot of stuff."

Sabine seemed to silently slump in front of me, but kept looking at me.

"Let's…at least wait until after this mission to revisit this. The rebel leadership always think that I'm not ready. It's always me. I want that to change." I say quietly.

"I…" Sabine started, then blinked back a tear and hugged me softly.

"You don't mind us being close and watching the holo right? Stuff like that?" She quietly asked.

"No. But just like we used to."

"And no sleeping together." She said simply.

I nod.

…

"Okay." Sabine said, then finally let me go and turned around.

I watch her as she opens various drawers in the kitchen, trying to hide her shaking hands.

_But I can feel them._

She finally found the silverware and dug thru it, only to discover that the credit sticks were under the container that is used to hold them.

"You…you don't think I was using you, do you? Because that's not what I was doing at all. I…I don't know I guess." She turned back to me, holding the credit sticks and some random silverware.

_Looking small._

"No. I know you weren't using me. We just kind of fell into it. But I wanted to get it out of the way."

Sabine nodded.

"Can you go to the holo. We can find what we want to eat on there." She told me.

I nod and turn to the holo, then pull the remote to me and turn it on.

"What are you in the mood for?" I ask her simply as it boots up.

(A/N: Thank you to everyone that's been reading this story along the way, and especially to those who found this story since 'Siege of Lothal' last week. Check back Wednesday for the next chapter. I'd love to hear you guys' opinions on a Star Wars Rebels AU with a good Anakin. It's a long way off, but I had the thought this weekend. Hope you enjoy. – James)


	27. Editing The Script

_Ezra "Blaster" Bridger._

Corellia.

My parents work nondescript jobs.

And I've gotten in trouble for disobeying a superior's direct orders multiple times.

I glance up from my datapad and see that Sabine's still not here.

So I look back to my datapad.

…

I carry around a modified blaster at all times, a result of being mugged in Coronet City.

_I put an end to the muggers._

But I still carry the blaster, just in case.

I smile and swipe to the next page.

Sabine almost cackled when she read the first page.

"_You're basically a bounty hunter!"_

Then she kicked her feet like a kid and giggled crazily.

"Sabine Wren"

Also from Corellia.

Graduated at the top of her class.

Our old boss on Corellia let her take certain liberties because she was without a best.

That's why her hair is dyed.

Here on Denon we've kept order and followed every order to a "T".

There's a note in my file that compliments that fact.

_I feel like a child being condescendingly complimented._

I glance up at the sound of Sabine's feet.

Dark pants, knee high boots. Lighter top.

Hair hasn't changed.

I wordlessly open the door and hold it for her.

"Thanks. Do we know where we're going?" Sabine asked.

"Some place called Imperial Square. But all the locals call it Memorial Park." I reply as she hits the button for the lift.

"Figures. I'm noticing that anything sentimental the Empire uses for their advantage."

Ding.

I wordlessly step inside the elevator.

…

"You ate I'm guessing?" I ask.

When I walked to the kitchen she was walking back to her room.

"Yup." She nodded.

…

She's still quiet.

We ordered the same kind of pasta we got on Onderon before we got attacked and watched more of the interior design show on the holo.

Sabine fell asleep, curled up on my lap.

I quickly got bored and started looking at my file and committing it to memory.

After about an hour of Sabine using me as her pillow, I gently woke her up and offered to walk her back to her room.

_She did wake up literally seconds before._

She replied by shoving me away and sleepily stumbling back towards her room.

Then, after all that, I couldn't fall asleep.

I just tossed and turned for what felt like hours.

On top of that, I woke up at basically sunrise today. I've been up for almost 4 hours.

…

I glance over at Sabine to see her quietly looking out at the skyline.

…

_This isn't awkward._

Not at all.

I didn't know ending our…thing meant we couldn't talk or be friendly.

Sabine turned and saw me looking at her.

"Talk." She said simply, then slapped me across the leg.

"Okay…you nervous?" I ask.

She shook her head.

"I was the best cadet at the Academy, infiltrated the Academy on Lothal. And I've gotten better since then. Shouldn't be a problem."

Makes sense.

I nod.

"What about you? This isn't some small time planet like Lothal." She asked me gently.

"Hey. Easy there. I was the one on the inside at Lothal. And watch how you talk about it. I don't slam Mandalore." I tell her.

"But it's the truth. No need to get all defensive. This is a lot bigger." Sabine replied simply.

"It's what you implied that I have a problem with."

"What I mean…" Sabine briefly paused. "Is that there will just be a lot more eyes on us. Nothing bad. Plus, you can just Jedi your way out of a tight spot." She smiled at me, then shimmied her hips.

I laugh.

"I wish it was that easy."

Then I dance in my seat.

"Problem solved!" I joke, getting Sabine to laugh.

The speeded suddenly took a sharp dip down, bringing our attention back up front.

Sabine glanced at me with an aggravated expression.

Then pointed to the driver.

_Ahh._

She wanted him to warn us before we plunge about 60 feet.

_That'd be nice._

Quickly, our driver picks up speed and I see a complex inside what looks like a park.

"I think we're here." I say, peeking out my side.

Sabine boosted herself up and glanced over my side also.

Our driver simply took a wild turn into a landing pad.

"Your destination." He said, in basic.

I simply hand over the credits, with no tip.

_Usually I feel bad, but not this time._

I turn back to see Sabine looking at multiple eight to ten story buildings made out of Durasteel, with trees and people all around them.

It really is a park.

"Talk about a contrast." Sabine said, with a slight frown.

"I'm guessing you're not a fan." I ask.

She shook her head.

"This is one of their staples. Grab what's sentimental. The City of Bone back home, even though that's a joke. The park here. On and on."

"A joke?" I ask.

The name implies that it's historically important.

"No. It used to be an amusement park. A stupid one, according to Daddy. But the owners tricked the stupid Imperials right after the Clone Wars that it was important. So that's why their base of operations are there."

Huh.

"That's why the hunch jumped out to you."

Sabine nodded and started towards the huge front doors.

We both look up when a sign comes into view.

"Offworld Operations" Arrow to the left.

"Internal Defense" Arrow forward.

"Economic Office" Arrow to the right.

Sabine pointed to the left and started that way, doing some sort of sidestep while looking forward.

"That a new dance move?"

She turned back to me and smiled.

"Maybe. I'm excited to go dance. I haven't done that in forever."

"You're done it before?" I ask as we walk down a hallway.

"They have a dance club sort of thing with nonalcoholic drinks. It was for people under 16."

"Is that the drinking age?"

"On Mandalore. Just because that's part of the culture."

Makes sense.

"Because it's 18 for the galaxy." I say.

Sabine nodded, then turned her attention to a guy behind the front desk.

Behind him is a huge Imperial Logo.

"Offworld Operations: Denon"

"Hi. We're here to meet with Captain Telon?" Sabine smiled.

"It's down the hall to the left. Cannot miss it." The guy smiled at Sabine flirtatiously.

I roll my eyes and simply follow Sabine.

Wait.

…

_That's not good._

That bugged me.

That shouldn't bug me.

"Telon?" I ask, double checking his name.

"Yup." Sabine said, then stopping at a door with his name on in.

Sabine knocked, then stepped back.

…

The door opened to a man in Imperial Uniform.

"Ahh. You two must be the people General Brroka sent my way. Come in, please."

Sabine smiled and started in.

_He's a lot nicer than the General._

Sabine sat at a chair in front of his desk, leaving me with nowhere to sit.

"Sorry, the Economic Office took my other chair for some big meeting yesterday and it hans't turned up." He said apologetically.

"No problem." I smile reassuringly, putting my hands behind my back like I've seen tons of Imperials do.

_General Kallus comes to mind._

"Looks like Offices are always borrowing furniture from other offices." Sabine joked.

"Yeah…" Captain Telon said wearily.

I glance around and see that he's decorate the office with various pictures of natural views from across the galaxy.

Coruscant, Taris, Corellia, and Alderaan.

"I reviewed both of your resumes yesterday after the general sent them over. I have to admit, you're both very impressive."

"Thank you." Sabine spoke up.

I nod in thanks.

"Now…what I didn't tell the General, is that I can only take one of you. I asked for two candidates so I could pick the better fit, not necessarily the most accomplished person."

Whoa.

_Only one?_

What about me?

_He's going to pick Sabine._

Guarantee it.

"Okay." Sabine said simply.

I quickly feel her confidence in the Force.

Can't blame her. She's literally done this before.

_Her default is Imperial._

"Our work here is highly sensitive. Dealing with bank accounts, planetary emissaries and personal information of powerful people."

…

"I ask you both this: With that in mind, how do you both feel individually about how you can improve our department here."

Okay.

"Feel free to take a moment. I want both of your both answers."

…

_Crap._

I'm supposed to be a trigger happy guy.

_With a dark history._

I quickly rack my brain, trying to come up with something to say.

Then Sabine cleared her throat.

"Yes Miss Wren?" Captain Telon asked.

"Well, if you decide to bring me in, I am a very trustworthy person that works well in an office sort of setting. I'd bring a few years of experience in that area, along with a strong work ethic and a good attitude."

Captain Telon seemed to take that in and nodded.

"Mr. Bridger?" He asked me.

I nod and take a step forward.

"Sir, if you decided to add me to the team, I'd be able to be an asset in the field if necessary immediately. I'm a loyal person, able to keep his mouth shut about sensitive information and, like Sabine bring a good work ethic and attitude."

…

He nodded once more.

"Alright. Thank you both. Your answers back up my decision."

_Okay._

I nod and Sabine smiled.

"Miss Wren, thank you for your time. You may report back to General Brroka." Captain Telon stood and extended his hand to her.

I freeze.

_WHAT._

WHAT?

Sabine stood slowly, then shook his hand and nodded.

Then Sabine walked out the door.

…

"Please, sit." Captain Telon smiled at me.

I obey, brain still processing what just happened.

"You're surprised."

"I…" I nod. "Sorry sir, but Sabine's always been the natural leader of whatever we do. When you said only one of us would be working with you, my mind jumped ahead."

He smiled at me and nodded.

"The report seemed to paint that picture too. But we've already got a leader I trust on the team. You'll be a valuable asset here, and when we make moves on offworld assets. They…well, why don't I just introduce you to them?" Captain Telon smiled at me.

"Sure." I smile back.

We both stand, and he opens…a door I didn't see to my right.

It kind of blends in with the wall.

"Door getcha?" He smirked.

I nod.

"It gets everyone. And it allows me to be close to the bullpen." He tells me as we step out into sort of an open area with cube shaped walls.

A girl pokes her head up, then hops to her feet.

Captain Telon put two fingers in his mouth and whistled loudly.

Suddenly a ton of girls look up, then scramble to us.

…

_They're ALL girls._

In the same grey Imperial Uniform.

"Ladies…this is Ezra Bridger. He'll be the new member of the team, specializing in arms and holocommunications."

All of the girls smiled.

"Darcy, I already told him who runs the show. Would you mind giving him a tour and introducing everyone? I have a budget meeting in 15."

A brunette on the left smiled at him and nodded.

"Of course."

"I'll be back later to give you what you need to get in tomorrow and that sort of thing." Captain Telon clapped my shoulder, then walked back into his office.

I turn back to the girls in front of me.

"Okay. Well Ezra, as the good Captain said, I'm Darcy. I run things down here in the bullpen so he can do whatever it is he does." Darcy smiled.

I smile back, then Darcy stepped back and looked to the girl next to her.

"I'm Katiey."

"Mira. Nice to meet you Ezra."

"Lana." Another girl said, raising her hand and smiling.

"I'm Brie. Like the caf flavor." A girl with auburn hair joked, causing everyone to laugh.

I nervously laugh too.

"And I'm Aiden. I'm always last."

"I'm not great with names." I say.

This is going to take me awhile to learn them.

_Even though I'm actually pretty good generally with names._

They're all beautiful.

And their little hats hide their hair, so I can't use that as a cheat sheet.

"It's okay." One of them said.

"Lana." I reply.

She happily nodded.

"Now watch me miss it the next three times." I joke, getting them all to laugh.

"You'll learn quick. Plus we don't usually wear uniforms every day." Darcy quickly said.

_Huh?_

I must look confused, because Darcy smiled and turned to her...coworkers.

"I'll show him around. Break's in an hour."

"Aye Aye captain." One of them jokingly saluted her.

The other simply started walking back to their cubes.

Darcy smiled and turned back to me.

"As you might guess, this is where we work. Everyone's got their own cubicle and holocomputer." She said, as we started walking down a gap in between the cubicles.

"Yup. We'll be right here if you need us." One of the girls said.

In response, Darcy pulled a remote out of her pocket and pressed a button.

A wall the same color as the cubicle suddenly popped up and the girl, whatever her name is, disappeared from view.

"HEY! Darcy!" She yelled.

Laughter burst out around us.

"Work. Or at least pretend to." Darcy rolled her eyes.

…

"Your cubicle is next to mine." Darcy said, walking past a cluttered cubicle neighbored by a completely empty one.

"LUCKY YOU!"

Darcy frowned, then darted to her cubicle and grabbed two pens.

Then she motioned for me to be quiet, and tossed one of them to the closed cubicle.

It hits her solidly on the head and makes an audible noise.

"OWWW!"

Everyone around us laughed, and a few of them looked up.

Darcy simply smiled and tossed the other pen.

"OWWWWWW!"

She popped right up.

"That hit the same spot Darce!" She said, holding her head.

"Sorry Mira." Darcy smiled, then turned to me.

"Let me show you the rest of the building…"

…

…

(5 Hours Later)

"Here's a keycard. That way you can just come in the side door and not have to walk all the way from the official entrance." Captain Telon said, handing me a small plastic card.

I take it and slip it into my pocket.

"Darcy mentioned that you guys don't always wear uniforms?" I ask.

Captain Telon smiled.

"Yeah, we usually don't. We're one of the few Offices that can get away with that, and that's because we do go out and raid from time to time. What you're wearing right now is fine."

I nod.

"Before I forget, since you're the only guy in the bullpen, it's not frowned upon, but you can't chase any of the girls while on the clock."

I laugh and shake my head.

"You might have noticed, but Darcy and the others aren't exactly open to that prospect. They're pretty self reliant."

_I didn't spend enough time._

I shrug.

"It's not professional." I tell him.

"You get it Ezra. I like that. But don't let the girls intimidate you. WE used to have a guy come in and fix the holos and the printer, but Darcy yelled at him and he's a complete nervous wreck any time he's around now. Hopefully you can replace him. He's a bit creepy anyway."

"Sure, I've never fixed that ort of thing, but I'm usually pretty handy. I can learn." I tell him.

Captain Telon smiled. "I'll get you the models of all the holos and printers so you can learn before we have to have you learn on the fly."

I nod.

"Okay."

Captain Telon glanced down at his datapad.

"I don't think I have anything else. Everyone's supposed to be here from 9 to 5, with an hour for lunch. Usually you won't stay this long."

I smile.

"It's no problem, you had to give me all of this."

I've got my holo information, keycard, signed a contract, and been measured for a uniform.

He nodded.

"The only thing I can think of, is that sometimes we do have to attend Emperor Palpatine's annual address in full uniform. But that's a ways away."

"Okay." I say.

Then Captain Telon stood and extended his hand.

"Well Ezra, I'll see you tomorrow. Glad I chose you."

I shake his hand and smile.

"Thank you sir."

He gestured for me to leave first, and I do that.

…

Now I get to go home I guess.

It's about 7:30.

She left here awhile ago.

_She's probably still steaming._

Hopefully she isn't too mad at me.

Really, it's Captain Telon's fault.

Why was there only one spot?

_He messed all this up._

Now Sabine's got more reason to be pissed at me.

I step out onto the landing pad and gesture for a speeder.

A man in uniform waved one forward, and I hop in.

"4047589 Flash Ave please."

He silently nodded and we started moving.

I sit back in the back, trying to loosen up.

_I can't tell the Captain that he messed everything up, but he did._

He seems, at least on the surface to be a good man.

But loyal.

They all seem to be loyal.

_Darcy is a leader._

She pretty much marched me around for about four hours, showing me around, even getting lunch with me.

They all were nice enough.

_I wonder why they are called the "Adjustments"_.

I'm sure I'll find out.

I glance forward and see that we're approaching our building.

_Breathe._

Sabine's not going to be that mad.

She might have already reported ahead and told the Rebellion the bad news.

The speeder starts to slow down, and I pull out the needed credits.

I smile to him, then hand him the credits and hop out.

When I walk in, there's a few people lingering in the lobby.

I press the button for the lift and hop in.

_I'm starting to get used to the speed._

When I t stops I hop up and quickly probe out using the Force.

…

_I don't feel her anger._

Last night I could.

I pull my key out of my pocket, slip it inside the door then open it and walk inside.

"Hey! You're finally back." I hear Sabine say as I'm closing it.

"Hey. Yeah. I got kept late. Had to get log in info, all that kind of stuff. Sorry." I say, turning and looking at her sheepishly.

She smiled in reply.

"It's okay. Did it go okay?"

I nod. "Yeah. No real news."

Sabine nodded.

"The people are nice?"

I nod again.

"Yeah. It's actually all girls, so I'm in a weird spot. But they were nice."

Sabine frowned, but I feel her anger spike.

_Oh crap._

"All girls? Great. So I was just screwed from the get go. Of course he's going to pick you…" Sabine muttered angrily, turning her back to me.

…

_I don't really know what to say._

"Sorry. About that." I say quietly.

"Not you fault. That Captain is inept. What kind of person pulls that kind of stunt? My file says that I'm a girl. If you're looking for a boy, don't bring me in. Then we're both off with Rex and Echo at Safe Zone…" She said angrily.

I glance down at the floor nervously.

…

"Did you call ahead and tell them that?" I ask.

"Tried. Got a guy that told me that he'd relay the message that we want to talk. But he said don't be surprised if we're waiting for a day or two."

"Oh." I say.

_They might want to encrypt it from their end._

I know we encrypt it on our side.

"I want to go to the club if you don't mind. As soon as possible." Sabine…ordered.

"Okay." I say evenly.

_I should just go along with it._

She was looking forward to it before this disaster started.

_And I was actually having an okay day before I came back home._

…

Sabine's in a bad mood.

I would be too if I was in her spot.

"Let me clean out my pockets, then we can go." I tell her, then walk past her to my room.

I quickly pull everything out of my pockets and leave everything but my credit stick, keys and identification, then walk back to the living room.

"I'm ready." I say.

Sabine turned to me, and I notice light touches of makeup.

_And her….outfit._

I didn't see it when I came in.

She took her jacket off.

Uhm…

She's wearing very tight pants and…

_Can you call that a shirt?_

She's exposed her stomach and shoulders. The rest is covered in a white shirt.

_Must be dancing clothes._

I drag my eyes away from her, and Sabine doesn't even look to me before she starts back to the front door.

"Do I need to do anything? I didn't know I was supposed to dress up." I ask as we walk out the door.

In response, Sabine smiled.

"I didn't dress up."

"Oh." I say simply.

…

"Sorry."

"It's okay." Sabine said simply as we walked into the lift.

…

"I assume you know where you're going?" I ask.

In response, Sabine simply gave me a side eyed look, then turned away from me.

_Well then._

I let out a breath and follow her out to the landing pad.

I've just got to suck it up and do this.

Before long ,we're gliding along above the city.

_Pretty view._

The city is all lit up against the nighttime sky.

"Pretty view." I say simply.

"Mhmm." Sabine replied.

…

_Okay._

I shift my spot, inching slightly away from her.

I've just got to grin and bear it.

_She had an awful day._

She was literally rejected to do something she's very qualified to do.

I glance over at the slow rumble of electronic music below us.

_I guess that's the place._

…

Our speeder pilot dropped us off, and Sabine turned to me.

Oh.

I hand him my credit stick, and the driver swiped it, then handed it back.

I smile and turn back to Sabine.

Only to see that she's not here.

…

_She's in the small line to get in._

I slide next to her.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." I smile simply.

…

…

The bouncer waves Sabine forward.

"He's covering me." Sabine said simply.

_I guess I'm covering her._

Without another word, they let Sabine slip into the club, which is already busy.

The bouncer simply motioned for my credit stick, and I hand it over to him.

…

"Okay. Hands up please, so I can make sure you don't have a weapon on you." He said, giving me my credit stick back, and slipping an orange band onto my wrist.

I do as he says, and get scanned by some sort of handheld bar thing.

…

"Okay, you're good."

I smile, and walk inside.

_AHH._

IT. IS. LOUD.

Deafening electronic music, just like Sabine likes.

Oh, and it's pitch freaking black.

I slip farther inside and see that there's actually neon lights that move around.

And it's not as dark as I thought.

_My eyes are adjusting._

I glance in front of me, only to see Sabine smiling at me.

I smile back and shrug.

_I don't really want to dance._

Sabine simply waved her fingers at me…stuck her tongue out, shook her hips and disappeared into the crowd.

…

_Okay._

Well then.

Suddenly the base is cranked up, and the whole place starts jumping and singing along.

I don't even know what to do.

_There's barely words to this stuff._

How are they singing?

…

It's not really singing.

More like chanting.

I slide off to the side of the…mob dancing and look around.

_There's a second level above us._

It looks kind of a catwalk, with winding circular stairs up there.

…

Better to be up there than stuck here.

Maybe I can get something to drink too.

_This might be a long night._

I sigh, let my frustrations out into the Force and start towards the stairs.

_Keep your eyes out._

You want to fit in Ezra.

I'm sure I'm sticking out like a sore thumb.

_I can feel the eyes on me._

I follow a Twi'lek couple up the stairs and find the first bit of open balcony space.

Whew.

This place is packed.

The song changed again and the mob started pairing off and dancing at lightening speed.

_And flipping them._

Somebody's going to get hurt.

I hake my head and probe around with the Force.

…

_It'd be too easy to get pick pocketed._

If I had to bet, I'd guess there's somebody down there that is cleaning people out.

At least that's what I'd do.

…

Sabine made the right call wearing that white shirt. Or whatever it is.

Everyone's wearing bright clothing.

The next song flipped on, and everybody started writhing around.

_It looks like Sabine's dancing with like 5 separate guys._

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the people on my right stand up and walk away.

I stay where I am and keep looking down at the dancers.

The people around the dance floor seem to be just hanging out, talking with friends and sipping drinks.

_Semms pretty relaxed._

As opposed to the mass of people dancing down there.

"You here to dance the stress away?" I hear somebody say to my right.

I turn and….pause.

"Darcy?" I raise my voice.

_I can barely see her because of this light._

And…

"Hey! Didn't think you'd go out tonight!" She smiled at me, then gave me a side hug.

I hug her back and settle back down on the rail.

"I didn't either!" I joke, causing her to laugh.

She…looks a lot different.

She's got long, dark hair, is wearing a loose jacket with long pants.

_She looks great._

"Who'd you come with?" She asked me.

I turn and glance at her.

"How'd you know I came with someone?"

Darcy smiled at me.

"Well, when you came up here, you immediately looked down at someone. Who is it?"

I smile and turn to the dance floor.

"She's the one in the right. She came with me from back home."

Darcy glanced down, then barely changed her expression.

"It looks like she's dancing with every guy."

I shrug.

…

"She doesn't know, but every single one of those guys is a slimeball." Darcy told me.

"Doesn't surprise me. That's why you're up here?" I ask.

"Exactly! Make them come to me!" She smiled at me. "Did you change from work?"

I shake my head.

"Captain Telon kept me really late, then when I got home, she was like 'We're leaving!' so now I'm here."

"Ahh. You said she's a friend from back home?" Darcy asked.

I nod.

"What's she doing here?"

"She was the other person up for the job."

Darcy quickly looked surprised.

"Oh."

"Yeah…she's not in the best mood." I joke.

To my relief, Darcy laughed, then gestured…for something.

"I bet! Are you guys close?" She asked while taking something from a passing person.

_Must work here._

"Yeah! We get into disagreements from tie to time but we've worked together for a few years." I shrug nervously.

Darcy wordlessly handed me a glass.

"It's Dragonjuice. No big deal." She said reassuringly.

_O…kay._

I nervously sip it, and Darcy clearly rolled her eyes.

"This really isn't your thing!"

I shrug.

"I usually just do my own thing! This is more her thing. I just pick her up!"

Darcy seemed to accept that.

"That's nice of you."

Then she cocked her head to the side.

"Underage?"

"Huh?" I ask.

She pointed to my orange wristband.

"I don't know what that is. They just slapped it on me."

"It means you're under 18." She told me.

_Oh._

Great.

"Oh." I say simply, then glance at her wrist.

_No wristband._

"I'm 20. And they know me, so they don't even think about giving me one of those things." Darcy told me.

_20?!_

She…

That's impossible.

_Too pretty._

"Seriously?" I ask skeptically.

Darcy nodded, finished her drink, then set it aside and grabbed my wrist.

"What are you—" I start to ask, before she pulled my wristband right off.

"You won't need that. C'mon." She said to me, then pulling me by the wrist.

Okay.

"You're not sensitive about language are you?" She asked me.

"No." I shake my head.

Darcy smiled and kept walking.

"Okay bitches. Let's go eat. I've had enough of this place."

I glance around her to see Mira, Brie, Aiden, Katiey and Lana looking at Darcy, then me.

"Hey!" One of them smiled at me.

"Where'd you find him?"

"A friend from Corellia dragged him here then ditched him." Darcy told her.

_I think that's Brie._

"That's nice of her."

"Yup. C'mon." Darcy waved for them to follow, then smiled at me.

_I guess I'm going to eat._

I am hungry.


	28. Animal House

4:40.

_20 minutes left._

I glance back at the massive spread sheet detailing all arms purchases on Cato Neimoidia in the last 3 months.

Apparently the native people, Neimoidians are notoriously cowardly. But they've been making bones about cruel treatment by the Empire recently, and there have been attacks on patrols using arms bought on the planet.

_Of course, all identification was stripped off the guns._

What Darcy and everyone doesn't know is the role Neimoidians played in the Clone Wars and the Naboo conflict.

This probably was flagged as high priority because of that past and the fact that this is the first time they've attacked Stormtroopers.

I talked to Darcy and told her what I think happened with the arms. To try and give myself somewhere to start.

I think the arms were bought recently. You wouldn't just sit on a bunch of blasters if you really didn't like something.

_You'd get a blaster and start picking off guys wearing white armor._

Darcy agreed, and I narrowed my focus to the last few months.

Everyone else is looking at other parts of this mess.

Brie, Lana and Katiey are all sifting thru financial records, trying to find something out of place.

What they really need is for me to find a lead.

Mira and Aiden are conducting interviews with everybody that's encountered these rebels, and collecting the autopsy records of the troops they killed to see if there's a pattern.

This is Darcy's show. I haven't seen the Captain in a couple of days.

_They said that's normal._

…

A paper ball just hit my head and rolled onto my desk.

I smile and unfurl it.

"_Check your Ichat."_

Okay.

I close down the spreadsheet and see that I have a message on my Ichat.

It's our interdepartmental email chat.

"_Hey."_

I smile and shake my head.

"Hi." I reply back, then wave my arms out of my cubicle at her.

Immediately, Mira giggled.

I barely hear Darcy laugh, then I have another message waiting for me.

"_Very funny. I've got something for you."_

"Okay. What is it?" I reply.

…

"951-753-685-1340 ;)"

Whoa.

Then another message pops up.

"Just in case you get lost and need directions or help or hang out or whatever. :) "

…

_I got Darcy's comm number._

I smile and quickly type back.

"Thanks. I'll try not to abuse the privilege." I joke.

4:55.

I lean over and start gathering my stuff and sticking it in my desk.

When I'm done, I have a new message waiting for me.

"_I gave it to you. You're the one in control. Just don't comm me at like 2 in the morning okay? Unless we're coming home from the club."_

I smile.

"Will do."

Then I hear Darcy laugh behind me.

I quickly turn to see her reading over my shoulder, bag slung over her shoulder.

"Byeeee." She smiled, then ran one hand right thru my hair.

I shake my head, then when she turns away from me I toss the paper ball at her.

…

"Hey." She smiled at me.

I shrug, then smile at her.

Darcy smiled back, then walked out the side door.

I turn back to my comm and program Darcy's number into the contacts.

So I can't forget.

_I guess I should go too._

They don't pay me to hang around. 

I grab my water bottle and my backpack, shut down my holoterminal and slip out the side door where the line of speeders is starting to decrease.

I quickly flag one down and hop in.

"4047589 Flash Ave." I smile at the driver, a species I've never seen before.

He nodded and started towards the traffic lanes.

…

_Well, home now I guess._

This whole "out on a mission" thing is sort of overrated.

All I've done is work and go home the last few days.

I'm trying to hang around in case Hera and the others call us back.

Sabine's pretty much kept to herself. Saw her yesterday night briefly then this morning.

I need to find something to do with my time.

Last night I moved my bed to the side, drew the blinds and practiced blaster deflection into a makeshift padded wall I built.

_I do need to go buy removable padding that I can stick on the wall so I don't pepper the walls._

…

I slip my backpack onto one shoulder as we start making the descent down towards my building.

I'm surprised how easily it's becoming "home".

This whole planet isn't so bad. It's not like Lothal, and definitely not like Naboo, but it's pleasant.

There just seems to be no ill intent here. Which is a pleasant change from Onderon, where we were holed up most of the time.

I hop out of the speeder and hand the driver my credit stick.

_The rush of speeders parked on the landing pads is just like yesterday._

I think there are seven landing pads, and we're on the sixth one.

Only one below us.

I take back my credit stick with a smile, then walk inside and press the button for the lift.

…

…

Looks like I'll have to wait a minute.

I had to do the same thing yesterday, but I didn't have to wait long.

I quickly feel upwards to get an idea of how many people I'm dealing with.

…

I frown and turn back to the lift.

_I can't get past the first few floors before I'm overwhelmed by the sheer humanity._

I should be able to do more.

Maybe that's what I should do tonight.

Work on concentrating with the Force.

Kanan mentioned that I need to strengthen my mental barriers while I'm here too.

…

Yeah, that's what I'm going to do tonight.

_Be disciplined._

Ding.

I glance up and see that there's a lift here waiting for me.

I slip inside and press '56" then grab onto the side rail as the lift rises to floor 56.

…

I hop out of the lift and dig into my pockets to find my keyrod.

_My pockets are getting more and more full every day._

I keep bringing pens home. On accident.

I just pick them up across the day and forget that I slipped a pen into my pocket a few hours ago.

Then when I come home, I have 4 pens in my pocket, along with little notes I write to remind myself of something.

I unlock the door and walk inside, then feel around for…

_She's not here._

I let out a sigh, and hit the light by the front door and drop my key into the small bowl on the little table the lamp is on.

…

I drop my backpack onto the sofa and walk into my room and start emptying my pockets.

Three pens today.

Key Card.

…

I laugh as I flip thru the notes.

"You're a goob."

_From Katiey._

I nearly slipped and fell coming back from lunch.

They were polishing the floor.

"Go ahead on three month limit."

On the weapons.

…

And a mental reminder to keep the context of all this in mind.

That's something that I'm trying to take into account.

This is happening in the aftermath of the Trade Federation's absorption after the Clone Wars.

_All this is happening because of the Clone Wars._

I'm learning that it's hard to find something that just happened, independent of that.

I walk back into the kitchen and start to fill a water bottle before I start…

…

_I don't want to do Force training._

What I want to do is work out.

I've been feeling lethargic lately.

_That may be why._

If Sabine was HERE I'd ask her if she's heard about a gym.

But she's not.

So I'm forced to look on the HoloNet.

…

_Or I could ask Darcy._

She would know.

She's in good shape.

Hopefully she won't mind.

I hit "Darcy" and choose text, not voice call.

…

_How do I want to word this?_

…

"Hey, sorry to immediately bug you. Do you know of a good gym around?"

_Hopefully I didn't just mess up._

I turn back to the holo and type "athletic gym open at night" into the search bar.

…

There's tons of them. All with good reviews.

…

I click on one at random and start reading.

…

…

Buzz.

_Darcy must have replied._

This place looks decent enough.

Running track, whatever a "full" weight room is, plus all sorts of classes for stuff.

I glance at my wrist to see what Darcy said.

"Yeah! I do. Hunteringdon 859. Tell the driver that!"

…

_Okay._

I quickly grab some shorts and a light shirt, then stick them in my backpack.

_I want to just do something._

And get out of this empty apartment.

_I wonder where Sabine is?_

…

I could comm her.

_But she'd probably be cranky that I interrupted whatever important thing she's doing._

I lock the door behind me and walk to the lift.

Why'd she have to make this so awkward?

Just because I chose to break off the physical…relationship we were tangled up in, it doesn't mean she has to steer clear of me.

I don't think she was really in it for the right reasons.

_And I realized it during that training session we had together._

She looked up at me, drawing me in, then tricked me.

…

I relay the address to the driver and slip back into my thoughts as darkness started to fall on the city.

…

Can I just have normal Sabine back?

Would that be so hard? This mission isn't going to be any fun if she's mad at me the whole time.

The fact that Captain Telon chose me over her isn't helping either.

_Oh well._

I just need to find out what the heck this "Operation Remnant" is, then we can leave.

Even though I am having a nice time with Darcy and the girls.

_That won't be fun to leave._

Goodbyes always are awful.

The driver pulls onto a landing pad with stairs going down to a building.

_There's a speeder parked off to the side._

I pay the driver, then start down the stairs.

There's some people sitting on benches near trees surrounding the build—

"Hey! Ezra!"

I turn and see Darcy standing and waving.

I quickly turn and walk towards her.

"Hey. Why'd you come? I just asked if you knew a gym?" I ask with a smile.

She shrugged.

"Eh. I was bored at home. Plus I can show you around."

"Okay." I nod.

_She…_

"Great! I'm allowed to bring a guest with me, so you won't have to pay or anything."

"Cool. Thanks." I say.

Stay focused Bridger.

_Just because she's getting more beautiful every day doesn't mean you should start thinking about that._

Darcy smiled, then started towards the transparent doors.

She briefly stopped at the front desk, handed him a card and nodded towards me.

Then we walked in.

"Okay…so it's pretty normal. Running track." She pointed up, where people are running around on an elevated oval.

"Weights. Both free and machines." She gestured in front of is.

I nod.

"There's a swimming pool down there, spa, all that junk." She pointed that way.

I laugh and Darcy rolled her eyes.

"And to your right are lockers if you don't want to carry your junk around. Plus rooms for yoga, tai chi, that kind of crap if you're interested."

"Not your thing?" I joke.

"No. Just stretch. It's not hard. I'm not paying for somebody to basically stretch me out. Anyway, that's pretty much it. As I said, pretty basic. But it's got a cheap membership fee, gives you everything you need, and the people aren't too bad."

"Okay. Thanks." I smile.

"Now I'm going to grab food. I was initially to come work out with you, but that requires me to sweat. And I'd rather eat." Darcy smiled.

I laugh.

"You wanna come with me? I can show you that to go place I mentioned at lunch."

...

"Sure." I say."

I don't want to work out if I can eat with Darcy.

_That's more fun anyway._

I can work out and Force train tomorrow.

In front of me, Darcy unleashed a toothy smile, revealing perfect teeth.

"Yay!"

Then she grabbed my wrist and started back outside.

We kept walking as she pressed a button on her wrist, and…

_Huh?_

The speeder that was just parked by the landing pad just backed up.

And Darcy hopped in.

"You had a speeder waiting?"

_That's pricey._

"Yeah. I didn't think we'd be too long."

Then she stopped and turned to the driver.

"Take us home."

Home?

"Home?" I ask.

"Yeah. They'll be mad at me if I go eat and don't ask any of them if they want food." Darcy said.

I nod.

That makes sense.

I'd be mad if Sabine went and got food without asking me.

"Why were you surprised about the speeder?"

"That's pricey, isn't it?"

Darcy strongly shook her head.

"No. I'm using Flier."

Flier?

"Wait, did anybody tell you about Flier?" She interrupted my train of thought.

"No. What is it?"

"It's a program you can install onto your comm to call a speeder right to you and take you where ever you're going. All day and all night. The drivers all are safe, plus it's cheaper."

Flier.

"Sounds nice."

"I'll install it for you. How are you getting around? Random speeders?" She asked me.

I shrug.

"I guess."

"No. Those can be sketchy as hell. Let's get you off that junk."

I quietly slip my backpack off and set it next to me as we move with traffic, then tail off to a…oddly designed building.

It's not like Sabine &amp; I's building, made of Durasteel and glass.

This is made of something else. It looks like stone.

_It makes me think of Naboo._

Plus the building has a bunch of offshoots that stick out every few floors. Not like a balcony, but…

It just keeps going. One floor down, and it does the same thing, but on the other side.

"Uhm, what's up with the design?" I ask Darcy as we pull in.

"Oh, it's just so they can charge us for a little extra room. All the apartments are the same size. I don't think they would be unless they did that." Darcy said as we both hop out.

She didn't pay the driver, and he just zoomed right off.

I follow Darcy into a lobby and onto a lift.

…

I guess I get to meet her roommates.

…

Ding!

Darcy smiled and led me out and down a hall a few feet.

"Before we go in, they can be crazy. I apologize if they do something crazy." Darcy turned to me, sounding sort of embarrassed.

I shrug. "It's fine."

"You say that now." Darcy smiled, then unlocked the door and poked her head in.

"Are y'all decent?!" She loudly asked.

"Decent?! No, but we're presentable!"

_Wait…_

That sounded like Aiden.

"Presentable and drinking wine out of a box!" It sounds like Katiey added.

"Where'd you go girl? You left so fast, so whoever it is must be pretty good…"

Uhh…

I bite my lip and hang my head as Darcy goes bright red.

"NO! Dammit, I'm with Ezra guys…"

"EZRA?!" Multiple voices yell.

Then somebody laughed and…ran off.

"Yeah! We're coming in." Darcy said simply, then waved me inside.

_Okay._

"Who do you live with?" I ask.

"Everybody from work. You know them." Darcy said dismissively, then led me out of the winding entrance to a living room.

Where Lana, Aiden, and Katiey are all sitting and watching the holo.

Brie's standing up and poking her head out of a hallway.

"Hey Ezra." Brie smiled at me.

"Hi." I smile nervously at her.

"Where'd Mira go?" Darcy asked.

"She ran to change. I don't know why." Brie shrugged.

I hear a frustrated scream from a room down the hall, and Darcy, Lana and Brie all laughed.

"Welcome to the casa de la crazy." Darcy joked.

I laugh and notice a small mountain of candy, plus…boxes of something.

_That must be the wine._

"Where'd y'all go?" Lana smiled at us.

"Yeah. You just left. We all thought it was for a boy." Brie teased her.

I feel myself go red.

"He asked me where a gym was. So I showed him around 859."

"Gym huh? You work out Ezra?" Katiey smiled at me.

I nod nervously.

Then Mira walked back in wearing longer pants and a normal shirt.

"Look at you. All proper." Lana immediately teased her.

"Are you going to go to Thursday night?" Darcy asked her, which got the others to laugh loudly.

"No. You know all the trash goes on Thursday because of the music…"

_Oh._

The club must be popular tonight.

But apparently with the wrong sort of people.

Sabine wouldn't know that.

_She's probably there._

"Anyway…I came by to see if any of you wanted to go eat. We're going to grab a sandwich." Darcy frowned and told the room.

"I'll go!" Lana hopped to her feet and dashed away.

"Me too." Aiden stood and stretched.

"Okay." Darcy shrugged, then turned to me.

"I hope I'm not scaring you off here."

I shake my head.

"You might have to try harder. Sorry." Mira laughed and Darcy rolled her eyes.

"Okay. You can leave your stuff here." Darcy smiled at me.

Then Lana rushed back into the room.

"I'm back."

"Okay. Let's go." Aiden said.

"Have fun! I'm going to just be here on the couch!" Katiey replied, turning the holo on.

"Bring him back after you eat! We'll be better. We promise." Brie smiled at Darcy.

"Maybe." Darcy compromised.

Lana smiled and opened the door.

Once we're all thru, Darcy closed it and hung her head.

"You guys are the worst."

"But you love us!" Aiden smiled happily.

"Next time you bring a friend over I'm going to constantly embarrass you." Darcy told her.

"I never bring anybody over." She replied.

"Yeah. That's better…" Lana said darkly.

"More private more like." Darcy quipped.

_They're brutal!_

Guys are a breeze compared to this.

It's just constant, back and forth.

Aiden simply is scowling at Lana.

"Not nice."

"So?" Lana shrugged.

I laugh. "You guys are brutal."

Darcy, Aiden and Lana all laughed.

Then Darcy grabbed my wrist right above my hand.

"Eh. It's what happens when you spend almost all your time together."


	29. Left In The Dark

I yawn and force myself not to lie back down.

_So tired._

I woke up about 30 minutes ago and haven't really woken up.

I was hoping that grabbing a bite to eat would help, but it didn't really.

And now I'm where I started: Sitting on my bed, yawning.

_I need a shower._

…

Get up Ezra.

I rock back, then slide to my feet and shuffle into the bathroom and turn the synthshower on, medium-ish heat.

I slide in, and let the water rush over me.

_Not hot enough._

I tap the holoscreen, turning the temperature from 100 to 102.

_Usually 100 is enough._

…

Better.

I let out a huge yawn and shake my hair out.

_I might have to get a haircut._

It's getting a little long, even for my standards.

I pull my shampoo to me, and pour some out.

"Pbbbbttthhh."

_Karabast._

I'm out.

At least I picked some up yesterday when I went and got some small stuff.

Fruits, cereal, some of that ranch dressing stuff. Nothing too big.

I poke my head out of the shower and use the force to pop open one of the cabinets.

Then I blindly grab one of the bottles.

_Nope._

Glass cleaner.

I toss it back in and try again.

…

Nope. That's my body wash.

I pull it to me anyway and set it to the side in case I'm out of that too.

…

Yup!

I pull my shampoo to me and pour some into my hand, then run it thru my hair and wash it out under the water.

…

I smile and grab the body wash.

_I feel better already._

Right before I squirt some body wash into my hand, a notification pops up on the holoscreen.

_I synced it to my wrist comm and my datapad._

"Hey. You busy today or something?" –Darcy

Shoot.

I quickly set the bottle to the side and type as quick as I can.

"Just cleaned up. Was I supposed to be somewhere?" I ask her.

Uh oh.

I quickly lather myself in the body wash and flip on the "fast" setting on the shower nozzle.

…

I slap the lever into the "off position as the holoscreen lit up with another notification from Darcy.

"We're going to the aquarium today. Want to come?"

_Sure._

Why not?

I don't have anything going on. And Sabine's not here.

Might as well get out of the house.

"Sure. Where do I need to go?" I type it, then pull a towel to me and start drying off.

…

I pull the towel over my head and dry out my hair as best I can.

When I emerge from the towel, I've got another message from Darcy.

"My apartment building. We'll wait for you."

Okay.

Guess I've got to get to it.

I quickly finish drying off, then slip on the pants Sabine's parents bought me for her ceremony, throw on a shirt and my jacket with the pauldron.

_The more I wear it, the more I love it._

It looks cool, and I'm honoring a great legacy.

I'm going to wear in into work next week and see if anyone says anything.

I quickly lock up then go downstairs and hail a speeder, give him the address and tell him to press it.

_I want to get there quickly._

…

It's nice of Darcy to invite me.

I'm still stuck on the arms project.

I'm almost overwhelmed by the sheer size of what I'm sifting thru.

_I may need to break it down further._

Like by where it's from, price, something like that.

"We're almost here sir."

I look up and smile.

"Thank you."

_I didn't use Darcy's program._

It's pretty good though.

_Cheap._

I hop out of the speeder and hand the driver 13 credits.

The ride was 8 credits, and I tipped well for the speed.

_The app would have been 5, but it probably would have taken a few extra minutes._

I quickly hop in a lift and hit 11.

…

…

Ding!

I hop out and walk to Darcy's door, then knock.

After a moment, I hear a shout on the other side.

_Must be okay for me to come in._

I crack the door slightly open and poke my head in, eyes fixed to the floor.

"Is that an okay?"

I hear Mira laugh.

"Yes Ezra…" She said.

I look up and see that she's looking at me with her head poking out of the first section of the windy hallway.

I walk inside and close the door behind me.

"—was looking at the floor." I hear Mir tell somebody.

I hear Lana laugh.

_Must be her._

"You're too good for us Ezra." Aiden smiled at me when I walk into the living room.

"Well, it's better than barging in and one of yall are changing on the fly. You never know." I say, slightly defensively.

_Plus, they're absolutely insane._

When we got back from eating a few nights ago, Brie and Darcy got into an cupcake fight.

One of them got cupcakes, and Brie flicked a piece of frosting at Darcy.

It got into her jacket, so Darcy grabbed a cupcake and flung frosting at her.

Then Brie took the gloves off and just threw a cupcake a Darcy and hit her square in the face.

Got in her hair and everything.

Darcy hit her back, and they ended up wrestling on the floor, while everyone else watched.

Darcy won the fight too, ending it by smashing the next to last cupcake into Brie's face with Darcy sitting on her back.

_Quite the first impression._

"Hey. You're here." I hear Darcy say quietly, then a pair of arms hug me around my neck.

"I'm here. I didn't bring tribute. Please don't hit me with a cupcake." I joke, causing everyone to laugh.

"Hmm…I might have to make you regret that decision."

Then Katiey yelled "KISS THE BOY! THAT'LL BE TORTURE!"

Darcy plopped her head heavily on my pauldron, and I roll my eyes.

"Yeah, for her." I take the heat off her.

"Ezra…confidence." Brie walked in and said.

"Yeah." Lana smacked me in the chest.

Darcy picked her head up off my shoulder, then fiddled with my shoulder.

"How'd you get this?"

"A friend of my parents is an old clone trooper. He showed me some of his old stuff, and Sabine made me this jacket as a birthday present." I say, making the story up on the fly.

"Oh." Mira said simply.

"I like it. Makes him look official-like." Katiey walked in.

"Let's go. The speeder should be here." Darcy said.

I stepped aside and let everyone walk past me, then motion for Darcy to go on front of me.

"Thanks." She smiled up at me, then led me out, locking up behind her.

We follow the others to the lift, then out to the landing pad, where a speeder is indeed waiting on us.

"Other side." Darcy said as everyone rushed to hop in.

_Are we going to have enough room?_

Darcy and I walk to the other side, and I open the door, then turn to her.

"You first."

"What about you?" I ask her.

"There'll be room." She said simply, then smiled at me.

_Okay._

I hop in next to Lana, causing her to smile.

"Sorry. Might be a little ti—" I start, then am cut off by Darcy sitting on my lap and shutting the door behind her.

Lana's eyebrows shot up, and I turn to see nothing but Darcy.

"We're all in." Darcy said simply.

_Uhh…_

Breathe.

If I can get thru Sabine making out with me, AND climbing on top of me, I can handle Darcy sitting on me.

I turn back to Lana, intending to shrug helplessly.

Instead I see everyone else looking at us, either looking surprised or wearing mischevious smiles.

Then Darcy looked over at her friends.

"Oh stop it. We didn't have room. This is okay."

"Sure. Okay." Aiden said simply.

Darcy turned back to the front, and I nervously look at Lana.

_One wrong move and I'm pinned._

She smiled at me, then shrugged and looked away.

What do I do with my hands?

Darcy shifted slightly then settled into my lap.

"Hey, before I forget. Would this be okay to wear to work?" I ask Darcy.

"Like the outfit?" She asked, turning around and inspecting me.

"Yeah." I reply.

…

…

_This is awkward._

Well, this entire situation is.

"Yeah, that's fine. The pauldron makes it work. Maybe boots or something instead of normal shoes." Darcy said, then turning back around.

Lana lightly flicked it next to me, causing me to turn to her.

_She's smiling at me._

I roll my eyes and turn to look out at the city.

Wordlessly, Darcy grabbed my wrists, felt her way to my hands, then looped my hands around her waist and left them touching.

Taking the hint, I put my hands together and leave them at her waist.

Darcy simply placed her hands on top of mine.

_Okay then._

I let out a breath and try to relax.

It's not Darcy so much, but the others.

_They love Darcy._

They all love each other, but since I'm the outsider, anything I do with her is watched.

_It's a lot easier when it's just us._

I need to loosen up.

I'm sure me being this nervous just looks weird.

I peek out around Darcy and see a glass building in the distance.

"The boy can't see Darce." Katiey said.

Darcy simply leaned back onto me and tried getting out of the way.

"Better?" She turned to me, face inches from mine.

"I could see." I say simply.

Darcy frowned, then turned to Katiey.

"He was okay."

"Didn't look okay." Lana replied bluntly.

Darcy rolled her eyes, then turned back to the front.

The movement made me have to adjust myself.

_Sabine._

That'll take my mind off this predicament.

Can't get excited here.

That would be a one way ticket home.

Thankfully the speeder dipped down and made a wide turn into a landing pad next to what must be the aquarium.

Darcy climbed off me, then pulled me out and allowed Lana out.

Katiey, Aiden, Mira and Brie climbed out the other side.

Aiden and Lana led us all inside, leaving Darcy and I to bring up the rear.

Darcy smiled up at me, then slipped her hand into mine as we walked.

_Man._

This would be a lot simpler if she wasn't an Imperial.

I…

I need to get her alone and ask her about her leanings.

_If I can bring her with me, then I might try this._

If not, then I'll stop.

…

Well, that's what I tell myself.

In two weeks, I've gone from meeting Darcy to having lunch with her every day last week, plus the gym visit last Thursday.

_Today's Saturday._

I look up and see that Brie and Mira have split off from the rest of us and are looking at a group of colorful fish from the planet Felucia.

"The aiwas are that way." Lana said, pointing to a hall on our left.

"C'mon." Darcy gently pulled us that way.

Aiden, Katiey and Lana followed us to a hallway surrounded on either side and above us by water.

_With gigantic…bird looking fish swimming above us._

"Whoa." I say.

Aiden gasped, while the other simply looked up.

I look away from the massive creatures and see a display.

Gently, I pull my hand away from Darcy's and walk over.

Aiwas.

Native to Naboo.

They're cetaceans…

CAPABLE OF FLIGHT?!

I look up as one gracefully, yet powerfully swims above us.

_That thing can fly?_

By the Force…

_That's scary._

"These things can fly?" I ask the room.

Quickly, Darcy, Aiden and Lana look at me, horrified.

"Fly?" Katiey said skeptically.

I nod and tilt my head towards the display.

…

"They're supposed to feed in a minute." Aiden read out.

_They only eat microscopic organisms._

Unless I don't know what cetacean means.

_Which is always possible._

Suddenly, a cloud of…dust came out of the underwater vents, plus from above.

Then…

Darcy gasped and latched onto me as the nearest aiwa started sucking up the cloud.

_You can SEE the water moving._

"Whoa. That's some serious suction." Katiey said.

Darcy turned around, then pointed.

"Look!"

I turn and see two…aiwa pointed right in our direction.

They must have accidentally dumped the stuff right above us.

Aiden cringed as they revealed…something and sucked the cloud up.

"I…think I'm going to go find the demonsquid." Lana said, then quickly left the tunnel.

Aiden and Katiey weren't far behind.

_Leaving Darcy and I._

I turn away and glance around as the aiwa are still having their…lunch?

…

"Oh hey. It's just us." Darcy said quietly.

I pretend to look around.

"Oh yeah. Guess they left us."

Darcy silently slipped in front of me and looked up.

I look down and smile.

…

_Oh man I want to._

It's a very bad idea.

Darcy smiled and wrapped her arms around my neck.

_But I don't think I can resist._

"So…here we are?" I joke, getting Darcy to giggle.

She's only two or three inches shorter than me.

We're not that far apart.

"Yup." Darcy said quietly, then closed the gap and hugged me, face in my hair.

I let myself have a brief moment and enjoy the hug.

Then Darcy barely separated from me and looked up.

I smile at her, and she smiled back.

…

_I think she wants me to make a move._

She's been aggressive all day.

More aggressive every time I see her.

Darcy blinked, then looked up at me thru her lashes.

_And my final defense crumbles miserably._

I gently lift her head and place a kiss on her lips.

Immediately, Darcy smiled and pulled herself closer to me.

…

I separate from her, nervously swallow and look at her.

_I…_

I might need more of that.

Darcy simply rose onto her tiptoes and kissed the scar on my cheek.

I smile and lean my head on hers.

…

Darcy let out a heavy breath, then pulled me towards a dark room at the end of the hall.

_It's a theater._

"The aiwa, a cetacean…"

Darcy quickly pulled me to the back row, sat me down in a chair and crawled onto my lap.

And immediately kissed me deeply.

…

…

I gently lift her, then set her back down in a more comfortable spot for her, then continue to kiss her back.

…

…

She stopped, then let out a low growl and laid her head on my shoulder.

"It's empty right?" She quietly asked.

I nod, then probe with the Force.

"Yup."

"Good. That'd be really awkward if there was a mom in here and I just attacked you."

I laugh, and Darcy wrapped her legs around me.

"I'm not going too fast, am I?"

I shake my head.

"I'm a little surprised, but no. You're okay."

Darcy lifted her head off my shoulder.

"Good. I've wanted to do that for a week."

_A week?_

"Seriously?" I ask.

She nodded.

"You pulled me fast. Which, if you asked any of the others, would shock them. I'm usually an ice queen."

I give her a skeptical look.

"I doubt that."

"Oh yeah. They've known I liked you because of how nice I've been." Darcy smiled at me.

I laugh, and Darcy revealed her gorgeous teeth.

"So normally you're just awful." I tease her.

"No…kind of. I'm just professional. But you kind of broke that rule."

I laugh, and she bit her lip.

"Can…I get another kiss?" I ask.

_I want another._

"Oh you don't ever have to ask thattt…" She gasped, then kissed me, slipping her tongue into my mouth while grabbing onto me tighter.

I react instinctively, kissing her back and dropping my hands to just below her waist.

…

…

We kiss for maybe a minute, then the comm on my wrist buzzed.

_What._

I very reluctantly break off this kiss and mutter "Dammit, this better be important."

Darcy giggled and kissed my cheek as I pull my jacket sleeve back.

"_Hey, I don't know where you are, but get back here. Hera and Kanan want us to call. Now. Get your ass in gear." –Sabine._

…

I let out an angry breath as Darcy reads the message off my wrist.

"Well isn't she nice? Ruining our fun."

"I'm sorry." I groan.

_The meeting must be now._

NOW?!

_When I'm making out with the hottest girl on the entire planet in the back of a theater?_

"It's okay. We can get one more round in. And you know what?"

"What?" I ask her.

"The only ass here is yours, and that's _mine._" She muttered, then attacked my lips while grabbing my butt aggressively.

I fall into the moment, pulling her close with one hand and letting my other hand slip down to her waist.

…

…

…

Unfortunately, she finally separated, then nipped at my earlobe.

"If we don't stop now, then it might be awhile." She said huskily.

I nod.

Darcy simply kissed my cheek.

"When you're done, come back over if you want. We can continue this conversation at home."

I lean back and look at her.

_Seriously?_

"Really?"

Darcy smirked, and nodded.

"This is okay?"

"As long as we don't do it at work."

I smile and let my shoulders slump.

_Whew._

"Go. Find out what your friends want. Come back though. Okay?" She crawled off me.

"Okay." I stand, and notice that I…

_Well, I'm excited._

A little bit.

Darcy simply rolled her eyes.

"You're okay. Part of it." She smirked.

"I feel like I'm fleeing from a bad hookup." I joke.

Darcy smiled.

"Well I guess we'll find out if you come back."

I shrug. "I might not be able to."

"Then comm me."

_Hey._

"I will." I smile.

Darcy waved t me, and I slip out of the theater and out to the landing pad.

The ride home is a blur because my head is spinning.

I kissed Darcy.

_I. Kissed. Darcy._

A lot.

_Multiple times._

She liked it.

…

Whoa.

_I'm going to need more of her._

God, I need to convert her.

Tactfully.

…

That might be my actual mission.

The driver doesn't ask me for payment, so I walk right to the lift and slip back into Sabine and I's apartment.

When I slide inside the door, Sabine's smiling at me.

"Hey."

"Hi." I reply.

"How are you?" She asked, still softly smiling at me.

I shrug.

"I'm okay. Kanan and Hera got back to us?" I ask, walking into the living room.

"Yeah! Uhm, they called this morning."

_You weren't here this morning._

"Okay. Can you get it going?" I ask her, then gesture to the holoterminal.

Sabine nodded, and her eyes lingered on me for a brief moment.

Then she busied herself with the holoterminal.

_I'm thirsty._

I walk into the kitchen and fill a water glass as Sabine typed into the holo.

…

…

Finally, general Sato pops onto the holo.

"Ahh yes, Miss Wren. Thank you for reporting in. Mrs. Syndulla and Mr. Jarrus are on their way. We've notified them that you've checked in."

Sabine smiled.

"Thank you."

"We're here." I hear Kanan's voice in the background.

General Sato nodded, then stepped out of view.

_And is replaced by Hera._

"Hey Sabine." Hera smiled at her.

Kanan popped up beside her and he waved to me with one hand while sipping on a cup of something.

"Hi. How'd your mission go?" Sabine asked.

"It went alright. Not over yet, but the ship is looking good." Hera replied.

"How's your mission going?" Kanan asked us.

"Yeah, you mentioned in your log that there was a major issue. What's up?" Hera added.

_Dang it._

I sigh quietly, then set the water aside.

"The captain double timed us. They only needed one person for the opening into "Operation Remnant"." Sabine said.

Hera quickly looked surprised.

"One person?"

"Yeah. We went in, and Sabine and I were pitted against each other for one position." I say, essentially repeating what Sabine said.

Kanan shook his head.

"Then what have you been doing the last week Ezra?"

I immediately turn around in frustration and walk back to the fresher.

_I need more water._

"Wait, where'd he go? Sabine?" Kanan asked quickly.

"He went to get more water. And he got the spot. Not me." Sabine told them.

_Sounding bitter._

…

"Yeah." I say simply.

Always surprising that I'm competent.

_No faith._

"Okay. Well that's not ideal, but I think we can work with it." Hera said. "Tell us about it Ezra."

"Well, right now it's an office setting. Six girls, I'm the only guy. We're working on some Cato Neimoidia project right now. Trying to find out where some arms came from." I say.

"No mentions of "Project Remnant" yet?" Hera asked.

I shake my head.

Kanan smiled at me.

"Stay patient Ezra. What I've learned over the years is one somebody needs you, they'll tell you anything."

"Makes sense." Sabine added.

"Six girls?" Hera asked, sounding surprised.

"Yeah. Sabine didn't really get a fair chance." I say, conceding that point to her.

_There._

Happy?

I glance over at Sabine, to see that she's got a glint in her eye.

"So, other than that, how have you been?" Hera asked.

I shrug.

"Good. It's been boring. Ezra's been busy with his coworkers after work."

_HEY!_

I spread my arms out and turn to her.

"Hey!"

"It's the truth." She replied simply, shrugging while looking at the holo.

_LOW BLOW._

"What do you mean?" Kanan asked.

"She means like today. They invited me to the aquarium. But Sabine cut it short by saying that you guys were waiting for us to comm in." I explain.

Hera and Kanan both quickly frowned.

"We told you this wasn't urgent." Hera said.

I can't resist rolling my eyes before getting more water.

Again.

"That's really it on our end. Anything else?" Sabine asked.

"Uh, yeah. Lux stopped by Mandalore and your parent's place." Hera said.

Oh.

"How'd that go?" Sabine asked with a smile.

_Her mood changed quick._

"It went okay he said. He passed along the message that you two weren't coming and already were on a mission." Hera said.

"Your sister apparently was not happy."

I involuntarily laugh, and Sabine did the same.

"Oops." Sabine shyly smiled.

"Yeah. But your parents understood. They're good. Both working." Kanan shrugged.

"They gave us some credits for us to give you guys. They're being transferred to your credit accounts there. Should be there tomorrow." Hera said.

"Please pass along our thanks. Please." I smile.

"We will. Ezra?" Kanan asked.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"You're allowed to have fun. But remember why you're there. Remember why you joined us. And remember where your loyalty lies."

…

"You say that like I should change what I'm doing." I reply to Kanan.

"You don't. But when you're on a mission like that, you can lose yourself in the process." He explained. "We've got a team ready to intervene whenever things start changing. They can pick you up too."

I quietly sigh.

"Point taken."

_Using my parents against me._

Both him and Sabine.

I register Hera say something, but don't really hear her.

I'm too busy seething at Kanan and Sabine.

Then Sabine smiled, and the call ended.

I need my backpack.

I slip past Sabine, walk to my room, put it on and walk back to the living room.

_I'm going back to Darcy's._

Screw this.

"Hey. I found something kind of cool. It's a—" Sabine smiled at me as I blow past her.

"Comm it. It can wait." I tell her simply, takin my glass to the sink.

Sabine froze, eyes wide at me.

"O…kay. But you'll like it."

"Don't care. I'm going to the gym. So I don't destroy something. I'm spending all my time with my coworkers?" I ask her, unable to keep my anger out of it.

"Well, yeah. You've been gone a lot." She replied.

"What about you? I've woken up more morning here, and you aren't here. I sleep here every night. Unlike you." I frown at her.

Sabine frowned.

"You trying to say something?"

"Yeah. That was a low blow." I tell her firmly. "I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. I'm trying to get us out of here faster."

Sabine opened her mouth ot reply, but I don't give her the chance.

"I'm out of here. To let you know." I scowl at her.

_Stupid girl._

I turn back to the door and start that way.

"Where are you going?" She called after me.

I stop and turn back to see her looking at me.

"I'm going wherever you were this morning!" I reply coldly, then slip out the door.


	30. The Man With No Name

(A/N: Hey y'all. I noticed something in the reviews that I want to address quickly. This whole story is my attempt to stick as close to 'canon' as I can with the information I've got. The Inquisitors? I know as much as you guys, so I'm leaving it ambiguous for now (_for now) _and playing it by ear. But that does mean that stuff like The Force Unleashed video game, some EU content, etc. will not be in this story. I apologize if that's disappointing to some of you, but this may be my only Rebels story (haven't decided yet) and I want to be as close as I can to the actual story. I want it to be realistic, exciting and as in universe as I can. It's just how I want to do this. I value accuracy, for what it's worth.

I apologize if this chapter seems rushed. Been dealing with some RL stuff with my school &amp; that sort of thing. I'm making it up to you guys with more chaps this week. Check back tomorrow AND Friday for new chapters. Thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to leave a review. And to all of you 'Guest' reviewers: I don't bite! I can take the criticism if you've got it! I'm open to talk about it in a PM if you guys want. Anyway, this is way too much talking by me. Hope you guys enjoy the chapter, and thank you. See you tomorrow. –James)

"Hey Ezra." I hear Darcy say behind the cubicle wall.

…

"Hold on…"

_I think I just figured this out._

"Okay."

…

Pike S.

…

I expand the column and take another look.

Pike Syndicate

Kuat Drive Yards

Czerka Arms

Pike Syndicate

Oryn Engineering

Pike Syndicate

Pike Syndicate

AtGar Corporation

Czerka Arms

Pike Syndicate

Hoersch-Kessel Drive, Inc.

Kuat Drive Yards

I quickly pull up a records search and slip "Pike Syndicate" in.

Behind me, I feel Darcy approach me.

…

"What…?" I mutter.

_No records found._

"That's weird…" Darcy says behind me.

To make sure my system isn't messing up, I open up another search and throw 'Kuat Drive Yards' in.

_I've already done this earlier._

Instead of looking at how many blasters, etc. came in with each shipment, I went to a daily look to see if there's a pattern.

Kuat Drive Yards

Based on the Planet Kuat.

Primarily makes its arms from an Orbital Shipyard Array.

_Normal._

What I saw last time.

I go back to my Pike Syndicate and try it again.

…

Nothing.

I silently turn back to Darcy, who is still looking at my holo.

"Any ideas?"

Her eyes darted to me, then looked to the holo.

"Hey you guys? Get here. Now." She raised her voice.

I hear Aiden say something quietly, then Mira appeared next to Darcy.

"What's up?"

…

When everyone else had surrounded my little cubicle, Darcy started speaking.

"Sorry…somebody go and look for the financial records of the Pike Syndicate." Darcy ordered.

Lana immediately walked to Mira's cubicle and typed rapidly.

"No records?" Katiey asked quietly.

"That's weird." Mira said.

"The Pike Syndicate?" Lana asked Darcy.

"Yes. What do you have?"

"Nothing."

"You're kidding." She said, standing and walking to Lana.

The rest of us watch as Darcy tried the search again herself.

…

"Ezra, I think you found our lead." Darcy said quietly.

Aiden bent down and hugged my shoulder as Brie said "That shouldn't be possible."

"Maybe it's a new…corporation?" Mira shrugged as Darcy walked back to us.

Lana did the same.

"What corporation calls itself a syndicate?" Lana replied.

"A shitball one." Katiey snipped darkly.

"I don't think it's a corporation. I think it's criminal." Darcy muttered, swiftly taking over my holo.

I slide back in my rolling chair to give her room.

She rapidly typed in a whole bunch of stuff, blew past a "Authorized Personnel Only: Enter Username and Password" screen, then ended up right where I was.

Darcy let out a heavy sigh then laid her head on my desk.

"Looks like I'll have to meet with the Captain. Maybe even the Moff. Blast."

The others are silent.

"Everybody steer your focus towards this 'Pike Syndicate'. I'll go digging and see if I can access the restricted records. They've got to be in there." Darcy told the group.

"Aye aye." Brie said sarcastically.

"Are we free?" Katiey asked her.

"Is it past 5? It was 15 till just a minute ago…" Darcy said to herself, turning back to my holo.

"Yeah." Mira told her.

"Yeah, you guys are free. Tomorrow though." Darcy said.

Lana, Brie and Aiden all nodded.

Then they all started back to their cubicles and started packing to leave.

Darcy simply turned to me.

"Excitement." I joke with her.

She quickly smiled.

"Yeah. I was going to ask you something…"

…

She stood and walked to her desk to begin gathering her things.

I start doing the same.

_It is past 5._

"Oh! I know!" She exclaimed.

I poke my head up to see her holo activated.

"What?"

"I'll ask outside. Wait for me?" She smiled at me.

I laugh.

"I guess. Since you asked nicely." I say, pulling on my jacket.

I linger in my cubicle once I've cleaned my desk and am ready to go until Darcy walks into my cubicle.

"C'mon."

I smile and follow her out to the landing pad.

"What's the question?" I ask after Darcy's hailed a speeder.

"Eat with me? I found a good place that specializes in Alderraanian dishes." She smiled at me.

"Isn't that stuff a little rich?" I ask.

_I think that stuff is a bit pricey, and rich in taste._

You don't eat much of Alderaanian food.

"We can split it." She smiled at me, then climbed into the speeder.

"I meant the food itself." I reply.

"Oh. Well yeah. Is that a yes?" She quirked her eyebrow.

"Yes." I joke.

She giggled, then gave the driver an address I've never been to.

_Even though that's pretty easy._

Darcy settled into her seat next to me and grabbed my hand.

…

_Pike Syndicate._

Sounds criminal to me.

I'm with Darcy on this one.

_I won't mention it though._

I did that last night and got reprimanded.

_She doesn't like talking about work during her free time._

She's stayed late multiple times. Even came back last night after we all ate in at her apartment.

Last night was good though.

She finally kissed me (on the cheek) in front of the others at dinner when I got her some wine.

They all went crazy.

Brie asked if we were dating.

_And now I'm officially her boyfriend._

Of course, they teased us about it. Mostly Darcy.

Katiey kept asking for the baby to have her middle name.

_Because "she's her favorite"._

Darcy steadfastly refused and told her to stop embarrassing her.

Of course, there's no baby.

I may have stayed at her place a few days ago, but nothing has really happened.

_Nothing worth reporting that is._

Lana half seriously told me on the way out to treat her right, or they'd have to come find me.

At least they don't know where I live yet.

Although they probably could find out in an instant.

_They all love Darcy._

Of course, they're her friend and they live together, but it's more than that.

I don't quite know how to describe it. The best I can do is that it's a little like Hera and all of us on the Ghost.

But she's old enough to actually be my mom.

Heck, she's done more than my mom really has for me. Lots of great advice, a hug when I need it, and that's just what I remember.

_She's done a lot more for me._

The speeder coming to a stop causes me to come out of my thoughts and Darcy gently pulls me out of the speeder.

We walk into a restaurant called "Bartyn's" and up to a hostess.

"Two please." Darcy smiled softly.

"Follow me." The human looking hostess told us, then led us back to a table for two.

"What would you two like to drink?" She asked as…

_Her eyes._

They're like clear.

She blinked, and they were completely black.

One more blink, and they looked normal.

_Holy crap._

"Uhm I'll have the House special." Darcy smiled at her, accepting a menu from her.

"And for you sir?" She asked me, both eyes returning to me.

Looking normal.

"I…will have the same." I settle on the fly.

"We'll get that right out. Take your time to look over the menu of delicacies." The hostess told us, then glided away.

Leaving Darcy to look surprised.

"You…are drinking?"

"Did you see her eyes?" I ask.

I didn't look at the menu because I was in shock.

"No. What is with them?"

"At first they were clear, then pitch black, then normal."

"Oh." Darcy replied. "It's probably a cybernetic. Poor girl."

She looks sad.

_Cybernetic._

Huh.

I nervously look down at the menu.

"Order what you want. And I'll split it with you since you're so worried about the price."

I look up at Darcy.

"I meant the food. I can cover this."

I just received the extra credits from the alliance and Mr. Wren.

_They'd want to me spend it on dinner out._

Darcy looked up at me looking skeptical.

"I'll split it." She replied bluntly, then returned to the menu.

I roll my eyes and do the same.

…

…

Ooh.

_Whatever the 'Denuba' is looks good._

It's a sandwich with meats, greens and tomatoes on top, and is drizzled throughout with a vinaigrette.

I don't recognize the sort of bread its served on.

I set my menu aside with the section containing the "Denuba' facing up and look to Darcy.

She glanced up, then set her menu aside too.

"So…are you liking it here? I've never got to ask." She smiled.

I laugh.

_Here we are, kissing and dating, and she's now asking if I like the planet._

"Well…the girls could be better. But yeah. It's okay."

She frowned.

"I'm being serious. I feel like I've been shallow."

"How?" I ask.

"Well, it's been all work mostly. You've come over and hung out, but I…don't know you super well. I want to change that."

I smile.

_That's nice._

"Okay. I do like it. Just different from what I'm used to." I reply seriously.

"You're from Corellia right?"

I nod.

"Aren't you from here?" I ask.

I swear she said she was.

"Nope. I'm from the Tion Cluster. Clariv, to be precise."

"That doesn't sound close." I say simply.

"It's not. My parents are artisans. Lazy, unadvancing artisans. Content to sew and stitch their life away."

_Whoa._

"Did I hit a nerve?" I ask gently.

"No. Kinda. The others know. Can't hurt for you to know."

I stay silent before a man comes by and deposits our drinks.

"What would you like to order?"

Darcy orders a filet of some kind.

I order my 'Denuba'.

"You ordered a sandwich?" She said tiredly. "This is classy!"

"It sounds great. Sorry I didn't order a steak."

"You eat like a girl." Darcy quipped.

I smile and sip my…wine.

_Tart._

"Anyway. I'm here because I don't want to be like my parents. As I said, they sew and they stitch. Like their parents. Like their parents' parents. I wanted more. So I joined the Imperial Academy. Graduated. Got the hell out. Applied for the farthest thing from home. Came here. Haven't looked back." Darcy said simply, in one breath.

"You sound bitter."

_Really bitter._

Darcy shrugged.

"I just don't see the point of living a useless life. Pardon me if that makes me a bitch."

"It doesn't make you…that." I say. "Just means you have drive."

_I'm not saying that word._

"You don't want to say the word 'bitch'?" She teased me.

"No. It's demeaning." I tell her.

Darcy rolled her eyes and took a draught of her wine.

"You are tooo good for me."

I shrug.

"Anyway, yeah. Left home. Got assigned here to an experimental group with Brie and Lana."

"Experimental group?" I ask.

"Some experimental Moff thought he could make a cleanup team of all girls."

_Really?_

Must not have worked.

"Hey. Don't look so lost. It worked. You're working with the six of us."

"It worked?" I ask.

Darcy smiled and nodded.

"Did the Captain ever tell you about our nickname?"

"No." I shake my head.

"Well, if a situation ever is out of hand, or has the potential to, we're sent in to "adjust" the situation." Darcy explained, then sipped her wine again.

"So that's what the nickname is?"

"Yup. I don't like it though. Seems demeaning to me. We're just a black ops team ideally." Darcy shrugged.

Huh.

_The "Adjustments" is actually accurate._

Part of me was thinking it was based on their looks.

"But you don't do just black ops stuff." I reply.

Darcy simply smiled widely.

"Yeah. Most ops teams would be left alone. But not us. We have to work in an office." She rolled her eyes.

"You don't like that?" I ask.

"I don't really care. Keeps me busy. But nobody else has to do it."

_She sounds frustrated._

"You don't sound happy though." I say, trying to make my point in a different way.

Darcy shrugged.

"Nothing's perfect. Not the job, not any of us. But it has been more interesting lately."

"What do you mean?"

"I…well, I probably shouldn't say anything. But screw it, I need somebody to talk to about this stuff."

I smile at her.

_C'mon now._

"Talk to me."

She laughed.

"Okay. Well, did you hear a rogue transmission a few months back?"

_Hah._

You don't say.

I pretend to think for a moment.

"I remember people talking about something weird. Not for long though."

"Well that was by design. There seems to be some sort of organized resistance to the Empire. That transmission was meant to keep morale up. I think it was an accident that it got out."

"Not on purpose?" I suggest.

Darcy shook her head.

"Nah, Imperial High Command gave us the assignment secretly a few months back with that idea. We couldn't find anything to refute that."

Whoa.

_My transmission…got put on DARCY'S DESK?!_

"So it was just a random morale booster?"

The waiter came by and scooped Darcy's almost empty wine glass up.

Darcy shrugged.

"I mean, maybe not. But we couldn't find anything else. Mira just did some voice recognition work, sent a report saying that it sounds like an 18 to 24 year old male from the Outer Rim, and never heard about it again."

"Never heard about it again?" I ask. "Is that normal?"

Darcy nodded.

"That's not how most of your assignments go? Turn in a report, get a new assignment, never hear about the old one again?"

I shake my head.

"Usually I met with my supervisor and we talked about my assignment. He gave me a new one. Sometimes we looked back to see if we could do anything different next time." I say, making it up on the fly.

"Eh. Sounds like different management styles to me. Captain Telon is very hands off. You've seen that. Haven't seen him since your first day."

"Yeah. I was surprised about that." I tell her truthfully.

He hired me, then turned me loose.

_Trusting. _

As Lux's friend said on…Concordia I think: "The left hand doesn't know what the right is doing."

Darcy shrugged as the waiter came by with a new glass of wine for her.

"Eh. It's impersonal, but it's better than anything else."

…

I give her a wry look.

"You sound disillusioned."

"No, not at all." Darcy said quickly. "I just don't believe blindly. If I became Empress tomorrow, which, that'd be fun—"

I laugh.

"Please spare me. I'm a good boy." I joke.

Darcy smiled, but then turned serious.

"But really. If I became Emperor tomorrow I'd change some stuff. It's not perfect. Neither am I. I mean, look at me. Look at my team. We go and kill people in the name of the Empire."

"You make adjustments." I go with the nickname.

Darcy simply frowned at me.

"I kill people. But it's better than the alternative. Did you hear about what happen on Onderon?"

I shake my head.

"I've got to look into the news more." I tell her.

_No I don't._

I was too busy fighting off a gigantic shark with a red lightsaber.

"It's okay. The Empire didn't publicize it. They don't want this group getting public support. They're pretending they don't exist in an effort not to legitimize them. But we raided a compound, and they ambushed us with a rocket aimed at our forces."

"Whoa. How'd they get that?" I ask.

"I don't know. I assume a group of them jumped a RPG team. But some Stormtroopers were advancing on the compound and BOOM! They got blasted. We had to fish them out of the bottom of a ravine." Darcy said, sounding disgusted.

_Whoa._

Before I can continue, Darcy starts talking again.

"I mean, they're just like the Separatists in the Clone Wars. The attack was barbaric."

"Do the others know about this militant group?" I ask, trying to make it sound as hostile as possible.

Darcy paused to sip her wine, then returned to me.

"Yeah, we're supposed to know the state of affairs in general. Does that make sense? I'm a historical buff, kind of." She smiled shyly.

"Really?"

She nodded.

"Yeah. I like to look at old conflicts. What got the two sides there. This is pretty similar. Those Separatists wanted to start new. This new group has said after being captured that they're fighting for 'peace and justice'. What kind of peace and justice sends a rocket at soldiers?" She asked me.

"None." I tell her.

"Exactly. It's ridiculous. They just want power. And Emperor Palpatine led us thru the biggest galactic conflict ever, plus that Jedi coup. He knows what he's doing."

"Did you find anything about that coup?" I ask curiously.

_She knows a lot._

I want to know if they know about Kanan.

"Not really. That information is tightly controlled. But there was a rumor of a rogue Jedi in the Lothal system. Then they dispatched the Executor there. No more Jedi…"

"The Executor?" I ask.

"Oh. You don't know…we have a secret weapon against those Jedi. A guy named Darth Vader. He's really good at beating rogue Jedi. The Executor is his personal Star Destroyer."

"Personal?" I ask.

What kind of guy has a personal Star Destroyer?

_I mean…it makes sense for Vader, but…_

He's that important?

The sound of his breathing makes me flash back briefly to Ord Mantell.

"Yeah. It's supposedly over 19000 meters long. Never seen it though. I'm surprised anything is that big."

"That sounds almost too big." I reply.

_19000 METERS?!_

The engines that'd be required to move that thing…

"Yeah. But I've never seen it."

"Have you ever bumped into a Jedi?" I ask curiously.

She shook her head, looking sad.

"No. I wish. I think I could beat one. You haven't seen me in combat. I'm good." She smiled at me.

I pretend to look impressed.

_Yeah._

I'd like to see how you'd do that.

Fire a blaster?

_Block._

I'd beat her with a bladed weapon. I beat Shark Bait.

"You don't believe me." Darcy said simply.

"They make the Jedi out to be some big bad enemy of all of us. And you think you can beat one?" I say skeptically.

"If they were so good, how'd Palpatine and the Stormtroopers beat them? Nobody's invincible. Not even us. But we're the best right now. So we'll just have to try."

…

_I guess so._

"I hope I don't sound crazy to you. Tell me if I should stop. I…it's nice to have somebody to talk to about this." She smiled at me.

"I don't mind. I am your boyfriend." I smile at her.

Darcy smiled happily.

"I like it when you say that."

I shrug.

"Well…thank you for listening. My job is stressful. It's nice to have somebody to talk to."

I nod. "I learned stuff. I enjoyed it."

She rolled her eyes.

"You can't just go around telling people that stuff. Almost all of it is highly confidential. Especially Lord Vader. People aren't supposed to know. If they knew, they'd think things are more fragile than they actually are."

"But they're not." I say simply.

_The Empire feels unbeatable._

"Nope. We're human, but we're the best we've got." Darcy told me as our food arrives.

"Let me know if I can get anything else for you." Our waiter said.

I nod, then look to my sandwich.

_It looks great._

It has a side of chips too.

"Aww man. Maybe you were right…" Darcy said quietly, looking up from her filet.

I smile.

"Told you."

Darcy laughed, and we dug into our food.

And I try to calm my nerves.

_I feel like a spy._


	31. The Both Of Us

I let out a breath as the speeder lurches off the landing pad and glides into traffic.

…

_Easy Ezra._

Beside me, Darcy starts digging in her bag for something.

I don't know what.

Very tentatively I try to let my nervousness out into the Force.

And am again greeted with the same gentle, yet firm resistance from the Force.

…

I've been on edge all day because of just that.

When I woke up, I felt to see if Sabine was home, and she was.

But that really didn't matter after how the Force reacted.

_I really don't know exactly what to do._

It's not like how it was before Iziz got bombed.

And I was a moron when we got raided.

Sabine had me so wrapped around her finger that I didn't even consider probing with the Force to get a feel for things.

_I need to stop thinking so normally and start using my powers to my advantage._

"Katiey has already ordered." Darcy said.

I turn to her.

"Great. What'd she get?"

"The same thing we got last week. Melahnese food with the noodles and fire sauce."

Ooh.

I smile. "Cool."

Darcy nodded, then turned back to her bag, allowing me to slip back to what's more important.

Work was fine today. Everybody was great, just steadily working on offshoots of the Pike Syndicate lead while Darcy's request for access into the Restricted databanks makes its way thru the channels.

I see the glimmer of my apartment building to the left out of the corner of my mind, and focus back in on what I'm doing.

I'm showing her my place, and probably introducing her to Sabine.

Of course, there's a chance that Sabine's off doing whatever she does here.

_In that case…I'll keep my secret._

I'm not trying to hide it from her. Not my fault she's off doing stuff.

Probably with some guy.

We park on the landing pad, and Darcy and I pile out on opposite sides, then meet at the lobby door.

She silently watches as I hit the button for the lift, then press for the 56th floor.

…

My senses are getting better.

_I can feel up a few more floors now._

I feel the first set of residences. On floor 10.

…

"Jeez, how big are these apartments?" She asked me as we walk down the hall to my place.

"Big. I couldn't believe this was the place I got."

"Did you just go for the first decent place?" She asked me.

I nod.

"How much did this run you?" She asked.

_I overheard Aiden tell Brie that their rent was due._

375 for the six of them, so not too bad.

"450 a month."

Darcy's head snapped to me.

"We might have to become neighbors or something…we can do that." Darcy said quietly.

I shrug, then pull my key rod out and open the door.

…

_She's not here._

Of course.

Why would she be?

"So…this is it. The furniture came with it." I tell her as I hit the lights, illuminating the kitchen and part of the living room and walk farther in to let her inside.

The click of her shoes echoes thru the silent house.

"Wow…we might have to hang out here. You're living the rich life." She joked, then smiled at me.

I shrug.

"Sabine?" I call out.

_Got to pretend at least._

…

"Looks like I don't get to show you off." I joke.

Darcy smiled.

"Next time I'll dress up."

I quickly frown at her.

_She looks fine._

Dark gray pants, a stylized t shirt with an gray jacket with a small imperial logo on it.

_Looks really good on her._

"I'm not trying." She told me.

"Doesn't mean you don't look great."

Darcy smiled shyly and looked down, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear.

"That's nice of you."

I shrug.

"It's the truth."

Darcy looked up and smiled at me.

"Go grab your stuff. I'm hungry."

I laugh and roll my eyes, then walk back to my room.

_She's always eating._

She has a secret stash of chips and candy in her desk, we've stopped by little restaurants on the way home just to tide her over, and the three times I've stayed at her place I always wake up to her out of the room.

Eating.

Smiling at the memory of her walking back in with a handful of grapes in her hands and her mouth full, I open my closet.

Jacket with the pauldron.

Dark shirt.

Boots.

I quickly start changing, slipping off my all purpose shoes and kicking them into the closet.

Clip Clop.

Clip Clop.

Halfway thru pulling my shirt over my head she slips her hands onto my waist.

Almost instinctively, I freeze.

"This isn't fair." I say thru the fabric.

Darcy giggled and I finish pulling my shirt off.

"Your room is so plain."

_I'm not hanging anything up because…_

Well, I don't plan on being here any length of time.

And now, that's a problem.

I bite my lip and grab my new shirt.

"I'll get a picture of us before we leave tonight. Just for you." Darcy smiled at me.

"Thanks." I tell her, then pull on my new shirt and grab my jacket.

"C'mon. Let's get you your food before you start gnawing on my arm or something extreme." I joke, leading her back to the front door.

"I would never eat you. At least not raw." She said as I start shutting off lights.

"So you'd take the time to cook me? How nice of you." I reply in a monotone.

"Not alive!" Darcy countered.

"So you'd kill me." I counter her counter and close the front door behind us, then turn back to lock it.

"I…you're taking this too seriously."

"I just want to know if I should be worried about waking up tomorrow or not. I am sleeping at your place." I remind her with a smile.

Darcy rolled her eyes and started typing into her comm.

We slip back into the lift and am on the way back to her apartment when she speaks up.

"Food's here. We're apparently late." Darcy said, sounding slightly annoyed.

"I went as fast as I could." I say, slightly defensively.

She gets mad when you get in the way of her food.

It's like an animal and her young.

"I know. I slowed you down in your room."

I cringe.

"That sounds awful."

Darcy nodded and looked off to the side.

"Yeah…let's just say that the lift to your place took forever."

I nod.

…

"They're not embarrassing you too much are they?" Darcy asked me.

I laugh.

"No. I can take it, but they're just ruthless."

Darcy smiled.

"They love you. That's why they're so crazy around you. It's like you're another person. They don't have to be all prim and proper. If they want to grab the ice cream and sit on the couch and binge watch a show while eating the ice cream, no big deal."

"Especially if they share the ice cream." I add.

Darcy smiled and giggled.

"The only one that doesn't share is you." I say.

The others are always offering me some of whatever they're having.

_But never Darcy._

"I share with you. I don't kiss them. That's our thing." She smiled softly.

I…

I shrug, not knowing what else to do.

Darcy started giggling derisively.

"You…you're so dark if you want to be."

"I don't know what to say to that!" I tell her.

Darcy opened her mouth to reply, but our speeder abruptly reached it's destination.

_I didn't even notice that we were getting close._

Huh.

"You've got so much room for error, and you toe the line like we're at work and it's your first day." Darcy told me before getting on the lift.

"I try not to cause trouble." I reply.

"That'd be hard for you to do. You're like a rock. Always calm, never high or low."

_Like a Jedi._

I suddenly smile.

That's the nicest thing she's ever said to me.

"Thanks Darcy. That means a lot." I tell her, getting out of the lift.

"Why?"

_Oh crap._

Character.

"Everyone kind of considers me a hot head. And I used to be. I'm trying to be better here. I'm glad it's making an impact." I say on the fly.

Darcy softly smiled at me.

"It's nice. But you don't have to hide around me. Or us. We all love you. Loosen up a little." Darcy smiled at me, stopping just to the right of her door and in front of me.

My back is to the wall.

"I'll try." I tell her.

Darcy simply smiled, then gently hopped onto me, wrapping her legs around me and kissed me.

…

I lean back into the wall and gently wrap my arms around her.

Causing her to purr her approval.

…

…

Suddenly, the door opened, causing Darcy and I to break apart.

_But I'm still holding her._

Aiden lit up, shock all over her face.

"I CAUGHT THEM!" She yelled, then flew inside.

"Dammit." Darcy muttered as I let her down.

_Oops!_

"Doing what?" I hear Katiey ask her as we walk inside.

I close the door behind us.

Darcy doesn't look pleased.

"The thud I said I thought I heard? Darce had Ezra pinned against the wall."

_Awesome._

Multiple screams rang out, then Brie and Lana nearly crash into Darcy as she turned the corner into the living room.

"If y'all wanna make out, go back there!" Mira scolded us, pointing back to Darcy's room.

"What if I say no?" Darcy said simply, somehow not blushing.

I know I've gone red.

"Let me grab the holocamera then." Mira simply replied.

I immediately recoil.

_Oh._

"Well then, no." I say.

"Yeah. Where's my food?" Darcy asked, turning away from her friends and towards the small kitchen table.

"It's marked. Ezra's roommate." Aiden said, then smiled at me while gently elbowing me in the ribs.

"It's like you guys don't want me to stay." I say sarcastically.

"You're one of us now. Especially you're dating the boss. We're like your compliance officers." Lana said simply.

Mira nodded, mouth full.

"Oh hell no." Darcy said.

I look back to see her swallow a huge bite of rice and the fire sauce.

_Might as well give my hands something to do._

"That's not your call to make. We don't have room for a baby here." Brie told her.

I turn around and spread my arms in silent indignation.

"BRIE!" Darcy shrieked.

"I'm not moving in with Aiden!" Katiey said simply.

"That is not funny! I'm serious dammit." Darcy said, getting to her feet and marching over to Brie.

Brie didn't back down, which is impressive.

_Darcy looks furious and is towering over her._

Darcy's about three inches taller, plus her shoes.

"Take a joke." Brie said.

"You don't mean it as one."

"Partially." Brie says, then takes the last word by walking back to the couch and grabbing her food.

Darcy sat down at the kitchen table and started eating.

_Looking livid._

…

"What are you watching?" I ask, fishing out my food and glancing up at the holoterminal.

"Apartment Show-Off!" Lana told me.

_Oh no._

That's Sabine and I's show.

_Dang it._

"Home improvement?" I ask, trying to sound skeptical.

"It's actually not bad. Plus we get to live vicariously thru the contestants." Aiden says.

I sit next to Brie as Darcy finally starts to make a move back to the group.

"Shh. It's starting back up." Katiey shushed her.

Aiden turned and scowled at Katiey as the holo displayed the "Apartment Show-Off" title card, then the two hosts.

Everybody quickly settled in and watched the show while eating our take-out.

This episode is a competition between the two hosts.

They're taken two identical apartments on Nar Shaadaa, both were pretty trashed, and are competing to see which one can be fixed up better over the span of a week.

The male host's team is a lot more disjointed and behind schedule, while the female host has catered all their food in, and kept them working almost around the clock.

Less work per hour, but they're pulling away.

As the episode begins winding down, I notice the differences start to become even more stark.

The girl lets her team go home early, while the guy forces his team to keep working thru the night.

Then, like it always seems to do, they leave us with a cliffhanger.

"Tune in next week to see who wins!"

"Nah, we already know." Lana says.

"Yup." Mira adds simply, as everyone starts getting to their feet.

I grab Aiden and Darcy's takeout containers and drop them in the trash collector.

"You already dressed?" Mira asked me as I hold the lid open.

She dumped the rest of the trash in and glanced at me.

"Yeah. We stopped by my place before we came." I reply.

"If you say a word we'll have a problem." Darcy told her, causing me to glance over at Darcy, leaning on the kitchen counter.

"Word." Mira replied.

Darcy rolled her eyes, then pushed off the counter and stalked off.

Katiey quietly laughed, and I look over and see that they're looking at me.

"You're making that girl a character. You know that right?" Aiden smiled at me.

"I am?" I ask.

_She's always been a character to me._

She's a little quirky.

"Yeah. Before you came she was pretty quiet. She was like this around here, but not as much." Mira told me.

Huh.

"You brought her back." Lana smiled, then ruffled my hair.

"I'm going to get changed. I need to get at least three free drinks tonight." Brie told the room,

"Three?" I ask.

"That's the goal!" She replied without looking back.

I turn back to the others.

"Three seems like a lot." I confess.

"Eh. Depends on how busy it is." Katiey shrugged.

Then Aiden started back to the rest of the apartment, leaving the others to follow.

I turn back to the kitchen.

_I guess I'm waiting for a little bit._

…

My eyes settle on the little pile of dishes in the sink.

_Including my own cereal bowl from a few mornings ago._

That's not being a good house guest.

The only reason I did it was because I woke up late, and had to gulp down some breakfast.

I flick on the water, grab the brush and start cleaning the pots, pans, plates, bowls and silverware.

…

I reach out with the Force, and feel all the girls in their respective rooms moving around.

_Down._

…

That's a family, sitting directly underneath the kitchen on what I'm guessing is a couch.

_The floorplan must be flipped on every floor._

I focus my attention above us, and my suspicions are confirmed.

Same design, just flipped.

I place my bowl in the dish cleaner and close it up.

I'm out of dishes.

A few seconds later, Brie walked in, clearly dolled up.

"Aww. We might just have to keep you." She smiled.

"Why?" Darcy asked.

"Hey!" I call out, getting them both to laugh.

Then Darcy walked in and sees that I did the dishes.

"Aww…you didn't have to do that. It was my job." Darcy smiled at me.

I shrug.

"Not now I guess."

Darcy simply turned to Brie.

"Can we keep him? Do we have to take a vote?"

Brie shrugged.

"Hey Aiden! Do we have to vote to keep Ezra?"

"Why?" She replied as I hear more footsteps.

"The boy did Darcy's dishes!" Brie replied.

Lana peeked her head out from the hallway, smiling.

"Maybe!" Aiden replied, voice coming closer.

"Are we close?" I ask.

Darcy nodded, not looking up from her wrist comm.

"I called a speeder. Would one of you mind getting a picture of us?" She turned and asked Lana.

"Sure." Lana shrugged, turning back to the shared office area.

I walk back into the kitchen and follow Darcy to the window.

When I turn back everybody else is smiling at us.

"Looks good." Katiey said, sounding reluctant to admit it.

I laugh and bite my lip as Lanan walks back in and stops even with the couch.

I smile as Darcy…consciously or not, takes the exact same pictures that I took with Sabine on Mandalore.

Two arms around me, with my hand on her waits, then one hand on my waist.

_Must be a girl thing._

"Do they look okay?" Darcy asked, letting go of me and walking back to Lana.

Silently, Mira and Brie peeked over Lana's shoulder.

"Yeah, I think they look good. Unless you don't?" Lana asked Darcy as the pictures pop up.

I slide next to Darcy and look.

_She looks great._

I look okay I guess.

This jacket looks just as good as I think it looks.

_Badass._

"Promise to hang these up. Or put them in a frame." Darcy turned to me.

"I'll frame them." I tell her.

_More portable._

"Oh, that's right. You saw the boy's room." Mira said suddenly.

"Was it a typical guy room?" Aiden asked as we all migrate to the door.

"YES." Darcy groans. "There was nothing in there. Nothing!"

"Why's that such a big deal?" I ask, holding the door as the all slip into the hall.

"You should personalize your room. What's important to you, your passions. Be creative." Katiey says to me as the lift arrives.

The conversation slowly changes from my room, to the girls' rooms as we get in the speeder, and finally to stuff like paintings and drawings.

"You should get back into it." Brie told Mira gently, putting her hand on her leg as we start descending down to our landing pad.

"I don't have anytime. I'd have to sleep less, have less of a social life or eat while I work." Mira countered.

"You can find the time. It's in there." Katiey countered.

"I don't think it is. But I'll plan out a week and see where it leads." Mira compromises.

Darcy, sitting in my lap, smiled.

When we touch down I let her hop off me, then follow her and let the others pile out behind me.

Darcy loops our hands together as we patiently wait for the line to get in dwindle down.

To my mild surprise, all the girls pay for themselves.

_Except for Darcy._

I cover her.

She abruptly retracted her hand after I handed my credit stick to the doorman and let him slap a wrist band on me.

Then Darcy led me inside.

"You are the best ever. You know that?" She smiled at me over the roar of the music.

I smile back at her, then lead us upstairs to where Lana, Mira and Brie have pounced on their little booth area I found them at last month.

_Last month?_

Oh wow.

Time is flying.

It feels like just a couple of weeks has passed.

Darcy and I slide into the booth, and Darcy slithers half onto me, half not.

"We'll hold down the fort." Darcy smiled at Lana, who nodded and walked to the bar.

Wordlessly, Darcy snapped off my wristband and snuggled closer to me.

Okay.

_I'm not complaining._

I adjust my hold on her and reach out with the Force.

Whoa.

I reach out again, trying to fact check what I felt.

_For the first time all day, the Force responded easily to my reach._

Like normal. But that's not the strange thing.

There's a Force Signature here that is noticeable.

Less than Kanan.

Less than Ahsoka.

_But more than a standard life form._

Katiey walks back to us and handed each of us a circular glass full of a dark liquid.

"Corellian Soda and whiskey. Their special." She told us, slipping into the booth.

"Okay. Thank you." Darcy smiled.

I sip the drink and glance at the line at the bar.

_Mira, Aiden and Lana are near the front._

Brie is already working a guy near the middle of the line.

"Brie…" Darcy smiled and told Katiey.

"Oh I saw. She almost attacked him. He's cute. Maybe a 6." Katiey shrugged.

"Out of 10?" Darcy said.

5 would be average.

"6 is cute but 5 is average?" I ask, confused.

_Low bar._

"It's a generous scale." Darcy tells me softly.

"Yeah. 7 and above is 'No Questions Asked Territory'." Katiey added

I roll my eyes.

"We're weird. But we're your weirdos." Darcy joked.

I laugh. "Okay. What am I?"

"Untouchable." Darcy quickly replied before Katiey could jump in.

"I'm staying out of this." Katiey smiled as Mira, Aiden and Lana walked back to us.

"Well, we won't be seeing Brie much. She found a bro with spiked hair and strong cologne."

"Bro…mannn…" Lana said, face contorted cartoonishly.

I laugh and Darcy giggled.

"We usually people watch most of the night. It's pretty funny." Katiey told me.

"Dance maybe." Aiden shrugged.

"It's not too busy. Maybe." Darcy said, then looked at me.

"Can you dance?"

"A little. Not too fast though." I tell her.

"Maybe we can have a practice night at home." Mira suggested.

"I'm down for that." Aiden said.

Lana nodded, then we all settle into our little area and look at the various people.

…

Brie has now drifted downstairs with her man.

…

I avert my attention from a blossoming argument not far from where Darcy came and picked me up last time on the rail.

_I was right in plain sight._

No wonder Darcy pounced on me.

I was on a silver platter basicall—

…

I freeze, eyes on the stairs.

"What?" Darcy said, sitting up and turning to me.

"I…think that's Sabine." I say, silently reaching out with the Force.

_Yup._

Seconds later, she pops up, accompanied by a cute brunette and a baby faced guy.

_The guy._

I knew it.

"Sabine!" I call out to her on a whim, then gently stand, depositing Darcy on the couch.

Sabine stopped, then looked around.

Her friends immediately found me though.

"Hey." I smile, as I see Darcy stand out of the corner of my eye.

"Hey Ezra. Funny seeing you here. You here with your coworkers?" She smiled at me, then walking over and giving me a side hug.

"Yup. This is Darcy, my girlfriend." I tell her, then gesture to Darcy.

"Hi. Ezra's said nice things about you." Darcy smiled, extending her hand.

Sabine smiled and shook Darcy's hand politely.

"Oh, he did? Usually he's teasing me relentlessly." Sabine joked.

Darcy laughed.

"I've behaved." I joke with her, getting her to laugh.

"Uhm, these are some friends I met at the market. This is Haiel and that's Merkel." Sabine introduced her friends, girl first then the guy.

"Ezra. Nice to meet you." I smile, shaking Merkel's hand and nodding to Haiel.

"Nice to meet you." He replies in a deep voice.

I turn back to Darcy, and notice that she's got a couple of inches on Sabine.

_That'd be an interesting fight._

"I don't want to keep you all, but can I borrow him for a brief moment?" Sabine asked Darcy.

"Sure." Darcy shrugged, looking back to me.

"After you." I tell Sabine, and she leads me down the stairs as Darcy kindly starts introducing the others to Sabine's friends.

…

"I'm sorry to drag you away." Sabine said over the din of the music.

"It's okay. What's up? I stopped by home but you weren't there." I tell her.

Sabine bit her lip and we stopped at the end of a line to the downstairs bar.

"I'm going to need you for a day this weekend. My friends told me about a Clone Wars battle here. On Denon."

Here?

"Seriously?" I ask her.

Sabine nodded.

"It's supposedly in the undercity. The Separatists supposedly didn't want to openly take it by Force. But I want to go check it out."

"Is that cool with everyone?" I ask.

Implying Kanan and Hera.

"Already asked them. They want us to report on it."

"We can do that." I say.

Sabine nodded silently.

"So…Darcy. Dating?" Sabine said, adding a tentative smile at the end.

"Yup." I smile back.

"Congratulations. Sorry I haven't been around. Trying to make some good out of this junk." Sabine said, then gestured to nowhere.

"You're probably frustrated." I say evenly.

"I'm trying not to be." She says.

The line moves up…and a familiar figure emerged from the unfamiliar crowd near the bar.

_Lux Bontiri._

"Sabine…" I start, but she gently squeezed my wrist.

"It's okay. They've been kind of around the last week or so. I think they're checking in on us."

"Just Lux?" I ask quietly, glancing at her.

"That's the only person I've recognized. But I've felt more eyes on me." Sabine replied.

Then we stepped up to the bar.

Lux sprung forward and slid in next to me.

"Two Corellian Twists with salt please." Lux said smoothly, and the bartender started working.

I turn to him, and he winked.

"Living the nightlife I see." He smiled, then gently, yet firmly tapped my chest twice with a closed fist.

_Like he did before we left the Ghost._

Our drinks slid in front of us, and Lux handed the bartender some credits, then glided off without another word.

_Okay…_

I grab my drink and keep up with Sabine.

"You okay?" I ask her.

Sabine nodded, angling towards the stairs.

"Yeah. Miss having you around, but you're trying to get us out of here." She said.

_I…_

"Let me know if there's anything I can do to help." She told me, then sped up and led us back to Darcy and the others.

"You're back!" Lana smiled.

"We were just talking to your friends…Sabine right?" Mira smiled at her.

"Yup." Sabine smiled.

"You're welcome to stay. We can get more chairs and stuff." Darcy smiled at Sabine.

"No, we've got our own area. But thank you." Sabine politely refused.

Then her friends returned to her side.

I reluctantly return to my seat.

"Nice meeting you all." Haiel said politely, as Sabine shook Darcy's hand.

"Our pleasure." Katiey smiled at her.

Then Sabine and her friends walked back downstairs.

Darcy turned back to me, smiling.

"She's really nice."

"I wouldn't be friends with mean people." I say to her, smiling at the end.

"Her friends seemed a little rough to me." Lana said simply.

"Not bad though. Just a little darker than she was." Aiden added.

I shrug, and try to release my nerves out into the Force.

_Which pushes back, stronger than ever._

What…

It's not like danger. But it's something else.

_I don't like it._

I try to put it out of my mind, then turn and smile at Darcy.

(A/N: This is a test run of something I'll be using liberally in later chapters. I'd love to know if I get it in character.)

Sabine POV

…

_Get home._

Get home.

I know Lux is ahead of me, making sure nobody is awaiting us.

I nervously glance at my comm, checking for a message.

From anybody.

…

"_This is Darcy."_

My girlfriend.

…

_My girlfriend._

I look up and see that the driver has indeed gone as fast as he could to the apartment.

_We're already here._

The moment we touch down and stop I'm out of the speeder.

Behind me, Haiel and Merkel hop out, with Merkel paying the driver.

I try to hide my nerves as I quickly walk to the lift and hit 56.

…

..

Go.

_Haran._

My comm beeps, and I glance at it to see Lux's message.

"Clear."

The lift doors open and I briskly walk to the apartment.

Merkel and Haiel behind me.

Lux scrambles to his feet when I get close, and I unlock the door and let everyone in.

_Breathe._

…

I close the door, then rest my head on the door.

For just a brief moment.

I hear Lux click the remote he did when he first got here today, then I hear the reassuring beep.

All clear.

"We're good." Lux told them.

Quickly, Merkel and Haiel turn off their visual disruptors.

…

Slowly…Hera and Kanan return to sight.

"I hate this outfit." Kanan scowled, tossing the light jacket aside and stalking into the kitchen area.

"Honey…" Hera said softly.

I smile at her, then look down.

Hera simply comes and hugs me.

"I'm sorry darling." She whispered.

I nod, then sigh and let her go.

"So…we've got a wrench in our plans." Kanan proclaimed.

"Named Darcy." Lux said, walking to the kitchen.

"Guys…easy." Hera said softly behind me.

"Sorry Sabine. I…part of me can't believe it. I felt the emotions. I told everyone this." Kanan told her, digging in the cabinets for the sugar I'm guessing.

Every drink he's had that isn't water he's added sugar to.

_Weirdo._

"Even on the ship?" I ask.

"Those I didn't have to try. I figured you two had finally stopped dancing around the elephant in the ship." Kanan said bluntly.

Ouch.

"Kanan! Tact! Come on." Hera scolded him, looking angry.

Lux sipped a glass of water, then handed one to me.

"Helps loosen your stomach up. It has to be in knots."

_I guess so._

I accept the water and finish it in one gulp.

Wordlessly, Lux takes it back from me and starts refilling it.

"Sweetie, you don't have to say anything too personal. But was it a fight?" Hera gently asked me, sitting on the couch.

"No. I…I messed up by not defining it I guess. Right after we got here he told me that…"

I stop and sip Lux's refilled water.

"Well, basically he was mad. You guys didn't trust him. It was always him that wasn't ready. I was fine. But he wanted to put whatever we had off and prove everyone wrong." I say.

Lux stopped beside me, shoulders slumped.

"So…he felt disrespected." He said, trying to figure it out.

"Kind of. I think I lost him too." I admit.

_I lost him._

I lost the one person who's ever fallen for me before learning my name.

"_My name's Ezra…what's yours?"_

In his clumsy, silly attempt to sound sexy.

"What's worse, is that intel says she's the leader of that "Adjustments" team." Lux said simply.

"She's tall. 5'8? Maybe 5'9?" Hera said.

Taller than me.

"Her height doesn't matter. Ezra's mental state is what I'm worried about. He's mad at us it sounds like." Kanan points out.

"With all that training too." Hera said.

"In fairness, in that briefing on the ship, that was everyone's argument against them leaving. Ezra won a battle, but he isn't ready for a infiltration mission." Lux replied.

Kanan let out a heavy sigh and walked to the window.

…

"Did he feel dark to you hon?" Hera asked her, turning back to Kanan.

…

"I wouldn't call it dark. He was happy. That was what intrigued me when we approached. He felt really happy, surrounded by all those people."

"And no wonder. You were right Sabine. All girls." Lux said, taking my glass again.

"What would you call it then?" Hera pressed Kanan.

…

_Uh oh._

"He felt vengeful. Just a whiff of it, but when we got to the top of the stairs, his tone changed slightly." Kanan turned back to Hera.

"But that was because that was the first time Sabine had met Darcy though. Or maybe not?" Hera threw it out there.

…

"I don't know." Kanan said, then turned back to us.

Lux sat next to me and handed me my water back.

"What are we going to tell everyone? They're going to want to shut this down and get you home." Kanan said, sounding frustrated and grabbing the back of the couch Hera's sitting on across from Lux and I.

"Has he mentioned anything about "Operation Remnant"?" Lux asked me.

I shake my head.

"But he's only been there for a month." Kanan countered.

"We need time." Lux said.

"But we might be losing Ezra to this girl." Hera said.

…

_Losing Ezra._

To a girl on Denon.

"I don't think he'd throw it all away for her. I think he's going to try and bring her into the fold." Kanan said.

"That would be the move." Lux agreed.

"But she's Imperial."

"Weirder things have happened." Hera shrugged.

"Yeah, like him beating an Inquisitor with no help and under fire by a battalion of Stormtroopers." Kanan said simply, then sat next to Hera.

"That. I think that's what makes Ezra so mad." I interrupt Lux as he begins to speak.

"Oh." Kanan said simply.

"We'll just have to adjust." Hera said reassuringly, putting her hand on his knee.

…

_Hold it together Sabine._

I think we're almost done here.

"It's going to take a full army to hold Rex and Echo back when they hear this." Kanan said with a smile.

Lux and Hera laughed.

"Why?" I ask.

"They love you. They care more about you two than anybody else short of Ahsoka. When they get wind of this, they're going to want to come and set Ezra straight." Lux smiled and told me.

"They're already on the Extraction Team. Aren't they here?" Hera asked Lux.

"Halfway across the planet. Laying really low. They've blended in with some old clones they fought with named "The Bad Batch"."

"The Bad Batch?" Kanan asked, as Hera looks ready to laugh.

"I don't know why they're called that. They met them after 'Soka left. She's never met them either. But Rex wanted them specifically." Lux shrugged.

Huh.

"Interesting." I say.

…

"So…what do you think Sabine? Keep going?" Kanan asked me.

"I take it you told him about the battle Echo heard whispers of when they got here." Hera added.

"Yeah. He said to just comm him." I reply

"Good. He's not coming back here tonight." Lux said.

Kanan winced and Hera took a deep breath.

…

"Why'd he have to get a girlfriend? We can't just tell him to ditch her. He'll hate us." Hera turns to Kanan.

Kanan gestured at the ceiling with one hand.

"Hell if I know. She better be good. That's all I'm saying."

I tense up.

_Oh man._

Oh man…

…

_I can't break down now._

I can do that after I close the door to my room.

"What's the call Sabine? Your decision will carry a lot of weight." Lux asked me after a moment.

…

"I believe in him. Even if you guys don't." I say.

"We believe in him!" Kanan replies hotly.

"You know what I mean." I say wearily. "I think he's just having to be patient with the mission. It's not like he's going to come in and be able to ask 'Point me to "Operation Remnant". It's highly sensitive."

"You think he's having to just hold his position and play the part." Lux said.

I nod.

"At least he's in the right place." Hera shrugged.

"Yeah. I'm going to get a shower." I say, then get to my feet.

"Okay. We'll wake you before we go tomorrow." Hera hops up and hugs me.

I hug her, then Lux and finally Kanan.

Then I slip into my room and close the door.

And slowly sink to the floor.

…

_Darcy._

_Haran_\- Mando'a for "Hell"


	32. Dust

…

…

I take a deep breath, then roll over to the feeling of cooler sheets.

…

Keeping my eyes closed, I move to flip the pillow over before I remember.

_That'll wake Darcy up._

And she'll wake up grumpy.

…

_I don't want that._

I compromise by simply letting out a breath and stretching out.

Then I hear movement behind me, then Darcy's hands snake around my waist.

"I didn't wake you up did I?"

"Nuh uh." I hear her as she shakes her head behind me.

Her hair tickles my back.

"Your hair tickles." I say.

Darcy giggled, then I cautiously roll over and open my eyes.

To see Darcy looking at me with a smile on my face.

"Hi." She said, sounding sleep.

"Hi. Good morning."

Darcy wordlessly wrapped her arms around me and smiled.

"Yeah. It is a good morning."

I laugh and kiss her cheek.

"No more kisses. Morning breath." Darcy said, then stuck her tongue out at me.

"Sorry." I say, then blindly reach for a water bottle I put on the nightstand last night.

_There._

I deliberately pull it to me and take a sip from it.

"Still, don't kiss me." Darcy says as I put the water bottle back.

I roll back over to her, then roll my eyes at her.

Darcy smiled, then stretched.

"Did you sleeeeeep well?" She asked, yawning as she spoke.

"Yeah. Did you?"

She nodded, then let out an even bigger yawn.

I laugh as she sounds a little like a loth-cat.

_Not that she'd know what those are._

"So…I'm breaking my own rule here. But the Captain got back to me." She said, propping herself up on an elbow and turning to me.

"What'd he say?" I ask, staying where I am.

_I don't want to move yet._

"Well, like normal, they've taken everything right out of our hands. They're apparently planning a mission for us currently. But they were kind enough to give me a few details."

"Okay." I say.

_Why not just give Darcy the info and let her make sense of it?_

"We were half right. The Pike Syndicate is a criminal operation. But its main business isn't arms dealing."

"What is it?" I ask.

"Spice."

_Of course._

I let out a sigh.

"Of course it is."

Darcy frowned.

"Yup."

"So what now?"

Darcy shrugged tiredly.

"For now, we keep digging in the raw files until we get called in and briefed about this mission."

"You think I'll go?" I ask her.

Darcy quickly fixes me with an odd look.

"Of course you'll go. You're Mr. Guns. Why wouldn't you?"

"They didn't let me on my last assignment." I frown, making it up on the fly.

Darcy quickly looked lost.

"Sometimes I don't know about people…"

Then Darcy sat up and moved to pull on some pants.

I silently do the same.

_Today's the day I go exploring with Sabine._

Some Clone Wars battle.

I'm surprised we didn't know about it before we came here.

I slip a shirt on and feel the bed rise up as Darcy stands up.

I turn and follow her to the kitchen, ignoring the pink sock on the doorknob.

_They knew I came over._

Well…

…

_Heard us._

Darcy makes a beeline for the cereal bowls, and I wind my way to the pantry.

I grab a couple of nutria-bars and turn to the table.

Only to see Mira and Aiden sitting at the table looking at us.

"Hi." Aiden said.

Darcy spun around.

"When'd you get here?" She asked, cereal box in her hand.

"We've been here." Mira smirked.

"You two just marched on by on your mission for food." Aiden added, looking bemused.

"Sorry." I say, unwrapped a nutria-bar and taking a bite.

"Last night go well?" Mira smiled at us.

I avoid both of their gaze and look out the wind.

_Looks to be about 10._

"It went." Darcy replied calmly, pouring blue milk into her cereal.

I unwrap my other nutria-bar and take a bite out of the first half of it.

…

_I just need to grab my comm, jacket, shoes and socks then I can leave._

I quickly inhale the rest of my food, then hustle back to Darcy's room and gather up the rest of my stuff.

…

_I need a few more nutria-bars._

I'm still hungry.

"I'll buy you more I promise…" I say, walking back to the pantry as Darcy, Mira and Aiden are still sitting at the table.

Aiden and Mira laughed.

"Going home?" Darcy asked, sounding sad.

I turn to see her with a small frown on her face.

"Yeah. I'll be back tonight I think."

Darcy smiled and Mira pretended to stick her finger down her throat.

"Okay."

I grab two more bars and turn back to Darcy and the girls.

"I…will see you later. Comm if you need me." I say, then kiss Darcy briefly.

"Will do." Darcy smiled as Mira and Aiden go back to eating.

I slip out the front door and open the first nutria-bar on the lift down to the landing pad.

I open the second when the speeder starts home.

…

_A Clone Wars battle._

It is an intriguing target.

There's probably heavy Imperial Security guarding it, but hey.

_Hasn't stopped us before._

Plus the only useful thing I've been able to send Hera and Kanan at Safe Zone has been the Imperial Standard Guard Manual in its entirety.

Little did Darcy know that when she gave it to me to study, I'd send it on, and Rex and Echo would give me the stuff I actually need to know.

…

"Operation Remnant"

_Still nothing._

I've been here for getting close to a month and a half.

Nothing. Not a peep. Or even a squeak.

_We've been so dialed into this Pike Syndicate lead that we've gotten tunnel vision._

Katiey said the other day that this isn't normal.

Usually they have everybody on a primary assignment but have the freedom to veer off to a secondary assignment.

I notice the speeder dip down and gather up my wrappers.

When we land, I pay the driver, then throw my wrappers in the trash before taking the lift to the apartment.

_Sabine's here._

I test the doorknob, to find it unlocked then slip inside.

_All the lights are on._

Sabine's just lounging on the couch in the living room.

"Hey." I call out to her.

Sabine turned, then thinly smiled.

"Hey. How are you?"

I shrug.

"Not bad. What big adventure are we going on today?" I smile at her, stopping next to her and grabbing the back of the couch.

Sabine shrugged.

"When you're ready we'll head that way. It's a battle."

I smile and start to my room.

I quickly change into more comfortable shoes, pull my lightsaber to me and grab my good jacket.

_If I'm going to have to shoot at anybody today, I'm going to look good doing it._

Darcy'd be disappointed if I did anything otherwise.

Hey.

_Speaking of Darcy…_

I quickly pull up Flier and call a speeder for Sabine and I downstairs.

I cast one glance over my room, then turn back to the living room.

With the familiar and comforting sensation of my lightsaber bumping into my thigh every few steps.

"Ready when you are." I proclaim, as Sabine is watching something on the holo.

"Alright." She replied happily, then flicked the holo off.

"I already called a speeder." I say as Sabine slid her arms into a jacket beside her.

"How?" She replied, turning back to me.

"Oh. I didn't tell you. Darcy told me about this program you can call a speeder from and pay with your credit stick." I smile at her.

Sabine however, immediately frowned the moment I said the word 'Darcy'.

"Darcy told you huh?" She asked, rolling her eyes and walking into the kitchen.

"Yeah…Is that a problem?" I ask politely.

_She doesn't like it._

Isn't even bothering to hide it.

"Why not use one of the normal speeders downstairs Ezra? They're fine." Sabine said while pulling out a water bottle and starting to fill it.

"These are cheaper." I reply.

Sabine let out a heavy sigh.

"Okay. We'll take your speeder. But if it's not there when we get down there, we're not taking it."

"Okay." I say.

_Fair enough._

Without another word, Sabine closes her water bottle and walks out the door.

I follow her and lock up behind us.

…

…

The lift shoots downstairs, and as advertised…the speeder is waiting for us.

I crack a slight smile as Sabine climbs in.

"So…what exactly are we supposed to be doing at this battle site?" I ask.

Sabine tapped a few times on her comm, then a holo of the area popped up.

"We're climbing down a service tunnel, then we'll be right at the start of it. We're supposed to find every Republic troop transport and download its manifest, along with any droid datacores we can as we go along."

"Where are we sending them?"

"I've got a place they told me to send them. There might be live droids down there too." Sabine added.

"Live?" I ask.

"Working."

Thud.

_Huh?_

We're here already?"

I hop out of the speeder and gesture my thanks to the driver.

_We're in an industrial area._

…

There's one person around.

Literally just one.

Sabine slipped into a alley, and I scramble to follow.

After a minute, Sabine pointed down.

I glance down to see a manhole cover.

"Back up." I hiss at her, and she steps back a few feet.

I levitate the cover, which is solid Durasteel and set it to the side.

"Dang it…flashlight. With lanyard." Sabine muttered, then stuck her hand out to me .

_She's extending the flashlight and lanyard to me._

I take it and slip the lanyard over my head as Sabine shines a light into the hole.

"I see the bottom. But you'll have to close us in. It's about 20 feet to the bottom."

Okay.

I nod.

"Be careful." Sabine told me, then started down the hole with her flashlight pointed down.

I quickly probe for people, then follow.

Three rungs down I pull the manhole cover up to close the hole.

And then it's pitch black.

…

The sound of Sabine and I slowly lowering ourselves to the next rung, flashlights doing little good echoes all around us.

"Oh thank goodness…I'm down." Sabine says below me.

Finally.

"Good. I was starting to worry you were wrong." I tell her.

Sabine quietly laughed.

"Me too."

Then she flashed her flashlight forward and started walking.

I follow, and start reaching out with the Force.

_Grounds clear._

I don't feel anybody.

"Nobody's here." I tell her.

Then her flashlight fell on a clump of…tan droids.

_Those must be battle droids._

"It opens up he…re." Sabine said quietly.

I walk next to the droids and look out.

_Whoa._

It's a gigantic passage way.

"I don't think this was the beginning point of the battle." I say, shining my light down the passage.

_Droids._

Droids on droids.

"Nope. Look." Sabine said, looking in the opposite direction.

I turn my attention and my light where Sabine's looking.

_Oh._

…

Clones.

I slowly walk over to where there's a clone on the ground, surrounded by bits of droids.

…

I sigh and crouch down.

_His armor is covered in a fine layer of dust._

"I don't think anybody's been down here for years." Sabine said, holding up what looks like a droid head with a visible mound of dust.

"Yeah." I say, then wipe the dust out of his visor.

_Can't see his eyes._

I stand, then gesture forward.

Quickly, the scope of things dominates everything.

_There's droids and clones everywhere._

We're kicking droid parts aside and stepping over the clones we see.

There's a lot more droids down than Clones.

As far as we can see, it's just destruction.

_Wow._

"How many droids you think there are down here?" Sabine asked me.

"I don't—" I start to reply, then hear a metallic sound and scramble in front of me to a speeder for cover.

"Not human!" I tell Sabine as she does the same.

_Nice these speeders are here._

Bonk.

Bonk.

I glance up…and see a light blue energy shield.

_With a droid behind it._

The droid noticed my movement, and I quickly drop back down as red blaster fire flies at Sabine and I.

_Uh oh._

Sabine quickly fires back, then says something in Mandolorian.

"It's shielded! Your turn!" She called out to me.

_Fine._

I ignite my lightsaber, then jump over the speeder bike and land behind the droids.

I slice thru the first shield and part the stupid droid out, then am forced to delect multiple blasts.

_These things have dual blasters!_

I slowly gain ground on the stupid droid, slice its shield and destroy it then deactivate my lightsaber.

Sabine poked her head up and looked around.

…

…

I probe around again.

_Nothing._

I shrug.

"If anybody's here, they would have heard that." Sabine said, walking over to me and the destroyed droid.

"Dual blasters." I tell her.

Sabine bit her lip and nodded.

"No wonder they pinned us down quick." She said.

I nod.

"C'mon." Sabine told me, then led us deeper into the tunnel.

At least I think that's what I think this is.

"There's supposed to be three troop transports that we need to get the data from." Sabine said.

No more live droids.

…

Huh.

"It's so quiet." I mutter.

My words echo off the walls.

Sabine nodded, as our flashlights crisscross across the massive tunnel.

_The clones are getting thicker._

"Jeez…I thought we'd be at the end by now." Sabine muttered.

_There's no end in sight._

Just an endless tunnel with droids and dead clones.

On and on and on.

We walk for a minute or two more, then find a white vehicle with the hatches shut and guns pointed this way.

"I think that's one." Sabine says, then pulling open the hatch.

Immediately a clone falls out onto the floor.

Sabine let out a little scream then jumped back.

I quietly laugh, then check for people.

"Not funny. I thought he was alive." Sabine said, sounding embarrassed.

I shrug, then Sabine crawl in.

I poke my head in and see a clone down near the rear gun.

"Can you flash your light here?" Sabine called to me from the cockpit.

I hop in and do as she asked.

Sabine quickly rewired the console to transmit to her comm and fired it up.

"There's still power?" I ask.

Sabine nodded.

"It's on fuel cells that apparently don't leak."

Huh.

I poke my head out the side near the gun and look down the tunnel.

_Endless droids._

These guys took plenty of guys with them.

Nothing's been disturbed for years. There's dust everywhere.

Clones are still holding onto their guns and in position.

_Years after the fact._

"Okay. Got it." Sabine said, then stood and led the way out of the transport.

When I scramble out, Sabine closes it behind me.

Another transport is within sight.

"Looks like we're getting close to the good side." I say, causing Sabine to nod.

This time I open the side hatch so Sabine doesn't jump out of her skin.

_There's droid parts in here._

Jeez.

Those things must never stop coming.

As Sabine starts downloading the information a picture starts forming in my head.

The droids started firing on the clones first.

_Forcing the clones to make hasty defenses like the speeder bike._

Slowly, the droids pushed the clones back.

But the clones took plenty of droids with them.

…

This is a tight space for a battle.

…

_The only sound I hear is the dripping of a water pipe._

Wordlessly Sabine gets to her feet and walks out of the transport.

I close it behind us, then start to walk again.

_I'm starting to see clones with different colors on their armor._

Like Rex, Echo and Fives.

…

And me?

I look down at my jacket and see the pauldron.

Then I look at the silent clones in front of me.

…

Sabine's light falls on the last transport, which has blaster marks all over it.

_Final stand?_

The hatch is already open.

When we get inside, we find a lone Clone with orange painted on his armor and a pistol in his hand.

Sabine let out a heavy sigh and crawled to the cockpit.

I make my way to the clone, and see a flash of silver on his wrist.

Gently, I lift his wrist to see a pair of tags.

_Theta 79, Leader of the 7023 Ground Platoon._

…

Went down with his ship.

I slowly slip the dog tags off his wrist and into my pocket.

_I think he would want somebody to remember him after all of this._

This gigantic battle.

It feels like we've been down here for hours.

I probe with the Force, looking for people as Sabine retrieves information.

…

"Got it. There's supposed to be another entrance around here. Same way we got in."Sabine looks to me.

Great.

"Okay. You want to go first?" I ask.

She shook her head.

"You'll be able to feel if there is anybody up there first."

Okay.

I nod and slip out of the transport, then flash my light around in an effort to find the ladder.

…

Got it.

When Sabine climbs out of the transport I have my light resting on it.

Sabine nodded, then I start climbing.

…

…

"Man I don't like this." I mutter.

_It's pitch dark, this ladder is wet and the air feels awful._

I didn't notice down there.

I keep climbing, flashing my light up every three rungs until I see the top.

…

"I see it."

Sabine lets out a sigh of relief.

"I'm going to call a speeder nearby, that way we're not lingering for long."

"Do whatever you want." Sabine replied.

I quickly call for a speeder 'Close to my position', see that it's a landing pad within walking distance, then probe for people.

…

…

Nobody I can feel.

_I don't think the Durasteel directly ahead of me interferes._

I take a breath, then nudge the manhole cover up slightly to the side.

Fresh air rushes in.

I hear Sabine sigh in relief as I push it aside a little more, then peek out.

…

_Coast is clear._

I smile, then scramble out.

I pull Sabine out, then replace the manhole cover.

_Whew._

"So…speeder?" She asked me.

I pointed to the left, and see a landing pad in the distance.

_Hey._

That's handy.

On the walk over, Sabine and I are dusting ourselves off.

The speeder arrives a few minutes after we sit down near the landing pad.

_I'm exhausted._

…

Sabine looks beat too, but happy.

…

I yawn multiple times on the ride home, then once more on the lift to the apartment.

"I might need a nap." Sabine muttered as we trudge down the hall to the apartment.

"I don't know what made me so tired. But me too."

_I just want to curl up and fall asleep._

Sabine lets us in, and we both quickly start gulping down water.

Ahh.

_That's better._

After three glasses, I look myself over.

_It looks like I went digging…_

Well, in a hole.

A very dusty hole.

Sabine moves to sit on the couch, and I drain a few more glasses of water.

…

I want to go to Darcy's and nap.

_I think that's what I'll do._

Without another thought, I start typing on my comm for a speeder to come get me.

"Getting food?" Sabine called out to me.

I glance up and see Sabine's smiling at me over the top of the couch.

"No. Speeder to Darcy's." I say quietly.

_Hopefully she takes that—_

"Really Ezra? Can't you stay here for a day? I haven't seen you in weeks basically." Sabine replied.

"I've been busy." I say defensively.

"Yeah. With Darcy." She rolls her eyes.

…

"Hey. You don't like Darcy." I state the obvious.

Sabine quickly and heavily sighed.

"I just don't see the point of getting a girlfriend here Ezra."

"There really wasn't a point to it. I like her, she likes me. Now we're dating."

Sabine snaps to her feet.

"What about when you hear about 'Operation Remnant'? What then Ezra? You gonna bring her along?"

"I'm working on doing that, yes." I tell her.

Sabine replies with a massive eye roll.

"What if that doesn't work? She's going to turn you in."

I shake my head.

"Darcy wouldn't do that." I tell her.

"Oh I think Darcy would. You don't know how Imperials work Ezra. I do. I was one." Sabine snapped at me, moving to stand a few feet away.

"And I'm one now. I'm working as hard as I can to get us off this rock as fast as I can." I tell her hotly.

_Does anybody have faith in me?_

"I don't doubt that. It's Darcy that's the problem. She isn't necessary for the mission Ezra. She's not going to come with you."

…

I bank my frustrations and grab another glass of water.

When I turn back, Sabine's still frowning at me, and now has her arms crossed.

_I know the real reason she's mad._

I let out a sigh, then steel myself.

This isn't going to be fun.

"Let me tell you something Sabine. I wasn't questioning a thing. Back on Onderon. After the bomb, I was more than happy to just sit back and kiss you. But then, right before we went into town for my birthday, you did something that snapped me out of it. Any idea what that is?" I ask her.

Sabine is biting her lip and looking at the floor slightly.

…

"No. What was it?" She asked, voice shaking a little at the end.

"It was during our on on one training. You looked up at me with that look in your eye you always had right before you kissed me."

…

"Then you sent me into the wall. And Immediately I felt like I got used, then discarded."

"Ezra—" Sabine said quickly, then put her hand on my shoulder.

"No. Let me finish." I say simply, then grabbing her by the wrist and taking her hand off my shoulder.

…

"I felt used. Things were never the same Sabine. You know it. Everytime I tried to solidify things, you waffled back and forth. Darcy didn't do that. I'm sorry if you don't like her. I like her a lot and am dating her."

"But not as much as me! And you know that Ezra!" Sabine said, gently grabbing me by the shoulders.

"Then you should have made your feelings more clear." I say, forcing myself to be calm.

_Darcy is my girlfriend now._

I can't be that guy.

It's not me.

"Plus…what about that first night at the dance club? You dragged me out there looking to get over me. You know that. And now you're here saying that you care more about me than Darcy does."

Sabine immediately looks furious.

"Say what you want to say." Sabine snapped at me, eyes boring into me.

"I did. Unlike you, when I make a point, I mean it. I try not to dance around it."

In one motion, Sabine unclipped her blaster and held it at her side.

Unconsciously, I do the same.

"If you don't think I'm going to fight, and claw, or be willing to do everything I can for you Ezra, you're a fool. Darcy's now. I think we can be more than that." Sabine scowled at me.

Beep Beep.

Beep Beep.

_Speeder's here._

"Well…that'll have to wait. I'll comm you tomorrow." I tell her, then take a step back.

"FINE! Go ahead! I don't care!"

I ignore Sabine and turn around.

_WE were in each other's faces._

I start to the door and notice that I have my…

_Oh no._

I have my blaster in my hand.

_This could have been bad._

Before I'm out the door, I slip my blaster back onto my hip and am trying to ignore Sabine's distress behind me.

…

…

_Darcy's my girlfriend now._


	33. Reassignment

_Wrench._

I paw my hand around the floor around Brie's holo.

…

_Oh where is it…_

I keep patting around, trying to locate the stupid thing.

Then I whack my elbow up against it, causing it to go numb.

_Blast._

That's right. I put it close to me so I wouldn't have to reach out all the way with my hands.

I'm stupid.

I shake my hand to try and bring some of the feeling back, then grab the wrench and start back in on the holo.

_I'm glad they gave me a hydraulic jack so I didn't have to operate with no room._

When we got here this morning, Brie couldn't start her holo at all.

And since I'm the designated holo fixer guy, Darcy told me to fix it.

So I downloaded the manual to the holo, got somebody to jack it up, let Brie have my holo until I fix hers, then got to work.

One of the first things the manual said to do if the holo was just unresponsive was to unplug the power box, where the power cord gets its juice from, and see if everything was properly attached.

_It wasn't._

So, all and all, a pretty simple fix. But now I'm putting this thing back together while everyone else gets to go have a late lunch.

Darcy said something about 'optimum efficiency' and that she'd bring me something.

It better be good, or I'm going to use 'optimum efficiency' the next time I tell her no on something.

I love her, but no lunch?

_Seriously?_

Focus Ezra.

You're almost done. Just have to slide all of these wires into the power box while keeping their connections, then fixing the box into it's neat little holo in the guts of the holo.

It's got its own little area carved out and everything.

_Turns out, holo's aren't that complicated._

Holo feed.

Speaker System and associated wirings.

Power Box, which I'm fitting now.

A crystal that focuses the data streamed from the holo and turns it into a visual medium.

And the display system, along with those wirings.

_Pretty simply really._

As I start to lift the power box into place slowly to keep to cords in the right place, I feel Darcy's Force signature approach.

_I think she just got back from lunch._

I let out a quiet breath and put the power box in position.

"Ahem."

"I'm at the most critical point right now." I reply without a thought .

I grab my small piece of metal that I used to prop it up when I was disconnecting it, and wedge it between the box and the floor so I don't have to hold it.

Then I slide out from under the holo to see Darcy bending down to see what I'm doing.

"No, keep going if you're almost done. I can wait." She told me.

I locate the screws I need, grab them then slide back under the holo.

…

Thankfully, the screws are magnetized, so I can set them all up at once, then finish them off.

"Is he close?" I hear Brie say as I'm on the third screw of eight.

"Yeah. I think so." Darcy said.

"I am!" I call out, moving on to the next screw.

I don't register what Brie says, but I feel her walk away as the others start to file in.

…

…

_Done._

I let out a breath, then slide out from under the holo and start lowering it off the jack.

Darcy takes a step back before I take it away and the holo slides back into its bottom casing with a solid—

'Thunk'.

I wipe the sweat off my forehead and dry my hand with a towel before turning to Darcy.

"You'll like what I got you." She said without prompting.

"Okay." I reply simply.

"It's the sandwich you got at the Alderaanian place. The 'Denuba' or whatever it's called."

OOH!

I light up.

"Thank you." I smile at her.

_Normally I'd kiss her, but we're working._

So…

"But…the Admiral just called for all of us to go to his office." Darcy frowned.

_Oh come on._

I let my shoulders slump.

"Admiral?" I ask, moving back to my desk.

"Yeah, he's usually who we talk to before we get shipped somewhere.

I briefly freeze, hand on my jacket.

_I was about to put it on,_

"Shipped somewhere?" I ask, looking to Mira and Katiey's cubicles, which are within sight.

Both of them look like they're prepping for something.

"Yeah. Bring your datapad for notes. He's a meticulous guy." Darcy said, then turning back to her desk.

_Are we going somewhere?_

I quickly find my datapad and slip my jacket on.

When I look up, everybody is walking towards the hallway.

I gather up my stuff and jog to catch up.

Lana and Mira's light conversation about the latest woes of a holo-performer float back to me on the walk down three hallways to the office of Admiral M.T. Remy.

Everyone stood off to one side as Darcy took a deep breath, then rapped three times on the door.

"Come in."

_Oh._

I let the girls all go in first, then close the door and turn back to the admiral.

_And see exactly what I'm expecting to._

A clone.

It sounded like Rex.

"Admiral Remy. We're here for our briefing about the Cato Neimoidia assignment?" Darcy said professionally, with a smile at the end.

"Yes, please sit." Admiral Remy said, gesturing to the many chairs in front of him.

_This is a spacious office._

I glance around, trying to spot any Clone memorabilia.

_He looks older than Rex and Echo._

Considerably older.

That must be the accelerated aging they were put thru.

"The boy must be your new charge Miss Darcy. How are you liking him?" The Admiral asked Darcy.

I look back to see the Admiral looking at me.

"He's a very good worker. Quiet, a little to himself, but very productive." Darcy said, keeping it to the point. "He just fixed one of the holos in the office."

Admiral Remy chuckled.

"Don't work him too hard now. Otherwise he'll up and leave like the last one."

_Last one?_

I shoot a glance at Aiden, who is closest to me.

She has a sympathetic look, then turns back to the Admiral.

"Alright…I don't want to interrupt what you all are doing too much, so I'll make this brief. You and your team have done some very good detective work on this Darcy. You should be proud." Admiral Remy told her.

"I am. Very proud." Darcy replied.

"It appears that your team was absolutely correct in identifying that the leak of arms to Cato Neimoidia is indeed coming from the Pike Syndicate.

This is backed up by our own test of the situation. We planted a set of arms in the hands of the Syndicate as a 'peacekeeping measure'. Those arms are now on Cato Neimoidia, in a cache we've geo-located down to within a click."

…

"To inform you all on the scope of this situation, The Pike Syndicate is a family of Spice Dealers that has expanded into a full blown cartel. We allow it to operate relatively freely as to regulate the amount of spice in the galactic market, as well as receive a share of the top grade spice, which we then turn into medical treatments for injured soldiers." The Admiral elaborated.

"The cartel is located on the planet Oba Diah. It is in the Kessel Sector of the Outer Rim. At 0800 tomorrow morning, you and your team will depart from Denon and travel there. You will confront the leader of the Pike Syndicate about our findings of arms trafficking from his cartel. You will tell him that we have irrefutable proof." The Admiral dictates to us.

_Whoa._

This guy.

He's in the zone.

A power trip zone, but…

_Whoa._

"Regardless of his reply, you will then execute him Miss Ridley. He is the successor to the leader of the Pike Syndicate back when the Clone Wars ended. He knows too much about us. His right hand man, according to our contacts inside, has pro-Empire leanings. That, plus this show of force will bring the Pike Syndicate back into line."

…

"Then, you will travel to Cato Neimoidia. By the time you arrive, we should have established a strong hold on the planet. Due to the excessive hostilities exhibited by the Neimoidians, we are retaking the planet in its entirety by means of a small scale invasion. You and your team will have an escort to the capitol Zarra. That is where the largest weapons cache is. You may have to fight to secure it, but that is your objective on the planet. Secure that cache, and then cede control to Moff Eveana. Then you may return home."

Darcy nodded once.

"A full mission briefing is being sent to your holos as we speak and can be downloaded to your datapads. Are there any questions?"

No.

_I'm sure not asking any._

"I take it that Cato Neimoidia and Oba Diah are close by? This sounds like it will take only a day." Katiey asked simply.

"Yes. The hyperspace lanes connecting the two will be blocked off so you can make better time. You should be back in time to catch a late dinner." Admiral Remy told her.

…

"No other questions?" He asked.

Darcy shook her head.

"Alright. You're dismissed." He said.

Darcy was the first to stand, and bowed to him, then led the rest of us out of the room and back to our cubicles.

…

That guy…

He was formal, but very blunt.

_Looks like Darcy was right._

They're really a black ops team.

Everybody silently walked back to their cubicles and sits down, including me.

I pull up the mission briefing and grab my water bottle.

0800 - Depart Denon.

1000 - Arrive at Oba Diah.

1030 – Depose Iea Pyke of leadership control of the Pyke Syndicate.

1050 – Depart for Cato Neimoidia

1600 – Arrive on Cato Neimoidia.

1610 – Begin assault on weapons cache in Zarra.

1700 – Secure weapons cache.

1730 – Hand over control of weapons cache to Moff Eveana. Briefing on new assignments.

1745 – Depart Cato Neimoidia for Denon.

2100 – Arrive on Denon.

A tap on my shoulder makes me around.

_Darcy._

"Hey. How'd you think the meeting went?" I ask her, looking up at her.

She's holding a brown paper bag and some chips.

"It went well. Here's your food. They said it should be good cold, or you could heat it up in the break room." Darcy smiled at me, handing the food over.

"Thanks."

"Don't thank me yet. I'm not done. Since I denied you lunch, plus the fact that we're in for a long day tomorrow, I'm giving everybody the rest of the day off. Go home. Rest." She told me softly, then placing her hand on my shoulder.

"Okay. Thanks."

"Again." She smirked.

"Again." I play along, getting her to giggle.

"Go. Get out of here." Darcy rolled her eyes at me before walking back to her cubicle.

I set my food aside and quickly pack my stuff up, then call for a speeder home.

After hopping in the speeder, I ravenously devour the sandwich Darcy got me.

It's only a six inch version instead of the eight inch I got when we ate at the restaurant.

I'm surprised it traveled so well though. It was sitting up perfectly in its little wrapping after its long trip with Darcy.

_And it was delicious._

I finish the chips just as we pull up to the apartment.

As I hop out of the speeder, the driver calls out to me.

"Sir?"

He's extending his trash can to me.

_That's kind of him._

"Thank you. What's your name?" I ask, placing my trash in the trash can.

"My name is Zachariah." The driver replied.

"Well thank you Zachariah. I appreciate it."

"My pleasure. Have a good night sir." He tells me, then zooms off into traffic.

I've never left a review for a Flier driver before, but he'll be getting a rating tonight.

_That was very nice of him._

My smile lasts me all the way to the front door.

_She's home._

I haven't talked to her since…

Since we almost shot at each other.

We both had our weapons out.

_One step away from pointing them at each other._

Two steps away from a firefight.

And the end of our friendship. Or whatever you call what our relationship has devolved into.

She's been around the apartment almost constantly.

_Like she's trying to prove a point about constantly being gone before._

Oh well.

I unlock the door and slip inside.

Whoa.

_What's that smell?_

"Hello?" I call out.

"Hey! You're home! I'm making dinner." Sabine chimed happily.

Her head poked out at me as I set my key in the bowl by the door.

"Making dinner?"

_She doesn't cook much._

"Yeah! I found a recipe for bantha chops with gravy and potatoes! Are you hungry?" She asked as I walk into the kitchen.

My stomach growls in response.

Sabine turned around and smiled at me, wearing a loose t-shirt and shorts.

"That's a yes."

"Let me put my stuff down, then I'll come help."

Sabine smiled.

"Okay."

…

_This is nice._

She's in a good mood.

And that food smells delicious.

I quickly dump the contents of my pockets, plus my jacket, datapad and backpack onto my bed, then return to the kitchen.

"Where'd you find this recipe again?" I ask her.

"Just a random site on the holo. You can stir the dust corn, then set the salad on the table." Sabine replied, pointing to a dish of corn that's heating up, then a bowl of salad and white cheese next to it.

I comply, thoroughly stirring the corn then taking the salad and cheese and set it on the table.

_Two places have already been set._

Wordlessly, I walk over to the conservator and take out the ranch dressing.

_Gotta have that._

"So…how was your day?" Sabine happily asked me on the way to the table.

"I…let's hold off on that until we eat. How was yours?" I reply, glancing back at her.

Sabine's eyes move up to meet mine.

"Why?"

"You're not going to like it." I reply simply.

She's going to be very mad.

Sabine frowned at me.

"I'll be the judge of that." She told me simply.

_Dang it._

Better to just show her.

"Hold on." I tell her, then walk back to my room and grab the datapad.

On the way back I pull up the mission briefing.

Wordlessly, I hand the datapad to her, and in exchange Sabine points me to a container of potatoes, with gravy next to it.

I move to set them on the table when Sabine groans.

…

When I grab the gravy, Sabine says "You were right…I don't like this." as I pass by.

_Yup._

Knew it.

Sabine briefly sets the datapad down to place two bantha chops, dripping in gravy on each plate, then sets a plate at each setting.

"You're going on a mission."

"Tomorrow." I say.

Sabine simply closes her eyes and leans her head back, then sighed.

"Dig in…" She groaned, gesturing to the food.

"Thank you for cooking." I smile at her.

Sabine slighty smiled back, then her worried expression returned.

…

_This is as good as it looks and smells._

"Amazing." I tell her, getting another smile out of Sabine.

…

We both silently eat for a few minutes, and Sabine looks at my datapad again.

…

"Arms cache I'm assuming?" She asked me.

I nod.

"That's what I've been working on this whole time." I reply.

"No mention of this 'Operation Remnant'?" She asked, scoop of potatoes on her fork.

"Not a word."

Sabine took her bite then shook her head.

"I'm afraid we may be here awhile." I confess to her.

_Sabine looks even more down now._

"I'll call everybody tomorrow and tell them about this. You obviously can't if it's tomorrow." Sabine stated.

I nod, my mouth full of salad.

_Gosh this is delicious._

"Are you worried?" Sabine asked me.

"No." I shake my head, then dunk a piece of bantha chop into my gravy.

I molded my potatoes into a little lake and filled it with gravy.

_Little trick I picked up from Mom back home._

She used to always do it for me. I smiled when Mrs. Wren did it for Sophie and I back in Keldabe.

"I did learn something. Darcy's got a firm hold on us. The team, that is." I speak up, voicing something I noticed during the meeting. "But she's a pawn."

Sabine quickly looked confused at me, her mouth full.

"We met with an Admiral, who gave us the assignment. We couldn't look into any of this ourselves. Darcy didn't have the clearance. He controlled the whole thing. He controls Darcy, who controls us. But in the end, Darcy's a pawn to him."

…

"Sounds like typical Imperial structure to me." Sabine replies before taking another bite.

"Yeah…but I just thought Darcy had more control than that." I admit.

Sabine bit her lip before buying time and scooping more potatoes onto her fork.

I take another bite of salad.

"Sounds like you like it." Sabine said.

"I do. It's been okay in the office. But I'm just surprised how she has no control of anything outside of us."

Sabine shrugged, and we both keep eating.

I've got a few bites left when I speak up again.

"Thank you for cooking. You're pretty good at it." I smile at her.

Sabine beamed.

"Thanks. Maybe we can do this more…You can invite Darcy or something too if you want."

_She's trying to appeal to me._

I shrug, then finish my plate and walk over to the sink to start washing it off.

…

Sabine joined me and set her plate to the side.

"I'll wrap up these leftovers so you can have them as a midnight snack." Sabine told me.

"Thanks." I smile at her.

…

"Wait…you can't bring your lightsaber can you?" She suddenly asked.

No.

…

"No, I guess I can't." I say back to her.

_If I do, the best case scenario is friendly fire into my back by Stormtroopers._

Worst case…

I shake my head.

_That wouldn't happen._

Sabine let out a deep sigh.

"Tomorrow's going to be a long day."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine." I reply, trying to reassure her.

On top of it, I look over and smile.

_To see Sabine looking at me with wide eyes._

Sabine takes a step forward, looking like she's about to hug me.

Then…she stops herself jerkily.

…

She silently restarts wrapping up the food.

_But the awkward tension in the room remained._

Sabine doesn't know what to do.

And she's worried about me.

…

Probably because she isn't going to be there in case my cover gets blown.

_Or lingering feelings between us._

Like she alluded to last time.

I blink, and Sabine's closed the gap between us and is holding onto my arms.

"Promise me something?" She asked, looking up at me.

I nod.

"Come home safe. I don't care how. Just come home safe."


	34. Battlefield

Darcy came back to our spot and handed me a cup of caf as Aiden and Katiey tried finding something worth watching for a few minutes on the holo.

_We took off about an hour ago._

"This uniform feels plastered to me." I tell her as she lounges next to me, using my shoulder as her headrest.

"It's always tight at first. I wore mine around the house sometimes to loosen it up." Darcy replied reassuringly.

I smile.

_Sabine would have thought I'd gone buckethead._

"There's nothing decent on." Katiey grumbled.

"There's always cards." Mira said simply, playing a game of cards by herself on the floor.

Brie laughed.

"You just want somebody to beat."

Darcy, Lana and Mira all laughed.

"Maybe." Mira smiled conspiratorially.

"At least we have a holo. Last time none of the electronics actually worked." Aiden said.

I glance around to see the cabin's various lights, buttons and speakers.

_This is way nicer than what I was expecting._

I was expecting a transport something like what Sabine and I found in the Denon undercity.

Instead, I was greeted by a bigger, shinier version of the ship that Sabine and I used to get from Onderon to Concordia.

Private rooms for up to 8, a little kitchen, two bathrooms and a full entertainments suite and living room set up.

Everyone initially retreated to the private rooms to sleep a bit more, but then we all came out here.

Darcy and I just laid on top of the sheets in comfy silence.

Beside me, Darcy pulled out her datapad and glanced at the mission briefing again.

_We should be at Oba Diah within the hour._

"What's up?" I quietly ask Darcy.

She shrugged, then leaned into my shoulder more.

"These times are tight."

"Too tight?" I ask her.

She shrugged.

"Usually there's room if negotiations go long or something. These times are military standard."

"Yeah, I was thinking about that." Brie said, causing Darcy and I to look at her.

"Go on." Darcy prompted Brie.

"I'm just guessing, so take it for what it is, but it seems like this whole operation is a military first thing."

"Well, they are retaking Cato Neimoidia." Darcy replied simply.

"But wouldn't we usually have more time on Oba Diah then? We'd just have to be at Cato Neimoidia by a certain time. But it's both."

"You think that there's more to the story on Oba Diah?" Lana asked Brie.

"I'm just taking a shot in the dark. I'm probably wrong." Brie shrugged.

"It'd make sense. Almost a hundred Stormtroopers have died because of those attacks on Cato Neimoidia. And we're clearly tired of it. Why not strike back once, with definitive force and be done with it?" Mira asked simply.

_We._

I blink once and try to refocus.

_That is the side I'm on now I suppose._

"So is a battalion coming with us to Oba Diah too?" Lana asked.

Brie shrugged.

"I can't say it's not. This is a military schedule." Brie said, pointing to Darcy's datapad.

"Guys!" Darcy called out, causing the room to go silent.

The girls and I simply turn to her.

"It doesn't matter. There could be a battalion behind us, there could be a battalion in front of us. There could be a star destroyer both there and on Cato Neimoidia. It doesn't matter. What does matter is that we're about 15 minutes away. Go use the bathroom, check your blasters, do you makeup or whatever the hell you need to do. Then be ready to do our job." Darcy said simply.

_Whoa._

Mira, Aiden and Lana got up and started to the back of the ship.

I keep looking at her, feeling a mix of surprise and intimidation.

"That means you too." Darcy said, slightly softer to me.

"You're kind of stopping me." I say, gesturing to the fact that she's still leaning on me.

Darcy simply raised both her eyebrows and upper lip, then collapsed into my lap.

I laugh at her silly expression.

"Get up, I need to go curl my hair and do my makeup. The blush has to be juuuuust right." I joke.

Darcy and Katiey immediately giggle.

Brie pretended to gag herself.

"I can do your makeup if you'll let me." Darcy smiled at me, head still in my lap.

"No." I say simply, causing everybody to laugh.

"Fine. Then be ready." She said jokingly, then lifting herself off my lap.

I stand up and stretch, only for Darcy to swat my butt.

"Go!"

I take a few quick steps away from her and Lana laughed.

"You guys are a bunch of weirdos." She said, voice trailing off as I walk into Darcy and I's room.

Darcy set her backpack that was handed to her by a Stormtrooper back in the hanger before we left on the ledge.

_Mine is on the other side of the bed._

I crawl onto the bed and reach down to pull it up, then dump the contents on the bed.

_It's exactly what the Stormtrooper told Aiden would be inside._

A standard imperial blaster.

Two smoke grenades.

Paper and Pencil.

Emergency flare.

Holocommunicator.

A portable energy shield that you can make a slow advance with.

Three days' worth of rations.

First Aid Kit.

And some paint that can be used to camouflage ourselves if necessary.

As the trooper instructed, I start attaching the various supplies onto my belt.

I'm almost done when Darcy walks in.

"Having any trouble?" She asked, closing the door behind her.

I shake my head and clip the tiny energy shield onto my belt, right above my right thigh.

_It's supposed to apparently cover a six foot person._

I'm not sure I believe that.

"I wasn't too bossy back there was I?" Darcy asked me, causing me to look up at her.

Darcy is starting to attach her supplies to herself.

"No. You were our boss, like you're supposed to be." I say simply.

Nothing wrong with that.

_She's coming from a good place._

"I'm not you guys' boss. I've just naturally become the leader. Doesn't mean I know everything." She said quietly, glancing up at me.

"You don't like this do you?" I say.

_I can feel it._

She's nervous.

…

Darcy bit her lip, then looked at me.

"There's a reason I'm not military. I don't do this shit on such tight schedules. Black ops is supposed to be silent. I don't think this is going to be." Darcy said, looking aggravated.

"It'll be okay. I'm sure there's a reason behind all of this."

Darcy smiled, then walked over to me.

I try reassuring her by placing my hands on her hips.

"You're doing your best. That's all anybody can ask for."

"…Not Vader."

_Huh?_

"What do you mean? The Jedi hunter guy?" I feign stupidity.

"Yeah. There's…stories. Like once on Imperial City, he called for his shuttle. When he arrived, the preparations weren't done. And he…murdered every last one of them."

Oh.

_Whoa._

That's the Vader I know.

"We're not working for him. I think we'd know if it was." I say.

I'd like to be able to say that I could feel it if it was.

_But I don't know if that's possible._

"I…that was last night. I heard it from a friend of mine stationed on the Executor." Darcy said quietly, slinking into my chest.

_She…_

She looks like a normal, nervous girl.

I wrap my arms around her protectively.

"All we can do is our best. If Vader isn't satisfied with that, then that is his problem." I try to reassure her.

"I don't want to die. His turnover rate is something in the 40 percent range. It doesn't matter if you're an Admiral or if you're me. If you don't meet his standards, you die." She whispered, fingers digging into my chest.

"You won't die." I tell her.

She sighed, then looked up at me.

Impulsively, I quickly kiss her, then let her go.

"We've got to get going." She said.

_I'm almost ready._

"I'll check on everyone else." I say to her, then grab my blaster and walk out of the room.

When I arrive in the living room, everybody's here but Aiden.

"Just got a message from Command. Apparently we've got a battalion behind us." Brie said grimly.

Dammit.

I sigh, then turn and walk back to Darcy.

I crack the door and poke my head in.

"Hey. Brie was right. Battalion behind us." I say.

Darcy clearly is in the middle of arming herself.

_She's got a gigantic sheath for a knife in her hand._

She hung her head.

"Close the door behind you. I didn't want to have to do this." She said darkly.

_Okay…_

"Do what?" I ask, doing as she asked.

Click.

"When we get there, I expect to be met by a greeting party. At your first opportunity, I want you to separate from the group. Find a back way to the leader's room. It'll probably be like a throne room. Just in case these guys try something funny. I don't want us to have to be bailed out by the cavalry."

I nod.

"Will do. Anything else?"

Darcy thought for a moment, then shook her head.

"No. I trust your judgement." She smiled up at me.

I smile back.

"Thanks."

"Now go away. I gotta finish changing." She told me.

I comply and back out of the room.

_Right into Brie, Lana and Mira._

"Hi." I say, closing the door behind me.

"Everything okay?" Mira asked, giving me a funny look.

One glance at Lana and Brie gets the exact same look from the also.

"Yeah. She wanted to know about any other details with the battalion behind us." I say, back literally to the door.

…

"Tell us the truth." Brie said simply.

"I just did." I reply.

"I don't believe you." Lana retorted.

I turn and glance at her.

"That sounds like a personal problem."

"She doesn't do this. What's wrong Ezra?" Mira asked me gently.

"Nothing's wrong." I try to reassure her.

_They don't need to know._

If they did, Darcy would have told me in front of everyone else.

"Ezra. I don't care if you're sleeping with her. But if you two are hiding stuff from the rest of us, that's going to be a problem between the rest of us and you." Lana said bluntly.

"I'm not hiding anything. And why just me?" I ask.

"Because she didn't hide anything from us before you got here. You're a new variable."

I narrow my eyes at her.

"I don't like what you're implying." I tell her bluntly, starting to get mad.

If she doesn't trust me, then fine.

_I haven't done anything wrong._

"I'm just telling you—" Lana starts, before the door behind me flies open and I fall back.

A blur flies by me and I hear a 'THUD!' and Lana say something as I catch myself in the doorway.

"You want to know what I told him? I'll tell you. I want him to sneak away in case these _criminals_ try something funny. Nothing weird, no big secrets, just me thinking of everyone." Darcy said, standing directly in front of Lana.

Sounding furious.

"Okay." Lana said, sounding like she regretted saying anything.

"Don't bully him. This is his first job with us. Don't forget that." Darcy reminded her.

"But—"

"I don't care." Darcy frowned.

Then the whole ship shook, and the sound of pressurized gas floated to us.

"Looks like we're here." Brie said.

Darcy let Lana go, then fixed her collar and started to the door.

Everybody else falls into line, and I slide into the back.

Darcy did a quick headcount, then pressed the button for the door to open.

…

_There's a group of…somethings on the landing pad waiting for us._

"Greetings. And welcome to Oba Diah. We're honored to have such Imperials as yourselves join us today." The…species said.

There's a slight echo.

"My name's Darcy. This is my team. Thank you for having us on such short notice. If you don't mind, what species are you? I don't want to be rude." Darcy said, putting on a smile and sounding very friendly.

"We are Pyke's. Our prestigious company shares the name, as I'm sure you know. Please follow us, we will take you to our leader, Iea."

Darcy beamed.

"Thank you."

We all start walking, and quickly the Pyke and Darcy have struck up a casual conversation.

"—We'd love to have you stay for a refreshment if you'd like. Your journey must have been long."

"Oh, not too long. But a refreshment would be nice." Darcy replied pleasantly.

The Pyke waved a three fingered hand, and two other Pyke's walk off into a hallway.

I barely slow my steps down and see that the entourage sent to greet us is revolving around Darcy.

_She's magnetic._

I smile, then slide off into the hallway.

_Think Ezra._

Use the Force.

I smile and reach out.

…

Got it.

The "throne" room is about 50 feet away, down a side hallway.

I follow the two dismissed Pyke's, and then notice something interesting.

_They have really cool guns._

They're curved, are ornate, look to be polished and are absolutely gorgeous.

I want one.

_But how?_

I can't just take it though.

Hmm.

…

…

In front of me, the two Pyke's turn off into a noisy area.

I'm guessing a kitchen.

Quickly, a lone Pyke step out of the shadows.

"Halt, human. You're separated from your group."

The answer to my problem just pops into my head, and I smile.

_Mind trick._

I've seen Kanan do it.

I bring my index and middle fingers together, then focus my attention on the guy's mind.

_No barriers._

"I'm going to the throne room. I know where I'm going." I say firmly.

"You're going to the throne room. You know where you're going." The Pyke said, echo in his voice gone.

_Weird._

"Also, Imperial regulations wants us to take your pistol for study. We're very impressed with the design." I tell him.

Mindlessly, he hands his pistol over.

"Would you like the blueprints and specs sir? They are just off in this room here sir." The Pyke tells me, in the same flat tone.

"Yes, I would. The Empire thanks you for your cooperation." I wave my hand in his face again, smiling.

This is too easy.

Pykes aren't the brightest bulbs in the box.

The Pyke turns off into a dark room and starts typing into a display.

I politely stand back, and feel several Pykes begin to sidle into the hallway.

_It's a trap._

These no good criminals.

Darcy was right.

_They must have got a signal from the throne room._

"The trap has been sprung sir…once the inhibitors enter their systems they will fall into our custody."

"Good to know." I reply, as the Pyke turns to me with a data spike in his hand.

"As you requested sir."

"Thank you. Now stay in here while we apprehend them." I order him.

The Pyke bowed, and sat in a chair.

I smile, then hustle out of the room and down the hall.

…

…

_There's three of them._

Before long, I can hear voices echo down the hallway.

"—refreshments, as you must have had a long journey…" A Pyke voice said, sounding friendly.

_His echo is worse._

"Thank you. We did have a long journey." I hear Darcy reply.

I keep walking, closing in on the three Pyke's.

"Now tell me…what can we do for the Empire's loyal servants?" The leader crooned.

Gosh his echo is annoying.

Two of the Pykes take up stations guarding the door, and another stops one step short of a doorway.

I hear Darcy begin to speak, but I block it out.

_Gotta focus._

Without a thought, I grab the two Pykes using to Force, both of whom are light and smash them against each other, knocking them out.

I let them fall beside me as Darcy's voice stops and the figure in the door steps forward.

"That's too bad…as I must ask you to lay your weapons down." The Pyke leader said, echo subsiding slightly.

"Huh?" I hear Darcy say.

The Pyke in front of me drew his pistol.

"I'm afraid we're not interested in cooperating." The Pyke said.

I bring my blaster up to his head.

"Drop the drinks! They're spiked!" I call out, then hooking the Pyke in front of me by the neck with my elbow.

_Got him._

The entire room swivels to me, then the girls all fling their drinks aside.

"Drop your weapon." I growl into the Pike's ear as menacingly as I can.

Double crossing spineless cowards.

All the girls have brought their blasters up and have taken a side.

Lana and Brie to the left.

Mira and Katiey behind them.

Darcy's pointed her blaster at Iea Pyke.

Aiden is turned to me.

_I've got this side._

"Bad move. Iea." Darcy said, suddenly scowling.

_She's mad._

I know that face.

They've actually pissed her off.

"Miss, there's no need to be upset. This was only a precaution. I personally apologize—"

Darcy took three steps forward and leveled her blaster with his head.

"Save it. I don't buy it. We're here because we have irrefutable proof that your organization has been supplying arms to a rebellion on Cato Neimoidia."

"I promise you—"

"We have pages of logs. Workers testimonies about bribes. Everything we wanted, we've got. Your word means nothing." Darcy told the Pyke bluntly.

…

"Then what will you do?" He asked.

The sound of a single shot filled the air.

_Then Iea Pyke fell to the floor._

"We start with a new leader."

…

…

WHOA.

I quickly pick my jaw up off the floor as the Pykes assembled around the room appear to be in shock.

Then they started laying their arms down.

"Who is the number two in charge?" Darcy called out to the room.

…

"That would be me." The one I have by the neck croaks.

I quickly let him go, then push him forward to Darcy.

Clomp Clomp Clomp Clomp…

_Stormtroopers._

The cavalry has arrived.

"This is your warning. You exist by our say so. Mess up again, and we dismantle the entire thing." Darcy tells him bluntly, towering over him.

_She doesn't have to use her blaster._

"Yes ma'am."

The sound of footsteps entering the room make me turn and I see that the Commander has walked in.

"Ma'am. We're here to relieve you."

Darcy cracked a small smile.

"Thank you. Search every one of them. Study what they spiked our drinks with. If anybody resists, they end up like him." Darcy said bluntly, pointing down to the Pyke at her feet,

_Dead._

The Commander nodded, then wordlessly saluted Darcy.

Darcy took a few steps forward and beckoned for us all the follow.

…

…

Whoa.

_That's a different Darcy._

She actually got mad.

And straight up assassinated that guy.

…

Everybody's silent until we get on the ship and it takes off.

Then Darcy turns to me with a smile.

"You sounded mad." She beamed.

"I didn't know your voice could get that low!" Lana smiled, then glanced at Darcy.

"I tried to sound scary. You sounded furious." I say.

"Nah, that was just 'in control Darcy'. She gets like that on a mission." Katiey shrugs my comment off.

"Yeah, she goes what 'I'm so cute! Thanks for having us!' to 'Don't lie to me. Talk now.'" Aiden smiled, voice first going singsong, then gravelly.

Darcy nervously laughed.

"It's not that bad." She said defensively.

"But you shooting him…that was cold." Brie said, looking impressed.

"Ice cold." Lana added.

"One handed too. Did anybody else see that?" Aiden asked us.

The ship lurched.

_Must be in hyperspace now._

I raise my hand, and Darcy cracked a shy smile.

"I don't know. I felt like I was in a holofilm. I just raised my gun and fired." Darcy said sheepishly.

"It looked awesome." Mira smiled.

"Those guys, whatever they are, they all froze up. Then just gave up." Katiey said.

"If we'd stayed long enough, you may have been able to get a cut of their profits." Aiden added.

"Queen Darcy." I joke, getting everyone to laugh.

"Eww. No. Never." Darcy shook her head.

"You never take advantage of any chances you get." Aiden shook her head.

"Whatever. Just be ready for when we get to Cato Neimoidia. They're supposed to be worse."

Mira shuddered, then Lana walked back to the fresher.

The others plop onto the couches and Aiden turns the holo on.

I find myself slipping Darcy onto my lap.

"You are terrifying." I tease her, whispering into her ear with a smile.

Darcy giggled.

"And I was right. Did you have any trouble getting behind the guys?"

I shake my head as Katiey flicked between channels.

"No. had to knock two out, but that was easy."

Darcy turned to me, looking a little horrified.

"That's why we have you. I could never do that so easily."

I shrug.

"Gotta do what I gotta do." I say.

_I don't feel bad._

We're out of there.

_Now to the hard one._

"Where'd you get that?" Darcy asked me, bringing me out of my reverie.

I look, and she's pointing at the blaster I lifted off the Pyke I mind tricked.

"Oh, off one of the guys." I shrug.

Darcy wordlessly takes it off my belt.

"This is beautiful…"

"I thought so. And he won't be needing it." I add.

It has a curved hilt, two small barrels, looks to be made of polished metal and gold, and simply looks gorgeous.

_I might turn the design into a lightsaber._

It is curved.

Like my style apparently is suited for.

_A weapon with a curved hilt._

"Looks awesome. You can hang it on the wall and be the envy of the neighborhood." Lana said, walking back into the room.

"Yes. The day you beat a Spice Cartel of weird bugs." Darcy said dramatically.

I laugh along with the others.

"Gimme that…" I say, taking the blaster from her and clipping it on my belt.

Darcy simply turns and starts using me as a pillow.

The others flick around on the holo until we find our trusty apartment renovating show.

I lie back and let Darcy curl up to me.

Brie is nice enough to give us a blanket, and the trip to Cato Neimoidia feels like it takes as long as the one to Oba Diah.

We get a notice that we're entering the atmosphere.

"Already?" Mira asked, as Brie let out a monster yawn, sticking her hands right in Katiey's face.

Katiey jokingly pretended to bite at her hands, causing her to squeal and jump away.

Darcy rolled over and smiled.

"This time I don't have to use you as our little secret agent."

"I don't mind." I tell her softly.

"I don't like it. I'd rather have you next to me."

"Oh for the love of space…you two have a room back there…" Katiey groaned.

Darcy giggled, then kissed me quickly.

"NO NO STOP!" Brie scolded us jokingly.

"Bad! Bad!" Aiden covered her eyes and looked away.

I roll my eyes and Darcy gets to her feet.

"Whatever. You guys like it and you know it."

"Just don't get too public with it." Lana told Darcy.

"We won't. I don't like PDA." Darcy replied.

"Then what do you call that?" Mira asked, gesturing to me.

"Thank you for saving our butts back there?" Darcy asked.

The whole ship shuddered as we touched down.

In the brief moment between our landing and when everybody starts moving, we can hear voices outside the ship.

Darcy leads us like last time out, then quickly veers off to the right.

"Moff Aveana." Darcy reverently bowed to her. "I thought it was the plan to meet at the cache?"

"Ahh, Miss Ridley. That was the plan, but the Neimoidian resistance crumbled far easier than we anticipated. Your team won't be needed."

Oh.

"Alright then. Is there an area where we can be applied? We'd be more than willing to help out in a pinch." Darcy volunteered with a smile.

"No, no Miss Ridley. Your team has done enough for this week. I do however, have your next assignments." She smiled at Darcy, then the rest of us.

_New assignments?_

"Okay." Darcy answered.

Moff Aveana grabbed a datapad off her waist, then started reading.

"Miss Ridley, your new assignment is to find a date for the Imperial Ball next week…"

_Imperial Ball?_

Aiden gently elbowed me.

I ignore her and keep my eyes on the Moff.

_Don't want to be disrespectful._

"Lana, you will start a forensic analysis of the Neimoidians books starting next week as well."

Lana nodded once.

"Aiden and Mira, you will look into the disturbance in the displaced refugee sector of Imperial City."

The girls both nodded respectfully.

Katiey, you and Ezra will look into the trade logs in Imperial City to see if anything is amiss like you did this time with the Neimoidians books."

"Yes ma'am." I reply as Katiey nodded.

"And last but not least, Brie…"

…

"You will continue your work on Operation Remnant."


	35. How To Lose A Darcy In Seven Days

_(Flashback)_

I turn my key rod in the door, feeling Sabine's familiar and comforting Force signature just a few feet away.

_In the living room I think._

I slip inside and close the door behind me, then turn to survey the scene around me.

Sabine's got all the lights on, with something on the stove.

She's in the living room, working on…something.

"Sabine?" I call out to her.

In the living room, Sabine turned around, wires coming out of her ears.

She lit up, scrambled to her feet and pulled the wires out of her ears.

"Hey! You're okay!" She beamed, coming over and quickly hugging me.

"Yeah. Wasn't too bad." I shrug.

_The majority of the trip was spent in hyperspace watching the Holo like it's a weekend._

Sabine looked up at me, then rolled her eyes.

"I was waiting to order food until you got back. Unless you ate on the way back?" She asked me.

I shake my head.

"No, I haven't eaten. I'm starving."

Sabine smiled, then quickly pressed a few buttons on the comm on her wrist.

"Pasta okay?" She asked me without looking up.

"Sounds great actually." I confess.

_Man that sounds good._

Sabine smiled, then typed into her comm a few more times.

"It should be here in 15-20 minutes." Sabine looked up finally.

I smile at her. "Thanks."

"You're welcome. Anything new come out of the mission? Or was it just boring old arms trafficking?" Sabine asked me.

"Boring old arms trafficking." I shrug.

Then my stomach ties itself into the knot it was in on the entire trip home.

"But I did hear about Operation Remnant." I tell her before she spoke up.

Sabine's head popped up.

"Really?"

I nod.

"What about it? Any details?" She asked quickly.

I shake my head.

"No, it was right before we came home. A Moff was giving us our new assignments, and the last one was to a girl named Brie. And she's apparently been working on it for awhile."

Sabine's eyebrows snapped down.

"Tell me exactly what she said."

"She said, 'Brie, you will continue your work on Operation Remnant'". I reply.

Sabine bit her lip.

…

"So it's ongoing?"

"I guess so." I shrug.

I don't know anything.

_I just heard the words._

"Anything else on it?" Sabine asked me.

I shake my head.

"No. I was hoping somebody would say something on the way home, but nope. Nothing." I say.

Sabine sighed.

"Let's report in really quick. Maybe come up with a plan of action for you."

I nod.

I don't know what to do next.

_I've never done this before!_

Sabine walked to the holo, and started typing quickly.

My attention is drawn to the canvas Sabine was drawing on.

_It looks like the night sky here._

I look out the window, and it looks just like Sabine's painting.

"Is this our view?" I ask Sabine.

She paused, and looked over.

"Yeah. Do you like it?"

"Yeah. I didn't know you did like physical paintings. I've just seen your graffiti and stuff."

Sabine smiled thinly and shrugged.

"I was just sitting around all day, being a nervous wreck because I was worried about you. Then I put on some music and just started painting that." Sabine said sheepishly.

"It looks great." I tell her.

A series of beeps cause Sabine and I to look back to the holo.

_No way._

"Hey you two. How are you holding up?" Zeb asked, smiling at both of us.

"Zeb!" Sabine smiled, as I can hardly believe it.

"That is my name. Now answer my question." Zeb said, sounding half serious.

"We're good here. Are Kanan and Hera around? We've got an update." Sabine replied.

"No, I'm afraid they're back on Abafar, working on the B-Wing with your father."

"Is he there?" Sabine asked.

Then Zeb cringed.

"Actually…I don't think I was supposed to tell you that." He said, eyes still closed.

_Oops._

I laugh quietly, and Zeb quickly fixes me with a look.

"Not funny kid." He joked.

"Answer me! Is Daddy there with Hera and Kanan?" Sabine told Zeb.

"Yes, he's there. The ship's progressing quite well. Faster than anticipated. But they're out of contact for a bit." Zeb answered.

Sabine smiled.

"Okay. But what do we do now?" I ask both him and Sabine.

"Well, according to regulations… I'm supposed to get a brief description of why you called, and then relay it to them as fast as I can." Zeb said, grabbing a datapad from just off the screen and reading off it.

"Regulations? Are you really Zeb? Or an imposter?" Sabine cracked a smile and joked.

"Technically I could reprimand you for not calling me General Orrelious. But I'm letting it slide for you two." Zeb cracked a smile back at her.

"I'm not calling you General." I smile at him.

Zeb simply turned to me and stared me down.

_With a smirk on his face, but still._

"I don't think I could consistently." Sabine admitted.

"I know. We'd fall back into the rhythm of things." Zeb waved Sabine's concern aside. "So you're calling to update us on your mission?"

"Yeah." I reply.

"Anything I should put in the note?" Zeb asked us.

"Yeah. We heard about Operation Remnant." Sabine replied.

Zeb nodded and typed into the datapad.

…

"All right, it's in. Now before you go away, I'm trying to get onto the team that's coming to get you two when your mission ends." Zeb tells Sabine and I.

I smile.

"That'd be nice. To see a familiar face before we go home." I say.

"We haven't seen you in months Zeb." Sabine said.

"Yeah, I don't like it either. But we can't change it now. Just keep your heads down, finish this mission strong and we'll see you soon okay? We're all really proud of you two." Zeb smiled at us.

"Thanks Zeb." I say.

Sabine just smiled.

"You're welcome. I'll get Kanan and Hera pointed in your direction as fast as I can."

Sabine smiled.

"Okay."

With a final wave and smile, Zeb ended the transmission.

Sabine and I stood there for a minute, then she turned to me.

"So…what are you doing the rest of the week?"

_(End Flashback)_

I hit 'execute search' and watch as the program Katiey gave me start to parse thru this massive document.

_Turns out, there's a lot of trading in Imperial City everyday._

It'd be impossible to look at it like I looked at the Cato Neimoidia stuff.

Katiey and I split the document. I've got N-Z, she's got A-M.

_And now I'm sitting back in my chair._

I really haven't done much since our trips to Oba Diah and Cato Neimoidia.

With those 4 days off, Darcy decided that it was time to show me more of the fun side of Denon.

We went to three different amusement parks, ate out every day and lounged around at night, plus all day yesterday.

_In short…I was Darcy's boyfriend, Ezra._

It's super easy for me.

Which is kind of a problem.

The more I talk to her…the more she reaffirms her belief in the Empire as the greatest good right now.

_I'm not sure I'm going to be able to turn her._

And now I'm in a terrible spot.

I shake my head, trying to escape the terrible thoughts and walk over to Brie's desk.

Where she and Aiden are looking at her holo.

"Hey. Can I help?" I ask politely.

_What can I learn here?_

Both girls quickly turn around, and Brie turns off her holo.

"Uhh…we're okay. Aren't you working?" Brie asked, trying to be polite about it.

_But also firm._

No.

"I'm running a big long search. Am I not allowed to look? High security or something?" I ask, pretending to sound a bit hurt.

_Well, not really pretending._

They've never done this before.

"No. It's not anything special. But they like me to glance it over to make sure nothing is off." Brie shrugged.

"Your last stop was a lot more laid back, wasn't it?" Aiden bluntly asked me.

"Uhh…yeah. Why do you ask?" I ask Aiden.

"I don't mean to sound rude…but it's weird for you to come over and ask really. It's assigned to us."

"Anybody who isn't assigned to it doesn't need to know. We're all working on somewhat sensitive stuff. What if you see a conflict of interest of something?" Brie added.

I shrug defensively. "I don't know."

"Well, it doesn't matter. We can't let you look." Aiden said simply.

Brie looked a little sympathetic.

"Sorry."

"It's okay. No problem." I smile at the, then go back to my station.

…

_Well that's bad._

…

What now?

The plan I came up with in my head over the weekend was to help Brie with whatever "Operation Remnant" stuff I could, then report to Kanan and Hera tonight what I know.

_And now I know nothing._

Hera commed Sabine shortly after I left for work this morning.

I worked like a good little solider all morning, and a bit after lunch.

Then I tried to get in with Brie.

_And that just went down in flames._

…

I glance at my scan.

12%.

…

Now I don't have anything to do, plus Brie shut me down, and I have nothing for the meeting tonight.

_Just great._

That leaves me with more time to think about me and—

"Ezra? Come tell me what you think of this?" Darcy asked, across from me.

I stifle a sigh, then get to my feet and walk to Darcy's cubicle.

"What do you think?" Darcy smiled up at me.

_It's…_

It's a grey dress shirt, with a black vest and black slacks.

"I like it." I tell her. "For the ball?"

Darcy smiled and nodded.

_She asked me at dinner on Friday._

And now I'm getting…dress clothes?

_I thought Sabine's parents buying a jacket, shirt, pants and boots for me was bad…_

"Ooh. I like it. You're gonna look hot." Lana smiled at me, then gently punching my stomach.

"Easyyy…" I joke with her, getting a giggle out of her.

"So you like it?" Darcy asked me.

I nod.

Lana silently rolled back over to her station.

Darcy quickly motioned for me to crouch.

"I know you're probably bored. Brie's just tense because what she's working on, comes down from the Emperor every Empire Day." Darcy whispered to me.

"Really?" I ask.

_I knew this._

Thanks to the charming General Brroka.

Darcy nodded.

"You just don't mess with anything regarded to the Emperor. Just get it done and get away from it." Darcy told me.

"I picked the wrong time to be nice then." I say simply.

Darcy nodded.

"I'll get back to work." I tell her.

"Or pretend? There's thirty minutes left." She smiled at me.

I nod, then go back to my cubicle.

…

Blast.

_Karabast._

…

I can't remember a Mandolorian word for that.

I started looking at it yesterday with Darcy as we watched the holo.

_I think I want to try and learn Mandalorian._

Darcy thought it was weird, but let me have at it.

So I looked at the basics of _Mando'a _all last night.

…

…

I aimlessly burn the rest of the work day away, then purposefully hang back until everybody else has started to the speeder pad to begin gathering my things.

_I told Darcy at lunch that I needed to go home before I came over tonight._

It's our night out.

Last week she actually got me to dance, and rewarded me well for trying it.

It was fun I guess.

_Too many people._

When I get into the speeder, I try to loosen myself up.

It's not something I can really let out into the Force. It's just…me.

My mission here…this is the first critical point.

_And I failed._

That, plus Darcy being amazing and loving and wonderful…

I'm starting to feel guilty.

_She deserves better than a liar for a boyfriend._

The more I've been thinking since I got back from Cato Neimoidia, the worse I've felt.

_Our whole relationship is built on a lie._

I am an Imperial.

I didn't really even register how bad the lie was until after I got back, like I said.

Now I can't escape it.

_And I don't see how this doesn't end badly._

I tip the driver well then try to relax on the lift up to the apartment.

My attempt to release some of my nerves into the Force is sort of successful.

_It's just too inside me._

This is my problem.

My mess.

_I've bumped into a problem the Force can't help me with._

In fact…it'd definitely make it worse.

Halfway thru the entryway Sabine popped up, with a big smile on her face.

"Welcome home. How was your day?" She asked happily.

"Okay." I shrug, then walk in further.

"Doesn't sound okay." Sabine stated.

"I…my plan to learn more about Operation Remnant flamed out. I'm stuck. I don't know what else to do." I tell her, plopping onto the couch.

All this time, and nothing to show for my real mission.

_We just know I can blend in with a group of six Imperial girls and make them all love me._

They're practically treating me like family.

I've got a key inside and everything.

Sabine gently grabbed onto my shoulder.

"It's okay. We've got Kanan and the others for that. Don't beat yourself up."

I smile.

"Thanks."

Sabine nodded, then her face fell back into a portrait of concern.

"Are you sure you're okay? Before I call them?"

…

I gather my nerves, then try to put them aside and nod to her.

"Yeah. Let's see what they think our next move should be." I say.

Without another word, Sabine moved to the holo and started typing.

…

…

"Safe Zone, this is Spectre 5 reporting in." Sabine said.

Quickly, the picture came into focus.

Kanan, Hera, Ahsoka, Lux, Zeb, Rex and Echo.

Huh.

"New security?" I ask Sabine.

"Since it's a bigger call, yeah." She told me.

"Hey Sabine. Ezra home yet?" Kanan smiled at her.

"Yup. Just got here." Sabine beamed back at him.

I rise to my feet and join Sabine.

"Hey."

"Hey Ezra. How are you?" Ahsoka askd me, smiling.

I shrug tiredly. "I'm okay."

Hera's eyebrows snap down.

"You don't sound okay."

"He said work didn't go well today." Sabine said.

"How so?" Rex asked kindly, looking at me.

"I…I'll just get into it." I say, then pull a bottle of water to me.

Everybody is focused on me.

"Last Wednesday, I had an undercover raid mission that I had to participate in to keep my cover. It went well, but at the end, I finally heard of 'Operation Remnant'." I begin.

"Yeah, that's what Zeb said." Kanan replied.

"I'm not seeing a problem. You're doing great." Lux said simply.

"Wait…he's getting there." Ahsoka turned to him.

"Go on." Hera told me.

"Well over the weekend, I came up with a plan to discreetly start to find out what 'Operation Remnant' even is. Because all I heard Friday was it's name. Just that." I say.

"Nothing to be learned really." Ahsoka says.

"The implication is that it is the remains of…something." Rex hypothesized.

"That's speculation." Echo replied curtly.

"I know."

"I take it the plan didn't work?" Kanan said, one eyebrow quirked.

Sabine let out a slight smile.

"No. But that wasn't the real issue. Apparently, I don't know if you guys know what we got briefed on initially here, but 'Operation Remnant' comes straight from the Emperor's desk. Every Empire Day." I say.

…

"Huh." Rex said.

"No, we didn't know that. Your mission is very classified. Nobody's asked too many questions." Lux told us.

"Anything else out of that briefing at first?" Echo asked.

Sabine shook her head.

"It was info on the Imperials mostly." She told him.

Echo nodded in consideration.

"But today, my plan was to cozy up to Brie, that's who it's assigned to, and gleam info that way. I got shut down hard." I explain.

"Hard?" Ahsoka asked.

"Well…basically she thought it was weird that I'd ask about it. It's from the Emperor, and it's something that's been ongoing. She said that she's not actually doing anything, but it's a thing that somebody higher up wants another pair of eyes to look at it."

…

"Sounds like…a building project. A long term one." Rex said.

"Like a Star Destroyer?" Ahsoka asked.

_No, the Executor is already built._

"I'm hung up on the 'Remnant' part. There must be meaning in that." Rex replied.

"Again, that is a implication and blatant speculation." Echo told Rex.

"I know. But we're working thru this." Rex turned to him.

"I agree. There has to be something behind that word behind used." Sabine said.

"Did you see anything on it? Anything." Hera stressed to me.

"Nothing. She even shut her holo down so I couldn't see anything." I reply.

Kanan winced.

_Yeah, that's bad._

"I don't think I'm going to be able to get anything out of her on it. I'm stuck." I confess.

I've failed.

"Okay. Don't be so down. You've done some really good work Ezra." Ahsoka said cheerfully.

"Yeah, you've integrated yourself to an entire Imperial office for over 2 months." Hera smiled. "Not just anyone can do that."

"Okay, so it looks like Ezra's stuck. Won't be able to do anything else on the ground." Kanan turned to the others.

"You said the information is on a holoterminal. Right Ezra?" Zeb asked.

I nod.

"Whatcha thinking?" Lux asked him.

"It's blunt, but get in and get the information of that holo. Then get out." Zeb replied.

"If she's just looking the information over, it might not be on there long." Rex added.

"How?" Kanan asked.

"A virus!" Sabine said snapping her fingers.

_OOH!_

I turn to her and see she's beaming.

"Great idea. You can put it on a data spike and get everything with 'Operation Remnant' on it," Echo said matter of factly.

I swivel around to look at him, and see that his brain is already two steps ahead.

"Ooh. I like that." Ahsoka smiled.

"I don't know if I can do that. I can get us in, but the search would be the hard part." Sabine confessed.

"We'll need to move fast. Like Rex said, I don't think this information will be available for long." Hera told Kanan.

"Okay. Let's sketch this out." Kanan said. "Ezra, can you get in at night?"

"Yeah." I nod.

"Great. You and Sabine can infiltrate, upload the data spike and get the information—" Kanan began, but was cut off.

"—Then we can pick you up, grab your stuff and get out of there." Rex said, turning to the others with a smile.

"That simple?" I ask.

"It doesn't have to be complicated." Ahsoka said. "The best plans prey on what is consistent."

"In this case, your access to the holo." Zeb added.

"You have the ability to get to that holo right?" Echo asked me.

"Yeah." I say.

"Sounds like a solid plan to me. The only question is when." Lux said.

…

…

"How about a week from today?" Rex asked.

_What?_

…

Oh no.

"Yeah. That'd give us a good window to get the information, while giving time to get an extraction team in position and for you all to gather up your belongings." Ahsoka said.

_I have a week._

A week.

"I…" I begin, but then am gently cut off by Hera.

"Ezra…Sabine mentioned to us that you got a girlfriend…" Hera smiled at me.

Of course she did.

It's not like she was going to let that go without telling them.

"You gotta end it man." Lux said simply.

"Gently!" Ahsoka said. "We don't want this girl coming after us!"

I turn to Sabine, who looks slightly nervous.

"I mentioned that she was the leader of your team." She said quietly.

I nod.

I've been stupid.

All this time I thought I was playing it right.

_And now I've got a week to…_

Break up with Darcy.

My thoughts are brought back to the present by Hera saying my name.

"Ezra, I know you don't want to do it. I'm sure she's very nice and important to you. But this is more important. I'm sorry."

…

"Okay." I say, feeling hollow inside.

I look at the holo to see everybody eying me apprehensively.

_I think they were expecting me to put up more of a fight._

I just feel numb.

"We'll comm you Sabine when we have a final plan Sabine." Kanan said calmly.

Sabine nodded, then the call ended.

I…

I slowly walk back to my room, grab my good jacket, then walk back into the hall and down the lift.

…

We're going to be at "Safe Zone" in a week.

_I'm not going to sleep here next week._

I hail the first speeder I see and start off to Darcy's.

_Darcy._

…

Oh man.

She's so excited for the ball.

That's at the end of the week.

_She's shopping and everything._

She's going to hate me.

Darcy is definitely going to hate me.

I messed up.

_I never should have gotten involved with her._

I…

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

_She's pretty, and nice, and an amazing girl._

…

And I've got to break her heart.

In a week.

My mind flied back to how I woke up Saturday.

_With a kiss, and three words._

"I love you."

…

…

_Kiss on the neck._

"I love you."

…

…

"I love you."

She's going to want to kill me.

I groan and put my head in my hands as we start descending.

_I'm an idiot._

She…

She's just on the wrong side.

That's all she's done wrong.

_And she didn't really do that._

It's a job to her really.

Pays the bills. Keeps a roof over her head and food in the conservator.

…

I start up the lift, and a thought keeps bouncing around in my head.

_All that time with Sabine, you said you weren't that guy._

And now I am.

I've got a week to break Darcy's heart.

_And mine in the process._

She's…

I numbly walk to the door and try to put on a blank, happy face.

_Even though I'm completely numb inside._

Halfway thru turning my key, the door swings open to Darcy smiling at me in a tank top and shorts.

"Hey."


	36. From The Clouds High Above

Darcy climbed into the speeder behind me and slid half into my lap as our speeder waited to pull out of the banquet hall.

I loosen my collar and try to take a breath.

_This outfit Darcy got me is nice, but super tight._

Makes sense since this is the first (and only) time I've worn it.

It came in last night, in time for the Imperial Ball tonight.

Really, it wasn't all that special. It was sort of like an awards banquet. People got promotions, others got bonuses, and one person got brutally fired on stage.

A Moff named Zellos called out a Captain in the crowd, listed out several notable failures by him and his officers, then got fired.

Several undercover Stormtroopers came in and escorted him out, even though the poor man was distraught.

_The worst part though, was all the people laughing._

Darcy even giggled a couple of times.

"That poor Captain. Came all the way here from Zylion just to have to fly back and pack up his office." I say quietly.

"You heard Zellos though. The man was incompetent. His went over his budget by 12,000 credits, couldn't account for some of his spending, and his staff no-showed half the time. He deserved what he got." Darcy said.

"I'm not arguing that he isn't incompetent, almost criminally, but why pay for him to come all the way to Denon, then to fire him and ship him back to the Outer Rim?" I counter.

"The humor. Usually at those things they have a standup comedian to keep everything loose. That, plus the drinks and—" Darcy replied, then suddenly burped.

"Excuse me." She smiled at me.

I roll my eyes and smile at her.

_She's a little tipsy._

They encouraged us to take more drinks, and Darcy had 4 glasses of wine, two drinks out of a square glass and three pink things.

"Thank you for coming. And taking me home." Darcy said, hugging my arm and looking up at me.

"You're welcome. This is in my job description as boyfriend I think." I smile at her.

Darcy giggled, then stifled another burp.

"I've got to get you home before you fall over."

"You can carry me though." Darcy reasoned.

"Yeah, but I'd rather not." I tell her.

_I'd be broadcasting to Lana, Katiey and the other how sloppy Darcy is._

Not that they won't notice when we get back to her apartment.

"Please?" She smiled up at me.

"Darcy…"

Darcy frowned at me with loth-cat eyes.

…

"Maybe."

"Yay!" Darcy let out a quiet cheer as our speeder began to descend.

Then she grabbed onto me and closed her eyes.

"Okay?" I ask quietly.

She gave me a thumbs up and kept her eyes closed and her head resting on my arm.

When the speeder lands, I make a split second decision and scoop Darcy into my arms and step out of the speeder.

"Yayyyy. No walking!" She smiled at me.

I shake my head and smile.

"You're a mess."

"But I'm you're mess!" She beamed at me and slapped the button for the lift loudly.

"Maybe." I mile at her, then kiss her knee, right below where her dress stops

Darcy giggled as the lift door opened and I step inside.

She hits the floor number, wraps her arms around me and kisses me deeply the entire ride up.

"You're the best. In case you haven't heard." She whispered as the lift halted and the door opened.

I smile at her and kiss her hair.

_That's my job._

Make Darcy feel loved.

Everybody can get down.

It's my job to pick her up, like I am now.

Darcy pecks me and bites my lower lip before I open the front door with one hand and walk in.

"We're back!" I call out.

"Awesome!" I hear Brie say.

"Yeah!" Darcy giggled.

When I make my way to the living room, everybody is looking at Darcy and I.

"Oh my…"

"Hi." Darcy smiled at everyone.

"She's drunk?" Mira asked, looking like she can't believe it.

I sheepishly nod.

"The drinks were good!" Darcy said defensively.

"She didn't really show it until we got into the speeder to come home."

"I felt it…but I'm a good actor." Darcy told everyone, then laid her head on my collarbone.

"How many drinks did you have?" Lana asked curiously.

Darcy shrugged.

"7 or 8." I say.

Darcy smiled and shrugged again.

"I'm dropping you off to sleep, then I gotta go."

I hear a few of the girls make noises of protest, and Darcy looks hurt.

"Go? Why?" Darcy looked up at me.

"I need to go work out."

Darcy frowned.

"No you don't."

"I haven't been in a week." I tell her gently.

_I'm going to work out._

I need some space.

"You guys have been working out in the last week." Aiden says simply.

I repress a sigh, and Darcy lifts herself off me to look at Aiden, then stuck her tongue out at her.

"Don't go." Darcy said, turning back to me.

"You need to sleep." I reply.

Darcy frowned, then plopped her head on my chest.

"I'm gonna let her lie down." I tell Katiey, who nodded, then walk back to Darcy's room.

…

"Dammit, why do you want to work out Ezra?" Darcy asked immediately once the door is shut.

"I need to babe. I'll come back here. Promise." I tell her, gently setting her on top of the covers.

"We can work out right now…" Darcy said simply, reaching up and loosening up my tie.

"We can do that later, once everyone is asleep." I reply.

_We try to keep it quiet and late at night so everybody can sleep._

"They're watching the holo right now." Was her counter.

"Darce…I'm going to the gym." I say simply.

Darcy suddenly let loose an ugly frown.

"Fine." She said, then started pulling on the straps of her dress.

I take that as my cue to start changing.

_I brought some workout clothes here a few nights ago._

We were supposed to be workout partners.

I've got my shirt off and changed into shorts when I sneak a glance at Darcy.

_Black Lace._

She's got a "How about now?" look on her face.

"Darcy."

She stuck out her lower lip and looked up at me.

I smile and crawl onto the bed, then pull her into my arms.

"I promise. Once I'm done working out, I'll come right back here."

"I'll be counting the seconds. I need my boyfriend to do his job tonight." She said bluntly.

"I'll do my job. But I have to maintain my figure." I joke, getting Darcy to loudly giggle.

I smile and kiss her cheek.

"There's no way I can't convince you?" She whispered.

"Nope. You'd be mad at me if I didn't go."

"Fine. Come back quick though."

"I'll do cardio and a little upper body." I reassure her.

"Legs and core is later." Darcy said.

"Exactly."

_It's addicting is what it is._

Darcy sighed and kissed my cheek.

"I love you."

My stomach does a little flip, but I smile at her.

"Love you too. I won't be long." I say, before quickly pulling on my shirt and exiting the room.

When I reach the living room Lana and Mira look mildly surprised.

"I thought she caused you to change your mind."

"Nope." I joke, getting Katiey to laugh.

"Was the Ball okay?" Brie asked.

"It was okay. What Darcy didn't say was that she was nervous. She had a couple drinks to loosen her up, then it was 'Boom Boom Boom' and she's sipping some pink thing." I tell the room.

"She almost is never like that. Usually she's the one that nurses a drink the whole night." Mira said.

I nod.

_That is usually her thing._

"But seriously Ezra, thank you for bringing her home and being so good to her." Katiey said, suddenly serious.

"No problem. Happy to do it." I smile, and they all smile back. "I'll be back later."

"You're whipped!" Aiden states as I start to the door.

On a impulse, I stop and look over my shoulder.

"…Maybe."

Aiden quickly laughed, and Mira giggled along with Brie and Lana.

I slip out the door and to the landing pad before my mind returns to the task at hand.

_I need to clear my head._

I need to turn off Ezra Boyfriend Mode.

I can turn it back on later.

For now, I need to think. And notify Sabine that there's such a thing as undercover Stormtroopers.

_I've never heard of them before._

But I can't say I'm surprised the Empire has a secret police.

On the way, I send out a simple message to Sabine.

"On my way to the gym. Found out there's such a thing as 'undercover Stormtroopers' tonight at the ball. Plain clothes, look normal, but Stormtroopers. Can you pass the word along?"

…

I fiddle with my keys in my pocket waiting for Sabine's response.

…

"Okay. Hope you had fun."

I shrug.

_About as much fun as I can have with four days left._

The speeder lets me off at the gym, and I flash my membership badge to the worker at the front desk, then start running on the track.

I've decided that I don't think I can break up with Darcy in person.

I'll end up spilling my big secrets: Jedi and Rebel.

_And I'd be putting her at risk just for knowing._

Honestly, I think she'd still turn me in.

My mind has created this sort of scenario where I accidentally spill my secrets, and she calls in half the army with tears flying down her face while screaming at me.

I don't think I could fight back.

So…my plan right now, is to write her a message and have it sent automatically.

I've already thought a lot of this out and talked to Sabine:

I'm going to pretend like it's just another Monday, and act like I'm going to the club.

But before I go, I'm going to tell them that I'm stopping by my apartment and will meet up with them.

When I get to the apartment, Sabine will be waiting for my message and come hop in my speeder.

Darcy and everybody will be at the club, sipping drinks and having a good time as Sabine and I get in, and get out.

The message is automatically sent sometime afterward…and I'm done.

_Done._

The real problem, is that I don't know what to say.

I tried to come up with something at work today, but nothing came to mind..

_I had no motivation to work, so I faked it all day._

I'm going to be out of here before any of this matters.

Nothing came to me though. I just tied my stomach up and could barely get any of my lunch down.

_For a Jedi, my nerves are really getting to me._

I'm learning that this isn't something I can rely on my training for.

This is all me.

The Force can take all the nervous energy I can give it, but the problem remains, and I'm still twitchy.

_At least I don't feel hollow anymore._

I slowly move my way to the slow lane, then veer off into the machine training area.

Some crunches, pushups, maybe some other stuff.

I don't know.

_It's weird being here._

I've been like three times. An I've done my lightsaber and Force training even less.

I caught myself walking all the way across the room for the remote this morning when I could have just Force pulled it to me.

_This mission has changed me a little._

Not that I don't like it, but this is probably a little what I'm like if I never met Kanan.

I need to get back to my actual self, the one that has a chance to make the galaxy a better place.

1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8…

…

9…

10.

I sit up after my last crunch, and stay there for a moment.

…

_I've got an idea._

Quickly, I stand up and walk to an isolated bench, away from the rest of the machine area.

I might have the start of my letter.

I pull up the 'Notes' section of my comm and start typing.

…

Dear Darcy,

I know you're probably really confused why I'm sending you this right now. I'm sorry. I really am. But I've got to go. I'm leaving right now, and I don't know if I'm ever coming back to Denon. I can't even tell you why and be fair with you. But it's something I've got to do. I understand if after you read this, you hate me. Right now, I hate me. I don't want to do this. I love you Darcy. I really, really do baby. It's nothing you did. This is all my fault, completely and totally. I'm sorry for dragging you along. I never meant for it to get to this point. I don't think I can do this in person and keep you, Mira, Lana, Brie, Aiden and Katiey safe at the same time. This is bigger than either of us really, and I knew that. It's my fault for letting it get this far. Maybe one day I can try to explain myself to you and beg for your forgiveness. Hopefully I can.

Thank you for everything you've done here on Denon. From introducing me to Katiey and everyone at work, to teaching me how to do my job better, and most of all for your love. It's priceless to me, and I can't describe what it's like to be your boyfriend.

If it makes it easier for you, hate me. Curse my name, do whatever you need to. I understand. I deserve it all. But I have to go.

I'm sorry I can't face you in person. That's going to stick with me for awhile, for what it's worth. I'm sorry.

Love,

Ezra

(A/N: A shorter chapter, because as Ezra said, he's got a week left on Denon. Not much more left to get to. Check back Friday! And thank you for reading!)


	37. The Seven Circles

Beside me, Darcy shifts and I take another bite of our takeout.

_We always get it before going out._

This week on "Apartment Show-Off" it's a positively trashed condominium on a Mid Rim planet.

Darcy said that even when it's fixed up, they couldn't pay her enough credits to live there.

There were bugs, all sorts of vermin, and mold in the ceiling.

Brie said she'd consider it after they essentially took everything out.

The only remaining thing is the four exterior walls and the roof.

Everything else has been changed. The floor plan is completely different.

"Man, how big of slobs did the people that lived there have to be in order for that place to be that bad?" Aiden asked.

"I'm eating and don't want to ruin my appetite." Katiey said simply, then took another bite.

Mira smiled, mouth full.

I sip my caf and continue to watch, maintaining my façade.

_I messaged Sabine 45 minutes ago saying that I was eating here._

I'm assuming she's picking something up. She just replied "ok."

The show started to go to commercial break, and showed a couple that looked like Azmorigan with their stubby hands over their mouths.

"Ew." Lana cringed.

"What were they?"

I shrug and take the last bite of my food.

_I'm full._

"No idea, but they had stubby little arms." Darcy said, before taking another bite.

Mira suddenly made a high pitched noise and waved her arms around with her elbows pinned to her side, making them stubby.

Darcy laughed loudly, along with Katiey and Aiden.

Brie had just sipped her drink, and quickly covered her nose.

"Ahh man!"

Darcy and the others all looked over, then started laughing at her.

"It's not funny!" Aiden said loudly.

In response, Mira made the same noise, but waved her arms at Aiden.

I laugh and shake my head as everybody else keep laughing.

Aiden wiped her nose, then angrily sat back down.

"You're mean."

"I'm funny." Mira simply replied, then waved her arms again.

Darcy giggled while the show came back on.

I sit back and try to relax as the species turns out to be something called a Jablogian and just looks like complete slobs that could afford to pay for "Apartment Show-Off" to come in and redesign their home and want the free publicity that the show would bring.

When it starts to tell us what's on the next showing, I start gathering up my and Darcy's trash while taking some of Lana's.

"Thanks." Darcy called out to me, as I press the button for the compactor.

"No problem. Once I'm done I'm going to pop by home and change jackets. I'm just not feeling this one." I tell her.

To my surprise, Aiden and Katiey turn back to me, looking sad.

"The one with the shoulder guard?" Darcy asked.

_Yup._

"Uh huh." I say, coming and grabbing more empty containers.

…

"Fine. I'll allow it." Darcy said simply.

"Why don't we just swing by your place?" Mira asked.

I let out a sigh.

"I don't want to keep you guys up. I'll catch up." I say reassuringly.

Brie smiled.

"You might beat us. Who knows?"

I shrug and walk over to behind Darcy and see that there's no more trash to pick up.

_It's time to go._

"I gotta go." I smile down at Darcy.

She looks up at me, then gets to her feet and walks with me thru the windy hallway full of esoteric art on shelves that Brie likes picking up at the markets on Saturday mornings that are made by artisans from around the sector.

"Love you." Darcy smiled at me when we're at the door.

I smile back.

"Love you too."

On a sudden impulse, I quickly dig into my pockets and pull out my credit stick.

"Just in case you beat me there." I let out a slight smirk.

"Ezra…"

Silently, I put the credit stick in her hand, then close her hand around it and kiss the top of her hair.

"My treat." I smile at her.

In reply, Darcy has the softest smile I've ever seen.

"Thanks. See you soon." She said simply.

"Sounds like a plan." I say happily, then slip out the door and close it behind me.

…

…

I'm such a bad liar.

A bad, bad liar.

…

I make my way back to the landing pad and hop in a speeder home.

Then I message Sabine.

'On my way back'

After that, I let out a shaky breath and let my head rest against the back of my seat.

…

…

_Man._

I might just stay single forever.

I'm not cut out to be anybody's boyfriend.

_Sabine was right back on Onderon._

The speeder weaved its way thru traffic and stopped slowly on one of the landing pads for my building.

I hop out, wave to the driver and walk into the lobby.

_Breathe._

Let's just take this one step at a time.

I hit the button for the lift and calmly wait, focusing my attention upwards and trying to sift thru all the people.

I can make it to about to 20th floor now.

I guess that's all I'll be able to do.

Ding…

I step inside the lift and hit the button, then rocket up to Sabine and I's floor.

…

…

I feel her presence as I don't even check to see if the door is locked and just walk in.

"Hey." I smile at Sabine, who is in the kitchen.

She stopped cleaning the counter and looked up.

"Hey. We have time for you to do a last minute check if you want."

"Okay." I nod, then walk into my room.

Where my stuff is right where I left it.

My two bags of clothes are neatly set right next to each other.

I bought a third bag, sort of like a duffel to put my miscellaneous stuff like my pictures of Darcy and I, including ones that we took before the ball last week, the dog tags from the battle in the Undercity and my Pyke blaster.

_The only thing I have left out is my jacket._

I slip the one I have on right now off, and pull the new jacket on, pauldron sliding over my shoulder reassuringly.

Quickly, I fold up my other jacket and zip open the bag that I planned a space to set the jacket in, and do just that.

Fits perfectly.

I zip it up, and let out a breath.

_Keep moving._

I do a final check in the bathroom to make sure that I didn't leave any toiletries, then walk back to Sabine.

"I'm ready."

Sabine dropped the towel she's still cleaning with, this time a different counter and nod.

"I'll message the rendezvous team."

"Any idea who they are?" I ask her.

Without looking up, Sabine shook her head.

"A few comms ago, Kanan let something slip about a clone battalion. I don't think Rex and Echo are going to put any of this to chance." She replied, typing silently.

"Do you think they're going to be here?"

Sabine shook her head.

"I don't think they'd enlist other clones if they were coming."

Makes sense I guess.

_Maybe whatever they're doing at Safe Zone is too important for the Rebellion to let them come and get us._

That'd be nice. It'd be good to see them.

_That way I know we'd be safe._

Sabine stopped typing and looked up at me.

"Okay. It's sent. Let's go. I already called for a speeder."

I nod, then start back to the door.

Sabine turned off the kitchen light and the hall light, but kept the living room light on.

I calmly lock up behind us, and Sabine hits the button for the landing pad.

…

I let her hop in the speeder first and close the door behind us.

"Memorial Park please." Sabine says to the driver cheerfully.

"Yes ma'am." The driver effortlessly replies, then pulls off the landing pad.

"So…how'd it go with Darcy?" Sabine asked, biting her lip and looking up at me.

I shrug.

_I don't want to talk about it._

The less I think about it, the better.

I can figure this out later. I've got a mission to do.

We…have a mission.

Sabine quickly looked baffled.

"Did you even tell her?"

"I've got a letter to send to her programmed to send at midnight." I say, avoiding her eyes.

"EZRA!"

"What?" I ask, turning back to face her.

"A letter? That's how you're doing this?" She asked, looking furious.

"I couldn't tell her in person!" I say defensively.

"Why not? She's YOUR girlfriend! Sending a letter is addressing the issue like a child."

"I think I would have given away my secret, and the fact that we're rebels. She could easily come and hunt me down. They have the resources.

_That's one thing I've learned this mission._

Nobody is out of their reach.

That's why secrecy is more important than it ever has been before.

"I can't believe you…She's going to hate you. Forever. You know that right?"

I turn back and look at her.

"You don't think I haven't thought that every time she smiled at me in the last week?" I ask her bluntly.

Sabine opened her mouth, but nothing came out.

"I didn't want to do it. Okay? I wanted to convert her. I wanted to convert them all. But after a while, I realized that I don't think I could, even if I begged and pleaded for them to come. So…I'm trying to make the best of it."

"Ezra…I—" Sabine started.

I cut her off.

"I never should have gotten involved. Just like what you said on Onderon. Don't get involved. It's my fault. I never should have dated her."

…

"Let's just get this done with okay? I don't want to think about that any more that I have to." I say bluntly.

"Okay." Sabine said quietly, then fiddled with the blasters attached to both of her hips.

My lightsaber is sitting reassuringly against my left leg.

Meanwhile, I can see the park lights in the distance.

I fish my identification out of my pocket and slip it into my jacket pocket.

_That way when they ask for it, I can give it to them quickly._

I take a deep breath and open myself up to the Force and let every emotion I can go.

_It's time to do my job._

Nothing else matters.

I can be a crappy boyfriend.

I can be a bad friend.

I can be the one nobody believes in.

But I've got to control what I can control, do the best I can, and make this work.

All our bases are covered.

Our extraction team is here when we're ready.

_We're ready._

Our speeder sets down, and I hop out of first and turn my sights to the front door.

"Uhm." Sabine says, looking at the two Stormtroopers at the door.

"No problem." I smile at her, then walk to the door.

"Hi." I greet them cheerfully and smile at them.

"Hi. Identification?" One Stormtrooper asks as the other acknowledges me with a nod.

I pull out my official Imperial ID, straight from Captain Telon and hand it to the trooper.

It has all the information he will need.

_My office, station, commanding officer, and title._

Nothing amiss.

Just going in late.

The trooper shined a light on it, and the Imperial logo watermark shines thru.

The other trooper produces a machine, and my identification gets swiped.

_Sabine's getting nervous._

I can feel it.

Beep.

_Green Light._

It's authentic.

"Okay, you're clear." The Stormtrooper says, opening the door.

"Thank you very much. Have a good night!" I say with a smile, then lead Sabine inside to the atrium.

I don't have to tell her where to go, she basically knows.

_Telon's office is right by the bullpen._

"You sure that wasn't weird?" Sabine quietly asked me.

I shake my head.

"No, they did the same thing last weekend when I came and cleared out my desk." I say.

That's how I knew I would need my ID.

The troopers that day didn't like it when I didn't immediately hand it to him. Said something about 'kids these days…'

I smile at the memory as we turn and are in sight of the door.

Silently, I point to the door and Sabine nods.

…

…

I swipe my ID thru the scanner beside the door, and it also lights up green.

Click Click.

The door unlocked, and I hold it open for Sabine.

"Thanks."

I slip in behind her and nod.

_Huh._

"Now where are we going?" Sabine asked me.

_The walls are up._

The same ones Darcy jokingly blocked Mira with on my first day.

That's weird.

_They weren't like this over the weekend._

"Left side. Bu these walls weren't up over the weekend." I say quietly, leading the way.

"Security?" She asked.

I probe around with the Force.

_Nobody._

I shake my head and stop at Brie's station.

"Here. I'm gonna vault over."

"Is it trapped with sensors?" Sabine asked.

I shake my head.

"I don't think so. Mine isn't. Wouldn't they all be?"

Sabine seemed to consider that, then I grab onto the top of the wall and pull myself into Brie's station.

_Button…_

_Button…_

There.

I press the button to make the wall go down, and it silently lowers.

Sabine wordlessly activates the holo and started typing rapidly.

"Watch for anybody. It'll just take a second to brute force my way in…"

"Okay."

I turn and look around with my back to her.

…

I probe again, and I feel what my eyes are telling me.

Behind me, I hear Sabine slide the data spike in.

"And now we go." Sabine said quietly, causing me to turn around and see data flying across the display.

For the most part, the words fly by too fast for me too read, because whatever Echo programmed is flying thru the information.

But some words do jump out.

"Ilum"

"Crystals"

"Mygeeto"

"ULW"

"Lothal"

Sabine gasped, and my stomach falls thru the floor.

_Whoa._

"Did you see that?" She asked me quietly.

I nod, continuing to read what I can.

"Core"

"Produced by heat"

"Insufficient energy transmogrification"

The Force suddenly tightens up, tugging for my attention.

"Ki-Adi-Mundi"

Then the screen stopped, with a small box.

"Upload Complete"

"I'm being warned." I say simply, putting all the meaning behind it I can.

Sabine quickly pulled the spike out, and slips it into my boot like we planned if things got hairy.

_Nobody's going to check there._

"Let's go." I say.

Sabine begins to speak, then I get a sudden warning as Sabine suddenly looked scared.

WHAM!

Suddenly my vision goes double, then I'm flying thru the cubicle and smash into Lana's filing cabinet.

I shaky try to get to my feet and grab my blaster as I hear Sabine fighting in what sounds like brutal hand to hand combat.

As I rise off a knee, I barely see a boot fly at my face.

It catches my right in the jaw and doesn't give.

_OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!_

"UHHHH…" I hear Sabine groan as I'm thrown to the ground.

"I work here. What are you doing?" I order whoever is doing this.

"Shut up worm."

I look up and see an unfamiliar man that looks human.

"I work here." I repeat.

"I don't care. We're going outside."

I suddenly get my arms pulled back and restraining binders are slapped on my wrists.

_Great._

Turning to my left, I see Sabine looking disheveled and furious.

_But no worse for wear._

Regardless, I'm pushed outside into the park in front of Sabine and am roughly deposited in front of a man in an Imperial uniform.

_NO WAY._

"YOU!" Sabine said in disgust.

I was hoping for Captain Telon.

He'd recognize me. I think I'd be able to talk my way out of this with him.

Instead, in front of my Agent Kallus is wearing is annoying, confident, infuriating smirk.

"Ahh…yes. My two favorite Lothrats. The Mandolorian…and the Jedi's pet."

I scowl at him and my anger skyrockets.

_Bottle it Ezra._

When the extraction team comes to save us, it will come in useful.

Just think.

Keep thinking.

"Get me the team that works in the office that they were found in, and their commanding officer." Kallus ordered one of the men that drug Sabine here.

The man simply bowed, then walked away.

Leaving Kallus, plus one Stormtrooper in front of each of us and two behind us.

_I can feel them._

"_Gar hut'uunla shabla chakaar! haran kando di'kut arasuum osik shabuir!" _Sabine yelled loudly at Kallus, then spit at him.

_Whoa._

"You're lucky I don't know anything about such an unrefined dialect. Otherwise I'd know how exactly you just insulted me." Kallus sneered.

"Go to hell." Sabine growled at him.

"You first." Kallus said, with the air of grace.

"What are we being held here for? I work there! I was in my cubicle!" I yell at him.

"Oh I know you work there. But we're holding you on charges of breaking and entering while the charges for defection, espionage, outright theft and Violation of the Espionage Act that was created during the Clone Wars to prevent traitors in our ranks to defect without giving us legal avenues to pursue and detain them by." Kallus said haughtily.

…

"Shock him."

_Hu—_

Then I'm stabbed with something, and my body immediately starts shaking uncontrollably, my head bouncing off my chest.

And the pain is excruciating.

_I feel like I'm on fire._

I don't know when I started screaming, but it isn't until seconds after the electricity stops and I'm collapsed on the ground, that I'm lucid enough to stop.

"STOP IT STOP IT! You'll kill him!" Sabine screamed hysterically at Kallus.

I try to pick myself off the ground, but my arms can't support me.

So I face plant onto the grass in front of me.

_We're screwed._

We're going to need a lot of help to get us out of this.

I'm yanked back to kneeling before Kallus as my extremities are still painfully tingling.

_It feels like I'm being stabbed with thousands of needles._

BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum…

_My heart's racing._

Pounding.

"—not going to kill him. He's too valuable alive to risk that. But the electricity short circuits his…abilities." Kallus said delicately.

_Bastard._

Stop shaking Ezra.

I let out a deep breath and try to control myself.

_No more of that._

Please.

No more.

I turn back and see that one of the troopers behind me is holding some sort of staff, with violet electricity arcing at both ends.

"Eyes front." The soldier scowls at me, then shoves me back to the ground.

I slowly pick myself up this time and look at Kallus.

_If I could get one hand free, I could shove Kallus into that tree, use my legs to knock the two behind me onto their backs._

Sabine would take the hint and take action.

My mind races with potential as a new Stormtroopers strides up to Kallus.

"They've arrived sir."

_Oh no._

My heart, which is still racing, starts trying to escape my chest.

I glue my eyes to the ground and keep my head down as I hear and feel—

"Sergeant Kallus. ISB Command over this sector." Kallus introduces himself. "Miss Ridley if I'm correct?"

_Darcy._

My stomach ices over and my heart continues to escape my chest.

_Look composed._

You're NOT GUILTY.

"Yes." Darcy replied, uncertainty in her voice.

"What's going on here? I demand to know what's going on!" Katiey marches right up to _Sergeant_ Kallus and jabs him in the chest. "They work with us!"

_Sabine doesn't._

My heart leaps as I realize something.

_They've got my back._

"These two were caught breaking and entering into your offices. Espionage. Resisting arrest. Insubordination. Conspiring to commit a terrorist act against the Galactic Empire. The list continues to grow. The fourth holoterminal was accessed. Belongs to an "Brie Rosa" Can you step forward please?" Kallus asked polite enough to hide the venom in his voice.

_We could really use some help right now._

Brie stepped forward, and Darcy did the same.

"Explain this to me Sergeant." Darcy said, sounding a little angry. "You are accusing one of my closest workers, who saved my life just a week ago, of high treason. High Treason! And terrorism! Major crimes!" Darcy said, voice rising. "You better have more than enough evidence, or I'll personally ensure that this ends your career!"

Sabine is gaping at Darcy.

Darcy is scowling in Kallus' face.

_She's as tall as he is._

"I understand you're upset Miss Ridley. But your level of anger causes me to ask: Are you part of this scheme? I can get you a reduced sentence." Kallus said politely.

Darcy immediately recoiled.

"Hell no I'm not! There is no scheme! Like Katiey said, they work with us! They are innocent! Release them immediately!" Darcy demanded loudly.

_DARCY._

I crack a smile and get the butt end of the Stormtrooper in front of me's blaster shoved into my jaw.

OW.

I take a breath and rotate my head so that the blaster is jammed into my neck.

_Much more comfortable._

"I'll just show you Miss Ridley. I'm afraid that you've been lied to your very pretty face." Kallus said. "Lord Vader himself told me this trick to use on this one." Kallus said, pointing at me.

_VADER?_

All the girls eyes go wide.

"Vader?" Brie asked.

"The Jedi hunter?" Darcy asked quietly.

"The very same. Watch." Kallus said silkily.

I steel myself to get hit in the face again by Kallus.

_Huh?_

Kallus simply drags me to my feet, then yanks my blaster off my belt.

He examined it for a moment, then readied his hand at the trigger and took a shot.

"AHHHHHHH!" I yell, as my knee immediately gives out and I collapse onto the ground.

…

"YOU MONSTER!" Aiden screamed.

"_shabuir!_" Sabine yelled at Kallus.

I glance up at Kallus, then see that all the girls are having to hold Darcy back from jumping Kallus.

"I've had enough of this. I'm calling somebody in." Darcy spits, venom dripping off every word. "This is bullshit."

"Just a moment…the show is…" Kallus said delicately.

I glance up, then freeze.

Hummmm…Hummmmm…

_My lightsaber._

Womp.

_Kallus is shaking it back and forth._

Womp.

"See? He is not who you think he is. These two are rebel scum." Kallus said over the gentle hum of my lightsaber.

I glance at Darcy and the others, to see them all frozen, looking at my lightsaber with their mouths open.

_They're not even holding Darcy back anymore._

…

_We're done._

Vader must know about my lightsaber somehow.

_Maybe off Tarkin's Star Destroyer._

Maybe from Ord Mantell.

_Maybe from Onderon._

It shoots and slices.

…

Kallus simply smiles at the girls, then moves to clip my lightsaber to his belt.

Then my arm—

I scream in pain as my arm is cut at the elbow, and again on my calf near my shin.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Sabine screamed at Kallus.

"You two have cost me a lot, not to mention the Empire. It's a little thing called getting even." Kallus replies calmly.

I curl up and try to stop the throbbing pain in both my leg and arm.

_I'm going to die._

Kallus is going to kill me in front of Sabine and my girlfriend.

I'm going to die.

I hear Kallus say something, then my body is lit on fire again.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I scream at the top of my lungs, threatening to tear my throat apart.

…

I can't stop shaking.

Now I'm twitching.

BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum BumBum

My vision is spinning and shifting and is making my stomach churn.

_I'm going to have a heart attack and die._

There's no way I make it out of this.

I try to move, but end up violently spasming on the ground.

Then I throw up all over the ground.

"Oh knock him out. This is disgusting." Kallus says in disgust.

I barely register a black thing come at my—

…

…

…

Sabine POV

_No._

NO.

_GET UP EZRA!_

Ezra suddenly begins to move his right leg before violently spasming uncontrollably and twitching.

Then Ezra makes a horrible noise and vomits everywhere, all over the Stormtrooper in front of him.

"Oh knock him out. This is disgusting."

The Stormtrooper simply whacks Ezra with the end of his gun, and he goes limp in his own vomit.

…

_Oh no._

Where is everyone?

_Rex and Echo are supposed to be here by now!_

I look to Kallus, glancing down at Ezra calmly.

Then I look to Ezra's girlfriend and her friends, and they look horrified.

_Welcome to the real Empire girls._

This is what they do.

"What's going on?" A man asks, walking up.

"Ahh, the man I was just about to call for. Captain Telon, I'll get right to the point." Kallus says to him brusquely.

"Please do. And explain why you have a operative of mine collapsed in his own vomit."

"You and your lax oversight has allowed a rebel the ability to access extremely sensitive information."

The new man looks taken by surprise.

"Really?"

"Yes really." Kallus says simply. "Not just any rebel. A Jedi rebel."

"Surely you're—"

Kallus scowls and activates Ezra's lightsaber in front of his stupid face.

"No Captain. I'm not wrong. You're a buffoon and a fool."

…

"Clearly sir." The Captain said meekly.

"Fortunately, that will be remedied."

"How?"

Kallus simply deactivated Ezra's lightsaber.

And shot the man right between his eyes.

Thump.

"Like that." Kallus scowls at the Captain's dead body.

…

He strolled over to the girls, all of whom now look ready to run for their lives.

"You're all being reassigned, effective immediately. You will escort the Mandolorian to the spaceport, where a transport will take her. Then go home. Speak of this to no one. Your new assignment, along with…compensation for your silence will arrive within a day." Kallus ordered curtly.

"Hold on." Ezra's girlfriend spoke up suddenly and strongly.

"Yes?" Kallus asked.

"Him. The Jedi. He's my traitor. I'll take him wherever he needs to go."

…

In response…Kallus quietly laughed.

"Oh…Miss Ridley. You're too innocent for your own good I'm afraid."

"Excuse me?" She said, eyebrows raised.

"You don't want to go where he is going." Kallus said darkly.

_NO…_

Then he motioned to the troopers.

Immediately, I'm yanked to my feet and am turned away from Ezra.

"I'M GOING TO KILL YOU KALLUS! IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!" I scream at him.

Kallus simply laughed.

"Oh I'm sure you will. Until then!" He called out as Ezra's girlfriends reach us.

_They look like they're ready to go dance._

Just like Ezra said.

…

_Ezra…_

"Walk. Mandolorian." The Stormtrooper in front of me spits out

"Okay, okay. Jeez." I say, starting to walk.

Even though I'm numb.

_I can't believe this._

Rex and the extraction team didn't show.

_It was all a set up._

…

I continue to walk for minutes on end.

Everyone is silent.

…

_Breathe._

Did Kallus say anything about where Ezra's going?

_I'm going to get out of here, and make everyone regret this._

Kallus, his lackeys, Rex, Echo.

I'm going to SCREAM at Kanan and Hera,

_This is betrayal._

I'm done.

I'm getting Ezra and we're going home.

Out of nowhere, blaster shots erupt everywhere around us.

The four Stormtrooper escort silently falls.

Then a bunch of men in clone armor rush out of a alleyway and towards us.

_REX._

I recognize them.

There's two others in beat up armor, then what looks like a ragtag group behind them.

"We surrender." One of the girls say behind me.

"We don't want to be Imperial anymore. I defect." Another says, voice shaking.

"Good. There is no time to explain. Your belongings are being loaded up as we speak. We must get to the spaceport now. Before we are overwhelmed." Rex says curtly as another clone approaches me.

I headbutt him the moment he puts his hands on me and knock him on his back.

"Get your damn hands off me!" I spit out.

Quickly, a clone takes off his helmet and reveals himself.

"Sabine. We know you must be upset. But we must go." Echo says.

…

"Fine." I spit out.

Echo wordlessly removes my handcuffs as one of the unkempt men behind Rex helps the other clone to his feet.

"Head of Durasteel that one…" The clone mutters.

"No time. Move out!" Rex orders, pointing with two fingers.

Suddenly everybody rushes into the alley, and I sprint to follow.

"Where are we going?" One of the girls, not Ezra's girlfriend asks me.

I shrug and simply try to keep up.

We weave in and out of alleyways for minutes on end, then Rex halts hastily.

…

…

"Clear!"

We sprint into a side door of a building, then am suddenly in a hanger.

"Go go go!" Echo waved us ahead, stopping briefly.

We all sprint onto a waiting ship, which is quite large and Rex yanks the door closed.

One of the other men bangs on the wall to the cockpit, and the ship quickly rises up.

"There's comfortable seating for you all back there Miss." Rex said politely to Ezra's girlfriend.

_Darcy._

She tried to stick up for us.

I can't believe it.

…

_She must really love Ezra._

Darcy and her friends simply walk back to another part of the ship, and Echo shuts the door separating the two.

"What happened?" Rex asked me, turning to face me.

…

_WHAT?_

"What happened? WHAT HAPPENED?" I scream at him in disbelief.

"Sabine—" Echo reached out and touched my arm.

"WHERE WERE YOU? YOU WERE SUPPOSED TO SAVE US IF THINGS GOT HOT!" I yell in Rex's face.

_I can't BELIEVE THIS._

His incompetence got Ezra…tortured and taken some place terrible.

"We saw a bunch of Imperials descend on your position and deemed it better to go and retrieve—"

WHAT?

"YOU GOT OUR STUFF?" I scream in disbelief.

"Sab—"

"NO!" I yell at Echo. "Ezra got tortured. In front of me. In front of all of us. His girlfriend just had his big secret thrown in her face! He got cut by his own lightsaber! Shocked to the point of vomiting by electricity!"

…

All the clones in the back are standing again, while Rex and Echo are simply standing in front of me.

"He was twitching…and got cut…with us all in front of him…" I say, voice shaking. "He got humiliated."

…

"Then knocked unconscious. Kallus the bastard said that they didn't want to go where he's going. Vader's going to get him. YOU KNOW THAT RIGHT!?" I yell at Rex.

…

After a moment, Rex nodded.

"You FAILED. You failed me, him, everyone. If you would have came and stopped him, Ezra wouldn't be off to some forsaken hell hole!" I jab Rex in his pauldron.

"Who is they?" Echo asked softly.

"The girls, Ezra's co-workers. Friends. I don't know anymore. They tried to get us out of this. Make sure that's in the record." I tell him.

"ALONG with your failure." I turn and say at Rex in disgust.

…

"Ezra…" I start, then I feel tears start flying down my cheeks.

_I can't hide it anymore._

"They're going to try and make him into a little Vader. Whatever the 'Dark Side' is. Kanan never explained it to me very well. I love him, and this is YOUR FAULT!" I scream at Rex.

Then I collapse in a chair and completely lose it.

…

…

…

"Sabine?"

I sniffle loudly, and look up to see Rex in front of me on a knee with his helmet off.

"I'm sorry. There's nothing else I can say. You're right. I'm wrong. I'll get the word out and use every resource to try and find where they're taking him. Okay?" He asked quietly, sounding defeated.

…

"Fine. I want to hear anything."

"Of course." Rex nodded, then got to his feet.

I don't even register what he says to Echo, then walks into the cockpit.

I just notice how completely silent it is right now.

…

…

Ezra…

At some point, I start crying again and slam my hand into the hull of the ship behind me.

_Which does no good._

At some point, Rex returns.

I hear glimpses of a conversation. Something about a "Code Black", hyperspace routes and Super Star Destroyers.

…

Then I hear a hysterical cry back in the cabin area,

Echo hops to his feet, then freezes as one of them starts crying.

_LOUDLY._

My stomach shrivels up as the pieces click into place slowly.

Darcy.

"A programmed message…" I whisper to myself.

_She just got it._

It must be midnight.

Echo reluctantly walked back there, and stayed back there for what felt like forever.

When he returned, he pulled Rex into the cockpit for a private conversation.

_About whatever Ezra said I assume._

The next time the cockpit door opened, Echo walked out without Rex.

…

I numbly just sit here. Sometimes crying.

Sometimes not.

At some point Rex hands me some caf in a plastic cup.

…

I nervously sip it a few times, just to give myself something to do.

…

_I have to get Ezra._

Before they turn him into a monster.

…

…

The next time I look up from my caf, I hear the words "Safe Zone" come from Echo.

Then we jolt out of hyperspace.

I move to stand, only for Echo to gently sit me back down.

"We're almost there." He told me gently.

I nod, and wait until we come to a stop.

…

Rex opens the door, and I walk out right behind him.

_Kanan._

And Hera.

And Ahsoka and Rex and Zeb.

_All looking grim._

"Tell me you're wrong." Hera begged Rex.

I storm past them and march right to Ahsoka.

Before I can think twice, my temper's taken control again.

"Whatever you do to find Ezra, make sure Rex gets charged for his complete incompetence, idiotic decisions and failure back there!" I yell at her.

Then I march right out of the hanger and start trying to find a control room.

_I've got to find Ezra._

(A/N: _Gar _\- You

_hut'uunla _\- Cowardly

_shabla_ – screwed up

_racin_ \- pale

_chakaar_ \- scumbag

_haran_ \- hell

_kando_ \- weight

_di'kut _\- idiot

_arasuum_ \- stagnation

_osik _\- shit

_shabuir _– Mandolorian word for jerk, yet stronger. Used in rare circumstances, usually banishment from their tribe.)


	38. Search For Answers

…

…

_Huh?_

My neck just got wet.

Just barely.

It's like I just got kissed on the neck.

…

Just before I open my heavy eyes, a soft pair of lips gently presses themselves against the front of my neck.

_Who is kissing my neck?_

I reluctantly open my eyes and look down to see Sabine nestled in my chest.

_The lights are off, so I can barely see her._

"Hey." She smiled up at me, then pecked my lips.

_Uhh…_

"Hey. Where are we?"

"A medical frigate. We just rescued you from Vader a few hours ago." Sabine smiled up at me.

"You did? Last thing I remember is some Stormtrooper about to knock me out." I confess.

Sabine simply adjusted herself and wrapped her arms around my neck.

"Yeah. But we tracked he ship you were on and rescued you before they could torture you or anything."

I smile and down at her.

"Thank you. I'm sure that was more difficult that you're making it sound."

Sabine simply looked up at me seductively.

"Anything for you."

I smile, then pull her closer and close my eyes.

I'm going back to sleep.

_I'm safe, and they can wake me up whenever we get wherever we're going._

Sabine simply pulled me closer and kissed me.

…

"Ohhhh Ezra…I'm so glad you're okay."

I smile and crack my eyes open to see her right in front of me.

"Me too. Thank you."

In response, Sabine simply kissed me again, slipping her tongue into my mouth.

_Oh…_

…

…

I missed that.

Darcy was nice, but Sabine…

_There's just something to her._

She's better than Darcy.

I've always known that.

Sabine stopped kissing me, let out a breath, then pulled her shirt over her head.

_Whoa._

She's toned.

_And bigger._

"C'mere…" She growled before pulling herself to me and wrapping her legs around me while kissing me.

I give in and kiss her back, slipping my arms around her neck.

…

…

Oh yeah.

_This is better._

Take that Kallus.

Sabine simply moaned loudly and kissed me deeper while sliding her tongue in deeper.

_Oh yeah._

Sabine pulled me closer while pushing her lower body down on mine.

Whoa.

"Sabine, I'm not sure—" I mutter, breaking the kiss off.

"I am." She snapped at me, grabbing my face aggressively and kissing me again while starting to grind on me.

I guess she's sure she wants to do this.

_I don't think I can say no._

If you can sleep with Sabine…you do it.

_She's probably really good._

Really…good.

Sabine moaned into the kiss, then abruptly broke it off to start pulling my shirt over my head.

"Forget it all Ezra. Forget that stupid girl, forget what I said to you, forget everything. It's just you and me. Give in baby." She hissed, nipping at my neck before kissing me aggressively again.

…

…

"They just want what's best for you. For us. The galaxy. Emotion isn't bad…" She moaned as I pull her closer to me and grind her back.

"OHHHH…Yessss…more of that Ezra!" She cried out before grabbing me tightly and attacking my face with kisses.

_Ooh._

Sabine.

Aggressive…

Darcy just tried to escape when she started getting heated. Dodging my fingers and kisses.

I slip my fingers into the waistband of her shorts and she arched her back, then pulled me onto her and moaned loudly.

"OHHHHH Ezraaaa…"

_Oh yeah._

"No. I'm on top. We're doing this." Sabine said huskily, pushing me back onto my back, then starting to slip her shorts off.

I smile at her and—

"AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I scream out, body feeling like it's on fire.

…

…

Gushh…Shhhh…

"I am not interested in the libido of a teenager Inquisitor. I want results." Vader said in his mechanical, yet deep voice.

_Oh no._

I shake my head and try to focus on what's in front of—

"I'm giving you results. The boy will lead us to the girl. I saw them both together."

_NO._

NO NO NO NO NO!

I stare at the figure in front of me in complete horror until I find my voice.

"NO! I KILLED YOU!" I scream at the figure in front of me. "I KILLED YOU!"

Shark Bait turns to me with a smile.

"Surprise."

I open my mouth, but suddenly my windpipe is closed off.

"You will not interrupt us again boy…your interference has come to an end." Vader said, head turned to face me.

I try to move my hands to free my throat, but they're tied tightly to whatever I'm lying on.

Just as I start to see spots in my vision, Vader releases me from his grip.

_He…_

He did that with two fingers and his thumb.

I take a deep breath and try to ground myself.

_That dream…_

What was that?

Where am I?

I can't take my eyes off Shark Bait, who is several inches shorter than Vader.

"If you hadn't shocked him my Lord, I believe she would have implanted the first seeds."

"Your methods are as clumsy as they are stupid. All you would have done is gotten him off. Nothing more." Darth Vader said to Shark Bait, almost disdainfully.

_There isn't much room for tone in his voice._

It's mechanical.

But I don't think he likes Shark Bait.

_That makes two of us._

"You want to know how he is alive." A softer voice says, causing me to turn left and find the voice.

It's the other Inquisitor.

_The one I didn't beat._

Gushh…Shhhh…

…

Gushh…Shhhh…

Vader is still looking at Shark Bait, like he hasn't decided what he's going to do to him.

…

Gushh…Shhhh…

"The Inquisitor is alive because I wish it. He is an experiment. An Arkanian Offshoot that has been infused with Gen'daii genetics, which allow him to be almost impossible to kill." Vader said, turning to me.

…

_I never killed him._

They…put him back together though.

"Yeah…you will not kill me again though. I let you win boy." Shark Bait said.

"Oh shut up!" I pop off. "I cut both your arms off, stabbed you and—"

Oh dang it.

I squirm in my bindings and try to focus thru Vader's choke with the Force.

I try to breathe thru my nose, to no luck, but continue to squirm.

Then he lets me go, leaving me to gasp for air.

_I beat him fair and square._

"Be silent Inquisitor…" Vader said forcefully, power radiating off him.

…

I focus my attention on my Force probe and get a read on all three of their Force signatures.

_WHOA._

Vader is like a black hole. The entire room is being drawn to him.

Shark Bait is the opposite. He's like an inferno, burning hot.

The other one…the softer spoken one, is tightly compacted and cold.

_Like ice._

"The only way you can defeat the Inquisitor is to burn his body so it cannot regenerate. Otherwise, he will simply grow back, stronger than the last time." Vader said strongly.

"WHY DID YOU—" Shark Bait yelled at Vader before Vader's patience snapped and he grabbed him by the throat and lifted him.

"That _child_…defeated you on Onderon and left you in pieces. If not for her ordering somebody to retrieve you out of that ravine, you would still be down there." Vader growled out to him, sounding furious.

_The Force is rushing to Vader._

Wow.

This guy…

"You are WEAK…UNDISCIPLINED…incapable of dealing with a child for three days. He defeated you with the feeble powers of the light. In a time without a master to lean on." Vader spit out, then threw Shark Bait across the room, making him slam into the wall.

_Whoa._

He's strong too.

"There were other Jedi at that base, my Master." Shark Bait croaked out.

"You did not even make it that far. Like a failure." Vader replied. "Once this one has seen the true power of the dark side, he will take you place as an Inquisitor."

I'll kill him.

_Fine by me._

I'd kill him right now if I could.

I don't think Vader would mind really.

_I don't think he likes him._

"That will never occur. He is a boy. I am the product of—" Shark Bait proclaimed haughtily before being cut off by Vader.

"A failed project that the only successful specimen was defeated in the field." Vader put an end to Shark Bait's speech. "All you have done here is reveal his attachments."

…

"Compassion is a weakness. Attachment is a weakness. We will use both of those against the boy in order to discover the whereabouts of these Rebels."

"Including Ahsoka Tano."

Without thinking, I whip around and face her.

_HOW DOES SHE KNOW ABOUT AHSOKA?_

"How do you know that name?" I order her.

The masked figure turned to me.

"Lord Vader told me." She replied simply.

I look to Vader.

_He killed her master._

Anakin Skywalker.

In the Jedi Temple.

Somewhere.

Vader…laughed.

…

"You believe you know the truth."

_He slipped into my head._

Like he did on Naboo.

"I do! You killed him!" I yell at Vader.

"Killed who?" Shark Bait stupidly asked.

…

"This boy…Ezra Bridger, has done his homework. On the Clone Wars. I can see…" Vader said, then attacked my mind.

I attempt to block him out, but he sweeps my mental shields aside with ease.

…

"He knows of the Sith. Of the flaws of the Jedi. And their lies. And what he doesn't know, he will." Vader proclaimed.

…

_Did he just compliment me?_

"He is more accomplished than you will ever be Inquisitor." Vader said calmly to Shark Bait.

I feel Shark Bait's anger flare, but before he can act on it, a door behind them all opened.

To reveal a small, circular droid hovering in the air.

"Ohhh…" The masked one said softly, and then started to the door.

Vader allowed her to go first, then exited the room. Shark Bait behind him.

Hummm…Hummm…Hummm…

_This can't be good._

I let out a breath as the droid pops out a sharp looking needle.

Oh great.

This should be fun.

…

…

Sabine POV

I march my way to the command center and attempt to clear my head.

Two days.

It's been two days since the disaster on Denon.

_And I've heard nothing._

Not a word.

I haven't seen anyone.

Haven't heard from anyone.

I've stayed in my room, ate in the mess hall, given my version of the events on Denon and walked around this medical frigate.

_Safe Zone is an old Clone Wars Medical Frigate._

I don't know where in the galaxy it is, but it's big.

Seven levels, including the wards in every quadrant that extend downwards.

I've got my own room, which is currently full of stuff from Denon that I can barely look at without crying.

_Ezra took a blaster from wherever that mission was._

It looks cool.

I'm going to ask Echo and Rex where it's from next time I see them.

_And I need to say sorry._

I probably sounded like a _di'kut _when I got off that transport and yelled at Ahsoka.

I was so distraught about Ezra, and so mad that I just yelled at everyone.

I just marched my way around the base until I met General Sato in the flesh.

He gently pawned me off on two troopers, and they took me to my room.

I passed out and woke up to a nightmare that Ezra was being tortured and was calling out for me to help him.

And now, now I finally have gotten a comm from Hera saying to meet them in the Command Center for a briefing.

…

…

There it is.

_Deep breaths._

I won't get to talk, just listen.

But I will learn.

The doors slide open for me and I walk in, smile on my face.

"Hey Sabine." Hera said cheerfully, causing most of the room to turn and notice me.

"Hi." I wave at her.

"Alright…I believe that is everyone that is here for this briefing. The doors please." General Sato asked some soldiers on each side of the room.

Silently, they all exited, and presumably began guarding the door.

"All right…this is a priority one briefing. Everything we say in this room is confidential and cannot be taken out of this room." A unfamiliar man said, in a guttural voice.

_He kind of looks like a fish._

And has the same skin color as that slug Azmorigan.

"Yes, as General Ackbar stated, this is priority one. The subject: Ezra Bridger. Member of the Ghost cell of rebel fighters." General Sato stated.

"At this time…we have not been able to pinpoint the boy's location after leaving the planet Denon. We know he was placed on a Star Destroyer, which flew to Imperial City. From there, multiple cruisers departed that ship and went to other Star Destroyers."

_Causing us to guess._

Or track them all.

"At this time, we are tracking the activities of all of these Star Destroyers. The problem is however, is that the Imperial Navy appears to be going off the assumption that we would be doing just this. Tracking everything. They are doing everything they can to throw us off the scent." Rex said, loud and clear, casing the room to turn to him.

"The flagship of the Imperial Navy, the Executor, is currently parked at the Kuat Drive Yards for repairs presumably. But the point remains. Every Star Destroyer is doing those same diversionary tactics: Meet with other Star Destroyers. Send out multiple shuttles, in and out. Leave the system and go meet with another Star Destroyer." General Ackbar, the fish guy stated.

_Whoa._

This is involving a large part of the Navy at least.

_This goes to the top._

Stupid Kallus.

"Right now, we are using every contact we have right now in order to try and reduce the number of potential ships or planets Ezra could be on. But right now, that list is in the thousands." Echo stated.

I close my eyes and try to let out a breath.

_They don't have a clue where he is._

"Right now, this is our number one priority. He has been trained in the Jedi arts, and is highly regarded by Captain Rex, head of Military training and his First in Command, Commander Echo." General Sato told the room.

I glance around and see a lot of unfamiliar faces.

_I don't know three quarters of these people._

Just Hera and Kanan, Rex, Echo, Ahsoka and Lux, and Zeb sprinkled around the room.

I don't see Darcy.

Suddenly, the room starts moving towards the doors and I look around.

_They must have dismissed._

I quickly look around and find Hera and Kanan, then walk over to them.

"Hi." I say, trying to put as much pep as I can into it.

"Sorry that's not what you wanted to hear. We're working on it, but it's a big galaxy." Kanan smiled thinly at me.

I shrug, then start to feel helpless.

_There's thousands of Star Destroyers in the Imperial Navy._

Billions of planets in the Empire.

He could be on any of them.

"What General Sato didn't tell you, is that Chopper has been digging in the raw data coming in from our informants and is trying to narrow down our search area." Hera said reassuringly.

Instead, my stomach flipped.

Chopper is good.

_He's a smart droid._

He went undercover to try and find where they had taken Kanan.

He's probably attacking this just as strongly.

Somebody puts their hand on my shoulder.

I turn and see its Lux.

"How are you holding up?" He asked, gently hugging my shoulder.

Ahsoka joined Hera and Kanan standing in front of me.

I shrug.

"It doesn't sound good." I confess.

"They have to stop playing games soon. The entire Imperial Navy can't just move ships around the galaxy forever." Lux told me reassuringly.

"And when that happens, we'll get him." Rex said strongly, appearing behind Hera's shoulder.

"Hey." Hera said to Echo as they both walked up to join her and Kanan standing in front of me.

"Zeb's gone back to his monitoring station. He believes that the Expansion Sector needs to be looked at." Rex told the group.

"Seems a little far out." Hera said.

"Exactly. Isolated. Not a bad stab in the dark. See if a ship goes there." Ahsoka told Rex, who nodded.

…

"So…I'm sorry I yelled at you." I say to Rex.

_Might as well apologize in front of everyone._

I did yell at him in front of everyone.

"There's no need to apologize Sabine. The situation was emotional, and you had just been thru more than a lot of people can take." Rex said to me.

"Most would have been in shock." Echo added.

"You guys were in a no win situation." Kanan said quietly. "If you go in and wipe everybody out, then you probably are surrounded by half of the troopers on that planet."

Once we were captured…

_I guess he's right._

They were stuck.

_No right decision._

"I was thinking about what Sabine said in her briefing. The data spike in Ezra's boot was probably fried with all that electricity." Lux told Rex.

Rex nodded.

"What did those girls say?" Hera asked.

"Most of them didn't know anything about Operation Remnant. Just that Brie girl." Ahsoka said.

"What'd she say?" Kanan asked.

"That it's just a massive project throughout the Empire about crystals. All sorts of them." Ahsoka replied.

"When Ezra and I were down there…we saw Lothal pop up on the screen as the data spike did its work." I tell the group.

…

"Hmm. Crystals on Lothal?" Hera turned to Kanan.

"There's some crystal mines on the planet, nothing like Ilum."

"That's another one." I blurt out.

_I can't think of any others._

Kanan saying that triggered it.

"What else do you remember?" Lux asked me.

"Not much. Kanan saying Ilum jogged my memory. Some Ki-Ama guy was the last thing we saw before the search ended."

Ahsoka bit her lip.

"Ki-Adi-Mundi."

"That's it." I say.

_Wow._

"Master?" Kanan asked Ahsoka, eyebrows raised.

Ahsoka nodded.

"What would Master Mundi have to do with Crystals?" Kanan asked Ahsoka.

"I don't know. I'll see what I can dig up."

"It makes a little sense. What is a remnant of the earth?" Rex asked everyone.

…

_Everybody is just staring at him._

Echo's glaring at him.

This is an extension of their little argument.

"Crystals."

"Ohhh…I get it." Hera said.

Echo simply rolled his eyes.

"But what for?" Lux asked.

"Probably for development of the Star Destroyer super lasers. That was all the rage at the end of the Clone Wars." Echo admitted.

_Seems like a long time though._

"Go grab some food. And we'll let you know if you can help us out." Rex said to me.

I nod, then start to the door.

_I am kind of hungry._

I walk out the door, and a familiar figure gets to her feet after sitting on the floor next to the wall.

_Darcy._

"Hey. Do you have a minute?" Darcy smiled warmly at me.

I nod.

"Yeah." I reply.

"Great. I tried getting into that meeting, but the soldier wouldn't let me in because I didn't have the clearance." Darcy said to me, as we start walking down the hall.

I…

_I don't know what to say to that._

So I shrug at her.

"I know you probably don't like me. Because of Ezra."

"Huh?" I say in confusion.

"Oh. Uhm…on the ship here…when you were yelling?"

_Oh great._

I glance at her, implying for her to continue.

"You said you…loved Ezra."

"Oh."

_OH._

"Did I say that?" I ask her.

Darcy nodded.

"I'm sorry. I don't have a problem with it. I'm not a threat if that's what this is about." I tell her, continuing to walk.

"No…that's not what this is about. I don't think I can date him anymore."

I stop in my tracks.

"What?" I ask, in shock.

_What do you mean you can't date him anymore?_

"I…he lied about a lot. I don't think I can trust him after all of that. I can't look at him the same."

"But you tried to get us out of it." I say numbly.

_I don't believe it._

"Because I loved him."

…

"Loved." I say.

_Past tense._

"Yeah. I would have asked what the deal was, and then gone from there if we'd gotten you guys out of that somehow." Darcy told me.

"Why…did you even fight for us?" I ask her.

"I didn't know who that guy was. All I knew if that he had you and my boyfriend down on the ground and Ezra looked like he'd just gotten beaten up."

…

"He had just gotten shocked." I tell her.

Darcy quickly cringed.

"Again? So the time we saw…"

"Was the second time." I tell her.

Darcy bit her lip, then started walking again.

"So he's really a Jedi?"

I nod.

Darcy quietly laughed.

"He told me that, as a joke once. And I laughed."

_Oh._

"Don't feel too bad. He—"

"Is he good? He's not weak, is he?" Darcy cut me off.

"No. He saved my life a few days before you guys met." I say to her.

Then it hits me.

_It was basically a week from the big fight on Onderon, to us working on Denon._

That's insane.

"Really?" Darcy asked, eyes wide.

I nod.

"Wow." Darcy said in amazement.

You found a keeper.

"He only lied to you because you were Imperial. He was trying to bring you over to our side gently." I tell her.

"I know…he made several gentle suggestions that the Empire wasn't all that great. And I was an idiot." Darcy said, looking disgusted with herself.

…

"Do they have any idea where he is? Because I wanted to tell you that my team and I want to help break him out." Darcy told me.

"No. We don't know where he is. They're trying, but it's a big galaxy." I tell her gently.

Darcy's shoulder slumped.

"Damn it. I was hoping that you had a lead."

…

"My friends and I are being sent somewhere else. That's why I wanted to find you and talk to you. I don't know where, but we really want to help. Even if it's a suicide mission."

I take a step back from her.

"Are you sure?"

Darcy nodded.

"We want to try and fix things. Even the scales."

"You can do that and not go on a suicide mission." I tell her bluntly.

_She feels really guilty._

"I know. Please. Tell the higher-ups that. We don't have to be paid or anything. We've got a strong track record, know Imperial tactics backwards and forwards, and can get into basically any compound." Darcy told me.

"I'll pass the message along." I say to her, then notice that we're at a fork in the hall.

_The mess hall is left, and some temporary residences are on the right._

"I'm going to go eat…" I say.

_I really don't want her to come._

"Okay. Uhm, Sabine right?"

I nod.

"Thank you. It was nice talking to you." She smiled at me, looking genuine.

"You too." I smile back at her, then turn and walk into the mess hall.

…

_Ezra..._

I hope he's alright.


	39. Hourglass

Hummmm…

…

Hummmm…

Hummmm…

I crack open my eyes and realize that the drug the interrogation droid put in me is wearing off again.

_This is the fifth time it's worn off._

I'm assuming they're bringing in the monstrous droid twice a day until they break me.

But I won't break.

I haven't broken yet, and I've been strapped to this table thing, whatever it is for a long time now.

_A long time._

I can't even tell which session is the worst really. Just that I've been put through the ringer already.

After the first session with this droid, in which I mostly got pulled on and prodded at my joints and made horribly loud noises that hurt just to hear, they brought in some robotic guard to shock me relentlessly.

I passed out after awhile of that. I can't even tell you how many blows I took from that thing. It had the same staffed weapon with violet arcs of energy.

_Waking up from that was miserable. Every muscle ached, even my eyes._

What was really strange was that I woke up lying horizontally, surrounded by medical droids.

They tended to my vitals, changed my clothes, then left the room.

After a long time, in came Shark Bait.

Shark Bait simply just unstrapped me from the table, and proceeded to beat me up in hand to hand combat.

He's a few feet taller than me, and a lot heavier.

I didn't do badly. I kept him off me for the most part.

I took a bunch of blows, but that was better than the droid.

Most of the time, it was just back and forth between us.

_A brawl._

He hates me.

I hate him right back.

I ended it by blocking the left elbow that he threw at my face, then whirling around and punching him in the nose as hard as I could.

His face busted open and black blood was sent everywhere, getting all over me and the floor.

But I didn't care. I just watched and laughed as he fell to all fours and covered his face.

Vader came in shortly after and threw me back onto my table, and had the medical droids take Shark Bait out.

Then Vader sent in the Interrogation Droid in again.

The droid came back with a new bag of tricks, because it gave me my first dose of the mind numbing drug, then something that made it feel like my very blood was on fire.

At some point in that I lost my voice from screaming so much.

_That was the worst pain I have been in._

Then the droid left for a few hours I'm guessing.

_I have no sense of time. I'm just in this dark room._

No outside lights.

No sounds.

No way to tell if it's day or night.

Just a bank of lights in front of me and behind me that lightly illuminate the droid that floats in and out.

When the droid came back again, it cut at both my hands and feet, then quietly left.

Last time it came, it finally found the two places I didn't want that damn droid to go.

_My left knee and upper left arm._

Where Kallus shot me and cut me with my own lightsaber.

I don't know what it did to me exactly, but all it did was target both of those wounds.

Parts of my vision went black when that droid was doing whatever it was to my leg.

Sometimes it felt like it was pouring acid into it, sometimes it felt like it had stuck a Durasteel knife into it, others it felt like it had been dunked in ice.

My arm was a different story.

I saw the whole thing out of the corner of my eye. It sent painful arcs of electricity straight into that wound.

Which goes without saying, hurt a lot.

Then it exited.

That was the time before this current session.

In the hours, or days, however long it was I got a look at both my arm and leg, and both look like the droid didn't touch them.

The lightsaber cut cauterized, and has scabbed over.

The blaster shot to my knee though, is bad. There's a little bit of bone peeking out, surrounded by dead, peeling flesh.

What confuses me is that it's still painful.

_If it's down to the bone, there should be no pain._

The nerves would be gone.

In front of me, in the corner of the room, the interrogation droid lights up and starts moving forward again.

_Great._

I let out a shaky breath, then prepare my mind for the pain.

Sabine needs me to come thru this, no matter how bad I end up.

She needs me.

I make a conscious effort to let out a breath as the droid floats back to my left arm.

Shing…

…

Whirr…

_What was that?_

Quickly, my arm is grabbed and held in position by…something.

_Must be some sort of mechanical—_

Then a small area of my skin feels like it's been lit on fire.

I grit my teeth and close my eyes.

_Don't scream._

The fire continues until I feel it burn thru my skin and hit muscle.

I can't hold back a scream this time but stop as soon as I can.

_Oh man._

Thunk.

Huh?

My arm goes dead still as something is fired right into the middle of the bone of my arm.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I yell.

_I can't feel my arm. Or my hand._

At all.

Then the droid starts spinning whatever is inside my arm bone and starts coring it out.

I grit my teeth and just try to endure.

At some point my right hand finds the edge of the table, and my chin is tucked as tight as it can into my chest as the droid KEEPS DRILLING.

…

…

_Spots in my line of sight again._

Whirrr…

…

…

The droid pulls something out of my arm, leaving a opening in my arm.

_I can feel the cold air on it._

My upper arm now has a lightsaber cut, cauterized, and now just an opening.

_Because that thing just cut into my bone._

I try to move my index finger of my left hand as the droid is just floating by my arm.

_Ignore the pain Ezra._

Release it into the Force after you see if your hand is even working.

…

My index finger shakily starts moving back and forth, after a few seconds of trying.

_I was afraid that I had lost my hand for a second._

It wasn't responding.

I let out a heavy breath and release everything I can into the Force.

Shing…

_Oh man._

Oh no.

That's the knife.

I know it from when it cut up my feet.

I quickly glance back, and see that it's a scalpel instead.

_Even better._

I let out a breath and force myself to relax before the scalpel is pressed firmly into my lightsaber wound.

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

_It's reopening the wound._

Oh geez.

…

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" I scream out as the scalpel is slowly, deliberately pulled thru the entirety of my lightsaber cut.

I jump when it hits my bare arm and starts cutting me again.

I grit my teeth and let the Force take everything I can give it.

But the pain is still excruciating.

I take a deep breath and refocus myself right before…

_Wait._

I turn as far as I can and look at the droid.

It's stopped.

…

…

_It's just floating there._

There's blood dripping off that damn scalpel.

…

_Huh?_

The interrogation droid suddenly backs away from me, then retracts the scapel and slips it inside its housing.

…

…

I guess we're done.

The droid hovers over to the door, and the door raises up.

Gushh…Shhhh…

…

Gushh…Shhhh…

_Oh great._

I was due for Vader.

_Wonderful._

I close my eyes and gather what little wits I have about me, then look to the door expecting to see Darth Vader in all black in front of me.

Huh?

…

_It's not Vader._

Too small.

…

The figure walked thru the door, and this time I recognize him thru the lights behind him.

_Kallus._

In response, I lean back on my torture table and close my eyes.

I'm spent.

_I've just got to take this one breath at a time._

Don't try to think.

Just breathe.

I'll be okay.

Kallus isn't going to do anything I can't handle.

_Nothing can be worse than that droid._

…

I open my eyes to see Kallus standing in front of me, observing me like some sort of animal he's captured.

"You are at your breaking point Ezra Bridger."

"Tell it to somebody who gives a damn Kallus." I spit out hoarsely.

_I haven't spoken in a long time._

Three trips from the Interrogation Droid.

That's my only time keeping device.

Kallus laughed quietly.

"I've seen your look before. The weight of an entire rebellion on your tiny, fragile shoulders."

"My shoulders are not tiny. I've been working them out for months!" I tell him truthfully, aiming for levity.

_Can't hurt._

"It's a metaphor. Maybe it's more than your mind can handle at this stage." Kallus replied simply, then begin walking the room.

…

"I'm not telling you a thing. You can't torture me like that droid." I tell him.

Sorry to burst your bubble buddy.

"I'm not here to torture you. I heard it all out in the control room. And we already know what we want to know."

…

…

"Your masters have kept you gleefully in the dark. While you are sent off to a foreign planet, they're safe and sound at "Safe Zone". But you don't know where that is." Kallus said cheerfully, yet darkly.

…

"All your time and efforts, spent towards furthering a lie. What a shame Ezra. You could have been an amazing Imperial."

"I'll never join you!" I yell at him, voice cracking.

Kallus simply laughed.

"Puberty?" He asked, turning towards me.

I scowl at him until he has the decency to turn back around.

"Grand Moff Tarkin will be coming soon. He knows you were a part of the team that rescued Kanan Jarrus. The recovered holotapes says as much."

_They know Kanan's name?_

"We saw it all. You carrying him to the reactor room, where our pau'an Inquisitor was standing there waiting."

_NO._

"You master said 'Let me borrow that.' And took your lightsaber. 'Yeah, no problem!' you piped up. They fought. The Inquisitor turned his back to you because you were weak and simply looking on."

…

"Your master used your special lightsaber, which also is a blaster to drive back the Inquisitor. Finally, you had the guts to pull your own master's lightsaber off the Inquisitor's belt."

_I never thought of using the Blast and Slash…_

"You did your best I'm sure. Three, maybe four blows. Before our Inquisitor threw his lightsaber at you and nearly cut you in half. Leaving two _adorable scars on you cheek_."

In spite of myself, I feel my anger spike.

"SHUT IT!" I scream at him,

Kallus simply laughed.

"Somehow…you were lucky enough to fall directly onto a support structure. And helplessly looked on as your master gave in to his hate and stuck the Inquisitor down."

"He didn't do that! He chose to fall! He said "There are some things far more frightening than death!"" I yell at Kallus.

_LIAR._

Spineless, cowardly, pathetic Agent Kallus.

I don't care if he got a damn promotion.

…

"Wouldn't you say that this is more frightening than death?" Kallus asked me simply.

I simply glare at him.

"Maybe more painful." I reply shortly.

Kallus let out a short laugh.

"Maybe…maybe you are right. But this is far worse than death. The pain. The agony. The torture."

…

"You can end it right now you know."

"And you can go away!" I yell back at him.

Again, Kallus laughed.

"We both know that's not happening. I…enjoy seeing you like this. I just hope that I'm here to see you break. If not, hopefully the holo will have to do."

_I'm not giving in._

Kanan needs me.

Ahsoka doesn't need me, but she would want me to stay strong.

Rex and Echo, same thing.

Sabine and Sophie need me.

They both need me.

Hera would be a mess. She needs me.

"When you join us Ezra, you'll be an incredible asset. Your past will fuel you and propel you to unseen heights. I just hope Lord Vader is kind enough to lend you to me when we do locate the rest of your pathetic rebel team…"

Behind him, the door suddenly rose to reveal Darth Vader…and a small, older man.

"You'll have to take that up with Lord Vader himself." The man told Kallus bluntly.

_This must be Grand Moff Tarkin._

"You must be Grand Moff Tarkin." I say calmly, looking down at him.

I'm eye level with Vader, but Kallus and Grand Moff Tarkin are looking up at me.

"I am. And you must be the boy who destroyed my Star Destroyer. Ezra…Bridger."

"I thought you'd be taller. You're kind of small for a 'Grand Moff'" I pop off.

Immediately, Tarkin frowns deeply.

"I see the boy's mouth has not been curbed, despite the coercion." Tarkin said to Vader.

"That will be remedied shortly. And if he does not cooperate…we will force him to cooperate." Vader coolly replied.

_The room is about 30 degrees cooler than it was._

And it was cold before.

I'm surprised I can't see my breath.

"Anyway, this is not about you boy. This is a meeting between myself and Sergeant Kallus."

"Yes sir." Kallus replied respectfully, saluting him.

"At ease. As you see, this boy has been interrogated for some time now. He has not been broken." Tarkin stated bluntly.

"I admit, I am surprised by this. The boy is stronger willed than we believed."

"Oh no Sergeant. We had to stop for a period of time. Do you know why?" Tarkin asked him.

Gushh…Shhhh…

"No, I do not." Kallus replied.

"Osofibrillation. It is a condition that one suffers thru after being introduced to high levels of electricity and not immediately being introduced to a bacta tank or medical droids. its symptoms are calcification of the skeletal system, muscle failure, nerve damage and seizures."

…

"We discovered this after a session with the boy." Tarkin stated bluntly.

_All that electricity he shocked me with._

"Really?" Kallus asked Tarkin.

"Yes Sergeant. When the boy passed out and had convulsions after being given a dosage of electricity, we were forced to tend to him in order to save his life and reverse the condition."

…

Gushh…Shhhh…

_Vader isn't happy._

I can feel it.

Tarkin is furious.

"According to the Stormtroopers that captured the boy, along with the Mandolorian, you ordered him to be shocked twice with Magnastaffs. Why did you do that?" Tarkin asked Kallus, tone rising in anger.

"Lord Vader informed me that electricity can short out a Jedi's powers. That was my intention sir." Kallus replied.

"The level of electricity was unnecessary. You could have shocked him with a stun gun." Tarkin snapped at him.

_Whoa._

"You went too far Sergeant. You have a personal grudge against the boy, dating back to both of your times on Lothal. Your grudge has delayed in the turning of the boy." Tarkin spit out at Kallus.

…

"I deeply apologize Grand Moff Tarkin. It was not my intention to—"

"Your intentions do not matter. What matters is what we have in front of us. The boy is close to breaking. If not for the medical attention we were forced to give to him, healing many of his wounds, he would be training as an Inquisitor by now." Tarkin said.

…

"Your services are no longer needed." Tarkin said, then turned to look at me.

I glance at Tarkin, then back to Kallus.

_Storm—_

A single shot rings out…and Kallus falls to the floor.

"Thump."

Dead.

_OH MY…_

…

Kallus is dead.

…

He's dead.

"Take him away." Vader orders the Stormtrooper that had appeared behind Kallus.

_Shortly before shooting him in the head._

I can't believe it.

The Stormtrooper simply lifts Kallus' corpse off the floor and carries it out.

…

I drag my eyes up to look at Grand Moff Tarkin, who is looking at me.

"There is no hope for you, young Bridger. The IT-O droid will always come again." Tarkin looks up at me, face placid.

I can't look away.

"As we speak, Imperial Intelligence is scouring the galaxy for your so called "Safe Zone". When we find, it, we will bring your friends here. We already have your Mandalorian girlfriend. And when we do…the first thing they will see is you. Turned to our side."

"Ne—"

Tarkin slaps me before I can finish speaking.

"You are a failure boy. Your lightsaber will live on as the new standard issue for all Inquisitors. Including yourself. We will decimate your pathetic little Rebellion with a weapon of their own design…"

…

Suddenly, Tarkin pulls my lightsaber off his own belt.

"This design will be the calling card of fear across the galaxy…"

…

Then Tarkin quickly yanked Vader's lightsaber off his belt, and sliced my lightsaber in two.

_OH._

Vader's going to kill him.

You can't do that.

_You just messed up Tarkin._

He just took his lightsaber right off his belt.

I look to Vader, expecting his to choke him any second now.

…

…

But Tarkin finally deactivates Vader's lightsaber and simply hands it back to him.

"Thank you."

Gushh…Shhhh…

"My pleasure." Vader replied.

_OH COME ON!_

Choke him!

I did less and got choked!

Without another word, Tarkin walks out of the room.

Leaving Vader and I.

…

_Vader's eyes…_

The eyes of his mask are red.

I've never noticed before.

Gushh…Shhhh…

I look at him and he simply looks at me for a moment.

Then leaves to join Tarkin.

…

…

_The droid should be coming any minute now._

They probably want to turn me as fast as they—

A scream ringing out makes me freeze.

_That's not me._

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

That's…

_I can hear the electricity._

"MHHHMMMMMMMMMM!"

Kanan.

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I close my eyes and try to block it out.

_But it just gets louder._

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…

…

"AAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

…

…

Sabine POV

I set the white shirt aside in the laundry basket and grab another shirt.

_Another white shirt._

At least he's consistent.

I know that boys aren't the most consistent washing their clothes, so I'm pulling all of Ezra's shirts out and washing them.

_His pictures are sitting up on my dresser._

Just Ezra and his girlfriend Darcy.

I didn't know that he had dress clothes, but one of the pictures is him in black slacks, a gray dress shirt and black vest.

_It looks good._

Hopefully he can wear it to Ahsoka's wedding.

Lux let it slip a few nights ago at dinner. Everyone else already knew.

Apparently, while Ezra and I were on Denon, Lux finally talked Ahsoka into marrying him.

_Just like that guy on Concordia said._

I'm happy for them.

I just hope Ezra can be there.

…

I set the shirt aside and let out a sigh.

9 days.

_It's getting worse._

Apparently Ahsoka and Kanan can feel Ezra's pain thru the Force.

Kanan said that he is releasing it out into the Force, probably to relieve the pain.

I don't even know what to say anymore.

I want Ezra to be able to have some sort of pain relief, but it's really hurting Kanan and Ahsoka.

They both are constantly wincing, have been quiet and aren't eating much.

_I don't know what to do._

Everywhere we look is a dead end.

We thought we had a promising lead in the Oricho Sector two days ago, but that disappeared.

Not fast enough for them to assemble a strike team though.

_Without me on it._

General Sato told me that I'm too emotionally invested to go on the mission.

Maybe.

I found the shooting range that Rex abd Echo have been training people on.

I've been shooting a few times a day ever since I found it.

_I'm a little off, but not enough to matter too much._

If I miss the middle of Kallus's head, it won't matter.

I'll still blast his eye.

_We're talking about centimeters at most, and from long range._

I let out a breath and the last moments inside the Imperial Office on Denon float to me.

I saw the Stormtrooper right before he hit Ezra in the back of his head with his blaster.

Then one of them grabbed me.

Any good Mandalorian should be able to throw off a single attacker.

I tried, but he had grabbed me around the shoulders.

_I should have suplexed him._

I should have just gotten him off me, and gotten to my blasters.

Then we would have at least had a chance.

Instead I pushed him, for no good reason, and it didn't work.

Then another Stormtrooper grabbed me around the legs.

The rest is history.

The real failure of the mission doesn't lie with Ezra.

_It lies with me._

I should have screamed when I saw the Stormtrooper behind Ezra.

Instead I gaped at him like Sophie.

And I didn't beat the single attacker.

_I'm a disgrace of a Mandalorian._

Rex and Echo told me that the speed of the situation probably would have made things go differently than I remember them.

But I know what happened.

I could have won.

The sound of the door opening makes me turn.

_It's Ahsoka._

"Hey, your parents are on holo. We wanted to wait for you." She smiled at me.

"Thanks." I smile at her, then get to my feet.

I walk out the door and see that everyone else is here, minus Echo.

"Echo took the call." Rex answered my silent question.

"Do they know yet?" I ask Ahsoka.

Ahsoka shook her head.

"We figured we should tell them now." Lux added.

_Jedi._

Sof.

"Has anybody…told my parents about Ezra?" I ask gently.

Kanan quickly glances at me, looking confused.

"No. WE met him, but we didn't have time to chat. Why?"

"We didn't tell them that he's a Jedi."

Ahsoka slightly recoils, and Kanan's eyebrows snap down.

"Why not?" Hera asked.

"My sister. She's kind of afraid of them."

"Sophie?" Rex looked confused.

"Why is she afraid of them?" Kanan turned to Lux.

Lux bit his lip.

"I don't know. The topic has never come up with me. And what I have heard, they're always saying how Jedi are the good guys."

"Little kids. You have to simplify everything." Ahsoka said, slightly smiling at the end.

Hera quietly laughed at the end.

"So they don't know Ezra's a Jedi?" Kanan clarified.

I nod.

"How are we going to explain why he got captured?" Rex asked him.

Everybody fell into a quiet silence.

"Just that they somehow knew he was a rebel. The part about you rescuing Sabine can stay I guess." Ahsoka said.

"I don't like lying to them." Lux added.

"Sophie loves him. Are you really going to break her heart like that? Let Ezra tell her." I reply.

_He can do that._

And she'd believe him.

He's on the good side.

"Fine. You'll have to explain to Carid and Bo how I wanted to tell them." Lux said to me.

"You didn't want Ezra to take his lightsaber when we went there. How were we supposed to tell them without his lightsaber, when he had just met them?" I ask him.

Lux simply shrugged.

_Not his problem._

"It's not the best spot. But we did put ourselves in this position." Hera said.

Kanan simply closed his eyes and let out a breath, wearing the same taut, stressed face he's had for days now.

We walked into the command center and see Echo talking to three figures on the holo.

"Ahh. They're here now." Echo stated as we get close enough to hear.

I walk in front of the holo and put on a smile for them.

"Hi."

Sophie lit up and beamed at me.

"Hi!"

"Hey darling. How are you?" Daddy asked me.

I shrug.

Mom simply smiled at me.

"Lux, Ahsoka." Daddy greeted them with a simple wave of the hand.

"How are things Carid?" Lux asked.

"Chugging along. Mrs. Syndulla, Kanan. I take it you are well?" Daddy replied, asked Kanan and Hera.

"We're hanging in there."

"Captain. Nice to see you as well." Mom smiled at Rex.

"Thank you Mrs. Wren. I'm very well."

"Where's Ezra?" Sophie asked me happily.

I freeze up, and my heart shatters

"Yeah, where is the boy? I wanted to congratulate him on a job well done." Daddy asked me.

_They must know my mission is over._

"Well…" I begin, but can't bring myself to finish.

I focus my eyes on the floor and try to ignore the heat behind my eyes.

"Ezra's been captured." Ahsoka tells them simply.

I hear Sophie gasp dramatically, then nothing.

…

"What?" Mom asked.

"What happened?" Dad asked quietly.

"The end of their mission, they were compromised. We were forced to make a choice between Sabine and Ezra." Rex said simply.

"Compromised how?" Daddy immediately replied.

Rex shrugged. "We aren't sure."

"Is he okay?" Sophie asked, causing me to look up.

_She looks terrified._

"We think so." I smile weakly at her.

Sophie quickly looks a little relieved.

"Sweetheart, go grab yourself some juice okay? With a plastic cup." Mom told Sophie, who nodded and left the room quickly.

…

…

"How bad are we talking?" Mom asked after a moment.

"Bad." Lux said bluntly.

"We…Kanan and I…can feel it. He's in a lot of pain." Ahsoka said quietly.

"Think of it like a tunnel." Kanan painted a mental picture for us.

"Okay." Daddy replied.

"It's ringing with what they're putting him thru." Kanan said bluntly.

I look up and see that both Mom and Dad look worried.

"Is there anything we can do?" Daddy asked Lux.

"Not at this time. We've been looking for nine days now, and no trace of him. We'll have to cut the search short soon."

_WHAT?_

I whip around to face him.

"WHAT?" I ask, not caring how loud I am.

"We cannot…do this forever. For anyone. The Rebellion is bigger than one person."

"We're going to keep looking though." Hera said reassuringly to my left.

…

_They're going to abandon Ezra._

I look back to the ground in front of me, feeling crushed.

Ezra…

They're going to leave him to fight for himself.

_I don't think he can fight._

He's with that Vader guy. Who is like death incarnate.

_Except for seeing him at Naboo._

Which was weird.

Really weird.

When I look up next, Sophie's holding onto a cup of what I'm guessing is Bug Juice.

_It's her favorite._

"—edding still on schedule?" Mom asked Ahsoka.

"At this time, yes. But if this situation changes, it'll be pushed back."

"He's got the intel they went there for." Rex explained.

Mom bit her lip, and Sophie sipped her drink.

"Okay. I assume that's why you contacted us? To deliver the bad news?" Daddy asked Lux, punctuating it with a quiet sigh.

Lux simply nodded.

"We figured you should hear it straight from us." Ahsoka said calmly.

"Any word on the B-W—" Hera began, before my attention is yanked from her to Kanan.

_They're feeling it again._

Kanan let out a quiet grunt, gritted his teeth and bowed his head.

I turn back to Ahsoka to see her eyes closed, and her fingers are digging into her wrist guard.

"Uhm…" Mom asked, before Echo jumped in.

"This is what they were talking about."

"Is it live? Like happening right now?" dad asked quickly.

_Sophie looks scared._

"We don't know. They believe that it's on a slight delay, but that's strictly a guess." Rex replied to him.

Daddy nodded before Kanan silently walked out of the picture and grabbed onto a table in the corner of the room.

_I don't know how the Force works._

Maybe it's affecting him more because he's trained Ezra longer?

I really don't know.

_But we need to go get him._

Hold on Ezra.

_Please._

Just hold on.


	40. Knowledge is Power

_Breathe in…_

…

_Breathe out…_

I exhale and try to focus myself.

I…

…

…

I don't know how long I've been here.

_But I'm wearing down._

…

I don't know how much longer I can fight.

…

…

The torture…

Physical. With the droid.

…

Mental. Kanan's screams, which Vader and Tarkin were sadistic enough to keep tucked away somewhere…

…

I exhale and bring my head back up to face where I know the door is.

_I know the door is there._

…

The droid has been my only visitor for a long time.

No Darth Vader.

No Shark Bait.

No other Inquisitor.

No Tarkin.

…

Nobody.

_Just me._

…

I think if the Rebellion knew where I was, they'd have came by now.

…

And…

_I'm spent._

The last food I had was on Denon with Darcy.

The last drink of any kind was then too.

…

I'm dehydrated.

I'm hungry.

I'm tired.

_I'm basically beat._

…

I just want to go to sleep.

…

I've been fighting it…for a long time.

_If I sleep, they'll come and do something to me._

Strap a muzzle to me.

Cut off an arm.

Something.

…

…

The interrogation droid has done more poking and prodding, but hasn't shocked me since I passed out apparently.

_With whatever Tarkin called it._

Oso…something.

…

_Breathe Ezra._

I focus myself and take a deep breath.

…

Then I exhale.

…

I close my eyes and let myself rest.

…

_I'm tired._

…

…

I hear the door open, and use the Force to see who it is.

_It's not Vader._

I haven't felt him for the last few days.

_Even though he could be trying to lure me into a relaxed state._

So I've been keeping my guard up.

…

It's the masked Inquisitor.

I glance up to confirm my suspicions.

_It is her._

I let out a breath and bow my head.

If she's going to hurt me, she's going to hurt me.

I can't fight her.

…

…

She walked right up to me, then pressed a button on the side of my table.

Beep.

The shackled binding my hands and feet to the table retract, and I fall heavily to the floor.

_OW._

…

She must want to throw me around the room.

I shakily get to my feet, and realize how weak my legs are.

_I can barely stand._

My left arm is killing me still.

When I look to the Inquisitor, she's watching me.

…

"So, what are you going to do to me?" I ask her.

…

"Tell me!" I demand.

"Come. You need food." She told me simply, then started out of the room.

All other thought flies out of my head at the last word she said.

_Food._

"What?"

"Come." She said, waving me to the door.

…

Okay.

_If I'm going to keep fighting them, I need to eat._

I walk out of the room they've kept me in, and into a hall.

_Full of Stormtroopers._

…

They're stationed at every door.

I follow the Inquisitor, who is still walking ahead of me.

…

It's nothing but gray walls with red lights.

I reach out with the Force, and feel Shark Bait somewhere behind me.

…

The Inquisitor has stepped to the side of a door on the left.

I take it as an invitation to enter, and walk inside.

…

"That's nutria-bars, grapes and other fruits. Along with blue milk. We can get another drink if you'd like." The Inquisitor says to me calmly.

…

_It's a table full of food._

Just for me.

"Thank you." I tell her, then grab a plate and load it up.

_Nutria-bars will keep me going the longest._

I don't know if they'll give this luxury to me again.

I shakily pour myself some blue milk, then look around the room.

…

_I don't want to sit in a chair._

I spot an open area by a terminal, and sit down, bringing my food with me and set it off to my right.

_Okay…_

Back on Lothal, when I didn't eat much, I had a system to keep food down when you haven't eaten for awhile.

Two small sized bites and one sip of water.

You can substitute the drink for whatever you have.

_Your stomach usually isn't too welcoming to food when you haven't eaten for days._

…

I inhale, then lightly sip the blue milk.

So my stomach can loosen up.

…

…

I slowly unwrap the first nutria-bar with shaky hands and take a small bite.

My stomach flips, and I take a deep breath.

_Keep it down._

Keep. It. Down.

Every bite will be easier from now on.

…

Just to be on the safe side, I sip the blue milk again, then take another small bite of the nutria-bar.

…

"You've done this before." The Inquisitor tells me.

…

_Yeah._

I shrug, then eat a single grape.

…

"You're very measured with how you're eating. You know that if you eat too much, too fast, you'll just throw it up."

…

_Yeah._

_I've done that._

And woken up hungrier than before.

I sip my blue milk and nod.

…

I eat a berry, and take a measured breath.

_I'm starting to feel okay._

…

It's hitting me.

"Do I have a time limit?" I ask her quietly.

The Inquisitor shook her head.

"No. Take all the time you need to get full."

I sip the blue milk, then clear my throat.

"That's going to take a while." I say.

"Then we'll be here for a while." The Inquisitor replied simply.

…

_Okay._

I eat another grape, and look around.

_It looks like we're in a communications room._

It's old though.

Really old.

I sip my blue milk, and realize that I'm almost out.

Wordlessly, the Inquisitor floated the container of blue milk to me.

…

"Thank you." I say politely.

_She's actually being kind of nice._

…

"Nobody should go so long without eating. It serves no one." The Inquisitor stated, then pressed a button on her wrist.

Then a rapid clinking noise makes me jump in fright.

_What is it?_

…

It…

It's the same type of droid that slipped past me on Onderon.

It crawled by me at lightspeed.

The droid crawled its way down the wall, past me, and into the Inquisitor's hand.

…

_Like a pet._

…

It's…purring.

Like a Loth-Cat would.

…

I sip my blue milk and try to clear my head.

I already feel stronger.

_Breathe._

…

You're with the enemy.

…

I steel myself, then eat the last bite of the first nutria-bar.

As I'm unwrapping the second one, a snap-hiss echoes out, causing me to freeze.

_Lightsaber._

I slowly look up, and my jaw drops.

_It's not a lightsaber._

…

The Inquisitor just took off her mask.

I blink and refocus myself as the Inquisitor reached up and removed her pointy…hat thing, allowing black hair to fall to her shoulders.

_It really is a girl._

…

"Surprised that I actually have a face?" The Inquisitor asked, voice airier than it is behind the mask.

Numbly, I nod.

_Eat, you idiot._

I nibble on my nutria-bar, then focus in on the Inquisitor's face.

_She has pale green skin, yellow eyes…and scars in a pattern going along her cheeks and nose._

Like tattoos.

_I don't think I've met a species like the Inquisitor before._

…

The Inquisitor is silently petting her little crawling droid.

…

I sip my blue milk, then focus back on eating.

"Are you feeling better?"

I look back to the Inquisitor.

She's looking at me.

"Yes." I reply.

The Inquisitor nodded, eyes not betraying anything.

_They're so…yellow._

Honestly it's a little gross.

"I already know your name. But you don't know mine."

…

I look up at the Inquisitor.

_She has a name?_

"Barriss. Barriss Offee." The Inquisitor crouched in front of me and extended her hand.

I stare at her hand for a moment, then gently shake it.

"Pleasure." I say.

_What is going on?_

What is she trying to do?

"Why does Vader just call you the Inquisitor?" I ask.

"I'm the leader of all the Inquisitors. The Pau'an your master killed? He was my best student. I admit I'm still a little angry about that…" The Inquisitor trailed off.

_The Inquisitor wasn't equal to Vader?_

He was a pawn too?

"You've suffered enough that I believe that you should at least know what you're suffering for Ezra." The Inquisitor…Barriss said to me.

"I don't buy it." I say, then protectively taking a bite of nutria-bar.

…

Blue milk.

The Inquisitor smiled at me.

"I understand your skepticism. I didn't believe it either. Back in the Clone Wars."

Clone Wars?

"You fought in the Clone Wars?" I ask out of curiosity.

The Inquisitor smiled and nodded to me.

"Yes, I did. On the side of the Republic and the Jedi."

I freeze, grape halfway to my mouth.

_She was a Jedi?_

"You…were a Jedi?"

The Inquisitor quietly nodded.

"Yes. Until I learned the truth of the Clone Wars. The entire conflict was an inside job. A Jedi by the name of Sifo-Dyas created the Clone Army. A former Jedi led the Separatists. When the Separatists were defeated, the Jedi made a move on the Chancellor. Seeking power. It was them pulling the strings all along"

"I don't believe you." I reply.

_I don't._

Why would a former Jedi turn against the Republic?

"It's true. The conflict had given the Jedi an opportunity to show their true colors. We were responsible for the war. The people of the galaxy hated us. We had lost our way and become the villains of the conflict. I refused to betray the Republic. So I left."

…

_Like Ahsoka._

"I joined Darth Vader shortly after the Empire's birth. Together, we began to right the wrongs of the Clone Wars. To heal the galaxy. Bringing peace, justice and security to the new Empire."

…

I eat a grape and continue listening intently.

_She's going to slip up soon._

This can't be true.

"As I'm sure you've heard from your master, the clones were the ones to execute the most famous order in galactic history."

"Order 66." I say quietly.

The Inquisitor nodded.

"Exactly. The Jedi were putting forward a lie. Sowing conflict and strife wherever they went. Then blaming it on the Seperatists."

I can't resist the urge to roll my eyes, then pour myself more blue milk.

"…Did you know that your master doesn't actually exist?"

I freeze, and look at her.

"Yes. He exists. You fought him." I state bluntly, then pop a berry into my mouth.

_This is nonsense._

"Not literally. You're thinking in terms of black and white. Open your mind."

…

I take a bite of nutria-bar and simply look at the Inquisitor.

She's leaning forward in her seat.

"The name. Kanan Jarrus. It's not your master's real name."

"That's impossible. Why would he change his name?" I ask.

_Ridiculous._

"Oh, I don't know…maybe being hunted across the galaxy?"

I freeze.

Oh no.

_Order 66._

He was hunted.

I nervously swallow, then look back to the Inquisitor.

Silently, the Inquisitor brought out a datapad and handed it to me.

On the screen…is a boy. Younger than me.

_But he looks familiar._

"That…is Padawan Learner Caleb Dume. Or as you know him, Kanan Jarrus."

_No…_

I sip my blue milk and try to hide my nerves.

"He was the apprentice to Master Depa Billaba. When the Order was given, she gave him a simple command…"

_Run?_

"Run."

…

"Ezra…they are lying to you."

"I don't believe it. You're lying!" I say to her.

"I have no reason to lie." She countered.

"You want to turn me. To bring me to your side. And fight against Kanan."

"Caleb." The Inquisitor corrected me.

"Whatever." I spit out.

…

"What I want…is for you to reach your potential Ezra. I'm telling you this for your own good. So that you may survive like I have survived."

…

I sip my blue milk and realize that I'm out of nutria-bars.

_But I'm still hungry._

I get to my feet and grab three more, then walk back to my spot.

…

"In our duel…I noticed something Ezra."

…

_I won't be baited._

"You use Form II, correct?"

My head pops up in shock.

"How did you know that?" I ask in amazement.

"Simple. Most of your strikes were with one hand. You use the other to beat me back with a combination of pushes and cuts towards my legs and feet."

…

"Really, Ezra, it was a great fight. I commend you. Your skills are quite impressive."

Thank you.

I shrug.

"I've got a long way to go."

…

"Humor me Ezra. Show me your skills against my droid."

"Huh?" I say numbly.

The Inquisitor's droid quickly scuttles on the floor to the other side of the room, then pops into the air and starts buzzing.

"There's a blade right by where the blue milk was. Use it to block my droid's shots. As you probably know—"

"The weakness to my style is blaster deflection." I cut her off.

"I want to see how you compensate." The Inquisitor tells me calmly.

…

I begin to walk to the table where all the food is.

"STOP!" The Inquisitor suddenly yells out.

I turn back to look at her.

"What?" I ask.

"Don't take another step. Use the Force!" The Inquisitor barks at me. "Trillions of life forms would kill you for the abilities you have. Use them! Don't think like a barbarian! Think like a warrior!"

I take a steadying breath, then find the blade and pull it to me and ignite the blade.

_Purple._

Huh.

"Don't worry, the blade is supposed to look like that." The Inquisitor said reassuringly.

The hilt is a standard design. Vertical, with hand grips on the bottom.

"Ready?" The Inquisitor asked.

I nod.

Beep.

Quickly, the droid started firing shots at me.

I deflect them to the sides.

"Where should they go?" I call out, while focusing my attention.

"Anywhere but at my droid!"

Left. Right.

Left. Right.

Left Left.

Right Right.

_The droid slowly but surely is picking up the pace._

Treat it like an exercise from Kanan and Ahsoka Ezra.

Left. Right.

Left. Right.

"Good job…"

Right. Left.

Left. Right.

Suddenly, the droid sends a stun bolt at me, causing me to duck rapidly.

Then it began firing even faster.

Right. Left. Left. Right.

Left. Right. Right. Left.

Left. Right. Left Right. Left. Right.

Beep Beep.

The droid abruptly stopped firing at me, and I deactivate my blade.

The Inquisitor gets to her feet and walks to me.

_She's shorter than me without her big fancy hat._

"Good job Ezra. Very good. Try this one." She told me, then swapped out the purple blade for a curved hilted weapon.

I slip it into my palm, and I activate it.

_Blue blade._

Huh.

I wave it back and forth several times.

_It feels great in my hand._

"Whenever you're ready." She told me.

I nod, and the droid begins firing at me again.

Left. Right. Left.

Right. Left. Right.

_Hah._

I've got this.

It's faster than the normal blaster deflection droid Kanan and Ahsoka have me practice on, but I can handle it.

And this hilt.

_It feel great in my hand._

Every movement is much easier.

After a few minutes of blaster deflection, The Inquisitor stops it again.

"Easier?"

I nod, and hand her the weapon back.

"Good. That was very good Ezra."

I nod in thanks, then go back to my food.

_I'm still hungry._

"One last thing Ezra…then I'll leave you in peace to eat until you're full." The Inquisitor says, right before I sit down.

"Okay."

"The Arkanian…I can teach you a way to keep him off you."

…

"How?" I ask.

…

"Did your master ever tell you about something called Force Lightning?"

…

"I've accidentally used it." I blurt out.

_I was so mad at Sabine._

I just reached out and bang!

Lightning.

"Okay, so you already know what it is. But it was an accident you say?" She asked me.

I nod.

"Let me teach you how to conjure it at will…" She said, then waved me to her side.

I walk over and face where her droid was.

"The easy part of the physical aspect. Extend your arm all the way out and spread your fingertips."

The Inquisitor reached out and I copied her movement.

"Then focus your energy. Your anger and hate towards the stupid Arkanian and—"

Lightning shot from her finger tips to the other wall.

_And kept going._

Then she stopped and turned to me.

I let out a breath.

_The memory of seeing Shark Bait again pops into my head._

I beat you!

AND YOU ARE STILL ALIVE?!

Quickly, and easily, lightning flies from my finger tips.

_But it falls short of the wall._

I stop, and find myself breathless.

"Very, very good Ezra. You will get better in time. Just allow your emotions to flow thru you. They feed your power. Another lie you master is feeding you."

I try to catch my breath, then walk back to my food.

_She said I could eat now._

I'm going to keep eating until I am 100% full.

And not one bite before that.

(A/N: Surprise! I wanted to drop in and tell you all really quick that Ezra's POVand Sabine's POV are not simultaneous. They are close, but not at the exact same time! Check back tomorrow! –James)


	41. Breakthrough

Sabine POV

I pull the trigger three times, then look up to see how close I was to my target.

_It's an electronic board that'll tell me if the shots were lethal or not._

Kill.

Kill.

Kill.

Good.

I quietly sigh, then look to my right.

_Those dumb girls are still here._

I don't know when they go back from wherever they went, but they've talked to basically everyone.

Trying to find out what happened to Ezra.

Trying to help.

Trying to go rescue him.

In front of me, one of them smiles warmly at me.

I fake a smile back to her, then set my blasters down.

_They're annoying me._

Can't you just let things lie?

It's been 12 days.

Twelve days since Denon.

I don't think things can get much worse.

Hera took Kanan to the medical wing to be sedated so he could rest.

_It's at the point that he can't sleep because of Ezra._

Ahsoka told me that he's still fighting.

But her eyes told me that he's not fighting as hard.

_They're wearing him down._

…

I overheard Lux and a few troopers talking about extending the search longer.

Still nothing.

No clues.

No hope.

I'm out of tears.

_I've even stopped hovering around the command center._

They know as much as I do.

…

So now I'm here. Firing shots at dummies to exercise my trigger finger.

Mom send me a message yesterday.

_She said that Sophie is a mess. _

She cried herself to sleep the first night after we told her he got captured.

She's been acting really weird too. Typing in his name on the holo and making videos on the camera.

I didn't know he made such an impact on her.

Yeah, she was happy and bouncy and affectionate…but that's Sophie.

Telling her to not be happy and affectionate is like telling me not to paint, or shoot.

_And I can't even paint right now._

I tried to draw the other day, but I didn't know what to draw.

I just ended up sitting there, crying because of a memory of Ezra complimenting my shitty drawing of the Denon skyline at night.

…

_Don't._

You can't cry here.

Not in front of them.

…

_You know his girlfriend is taking this a lot harder than you are._

Be a real _Mando'a_ and put it aside.

_You'll make them pay later._

I let out a breath, then open my eyes and grab my blasters.

…

Let's kill this dummy again.

I slap the button for the electronics to start up again, then give it 5 seconds.

…

…

I squeeze off three shots, then hear my name.

"Sabine!"

_Rex._

I turn around and see that he's doubled over, out of breath.

"Yeah?" I ask.

"We…Command Center." Rex gasped out, clearly winded.

"Did you find him?" One of the girls bluntly asked.

"Can we come?"

"I…I'm afraid you cannot come. I'm sorry." Rex said, rising to his full height as I strap my blasters to me and grab Ezra's water bottle.

_It's handy._

"Why not? We want to help!" The girl that got in Kallus' face asked Rex, getting worked up.

"Just because we were Imperials doesn't mean we can't be trusted!" Another said, clearly angry.

"I'm sorry ladies. I really am. But this is a top secret matter. We're keeping this close to the vest."

"If there's a mission, we would appreciate being considered." Darcy said simply, in a steady voice.

_She's forcing herself to be calm._

This is about Ezra.

"You will be. I assure you. In the eyes of the Rebellion, you are one of us now." Rex said calmly.

"Then can we come with you to the command center?" One of them asked nicely.

Rex smirked slightly, then shook his head.

"I'm afraid not."

The girl huffed out an angry breath, then marched back to her station and started firing as fast as she could.

I quickly walk out the door, leaving Rex to follow.

Once he's thru the door, and it shuts I ask him a question.

"This isn't him in a bag is it?"

Rex shook his head.

"Ezra wouldn't let that happen."

"Then what is it?" I ask.

Rex cracked the biggest smile I've seen in days.

"Chopper found something about 10 minutes ago."

_Chopper?_

"Isn't he going over the raw data?" I ask.

_That's what I remember._

"He is." Rex answered.

"What did he find?" I ask.

"A transmission from a Star Destroyer about its passengers. Regarding Two Inquisitors, and a captured Jedi being transferred."

My heart leaps.

"That has to be him."

"We've double checked all the Jedi that remain at large. He's the only candidate."

"What system?" I ask.

Rex shrugged.

"I don't know. I was there when Chopper found it, waited for him to save the audio, isolate it, play it for Echo and I, then ran to find you." He said, then smiled.

"You didn't have to come so fast. You could have gotten more information." I smile at him.

_He's working so hard._

For Ezra.

And for me.

"You said to get you the moment we found something." Rex smiled at me.

Oh yeah.

"I guess I did. But I was crazy then too." I confess.

"Justifiably so, in my book at least." Rex concedes.

"Do I need to go get the others?" I ask him.

Rex shook his head.

"No. Echo sent a mass comm out to all of them." Rex told me as the communication center came into view.

The others must be coming then.

Right on cue, Ahsoka and Lux sprinted into view and busted inside.

I hear raised voices as we get closer.

"—Kanan is still in the infirmary. The droids don't want to let him go because of his blood pressure. That was the last thing I heard. But Hera is bringing him." Echo told them, then looked to Rex and I.

"She'll deactivate that droid if it gives her half a chance." Rex said.

I quietly laugh, and feel some of my tension ease away.

_We have hope again._

…

…

"We're here. Talk to us." Hera said, walking in at top speed.

Kanan is in a t-shirt and long pants.

_That's weird._

Huh.

"Have you learned anything more?" Rex asked.

In response, Chopper toodled loudly.

'_NO. I've just found the Star Destroyer, obtained its flight path and its final destination.'_

I smile, and Kanan looks relieved.

"We never doubted you Chopper." Hera added.

'_Of course you didn't…'_

Chopper then went back to his data port, working silently.

Echo scrolled thru several screens, then bit his lip.

"You're not going to like this sir." He said.

"Where?" Kanan asked.

Echo sheepishly smiled.

"Not you sir. Rex."

"Oh." Kanan replied.

"Where." Rex asked simply.

"Umbara." Echo replied.

_No…_

Rex quickly closed his eyes and bowed his head.

"Why…am I not surprised?" he said quietly.

"Isn't that the place where General Krell…" Ahsoka asked Rex gently.

Rex nodded.

"Fill us in?" Hera smiled at Rex.

_Trying to convince him to talk to her._

"I…we sort of staged a mutiny against a rogue Jedi general there."

"Oh…Master Krell. Of course." Kanan said quietly.

"You knew him?"

Kanan shook his head.

"Knew of him. He had the highest Clone fatality rates in the war. I remember Master Billaba commenting on that to one of our commanders on a mission once." Kanan said to Hera, then looked at Rex.

Rex however, was looking at Echo.

"Are you sure?"

Echo replied immediately.

"It's the last stop on the dossier, and meeting up with a full battalion on the planet."

_No other reason than to protect a prisoner._

"What do we know of their numbers on Umbara? I don't want to go in blind." Rex said bluntly.

Echo shrugged.

"Working on that now."

"Alright." Rex frowned.

Ahsoka smiled, breaking the tension.

"Hey. At least we have something now."

_Yeah._

We have hope.

…

We have hope.

Ezra POV

I fight to stay silent as the electrical shocks continue to flow thru my body freely.

_My head can bounce up and down._

_My hands can shake._

But I cannot let him know how much pain I am in.

I continue to grit my teeth and Shark Bait keeps his fingers pressed firmly on the button the controls the flow of electricity thru my table.

…

…

I let out a measured breath and let out a small smile to Shark Bait.

_Stop shocking me._

I'll kill you if you don't.

Whether it's today. Tomorrow. A week from now. A month from now. A year from now.

_I will kill Shark Bait._

For good this time.

Shark Bait's anger finally flares, and the electricity stops abruptly.

"SCREAMMMM!" He bellows at me, clearly working up into a frenzy.

I laugh and take a full breath.

…

"No."

_I will not let him break me._

He's been coming in and refusing to allow me to sleep by shocking me any time it looks like I'm about to doze off.

At this point, I almost don't care what Vader has done.

_Shark Bait is worse._

"I…will make you scream. I will make you scream until you scream BLOOD!" He yells at me, getting millimeters from my face.

I simply stay silent.

_Oddly enough, he gives off no scent. It's like nothing is in front of me._

He's so maniacally sadistic. And he makes no effort to control it.

Because I am the reason Vader hates him.

_That, and the whole animal thing._

They all came in, Barriss, Vader and Shark Bait, for a happy group torture session.

Apparently I'm not cooperating.

At some point, Vader stopped mentally attacking me and went into a carefully worded rant about how Shark Bait is a glorified animal. And that he is undeserving of the Force.

After they left, my body refused to do anything else other than hang limply and throb painfully.

…

_And I heard it._

The Dark Side.

…

All it is, at least right now, is a controlled whisper.

Telling me how I can turn the tables on Shark Bait.

How I can make the pain stop.

How I can escape and get back to my Master.

And how I can learn more about the Force.

…

Which I hate to admit, intrigues me.

That is my weakness.

_Strength and aptitude with the Force._

I blink, and Shark Bait takes a step back.

"Let's try again." He smiled darkly.

I open my palm and do the same push I did to the last interrogation droid.

Shark Bait quickly goes flying back and slams into the wall.

_It put a big dent in the IT-O droid._

But they keep sending it in here. Dent and all.

I've sarcastically nicknamed him "Dent"

Like "Oh hey, it's Dent. Good to see you again buddy."

Whatever programming they've got in the droid does not like that.

_The last few sessions haven't been too bad._

But I've held strong.

_Ironically…because of the Inquisitor._

I think I've been fed once a day since she took me for food.

On those trips I can also use the fresher and wash my face.

I can't get a new outfit, which is what I really want. But I can't really complain.

_Pain is temporary._

I can outlast the pain.

I outlasted my misery on Lothal.

That took years.

I can think my way thru this.

_I'm smart enough to do it._

And now that I'm getting food once a day, the torture isn't nearly as bad as it was before I ate.

I was at the end of my rope.

_I think if the droid had come in and pulled the right strings…_

I would have fell.

I was really just…beat.

In front of me, Shark Bait takes his place in front of me with the button.

_Okay._

"Do your worst. Monster." I spit out at him.

Shark Bait laughed once.

Then the door opened.

"I hate to spoil your fun. I really do…but it's time for him to eat." The Inquisitor, Barriss told Shark Bait.

"Why does he get to eat? I can break him now!" Shark Bait raged.

"It's called humane treatment. You wouldn't understand, since you're an animal." Barriss said coolly.

In response, Shark Bait LOST IT.

"AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH! I'M GOING TO KILL YOUUUU!" He yelled, flinging the remote aside and blindly charging her.

_Oh that's not smart…_

The Inquisitor simply raised her hand and lit Shark Bait up.

Shark Bait immediately let out a high pitched, prolonged scream.

At the end, Barriss simply tossed Shark Bait to the side, still zapping him with lightning.

…

"I…am your master. Not Lord Vader. I am the one you kneel before. Remember that… Animal." The Inquisitor told Shark Bait coldly.

"Uhhhhhh…" Shark Bait groaned in the corner.

I can almost see Barriss roll her eyes while she's pressing the button to release me.

"Come. It's all prepared." She told me.

I gather myself before I fall on the floor, then wordlessly follow her.

What greets me on the other side of the door, is the same familiar setting.

Stormtroopers guarding doors, with red lights and gray walls.

"I cannot stay with you this time. You are not my only objective here. I must tend to it also." The Inquisitor told me calmly, not looking back at me.

"Alright. I'm not going to run." I reply.

_There's no point._

They will just make me regret the decision.

Without another word, the Inquisitor turned off into a different hallway.

I briefly stop to watch her go, then keep walking to the normal room.

…

_Whoa._

Hold on.

I quickly bend down and pretend to tie my shoes, and press my hand into the floor.

…

_We're moving._

I can feel the engines.

I felt the floor move.

_We're on a ship._

…

Have we been on a ship this whole time?

A Stormtrooper in front of me turns in my direction.

"Move along. Before I call an Inquisitor."

I quickly hop to my feet and raise my hands.

"No trouble…just my shoes."

The other Stormtrooper that was guarding that door stepped forward.

"Then move along." He barked at me, holding his blaster menacingly.

"Okay…" I say quickly, then walk into the communications room that I eat in.

I grab a plate and load it full of nutria-bars and fruit, then pour myself some blue milk.

I move to sit on the floor like normal, and I notice something on the floor.

_There's a datapad on the floor._

I sit down and set my food to the side, then open it up.

…

This is interesting.

It's a…paper on my lightsaber form.

"Thoughts and Missives on Makashi, The Second Lightsaber Combat Form" – Dooku, Count of Serreno

_I don't have time to read the entire thing._

I'll just scan.

…

_This guy was a Jedi._

It says so in the first couple of paragraphs.

"In my adventures as a Jedi, I am the only Master level practitioner of the form. This rarity is both a strength and weakness."

…

This makes sense.

_It's strength because people never see it._

It's a weakness because it gives little time to be applied in combat, along with time for advancements to be made.

…

4 Tips to gain an upper hand on a stronger opponent:

1\. Footwork.

If applied correctly, you can maneuver your stronger, likely slower opponent into an unfavorable situation such as backed into a corner or on the edge of a crevasse.

2\. Anticipate.

Think 2 to 3 steps ahead in the fight. Account for the terrain around you. Use it to your advantage. Come up with a block and counter for a move that is yet to occur. Yet maintain your senses in the moment.

3\. Never think formulaically.

A lightsaber duel using Makashi is an art. Brute strength can ruin this art. A brute fight A-B-C. You can, and should count on a bulkier opponent leveraging that against you. But always be ready for an unexpected blow.

4\. Use the Force.

One of the primary advantages of Makashi is the ability to use the Force with your free hand. If you are using two hands with every attack, you are simply doing Makashi wrong. Leverage your free hand into a constant advantage, pressing the offensive on your opponent with pushes, pulls and physical attacks such as a punch or open handed blow.

…

This is fascinating.

…

He's making a big deal of using Makashi with an open mind. Dictate the fight's terms, but let the form guide me.

Don't be afraid to give ground.

Allow my emotions and feelings on the fight to push me in the correct direction.

You can lose a foot, but gain two .

You're still moving forward.

_Strategic._

…

Hey.

…

"The Force is a omnipresent power. There is no such thing as good or evil to the Force. There is only intent. All powers are just that. Powers."

_Ahsoka said basically the same thing back on Onderon._

After my lightning show.

…

I take a big bite of nutria-bar, then get to my feet.

_I wonder if I can do it on my own._

The last few times I've eaten, Barriss has given me little pointers.

Like, with the curved lightsaber: Allow it to sit back farther in my hand.

_With the curve, I don't have to reach out as far._

She's really been on me about my footwork.

Maybe she's right about that.

Kanan's always on me about that.

_Like the time I was too aggressive and got beat by him._

Barriss seems to know exactly what I need to do, and everything she's saying is easily applied.

As opposed to Kanan. He has to work thru it with me.

"_Do or do not. There is no try."_

I let out a breath, then extend my arm to the far wall and focus.

_Yes._

Lightning shoots out of my fingers immediately.

After a few seconds, I tilt my hand and send lightning into the very corner of the room.

…

I breathe and lower my arm.

_I can control it._

…

I have to say, it's very natural.

I smile to myself and sit back down with my nutria-bars and fruit.

…

_These grapes are really good._

Fresh.

I grab the datapad and my eyes rest on a section called "The Curved Hilted Lightsaber".


	42. One Last Call

Whack!

I cringe and take in a breath.

_Didn't break a rib._

The droid registered that, then punched me square in the face.

AHHHH!

…

Okay.

I don't think it caved my head in.

_It only felt like it did._

The droid saw the weakness in my lower body and swung it's electrified staff and hit my leg.

I grit my teeth and look up as the now familiar sense of electricity courses thru my body.

Just like it did on Denon.

_These are the same staffs._

Violet arcs of energy on either side, with a chrome finish.

In one smooth motion, the droid reversed the staff, cut off the electricity and slammed it into my chest.

I double up as much as I can and wait for another blow.

…

…

My heart leaps as I hear the door open and footsteps moving away from me.

…

_He's gone._

…

…

That was awful.

Terrible.

…

_Focus._

I take a deep breath as the only consistent company I've had outside of Shark Bait and that droid thing whispers in my ear.

'_Use my power…'_

'_Your emotions are the fuel to your power'_

'_Your wounds can be healed by the powers of the Dark Side.'_

Behind my closed eyelids a picture forms in my head.

…

It's me, popping off the bracers on my table.

Then I place my hands on my legs.

And pop the restraints on my legs off also.

…

Then the vision slowly dissolves.

…

_Breathe._

I take a breath and try to relax as best I can.

Even though this table is about as uncomfortable as it gets.

…

For now, I'm going to try and sleep before Shark Bait comes in and zaps me just for the laughs.

Soon, Barriss will come and allow me to eat.

I haven't eaten for awhile. I'd guess a full day.

_They're changing up topics._

…

I really wish they'd let me keep the paper they let me read on that datapad.

I read all I could, and really didn't eat all that much.

It actually was fascinating. One thought is still bouncing around in my head.

"Always duel with the situation in mind. If the situation calls for it, duck. Throw your opponent bodily. Makashi is more a mental form than a physical one. The person to win the mental battle will prevail every time. Fluidity and creativity and a byproduct of this process. It's not thinking outside of the box. It's that there is no box. The only restraints to Makashi are those you place upon yourself."

Honestly, I can't wait to put what I learned into practice.

The footwork, the saber being farther back in my hand, the Force being a critical part of the form.

I've only used it as a escape valve.

_Onderon._

I pushed her in order to jump onto the ship.

Body placement also.

I think I've done it subconsciously, but if I focus on it, I should be hard to catch up to.

We picked this form because of my natural quickness.

_I've worked out to be able to hold my own in a one on one fight._

I jump at the sound of the door opening.

_Stormtroopers._

I feel my temper bubble back to the surface, but I bank it.

For the moment.

Two of the troopers leveled their blasters at my chest while the other one pressed the button on the side to release the restraints.

"Come." The trooper barks at me.

I move to follow him, only to be stopped and have my hands thrown behind my back and bound.

To top it all off, the guy ruthlessly pushed me forward.

I barely stop myself before colliding with the first trooper.

_I think he's in charge._

He noticed my hurried steps, then turned and looked at me.

"I couldn't stop myself. He pushed me." I say.

_He's going to smack me with his blaster._

The Stormtrooper looked me dead in the eye, then looked to his own men.

"No goofing off. Let's move."

Okay.

I follow behind them silently, essentially shuffling down the hall and into a room on the right.

The Stormtroopers opened the door, then began guarding it.

_Not paying any attention to me._

Like they are above me.

…

I feel my frustrations rise again, and I try to put them to the side as I shuffle inside.

It's pitch black.

When the door closes behind me with a reassuring "thunk", I probe around with the Force.

_Too easy._

Shark Bait and the Inquisitor are just off to the left.

Quickly, the restraints on my hands are unlocked, and I toss them aside.

Then I jump as a bright light comes on, revealing them.

"Ezra. We've let you read. Now apply it." The Inquisitor said softly as Shark Bait is looking at me with a glint in his eye.

_Huh?_

"What?" I ask her, before the rest of the room is lit up.

I turn and see three things.

_Lightsaber._

And two of those droids.

With those staffs.

Without being cued, both droid lit up their staffs and began advancing on me.

I pull the lightsaber to me and ignite it.

_Okay._

I can defend myself from these two now.

One of the droids made a harsh noise and turned to the other one, which didn't look away from me.

Fine then.

Three steps away.

I get in my ready stance, and wait.

_Stay patient._

Two steps…

The droid makes it's noise again, which sounds like "Whiiiiirrr Womp Womp"

But there's some base it in, while also being high pitched.

NOW!

I engage the droid on my right while throwing the table in between Shark Bait and the Inquisitor at the droid on the left.

That droid is blindsided and taken out of the picture, smashing against the near wall.

Cut. Block. Slice.

The droid makes a noise and deactivates one side of the staff, then swings at me.

I quickly duck, then slide to the and reengage.

Slice. Block.

The droid attempts to outmuscle me, and I take half a step back, then parry it and swing at his head.

_Whiff._

DANG IT!

Suddenly, the Force calls out with a warning, and I do a barrel roll right before another staff is slammed into the ground right where I was standing.

_The other one isn't dead._

…

Okay.

Footwork.

How do I beat two opponents?

With the accuracy of my blade, my brain, and my footwork.

I take a breath and reactivate my blade as the two droids advance on me.

When they both engage, I raise my blade above my head, slip in between them, then kick the one on my left as hard as I can.

The droid doesn't move.

Instead, it makes a metallic sound, and kicks me back, sending me flying.

I smash into the wall and immediately see stars.

"FOCUS!" The Inquisitor yelled at me.

_Alright…_

Okay. Jeez.

I let out a breath and get back on my feet.

The droids are ganging up on me again.

_Fine._

I'll make them choose.

I repeat my attack motion, blade above my head, then slip in between them this time and cut at the one to my right.

The droid makes another sound, and the droid on my left makes what sounds like an annoyed sound, then steps in front of the other droid.

_Good._

One at a time.

I jump forward to engage it.

Cut. Slice. Block.

Spin.

Jab. Cut.

_Nope._

Blast!

I duck down and away as the droid makes a wild swing at my head.

Nope.

I smile before the other droid catches up and pushes my droid aside.

…

_They're fighting over me._

An idea pops right into my head right before the droid in front of me looks back towards its counterpart.

"Whiiiiirrr Click Womp Cli—"

I swing at the droid as hard as I can, then Shark Bait yells something loudly.

The droid head falls to the floor, and I switch hands with my lightsaber to throw the droid aside with my right hand.

_That's what you get for not paying attention to me._

You're dead.

Stupid droid.

The other droid made an aggressive noise and jumped forward, seeing that I'm usng my other hand now.

I quickly block an overhead swing, then a swipe at my ankles.

I switch hands again, then spin and block another swing at my chest.

Instead of breaking it off, I lock blades with the droid and grit my teeth.

_One on one._

I'm winning.

The droid made a clicking noise at me, and I see that it doesn't have a mouth. It has a speaker.

And red eyes that look like lights off any standard building.

_Seriously?_

I'm fighting something made of spare parts?

"Oh shut up." I tell the droid, then take a page out of Sabine's book and hit it in the mouth with an open fist.

The droid froze up, then I slide to the side.

Then a staff connects with my ribs and sends me flying.

OW!

_What was…_

The droid's not dead.

It's got no head, but it's still moving around perfectly fine.

_Okay then._

I hop to my feet, reignite my lightsaber and push the headless droid as far as I can.

Then, on the left, I engage it.

Slice, Block.

Chop. Block.

Cut.

Skips on his blade and nicks it's shoulder.

The droid makes what sounds like an outraged noise, and I spin, then cut back at it's shoulder.

And hit the staff, but don't cut thru it.

_It must be made to resist lightsaber strikes._

Hand.

I quickly flick my wrist and connect with the droids hand, cutting it off.

The droid made a high pitched noise, then I grab it's staff and shove it thru its waist.

_If that doesn't kill it, I don't know what will._

The red lights on the droid go dark, and it stops moving.

I smile, then quickly get a warning and duck down.

_The other droid's still not dead…_

Fine.

I make a split second decision to grab onto the droid with the Force, but don't push it.

I keep it right where it is, frozen.

With my left hand, I grab the other droid, staff still in it's chest and electrified and throw the two together.

The remainng droid makes a horrible noise, then I throw the two impaled droids thru the door.

I wince at the loud noise, and the new source of light.

"Hey! You!"

A Stormtrooper suddenly popped up, looking at me.

Then another moves to join him.

"Did you throw that at us? Punk!" One of the Stormtroopers barks at me.

"We can make your stay here a lot worse you know. The boys have been wanting a shot at the Jedi." The other Stormtrooper says, as they both approach me.

They're armed.

_Well…kind of._

"Say something! Brat!" The first Stormtrooper yelled at me.

Fine.

I reignite my lightsaber and slice at the first one, then spin and cut the other one in half.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

Thunk.

…

I shut off my blade and look at the two Stormtroopers that are now in four pieces.

Head, body.

Legs, Chest and Head.

_Stormtrooper armor isn't lightsaber resistant._

…

I feel good.

Calm.

Like I do whenever a sparring session goes really well.

_I'm in the zone._

…

I don't feel dark.

"Come on." The Inquisitor said softly, now at my side.

I hand over my weapon, then wordlessly follow.

_I feel fine._

I'm just all lathered up.

I let out a breath as we walk down the hall back to my room.

It's the exact same layout as before.

We could be on a ship.

We could not be on a ship.

_I don't know._

I climb back onto my table, and Barriss locks the restraints around me again.

…

…

I killed those two Stormtroopers.

And destroyed those droids.

…

_I don't feel bad._

I feel normal.

Like I always do.

…

…

_Is that what I have to do?_

…

Do I have to turn in order ot get out of here?

I know what I need to do.

I need to get out of here and beg, borrow, kill, stealm do whatever it takes to get to Mandalore.

I'll find Sabine's parents.

They'll know how to get in contact with the others.

I can protect them if the Empire comes after me.

…

…

I let out a breath and try to pull my mind together.

…

_Is that what I have to do?_

To fight thru the dark side, in order to come out on the other side in the light?

…

'_Yesss…'_

I bow my head and close my eyes.

And just listen.

'_Use your powers. The restraints are easily broken…Free yourself and pilot a ship to Keldabe…'_

…

…

I sigh, then try and steel myself.

This is going to be hard.

_I'm going to have to accept the darkness, in order to get back to the light._

Hopefully Kanan won't hate me for doing this.

…

…

Sabine POV

I wipe a little bit of brown dirt off my blaster as the door opens to reveal Rex, Echo and Ahsoka.

Kanan, Lux and Hera have been making small talk here with me for the last few minutes.

I haven't really cared.

_This is supposed to be my briefing._

I'm tired of waiting.

I've waited for 16 days.

16 days…where Ezra is in pain.

Kanan and Ahsoka both said that they would feel it if Ezra turned.

_But they didn't tell me that they'd tell me._

They've been having hushed conversatons, in the halls and duing meals.

Just them.

…

I'm worried.

"Okay. We're all ready here?" Rex said.

I nod, as Kanan and Lux stop talking and look to Rex.

"Alright. It looks like we finally have a go on "Operation Nighthook." The recovery of Ezra from the surface of Umbara." Echo said.

"As everyone but Sabine knows…we had to wait for Darth Vader's personal Super Star Destroyer to appear away from Umbara." Rex said.

"Huh?" I ask. "Why everybody but me?"

"You're been in here shooting. And his Star Destroyer disappeared for 4 entire days. We had to wait until he popped up for us to proceed." Echo said.

"Unfortunately, if we moved and he was on Umbara, the mission would automatically be a failure. It could result in the destruction of everything we have built here."

_Oh._

"So he's not there." Lux said.

Rex nodded.

"Yes. He is back at Imperial City currently. Now…" Echo said, then brought up a dark looking map on a holoscreen.

"This is the compound we believe Ezra to be held in. The prisoner level is here." Echo said, pointing to a lit up area.

The building is rectangular, like almost all Imperial buildings.

_It's right in the middle._

"Level?" I ask.

"There are two levels. Ground level, and a single underground level."

"Who is going?" Lux asked.

Simultaneously, Ahsoka and Kanan both lean back and cross their arms.

Rex oddly…smiled at them and looked to Lux.

"The General Council has deemed that General Tano, and Jarrus are too important for this mission. If we fail, and they get stranded, we have simply compounded our problem." Rex said.

_They aren't going._

"There's going to be a force comprising of four battalions that will land on either side of the compound, about 50 clicks to the north and south. Then a strike team will land in the north and make a move on the building."

"Strike team?" I say simply.

_If I'm not on it, Kanan isn't going to be able to hold me back._

I'm going to get him.

Echo slightly smiled at me.

"Don't worry Sabine. You're on it."

Relief floods thru me.

_Whew._

I am going to be able to fix this mess.

"Along with…?" Hera asked Echo.

"Commander Rex and I, along with the same crew that went to Denon. We all want to fix this."

Whoa.

_They've got a score to settle._

"Nobody else?" Kanan asked.

"There's a backup crew in case we find ourselves in trouble coming in from cells across the galaxy. Primarily Mandalorians."

I smile.

_Hah._

Looks like we've got a good shot at this.

"We depart at 04—" Rex began, before he was cut off by the door opening.

"Commanders, Generals, I apologize for the interruption." A man in uniform and wearing a goofy helmet said.

"What is it?" Hera asked gently.

_Uh oh._

"We've got a communication on hold for a Sabine Wren? From Manadlore?"

I hop to my feet.

"That's me. Who is it?" I ask.

_Daddy?_

"Uhm…" The soldier looked at the floor and squirmed. "It's a little girl."

SOPHIE?!

_How did she…_

"We know her. Is something wrong?" Ahsoka asked quickly.

I turn and see that Ahsoka and Lux are both at their feet.

"Uhm, not that we know of. She just…called. General Orrelious is buying time now."

I quickly walk over.

"Go. Hurry." I order him.

He quickly leads me out and down the hall.

…

…

_This isn't fast enough._

"Where are we going?" I ask.

"The command center. We've moved the holo to a room just off it."

"Okay. I know where I'm going." I tell him, then starting off in a sprint.

…

What could be so bad that Sophie…would figure out how to comm me here?

I nervously swallow and keep running.

_It doesn't have to be bad._

Mommy could have just had her start the comm for her as she's cooking.

Like she had Sof answer it when we escaped from Onderon.

I barge into the command center and a soldier immediately points to the left.

I hustle inside to see Zeb and Sophie.

_Both laughing._

"—you'll see it one day. It's Ezra and I being thrown and looking goofy." Zeb laughed, then stuck his tongue out and spread his arms out.

Sophie immediately giggled.

"Sabine made that?" She asked Zeb.

"Yup."

I smile.

"I did."

Sophie and Zeb immediately turn, and Sophie lights up.

"Sabine!"

"Hey." I smile at her as Zeb stands.

"I'll let you two talk." He smiled at me.

"Thanks Zeb." I smile back, then lightly hug his side.

"No problem. She's a riot." Zeb smiled down at me, then walked away.

When the door is shut, I turn back to Sophie.

"What's going on? Are you okay?" I ask.

Sophie paused…then nodded.

"Uh huh. Mommy and Daddy just left. They said there was a meeting they had to go to. But I couldn't go. So I'm here."

"Alone?" I ask.

Sophie shook her head.

"No…Atin's in the living room watching something on the holo."

_Atin…_

"Oh. Okay." I smile as my stomach flips.

I guess he got back home.

"Uhm…_Sab'ika_?"

Whoa.

"Yeah?" I smile at her.

_She hasn't called me Sab'ika since I left home._

It was her pet name for me when I left.

She didn't call me it once when Ezra and I went back home.

Sophie looked down at the floor.

"I…Is Ezra okay?"

"Yeah." I smile at her. "We're going to go get him tomorrow."

Sophie immediately looked up, eyes wide.

"Are you going?"

I smile at her, trying to reassure her.

_She's scared._

I can tell.

"Yeah. With a whole bunch of other people. I'll be okay." I tell her.

Sophie quickly grabbed a cup from off screen and took a drink from it.

"Okay…I'm scared."

"Scared? Of what?" I ask gently, trying to softly smile at her.

_This isn't as easy as it was before I left home._

Then it was natural.

Now I have to think about it.

I don't want to treat her like a baby.

_She's 5 now._

"I…Ezra. I'm afraid they're hurting him."

I bite my lip.

And settle for a half truth.

"We think they are Sof. But he's tough. Really tough." I say.

"Are you sure?" Sophie immediately asked me.

I nod and smile.

"Yeah. I've trained with him before. He's let me hit him and didn't cry once." I joke.

Sof giggled and smiled.

_She's seen me train once, before I left._

She kept saying afterward that anyone trying to fight me would run away screaming.

Suddenly, Sophie's face fell.

"I…I had a nightmare. That Ezra…wasn't going to be okay."

_Blast._

Mom and Daddy let her know too much.

"Don't be scared Sof. Please. I'm going to get him tomorrow. Then it'll be okay."

"Will he have to go to the hospital?" Sophie asked quickly.

I shrug, not knowing what else to do.

_She's so smart._

"I don't know. If he does, then he'll go. But he'll be okay. Promise." I smile at her.

Sophie swallowed, then sipped her cup again.

The next thing I hear are footsteps.

"Sophie? Who are you talking to sweetheart?" I hear Atin's voice in the background.

_Oh no._

Don't try to talk to me.

"Sabine." Sophie smiled.

"Sab—" Atin started, then barged into the picture.

"Hey." I smile nervously at him.

"Hey yourself." Atin smiled at me.

_Like he always does._

With those perfect teeth.

Atin turned back to Sophie.

"Why'd you call her Sof? I thought you were watching cartoons!" Atin said softly.

"I wanted to talk to Sabine." Sophie replied simply, grabbing her cup.

I smile as I realize what she's doing.

_She used to do it to Mommy and Daddy years ago._

She can be just a little manipulative if she wants to be.

She's very good at guilt tripping.

"How'd you even call her?" Atin asked.

"I pressed the button Daddy always presses when he calls Lux and Sabine." Sophie answered simply, then sipping her juice.

"Okay. Can you say goodbye then go get some more juice?"

"I wanna talk to Sabine moreeee!" Sophie immediately whined.

"Sophie, c'mon sweetie. Please?"

Sophie immediately frowned, then stuck her cup in her mouth and marched past Atin.

Right after she was past him, she whipped around and kicked him as hard as she could in the shin, then ran off.

"OWW!" Atin yelped, grabbing at his shin, then turned to the door Sophie just ran thru.

I…

_That's the Sophie I know!_

She was way too good when Ezra and I were there.

I don't know why.

I'm starting to think it was because of Ezra.

_But she didn't show off her personality, or her temper._

"She hasn't changed you know…your parents said she was on her best behavior when you came here."

I nervously nod.

_I don't want to talk._

I'm not ready for an emotional talk.

"So…he got taken huh?" Atin said to me.

"I don't want to talk about it Atin." I reply simply.

I don't.

…

"You're mad at me."

"Of course I am. You threatened to kill him!" I snap at him, then turn my back to him.

"Yeah. I…I didn't know what else to do."

"You could have just let us go!" I whip back around and bite at him.

Atin is looking at me with a grim look on his face.

…

"I messed up. I'm sorry Sabine."

I simply lean my head to the side and glare at him.

_Oh really? I didn't know._

…

"You don't want to talk to me right now. Do you?" He asked me.

"No, I've got others things to worry about. Like how I'm going to save Ezra tomorrow!"

"Tomorrow?"

"I'm going." I say to him strongly, before he can start refuting me.

To try and talk me out of going.

"I…I know."

…

I let out a heavy breath, then turn my back to him.

"Sabine…I'm going to keep protecting you family. Ever since I got back here, that's what I've been doing."

_Okay._

"That's nice. But what side are you on?" I turn around and ask him.

Atin bit his lip.

"I…I don't know right now."

My temper flares, and the words are out of my mouth before I can stop myself.

"Then look around. Actually look. Don't think using the other brain like you do. Look around. The Empire is killing the galaxy. They're enslaving our home." I tell him.

…

Atin hasn't looked up yet.

"Okay."

"Once you do that, maybe we can actually talk.." I tell him.

_But don't get your hopes up._

…

"Alright." He nodded, then looked up at me.

"Give Sof a hug for me. And tell Mom and Dad that I'll comm them once I'm back tomorrow. Okay?" I ask him.

Atin nodded.

"Will do. Talk to you later."

"Okay." I reply, then shut off the holo.


	43. Broken In The Dark

Sabine POV

I flip thru the limited information the Rebel databanks held on Umbara.

Umbara.

Region: Expansion

Sector: Ghost Nebula

System: Umbara System

Atmosphere: Type I (Breathable)

Native Species: Umbarans

Umbarans.

_Tell me about them._

Knowing the Empire, they'll use the locals as their first line of defense.

…

Near Humans.

_Okay._

A highly secretive and manipulative people.

That's great.

_I need combat information._

I don't think I'm going to get one of these worms to chat.

…

Due to Umbara being in a state of permanent twilight, their sense of vision is finely tuned. They can see parts of the ultraviolet spectrum, but at the cost of being blinded (at least temporarily) by bright light.

I turn and look over to some of the clones that are going thru grenades.

_I bet a lot of those are flash grenades._

…

Primarily a energy weapon based society. Including tanks.

_Tanks._

If it comes o it, I've got a couple of tricks up my sleeve.

The planet could use some brightening up anyway.

I flick off the files in my visor and stand to look at Rex, who is standing in the doorway to the cockpit.

"Should we start the scanners to try and get in contact with the ground teams?"

Rex shook his head.

"No. Chop is too thick."

_He doesn't mean Chopper._

"Chop?" One of the clones asked quietly.

"The clouds. That makes it almost impossible to communicate on a level other than on the ground." Rex frowned.

He hates this place.

"You really hate this place! Don't ya!" One of the other clones asked loudly.

Rex turned to us and nodded.

"Yeah. There's a lot of reasons I hate this place."

…

_I don't think you could pay him enough credits to come here._

But he's here.

For Ezra.

_And kind of for me._

"Oh, before I forget. We brought something for you." Echo said, perking up.

He's been quiet for the most part. Looking at holos.

"Really?" I ask.

Rex suddenly smiled.

"Yeah. Your blasters will do well for the most part, but if you get outmatched down there…" He said, as Echo dug into a locker beside him.

And then pulled out a blaster rifle.

"We modified it a little. We know you like the physical sights and not the digital sights."

I…

I smile up at them.

"Thank you. I…this means a lot."

Rex and Echo smiled at me, and Echo handed me the rifle.

_Ooh._

Well balanced.

"The power pack miiight be a little illegal. But I don't think that's what they'll think when you're firing at them." Echo joked.

Rex and one of the other clones laughed.

"The best defense is a good offense, as they say."

"Right you are Crosshair."

_All these guys have strange names._

Hunter.

Crosshair.

Tech.

Wrecker.

It's them, me, Rex, Echo and a couple other clones that haven't spoken yet.

One of them handed me some caf earlier.

I said thank you, and he just nodded respectfully.

The weird thing about them, is that they all have different voices.

_They don't look like clones._

They don't act like clones.

They seem different.

But Echo told me that they're clones.

_Which is really weird._

He said that they're defective, but the defects are to their advantage in combat.

"Sabine."

I turn and see one of the clones, the one with a thin face wave me over.

"Yeah? Crosshair right?" I smile at him.

_They did get me off Denon._

One shotted our entire escort.

"Yup. Can I see your rifle?" He asked politely.

I reach back and grab it from where I propped it next to my seat, then hand it to him.

…

"Hmm…it's just barely off to the right. Aim a smidge left, and it'll work out great." He said, looking thru the sight, then handing it back to me.

"How much is a smidge?" I ask.

One of the clones laughed quietly.

"Shut it Tech…try a nanometer or two."

_A NANOMETER?_

That's not perceptible to the human eye!

"That's it?" I ask.

"It can make the difference between a kill and a flesh wound." Crosshair replied with a smile.

"You're mental." Hunter, the one with a headband said, returning with a cup of caf. "Don't get into her head over a couple of nanometers."

Crosshair simply turned and looked at him with a blank face.

"I'm trying to help."

"I know." Hunter replied.

"Thank you." I smile at Crosshair.

_I always try to listen to advice._

I usually don't listen unless I start having a problem with.

But I always try to listen.

As Mom once told me, the biggest fool is one who doesn't listen to advice.

"Jumping out of hyperspace." Rex called out to the rest of the ship.

Everyone quickly started moving back to their chairs.

I barely sit down before the ship lurches and loud explosions can be heard outside the hull.

"We punched thru the blockade. Reinforcements haven't arrived yet." I hear somebody say.

"Just get us down on the surface safely. That is our only priority at the moment." Rex said firmly, holding onto a piece of rigging tied to one of the support structures.

"Strap in. We may get bumpy." Echo told me, holding onto a rigging next to Rex.

I fasten my seatbelt and listen as the ship is clearly flying thru the atmosphere.

Everything either is a explosion, or us moving at top speed.

I glance around and see that all the clones are not strapped in, and are either standing like Echo and Rex, or sitting and holding onto their seats.

_Crazies._

BOOM!

WHIZZZZZZZZZ!

WHOOOMPH!

…

"We've got a clear shot to the LZ, but it's about 10 clicks farther back than expected."

"Because of course." Echo immediately quips.

Rex simply frowns.

"That's fine. Just get us there."

…

…

Rex stopped looking to the cockpit and began double checking that he has everything.

I look down at my new blaster rifle and see that it has straps.

"It's collapsible. Fold it." Echo said over the din around us.

"Huh?" I reply.

Echo simply stepped forward, pressed a button on the side and the blaster simply folded neatly in two.

_Whoa!_

I look up to Crosshair and Hunter looking impressed.

"Neat trick." Hunter deadpanned.

"Opening the side hatches!" Somebody yelled.

All the clones stood quickly as the two side doors quickly opened, revealing…

_Nothing but dark gray?_

Huh?

"See? That's the WHOLE PLANET!" Rex yelled at the rest of us.

"How do you see?" Crosshair asked.

"You don't! And the people are everywhere! They're not called the shadow people for nothing!" Rex replies, clearly aggravated.

_He can't stand this place._

It…it's like the night sky in Keldabe, right before the sun starts to rise.

It's just nothing but gray.

In the blink of an eye, blaster fire, both blue and red starts appearing.

"50 meters!"

_Okay._

It's go time.

The ship quickly begins slowing down, and I get to my feet.

The noise simply gets louder as we get closer to the ground.

"GO GO GO!" I barely hear Rex yell to everyone, then lead the way out.

I jump behind Echo and follow his lead, ducking behind a large rock.

Get your footing.

I quickly glance around, scoping the situation out.

Temperate fauna.

_It's kind of hot._

For a dark planet.

Humid.

Dirt's…dirt.

I peek out behind the rock, and about 20 feet ahead of us are the front lines.

Rex quickly darts out and hustles to a spot near the middle.

I quickly follow, with echo and right behind me.

"What do we got?" Rex asked simply, helmet hiding his expression.

"Even numbers sir. We're winning so far, and are trying to divert their forces to one side or the other to create a hole so your team can punch thru. But they aren't biting."

"On both sides?" Echo asked.

"On both sides sir!" The soldier replied simply.

"What can we do to change that?" Rex asked.

"Concentrate your fire on a sector?" The soldier suggested.

Rex nodded, and Echo didn't react at all.

_This is obscenely loud._

Explosions, screams, blaster fire.

Everything.

Rex motioned with two fingers for us to fall back to the others.

I nod, then run back to the big rock in a crouch.

Echo scrambles over me and Rex stops beside me.

"What's the plan Captain! It's your show!" Hunter yelled sarcastically, firing towards the front lines.

I quickly poke my head up, but can't see what he's firing at.

"We're punching a hole to the left side. Can you see what's over there?" Rex asked him.

Wrecker and a few of the other clones looked out over their position.

"About 20 Umbarans, couple of turrets…not too bad."

"Punch it." Echo said simply.

"Go. We're right here." Rex told everyone.

Immediately, as if programmed, everyone hopped up and started for the front lines.

And started yelling.

"AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!" One of the clones, I think Wrecker yelled.

I quickly follow, keeping my head down.

This is real.

I can get shot.

_Trench._

The front line is a trench.

I quickly hop down in the trench, pull out my rifle, and open fire.

…

One.

…

Two.

"TOO EASY!" Somebody yelled.

BOOM!

I'm slightly thrown off, and duck down.

"ARTILLARY!" Rex yelled. "RIGHT!"

I pop up and swivel right to see a massive cannon charging up a green light.

Right at us.

I hear somebody yell, then get shoved forward.

I get three steps away, then am pushed down.

BOOOOOMMMMMMMM!

My entire body shakes along with the earth.

_I'm okay._

I'm okay.

I pop up and fire at the cannon.

_Nothing._

"Boom time!" Somebody said, then Wrecker and another clone began a dead sprint to the cannon.

"COVER FIRE!"

Without another thought, I start firing on the small crew cabin I can barely see up top.

_You just can't…see!_

The only way I know something is there, is there's a green-ish tinge up there.

The tinge ducked down, then Wrecker threw something onto the cannon and started back to—

I duck as a massive explosion erupts from where the cannon used to be.

Then I pop back to my feet.

_Gotta keep moving._

"C'mon!" I hear Echo or Rex yell.

I hop out of the trench and start toward then cannon.

And then trip and fall flat on my face.

_Ow._

"Hehehe…"

I whip around and see a…human thing with a helmet full of green gas rise up out of the ground.

"AAHHH!"

I kick it in the helmet while scrambling for my guns.

By the time I get to them, it is getting fired on from behind me.

A flurry of bolts pepper the…thing, and it falls lifelessly to the ground.

I try to claw back to my feet before I'm pulled onto my feet.

"You okay?" Rex asked me.

"Yeah! Just surprised me!"

"That's an Umbaran! Keep 'em peeled! Last time I was here they ambushed us from behind!" Rex said, then pushed me forward towards the cannon.

I scramble to the cannon and look around.

_We're advancing._

I look down the line, and see the Umbarans start to retreat.

"I've got a visual!" Somebody yelled behind me.

I turn and see that it's Tech.

He's got some sort of vision finder.

"How far?"

"10 clicks. Not bad. But of open land…"

"They aren't retreating there?" Echo or Rex asked.

"No! They're falling back into the tropical foliage!" Hunter said before firing down the line with a sneer on his face.

_Why would they do that?_

"It's a trap." I blurt out, turning to Rex.

"Something is missing. It's like they're funneling us to the building." Rex muttered.

"It's the only thing in between us and the other lines!" Echo added.

"I HATE THIS PLANET!" One of the other clones yelled, then pulling out a chain gun.

_Ooh!_

He started down the line, forcing the Umbarans into a hastier retreat.

I hear Rex sigh to my right.

"Forward! If we see Stormies, to the plants on either flank!" Rex said, then pointing to the bank of large leaved plants on both sides.

I can barely make out something in the distance.

_Just barely._

"Aye aye…" Somebody said, before we start moving forward.

I end up to the left of Echo, closer to the other clones as we run forward, quickly but cautiously.

We're about 10 feet in when blaster fire starts coming in from everywhere.

I pull out my blaster, then am tossed bodily aside, landing in a heap.

_Jeez…_

I shake my hea,d then see it was Wrecker.

"I CAME TO FIGHT YOU KNOW!" I yell at him, firing on where some of the shots are coming in.

"But we're also supposed to protect you!" Hunter replied.

"How about this?" I ask. "We both fight, and if I do need protecting, then do it!"

I don't wait for Hunter to reply, cycle thru my menus and land on missiles.

_Have a piece of this._

My wristband pops up, I barely hear the calming whirr of the missile, then it's off.

BOOM!

_Gotcha!_

"What was that?" I hear somebody yell at me.

"My bag of tricks!" I call out, then climb out from behind the plant and launch myself at where I just shot my missile using my jetpack.

I land, then see a camouflaged Stormtrooper trying to get to his feet.

"Hah!" I yell, then jump at him and punch him as hard as I can.

The Stormtrooper let out a grunt, and I pull out my blaster.

"Bang!"

Without another thought, I turn and see the other Stormtroopers, still holed up on Rex's side.

I fire up another missile, and fire it just as fire comes from the direction of Hunter and the other clones.

BOOM!

"I have GOT to get me one of those!" Wrecker said, as Hunter and the others pop up.

Seconds later, Rex is leading Echo straight towards the building, slightly crouched.

I seize the opportunity to follow and close the gap between us just before we reach the building.

_We aren't being fired on._

"Get the door." I hear somebody say, and Echo dropped to his knees and began typing into a keypad rapidly.

…

The doors shot open.

…

No red bolts peppering us or pinning us down.

"Go…" Somebody growled, as I hop in maybe a foot, then grab some cover near a corner.

Ahead is a narrow hallway.

I look back, and everybody is doing the same thing I did.

_Rex and I are leading the way._

Rex motioned for us to advance, and I pull out my blasters while prepping a missile quickly.

…

I quickly grab more cover in a niche in the wall.

…

_There's nothing._

It's silent.

…

…

I don't like this.

"It's way too quiet." I hear Hunter hiss.

"I agree 100% Hunter…slowly now. Anything that moves." Rex replied, dropping his voice at the end.

He slid stealthily back into the open hallway, then directed us to the left.

I let Hunter go first, then slip behind him.

…

Rex slapped a console and the door opened.

…

To nothing.

_Silence._

I hustle inside behind Hunter, then stand up and look around.

"Hasty retreat." Crosshair said.

There's stuff scattered everywhere.

"Like they didn't know we were coming." Echo said.

There's bacta tanks and datapads strewn on the floor.

_But no actual people or droids._

Rex picked up a datapad and tried turning it on.

"Dead." He muttered.

"Kill switch. Probably all of them." Tech said.

"Next room." Echo muttered.

Our footsteps echo thru the hall as we file back into the hall.

…

"Scanned the surrounding area. No heat signatures." Echo said, sounding frustrated.

"How far?" Rex asked without looking at him

"Outside." Echo retorted.

_Ezra…_

Are you here?

Come on.

"You think they moved him?" Hunter asked.

"Hastily, maybe." Rex said, then started forward.

My stomach shrivels up, and I sigh.

_No._

He's here.

He's got to be here.

Our intel is right.

Chopper and Zeb are right.

Rex slapped open another door, and we hustle inside.

…

_Communications room._

An old one.

Banks of computers and screens.

A holoterminal and a table are propped up against the side wall.

"All dead." Rex said, anger in his voice.

"We need to go off the assumption that nobody is here." Hunter said to Rex.

I whip around to face Hunter.

"Ezra's—"

"We don't know about him. I'm talking Stormtroopers." He replied calmly.

I stare him down.

_Is he lying._

I quickly look at his eyes and hands, the two easiest ways to tell if somebody is lying.

…

_Nope._

"Fine. Proceed cautiously however." Rex said, then led the way out of the room.

Once we're back in the hallway, I look down the length of it.

It breaks off into two separate forks.

Left and Right.

Rex starts back down the hallway, opening the first door on the right.

…

"Barracks." Wrecker boomed out.

"Where is he?" I hear Crosshair mutter.

Echo didn't answer, and we move to the next room.

…

…

More barracks.

I resisted the urge to flip a table and walk out after taking about three steps inside.

I turn back to the door we came into as the others are inside the barracks.

_Nothing._

…

Where is everyone?

Some Imperial installation this is.

There was one squad of Stormtroopers, and the rest are locals.

_Meat shields._

Cowards.

Rex, Echo and the other filed back to the hall and keep progressing.

…

Storage room.

_With all but one drawer yanked open._

There's crap everywhere.

"Uhh…" I say, pointing to the unopened drawer.

"I got it…stay back." Hunter said.

Wrecker and Rex quickly flip over two tables and turn them our direction in case of an explosion.

I poke my head up as Hunter walks to the drawer.

"Opening it…now." He called out to us, then putting his hand on the handle and pulling on it.

…

"Uhm…Rex? Echo. Either of you give out a pauldron?" He asked, sounding confused.

_EZRA!_

I gasp and jump forward as Rex and Echo hustle to Hunter.

It's Ezra's jacket.

Rex gently pulled it out to reveal the rest of his clothes, boots, and his datapad.

"Whoa…" Echo muttered, then stuck his hand into the drawyer.

And pulled out half of Ezra's lightsaber.

"A blaster?" Crosshair asked.

"Lightsaber." Rex muttered.

"It's a clean cut." Echo turned to Rex.

Rex looked at it.

"Lightsaber."

The other clones perk up and look to Echo and Rex.

"Cut…by a lightsaber?" Hunter asked Rex.

"Think so…Why else would you do it?" Echo asked.

"Is the crystal inside?" Rex asked.

Echo peered inside the half with the barrel, then nodded.

"Everything's here. It's been fiddled with though."

"It comes with us." Rex said bluntly.

"I got it." Tech said, opening up his backpack.

Together, Echo and Hunter dump all of Ezra's stuff inside, datapad on top.

_Why did he have a datapad on him on Denon?_

Huh.

"He's close boys…let's finish this." Rex said, then led us out of the room.

Once outside, I see that there are one more set of rooms on either side.

_This place isn't that big._

I hope they didn't lock him up in some underground cell like in a bad holofilm.

_Surely not._

"Open that door. I've got this side." Rex said to Echo, pointing to the door in front of us on the right.

Silently, we all split into teams.

I stay on Rex's side with Crosshair and Wrecker.

Echo, Tech, Hunter and the other clones are on the other side.

Rex slaps open our door, and as I turn into the new room, I hear Echo do the same.

…

_Monitoring._

It's a one way mirror.

"Monitoring! One way mirror! Can't see thru!" I hear Tech call out to us.

"Same thing!" I call back.

Rex sighed loudly.

"Where'd they hide him…" He muttered, walking out of the door.

"New plan. We pick a side. Go in guns a ready. One of these sides has to be holding something. It's too quiet." Hunter said to us once we all meet back up in the hall.

It's dead silent.

_We're the only ones here._

"Alright. Which way first?" Rex asked.

Wrecke and Echo point right.

Crosshair, the other clones Tech and I point left.

"Left it is then." Hunter said simply.

Rex wordlessly started down the hall, and turned left, reaching for his blasters as he did.

…

NOTHING!

_Still…NOTHING!_

I don't like this.

This is bad.

I look ahead and see that there's only one door.

On the left side of this left hallway.

Rex stationed himself on the left side of the door.

Echo placed himself on the right.

I slide next to Echo, and everybody else follows suit.

"Flash first, then find a light if it's dark. Okay?" Rex asked Echo and Hunter, both on that side.

Echo nodded once.

"One…

Two…"

Rex slapped the console just to the inside of the door, and Echo bounced a grenade in smoothly.

Clink…clink…

I cover my eyes and—

PHUUMPH!

…

I lower my arms and see that it's pitch black.

Echo took initiative and moved forward.

…

"Light." I hear him say as I'm following Echo.

Echo has his hand on the wall, off to the right.

Flick.

The room is lit up, and I cover my eyes.

_Photo receptors are—_

"Make sure he's not trapped…" I hear Rex say quickly as Tech rushes past me.

I gasp, and freeze.

...

…

_Oh man._

…

Oh no…

Rex and Echo are both looking up at…Ezra.

"He's breathing. I think he's sedated." Tech said quickly, fingers on Ezra's neck.

"Wolffe, Wrecker, door. I don't want any surprises." Rex barked out.

I'm frozen as they brush past me and station themselves outside the door.

_It's kind of a big room._

He's…

He's really beat up.

There are a lot of tubes hooked up to him that Echo is currently looking at.

"Is this a little of what I looked like?" Echo asked, still inspecting Ezra's…tubes.

"A little…you were a lot skinnier and a lot more robotic." Rex muttered.

_It doesn't look like he lost a bunch of weight._

He's skinny, has marks on every inch of his skin, has dried blood on his shirt, gigantic bags on his eyes, cuts and big bruises on his legs…

_And I'm sure that's not the half of it._

"Two cuts on the left arm and shin, like the Denon report." Tech said.

"Big…hole. Above left elbow. Looks like a drill." Echo says, sounding disgusted and furious simultaneously.

I take a step forward but Rex stops me.

"Find out what he's on, and begin unhooking him. Wolffe?" Rex called out.

"Clear!" A clone replied.

…

"Jeez kid. They beat you up pretty good huh?" Hunter said quietly, looking up at Ezra.

They've got him shackled to this…torture table looking thing.

Big, heavy restraints on both his arms and legs.

"I've got a solution to combat Osofibrillation." Tech calls out.

"Basic?" Rex asks.

"A condition when one has been shocked by such a voltage that it affects their skeletal and nervous system."

"That comes with us." Hunter says immediately.

"What else?"

"It looks like IV's, and anti infection solutions. A lot of these cuts are bad." Echo mutters.

No…

"Can we free him?" Rex got to the point.

"Yes. But I want everything we got on our escape ship. And he's going to the nearest friendly medical station." Tech said.

Hunter quickly pressed his comm and turned away from Rex, Ezra and I.

"We've got the prize. Stable, but wounded critically. Request for immediate evac and medical support on the ship." Hunter barked into his comm.

…

"Received 99. Evac team en route to clear a path." A unfamiliar voice replied.

"Okay." Hunter sighed, then clicked off his comm.

"I can free him now." Tech said. "Release the tubes."

"They come too." Rex said.

Crosshair jumps forward and starts taking bags of…stuff from Echo as he unplugs them.

I take a couple from them, and the names are foreign.

_And not in basic._

…

"Unlocking him in three…two…one…" Tech called out, then unplugged something.

Ezra lifelessly falls off the table, leave blood smeared on the table behind him.

I jump forward to catch him, but Rex beats me to it.

"I gotcha kid…we've gotcha…" he said quietly.

"Perimeter. Around me. We're leaving quickly, but cleanly." Rex told Hunter.

"Wreck?" Hunter called out.

"Clear!"

"We're bouncing." Hunter replied, pulling out his blaster.

I pull mine out, and shake my head.

_Come on now._

Let's get out of here.

Ezra hasn't moved this whole time.

"Are you sure he's alive?" Rex quietly asked Tech.

"Absolutely. Last thing I saw was a sedative that'd knock out anybody. And a lot of it was already gone."

"So they drugged him." Echo said.

Tech shrugged before Rex lifted Ezra onto his shoulder.

I turn and walk out of the door to see everybody waiting for us.

They all groan when they see Ezra.

_The blood is clearly visible._

"Is he okay?" One of the clones asked.

"For now…let's move." Rex said quietly.

Hunter and echo quickly take point and begin down the hallway.

I'm behind Hunter, with Rex right beside me.

Ezra's arm is swinging limply at the edge of my vision.

_Focus._

There's nothing you can do right now.

Just get him out, then we can start thinking about what's next.

Before long, we're in the main hallway and advancing quickly on the door.

Hunter rushes forward and opens the door for us, allowing the sounds of a battle off in the distance to float to us.

C'mon…

"Faster." Rex growled, and we all pick up the pace, jogging at a crouch thru the dark gray landscape.

…

…

"Three blinks left." Echo calls out.

_That's the ship._

Silently, we all turn and pick up the pace even more.

Within a minute, I can see friendly soldiers.

"We're your escort. The ship is—" A sldier points us to a ship directly ahead of us, about 100 feet away.

"We see that! Guard our flank!" Hunter barks at him.

Immediately a squadron of soldiers swarmed behind us, guarding our back.

The battle is way off in the distance to the right.

_We're clear._

All clear.

Echo and Hunter rush onto the ship, then step aside as Rex storms past me, Tech right on his heels.

I numbly grab onto a rigging and nearly collapse.

Thump Thump.

_My heart's pounding._

I didn't notice.

_I was too nervous about getting out._

…

There was…no one.

Not a soul.

The ship's engines fire, and we begin to rise.

…

We're safe.

_We're good._

…

"They left him for us. Just sitting there." I hear Hunter mutter.

I look to my right and see that Rex and Tech went thru a closed door.

_Ezra…_

I let go of my rigging and walk back there.

When the door opens, I see that Rex has his helmet off, and Tech, along with a medical droid are plugging bags into a machine just like…

_Just like the one he was just plugged into._

The top display has a bunch of lines on it, all dramatically rising and falling.

"Top one is heart rate." Rex tells me without looking away from it.

_It's the one with the biggest spikes._

"Is that good or bad?" I ask cluelessly.

I don't know.

"It means his heart is still strong. He'll live. But we don't even know about any of…this." Tech said, rising to his feet and gesturing to Ezra.

They have him laid out and a bed with…filmy sheets.

"Anything on that Sedative?" Rex asked.

"It's Nyex. The stuff I was hooked on after I got my…limbs." Echo said, frowning at Rex.

_Hooked on?_

"A lot of it?"

"Yes." The medical droid suddenly said, causing my head to pop up. "There appears to be enough Nyex already administered to keep him sedated for a standard week before he would wake up."

"Is that hurting him." Rex asked.

That seems like a lot.

"I don't think so, but I can't say for certain." Tech muttered, looking at ezra's left arm.

_The trashed one._

"Didn't you say hey drilled into his arm?" I ask quietly.

Echo turned away from Ezra's ribs and looked at me.

"Yeah. That did look infected."

"Why treat him when you can torture him more."

"The more pressing matter is the Osofibrillation. His nervous system will require at least a week in Intensive Care to recover to a functional state."

"Define functional." Rex said immediately.

"At a standard level for a normal human." The droid replied.

"Does that include his brain?"

_Oh no._

His brain.

"Yes." The droid said mechanically.

"Brain waves are stable. He's not a vegetable or anything. The Osofibrillation is just a result from being repeatedly shocked." Tech said simply.

I sigh, and let my head fall into my hands.

_I think he may be okay._

Even though he looks dead right now.

"We're going to start on these infections now. That way we can get him into bacta faster." Echo told Rex.

Rex nodded.

I look back at the machine, to where Ezra's heart rate is.

Up, down.

Up, down.

Up, down.

…

He might be okay.

_He's out of there._

…

He might be okay.


	44. Eye Opener

(A/N: All rights to the scene inside belong to LucasFilm. I'm just going off Youtube clips and my shaky memory. Thank you to everybody for reviewing the last few chapters. Hope you enjoy this Friday's installment.)

Ezra POV

…

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh…

…

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh…

_That sounds like a fan…_

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh…

…

I…

_I think I'm lying down._

Why?

…

…

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh

…

Everything is…soft.

_This is weird._

...

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh

…

_I need to figure out where Barriss and Shark Bait are._

I take a breath and pro—

_What_—

Sabine's signature is right behind me.

_Open your eyes you moron._

My eyes pop open, and I squint to see…

NO.

_I'm not playing their games._

This is a dream.

Sabine's hands are around my waist.

_She's behind me._

I don't believe it.

I shake my head and take a deep breath, then scoot away from "Sabine"

_They're messing with my head—_

Wait.

I'm not restrained.

…

Slowly, I extend my left arm out all the way, then move it around.

_I'm not restrained._

Then I hear a groan behind me.

"Ezra, why are you—" Sabine's voice asked, sounding sleepy, then a figure jolted up.

"Ezra! You're awake!"

I quickly scramble out of the bed and put distance between me and "Sabine".

"No. Not going to do it." I mutter quietly.

_I'm not playing their games._

Leave Sabine alone.

"Huh? Ezra, it's me. Sabine. You're safe." "Sabine" called out softly to me.

"No. I'm not playing your games. Bring in the interrogation droid. Leave her alone!" I say, voice escalating at the end.

…

I hear a rustling sound, then a soft light pops on, revealing a girl that looks like Sabine in a black tank top with tousled hair.

She smiled softly at me.

"Ezra…it's me. I'm not a droid."

"I don't believe you. You've already played this card. Stop it!" I yell at her, then look around for a way to break this…dream.

I don't see anything except for unplugged medical equipment, drawing supplies and bags for clothes.

When I look back at "Sabine", she's looking at me with a concerned expression.

"I…this is real Ezra. It's not a dream." She softly smiled at me, reassuring me.

"I don't buy it. Where is everyone?" I ask, then look up and see a one bladed fan softly spinning above both of us.

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh

…

"Ezra…we rescued you. You're safe now. I promise. I'm not a dream."

I look away from her and back around.

_It does…feel real._

But I was just at wherever they were keeping me.

There was a panic outside. I felt it.

Then a Stormtrooper whacked me in the head, knocking me out.

…

_That was the last thing I remember._

I look up at the sound of cover moving and see that "Sabine" has stood up and is slowly coming my way.

"Ezra…I don't know what they did to you…but we're gonna fix it. Okay?" She said, sounding ready to cry.

The closer she gets, the farther I scramble into the corner.

_Stay away._

Unfortunately I can't get much farther than this.

And that door isn't real.

_None of this is real._

I blink, and Sabine's cautiously in front of me.

"Ezra…I would never hurt you. Okay? Ever. You've been asleep for a while. Come back to bed. You'll be better when you wake back up." She smiled gently at me.

_Going to sleep in a dream._

Sure.

I just eye her closely and try to keep my distance.

…

After a few seconds, she's blinking back tears.

"Are you…afraid of me? C'mon, talk to me. Let me fix this…"

"You were in a dream. It can't be you." I shake my head.

_It can't be._

They don't know where I am.

"Sabine" nervously swallowed, then reached out and gently put her hand on my knee.

_It's warm._

"Ezra…we saved you. It's all over. Okay?"

"How do I know that?" I ask her.

"Sabine" bit her lip quietly, then thought for a moment.

…

"How about this? You just come lie back down. If you don't fall asleep, then I'm not real. Okay?"

_I…guess I can do that._

That's a weird thing to say.

I slowly nod, and "Sabine" smiled, then grabbed my hand.

"C'mon. We can talk this out in the morning. I promise. Every word." She said, pulling me to my feet and onto the bed.

I let her hand go as I feel how…soft the bed is.

_Everything feels soft right now._

I comply and lie down on one of the pillows, which is slightly warm.

"Sabine" slowly climbs back under the covers, then presses a button on a remote.

The light immediately disappears.

She lies down on a pillow, then softly finds me and cuddles up next to me.

"It's all gonna be okay Ezra…Nobody is going to hurt you again. Just close your eyes baby." She whispered, then found my hand and slipped it over her waist and into both of her hands.

_Soft._

…

…

I am tired.

…

…

I quietly yawn, then pull Sabine a little closer.

…

…

(4 Hours Later)

…

…

_Warm._

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh.

Wait…

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh.

…

Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh Woosh.

_It's the same._

That's the same sound.

…

Sabine softly snoring in my arms makes me glance down at her barely visible figure.

_I…_

This is real?

…

I'm out?

…

…

Slowly, I slip my hands out of Sabine's, trying not to wake her up.

_I need a shower._

…

That'll knock some sense into me.

…

_I don't understand._

I can barely see the frame of a doorway a little ways away.

I slowly climb out of bed, then make my way over there as quickly as I can.

My legs are stiff.

…

_This feels real._

I slip inside, and find that it's a bathroom just like the ones on Polis Massa.

_Same design, same door and everything._

I close the door and feel around for the lightswitch.

Flick.

The room gently lit up, revealing the same set up.

…

Am I at Polis Massa?

…

_I was hurt._

The droid.

Shark Bait.

Barriss.

The droids with the staffs got a few whacks at me.

…

_I need a shower._

I creep over, legs still not cooperating and flick on the nozzle to the shower.

The gentle sound of a shower rushes over me, and I can't help but smile.

Quickly, I take my clothes off and slide under the water.

…

This feels great.

…

It's actually warm water.

…

This is real I guess.

…

…

I'm out.

…

_But how?_

The last thing I remember is coming back from that lightsaber training session with those two droids.

I impaled them, threw them outside, killed the Stormtroopers, then got taken back to my room.

I got a few hours sleep before Shark Bait woke me up with his charming electric wake up call.

He played with me for what felt like forever, then suddenly left without a word.

Not long afterward, another Stormtrooper came in and knocked me out.

…

_And now I'm here?_

…

I quietly groan and lean my body weight against the shower wall.

…

I made a fool of myself in front of Sabine.

…

It felt so real though.

And after my rude introduction to Vader, the Inquisitor and Shark Bait…I didn't buy it.

…

_That's embarrassing._

I blink, shake my head, then grab a generic body wash and start cleaning—

OWWWWWWWWWWW!

I cringe and freeze up as it feels like my chest is on fire.

I quickly take my hand off my chest, bubbles from the body wash still on it and look down.

…

_There's…skin._

Underneath, it looks like it's peeling, revealing a bunch of cuts and healing skin.

…

Ow.

I stick my hand up to wash the body wash off me.

_I guess water will have to do for now._

I stand underneath the warm water for a moment, then inspect myself.

…

_There are several spots like that._

One on the left side of my chest too.

My whole left arm.

My elbow.

Where the hole was.

…

_I don't think it's supposed to be like that._

…

I poke my head out of the shower, locate a towel, then pull it to me and shut off the water.

…

AS gently as I can, I dry myself off, the stand in front of the mirror.

A thin, tired, worn looking person is looking back at me.

…

It looks like they tried putting protective…skin on my skin.

My face and most of me looks normal.

_But I can feels places where it doesn't feel right._

Like my chest and entire left arm.

…

Wait.

I quickly look at my eyes in the mirror.

_Blue._

…

Blue eyes.

…

I didn't go over.

I…

…

I'm so confused.

…

This makes no sense.

_I…thought that was my only way out._

That makes no sense.

I could have just stayed strong.

Kept fighting.

…

Instead…they had me.

_But…I was in control?_

The whole time!

…

My thoughts were mine.

My actions were mine.

…

_I don't understand._

…

Slowly and gently, I finish drying off, then slip on my black shorts and white shirt, then peek back out where Sabine is.

…

_Still sleeping._

…

My eyes rest on where a pair of boots, socks, and a jacket with a pauldron is.

_My jacket._

…

Sabine must have been so bored waiting for me to wake up that she made a new one.

…

I shut off the light behind me, stumble my way to where the jacket and shoes are, then grab them and walk outside.

…

This feels just like my jacket.

The right arm is just a little worn, and it fits amazingly.

…

_I love it._

…

I slip the shoes on, then look around.

…

It looks just like Polis Massa.

_I…guess they brought me here._

I must have really been bad.

…

How long was I there?

_I don't know._

I didn't see sunlight, or a clock, or anything.

I just had pain.

And silence.

And darkness.

…

A gentle tug causes me to jump out of my skin.

_What was that?_

…

It was the Force…but what?

The last time…I felt the Force so clearly…I heard the dark side trying to tempt me.

…

_I'm not a picture perfect Jedi anymore._

Between the lightning, the extra training with the Inquisitor, tapping into my pain against Shark Bait and killing those two Stormtroopers.

I'll be lucky if Kanan and Ahsoka take me back.

_Even though I probably won't be training for awhile._

I can barely move.

…

I'm so stiff.

My arms, legs…everything.

They must have had a ball with me.

_I feel like the guy in the old stories Mom used to tell me…the one that they had to piece back together after he fell off his speeder,_

All the King's banthas and all the King's men couldn't really put him back together again.

…

The Force gently nudges me…forward.

_Towards somewhere._

…

I start walking and allow my curiosity to get the best of me.

_I might not exactly be a Jedi, but the Force has never let me down before._

I don't think it's good or evil.

It just is.

People are good or evil.

_That's the key._

…

I shake my head.

_I'm not making any sense right now._

I don't feel right.

…

Everything is soft.

My body hurts.

I'm just following the Force.

…

The tug gets stronger until I reach a room I've never been to before, at the very edge of the base.

_It's an oval shaped room, with benches on the outside of it._

…

It's dark, but I see a gently shaped table in the middle of the room.

_It looks like what I'd guess a baby delivery room looks like._

Complete with droid in the—

Suddenly, the scene lights up, and four figures appear.

_And a light blue droid._

There's a woman lying on a table, a man in tattered, burnt robes inside the room.

Outside there's a tiny green…person?

And…the two droids from when we escorted Minister Tua on Lothal?

_And Senator Organa?_

I look at him, then my hands.

…

_Now I don't buy—_

Suddenly, a loud, painful scream rings out as the droid makes soothing noises.

_I've heard that scream before._

I heard it…last time I was here.

During the Princess's speech.

I glance over at Senator Organa, who looks a little younger, then back inside the room.

Then I realize who the man is.

…

_That's Anakin Skywalker's master._

Obi-Wan Kenobi.

…

I inspect the woman's face right before she releases another painful scream and the droid attempts to soothe her.

_While…_

I gasp as the pieces click into place.

_Baby._

…

She's pregnant.

_But that's not possible._

She didn't have a husband.

Or a boyfriend.

The closest thing she had was—

My train of thought is shattered by another painful scream, followed by the droid…

_A baby…_

"Luke…" The woman, Padmé breathed out before sighing and leaning her head back.

…

I can't believe this.

…

_This has to be the Force showing me this._

Because…she's dead.

I've never met Kenobi.

Or this green…guy.

And Senator Organa is younger.

…

"Hmmm…" The green…creature said.

…

The woman's whole body tenses up, then she lets out another piercing scream.

The droid softly cooed to her, then…brought out another baby.

_Twins?_

I…

That's what twins are, right?

_Babies born at the same time?_

"Leia…" Amidala gasped, before leaning back.

…

She looks exhausted.

_Makes sense, she did just have two kids._

…

"Sir…I don't know why, but we appear to be losing her." The droid suddenly said to Kenobi.

His eyes widened, while the baby in his arms squirmed.

"She's dying?" He asked, sounding like he doesn't believe it.

"NO!" I yell.

_She…_

NO!

I look around to see that the scene hasn't changed.

_I'm not here._

I'm just watching.

…

She can't die.

…

What about…the kids?

I keep watching as Amidala quietly says something to Kenobi…

Then her head gently droops to the side, and the baby girl in the droid's arms starts crying again.

Kenobi finally looks up from Amidala, to Senator Organa and the green…creature.

_It's silent._

…

She's dead.

…

Oh man.

…

Oh man.

I can't help but sigh and put my head in my hands.

_That…was awful._

That's how she died?

After having two kids?

_I thought that they had ways to stop that from happening._

…

I look back to the delivery room, and see Kenobi tending to the baby.

A gentle sensation on my arm causes me to look over.

Then jump out of my skin.

_It's her._

Padmé Amidala.

…

She looks just like the guy on Naboo.

There's a haze around her.

I look back to the delivery room, and see that Senator Organa is now on his feet and approaching Kenobi, who is holding…Luke?

_That's his name I guess._

Numbly, I look back to the woman beside me, who is looking up at me with a slight frown on her face.

"I'm sorry." I whisper.

Amidala gently smiled at me, then hugged my arm, rested her head above her hands and looked back to the delivery room.

…

…

I hear a quiet breath to my left, then someone grabbed on to my other arm.

I look over, and see Sabine.

_Looking at the empty delivery room._

Huh?

Quickly, I look back to my right.

Amidala has let go of my arm.

She gently smiled at me, bowed slightly…

_Then gently faded away._

…

"You okay?" Sabine gently asked me.

I turn back to see her looking at me.

"I…yeah." I say.

I guess I'm okay.

_I'm…oddly peaceful._

Which I shouldn't be after watching that.

I feel…better.

I don't know why?

"Let's grab some breakfast real quick." Sabine said quietly, then gently turned me around and starts towards the kitchens.

…

"Sorry about earlier…" I say quietly.

_I'm never going to live that down._

"It's okay. They…You said that I was in a dream you had there?" Sabine asked gently, looking up at me.

I nod.

"It was…bad."

Sabine nodded silently.

"Okay. You can tell me later if you want."

…

Fair enough.

…

"How am I here? What happened?" I ask her, brain finally starting to move again.

…

_I can't believe what I just watched._

"It's a long story. But 8 days ago, me, Rex, Echo and some other clones went and rescued you. You were really, really hurt. So we brought you here. I stayed as the others went back to Safe Zone."

_Safe Zone?_

"You stayed?" I ask quietly.

Sabine smiled up at me.

"Yeah. Somebody has to watch you."

I quietly laugh, then Sabine smiled next to me.

"Thanks." I say to her.

"No problem. You were knocked out and on a super strong sedative when we got you. But we put you back together as best we could with you knocked out, then slowly let you rest and weaned you off the sedative."

…

"I…when I woke up. This last time. I took a shower. I felt disgusting." I tell her.

Sabine smiled.

"You were in bacta. I did the same thing when I got out."

"Well, I…the body wash hurt. And it looked like something was peeling." I admit, looking at her nervously.

I hope I didn't mess something up.

_If it's because I took a shower I'm going to feel like a moron._

I felt literally like something that had been thrown out, now that I think about it.

"Oh no…" Sabine muttered, then stepped in front of me.

And aggressively yanked my shirt up.

"Sabine!" I mutter quickly, trying to pull it back down.

There are people here!

"Dang it…the synthiskin is peeling again. It doesn't want to take." She frowned, then let my skin drop back down.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"That's the third time we've tried to patch you up with synthiskin. We put it on there so your skin could heal and you could go to the wedding tomorrow. But your body keeps rejecting it."

_WHAT?!_

"What? Wedding? One thing at a time Sabine. I…I'm not going at full speed here." I say quietly.

"Sorry…remember how that guy on Concordia talked about how Lux should marry Ahsoka."

…

"Yeah?" I say.

_That feels like years ago._

Even though it was maybe…five months ago?

"Well, Ahsoka finally said yes."

I can't help…somehow, but to smile.

"Really? When?"

"We were on Denon when it happened apparently." Sabine said quietly, as we finally arrive at the kitchens.

Denon.

"Oh yeah…what happened there?" I ask.

Sabine shrugged.

"Not today. I think we should talk about that later. Can we talk about this wedding first?" Sabine asked softly as we reach the door to the ordering area.

I slowly nod, the Sabine smiled and gently pulled me inside.

I hear a gasp, then look up to see the cooks smiling at me.

"You're awake!"

I laugh and smile.

"Yeah, I guess I am."

"What do you want?" Sabine asked me.

…

"Can I have…a heavy omelet, with tomatoes and ranch?" I ask.

_Ranch._

That sounds amazing right now.

"We can do that." The cook smiled, then looked to Sabine.

"I"ll just have the waffle and the powdered sugar and syrup on the side please."

The cook smiled, and nodded.

"We'll get that right out."

Sabine thanked them, then led me out to a table.

Then she went back in and grabbed some juice for me, and a caf for her.

_I don't want caf right now._

No.

"When is this wedding?" I ask her.

Sabine smiled.

"Actually, it's tomorrow. We were going to gently wake you up today. That was the plan. But you woke up on your own."

_Yeah._

…

"Kind of." I say.

Sabine shrugged, then we slip into a comfortable silence.

…

"How'd you escape?" I ask her, as my brain is still moving slowly.

She smiled at me.

"You…got knocked out by one of Kallus' goons. I got separated from you and started to the spaceport by guards and your friends. Then—"

WHAT?

"WHAT?" I yelp. "They—"

"Let me finish…I can explain." Sabine gently cut me off.

Okay.

I sip my juice, and enjoy the cool sensation slip down my throat.

_Feels great._

"Rex, Echo and some other clones came and killed the Stormtrooper escort. Your friends surrendered. We hopped on a ship and went to Safe Zone. I was a mess. Crying about you. In shock. Everything."

…

I hear a shout, and Sabine popped up and walked back to the kitchens.

…

_Darcy…_

Is a prisoner?

…

She surrendered.

_Unless she decided on the spot that she was done with the Empire._

Which…I don't know.

…

I don't know anything.

_I'm so out of it._

Last time I saw her…I was shocked to the point of getting a bone sickness.

Or something.

I don't remember what Tarkin said.

This is all crazy.

I've got Sabine, Darcy, Tarkin, Vader, Shark Bait, Barriss…

They're all crisscrossed.

_I'm honestly lost._

I might need to be sat down by somebody and walked thru what happened step by step.

In front of me, Sabine sits back down and slides my omelet, tomatoes and ranch in front of me.

_Well, the ranch is between us._

She also…apparently got some cantaloupe?

"Eat. We aren't in a rush." She smiled at me.

…

_I need to be careful._

And keep it down.

Two bites.

One sip.

I clumsily grab a fork, then break off a piece of omelet and take a bite.

…

_That tastes amazing._

...

Ow.

_It hurt to swallow._

"Good?" Sabine asked me, smiling.

I nod, then sip my juice.

…

"So…what am I wearing to this wedding?" I ask. "I don't have anything."

"I was thinking you'd wear what you did to that thing you went to with Darcy." Sabine said softly.

_The Ball._

The Imperial Ball.

…

Did that actually happen?

_It feels like it happened in a different universe._

"How'd you know about that?" I ask.

Darcy ordered the stuff to her place.

I didn't say anything to Sabine, because I know she didn't like Darcy.

_We nearly got into a fight over it._

Lightsaber versus blaster.

…

Wait.

_My lightsaber is ruined._

…

Tarkin sliced it in half.

…

I don't think I'm a Jedi anymore.

"It was in your stuff. And I found a picture in your stuff. I…was worried I'd never see you again. And they had me look thru your stuff. Sorry."

_What?_

I lost what we were talking about.

"Huh?" I say dumbly.

Sabine smiled and shook her head.

"Your clothes."

"Oh."

Oh yeah.

I nod and meekly take another bite of omelet.

I'm actually kind of hungry.

"You feel okay?" Sabine asked me gently. "We can take this back to the room if you want to lie down."

I shake my head.

"No, it's okay. My brain isn't exactly working at top speed though." I try to joke, then smile.

Sabine however, looks concerned.

"I…You can think okay though right? You…had a condition. Something to do with electric shocks. It affected your brain and nervous system."

_Whoa._

"Really?" I ask, surprised.

Sabine nodded, then took a bite of waffle with powdered sugar on it.

"Yeah. It was kind of scary. Everybody said you'd be okay, but…do you feel okay?"

…

_I guess?_

I shrug.

"Nothing is working like I want it to. My brain's slow, my body is sore…I feel broken." I admit.

"Like something hurts?" She asked gently.

I shake my head and spots pop into my vision, then quickly fade away.

"No, not like that. It'd just not…normal."

Sabine smiled at me.

"You were captured for 17 days. And recovering for another 2 weeks. I think it'd be weird if you were 100 percent right away." Sabine said softly, then cracked a slight smile.

I laugh.

"Yeah, maybe."

…

"So, a wedding tomorrow?" I ask again.

Sabine smiled, mouth full.

"Yeah. We're invited."

"Who all is going? Will I know anyone?" I ask.

Sabine smiled.

"Yeah, Kanan and Hera. Echo and Rex. You'll have people to talk to. It's supposed to be a short thing. More of a get together than anything."

"Really?"

Sabine nodded took another bite of waffle.

I sip my juice and cut off another bite of omelet.

"I thought weddings were supposed to be long, elaborate things. Not short and a get together." I admit.

Sabine shrugged, having just sipped her caf.

"They didn't give me many details. Just to dress nice really. Kanan and everyone just mentioned they were coming when they called about you."

Called?

"Did I sleep thru people visiting me?" I ask.

_Please say no._

"No, not really. Rex and Echo were here for a couple of days after we rescued you. But then they went back to Safe Zone. Everybody else just called. I guess me being here was enough." Sabine said, then shrugged her shoulders at the end.

"Was I like…close to dying?" I ask nervously.

How bad was I?

"No…not really. You just looked really bad. I thought you were when we came and got you. It…wasn't pretty. But Tech and Echo said you weren't going to die, and here they fixed you up, put you in the ICU, then bacta, then let you rest with me until you woke up."

…

Huh.

"Sorry…for scaring you. I'm sure I'll hear about the details later." I say, not able to look Sabine in the eye.

_I can't imagine._

I'm gone for forever, then when she sees me, I'm…like I was.

A mess.

"You didn't have a choice in the matter. I'm just glad you never stopped fighting. Otherwise, you wouldn't have been so beat up." Sabine smiled at me, a…look in her eye.

I laugh, then shrug and look at my omelet.

_I need to eat._

I take a bite of my omelet then see Sabine still smiling at me.

…

I'm safe.

_I guess._

…

Now what?


	45. For Whom The Bell Tolls

I slip the vest over the gray dress shirt, then tug at my shoulders.

_Tight._

So, so tight.

I pull the creases to rest on top of my shoulders, then start to button the black vest.

…

…

Now the shoulders are too tight.

I sigh to myself, unbutton the top button of the three, and shrug my shoulders, allowing the fabric to fall back over my shoulders.

Clink Clink.

"_Haar'chak…"_

I think she dropped something.

…

_This doesn't feel right._

I don't feel…natural.

At all.

"Aarghhh…" Sabine growled out, sounding frustrated.

"Everything okay in there?" I call out to Sabine.

"Yeah…I'm going to need you to zip up the back of my dress though. Once I get this stupid earring…" She said, trailing off at the end.

_Earrings?_

I shrug my shoulders, then stretch to try and loosen up.

_This isn't a great idea._

Well, I don't think it is.

I just don't feel…natural.

Anything I do feels forced.

Walking, eating, talking, anything.

I had to do a little of all that this morning when we got on the transport to come here.

I just don't feel normal.

_It felt like everybody's eyes were on my this morning as I walked to the transport._

Like I don't look normal.

And I hate that.

"You're thinking again." Sabine said simply, causing me to look up and see her in front of me.

Sabine's combed her hair in a way that is showing off her highlights, and her purple dress goes well with it.

I shrug at her and see tiny, shiny gems in Sabine's ears.

"You look amazing." I smile at her.

"Thanks. Even though I'm not sure these earrings were worth the trouble." She replied.

"Why not?"

"My piercing hole was closed basically. So putting them in was bloody and painful."

I cringe.

_OW._

"Oww…I'm sure you could pass on wearing them." I compromise.

Sabine shook her head.

"Nah, it'll be worth it. Now zip up the back of my dress." She told me, turning around and revealing a open zipper to the middle of her toned back.

Zip.

"Thanks." Sabine turned back around, then looked me up and down.

"You look great."

I shrug.

"Still?" Sabine looked up at me.

I look away from her and start putting on my shoes.

"Ezra, you're fine. You're in your head, I'm telling you."

I shake my head.

"I feel like I look like somebody that just crawled out of a hospital bed and came here. I don't want to embarrass Lux and Ahsoka."

"You can't do that. I'm sure everybody's anxious to see you."

"I know that Sabine. But everything I do just feels super awkward."

"You said the exact same thing when we got on the ship this morning. And you were fine. I'm not going to ask you to dance or anything because that will make you look dumb."

I smile at her.

"Thanks."

"You look fine."

_Sure._

I stand up and look at myself in the little mirror.

…

_I look like Darcy's boyfriend again._

And like I've been dieting a little.

I'm not as strong.

_Don't think about Darcy today._

Not today.

…

Not today.

Sabine gently looped her hand in with me and pulled me towards the door.

"C'mon."

I follow obediently as we walk out of our little room in this large building.

_I don't know where we are, or how far the wedding is._

I'm trying to not let it bug me.

…

…

The gentle 'clip clop' of Sabine's shoes carries us all the way to a small hallway, where there are other well dressed people waiting in line.

I close my eyes, let out a breath and just…try to relax.

Tentatively, I let out a little tension out into the Force as the line moves forward.

There are two separate couples in front of us.

"Do you have like an invitation or something?" I ask Sabine as the husband and wife in front of us step forward.

"We're on the VIP list." She smiled at me.

_Oh really?_

I smile.

"Are we important?" I jokingly ask.

Sabine laughed and shrugged.

"I'll have to ask later. I don't know." She replied before the usher at the door waves us forward.

"Name?" He asked Sabine politely.

"Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger? We're together." Sabine told him.

The usher wordlessly looked down to a datapad.

…

…

"I'm not seeing it. Bridger and Wren you said?" The usher glanced up at Sabine.

"Check the VIP section." Sabine suggested simply.

The usher looked away from his datapad.

"You aren't on that list, I assure you." He said dismissively.

Sabine bit her lip.

"Humor me."

…

…

"Oh I do apologize Miss…go right ahead." The usher waved us forward, looking embarrassed.

Sabine smirked and gently pushed me forward as the two doormen opened two massive wooden door.

…

_Whoa._

That's a lot of people.

They're sitting to my right.

I glance left and see several men, including Lux, speaking to somebody wearing a suit and tie.

Sabine gently turned me and started look for a place to sit.

_Not good._

Every place looks full.

"Uhh…"

"We'll find—oh!" Sabine suddenly lit up.

_OH._

Sabine's parents both suddenly stood, smiling.

Then Sophie's head popped up.

"Oh." I say, smiling and trying not to laugh.

_Of course they're here._

Lux knows Sabine's dad.

He's one of Lux's good friends.

"Hiii." Sabine said softly as we slide into the aisle next to them.

Sophie silently hugged Sabine, and I look up to see her parents.

"Hey darling. You look wonderful." Mr. Wren smiled at Sabine.

"Thanks."

"Ezra, looking sharp." Miss Wren smiled at me.

"Thank you." I smile back, bowing my head slightly.

"Good to see you son." Sabine's dad smiled at me, then shook my hand.

"Good to see you too." I smile and reply, then sit down.

Then Sophie slides past Sabine and smiles at me.

_She's wearing a cute blue dress._

"Hey." I smile, then move to hug her.

"Hi." Sophie said softly, then hugged me.

_That actually was kind of a strong hug._

I let go of her, then look up and see people still filing into their seats.

_Huh._

…

…

(30 minutes later)

I smile happily and clap along with everyone else as Lux and Ahsoka start back up the aisle.

_They're married._

I really was expecting some big long ceremony.

_I was expecting to be bored._

But no, the whole thing took maybe 20 minutes.

The holy man said some things about true love and devoting yourself to somebody else fully.

Then Ahsoka and Lux exchanged vows, rings and kissed.

And now I'm clapping.

I keep going for another few seconds then glance around.

_When am I supposed to stop?_

We started when they started back to the aisle Ahsoka came down, accompanied by a man in tan robes.

"When do we stop?" I glance back at Sabine.

Sabine shrugged.

…

…

Ahsoka and Lux slipped thru the backdoor, and the clapping finally stopped.

_Thankfully._

My hands hurt.

The back row on either side waited a few seconds, then began filing back into the room Lux and Ahsoka just entered.

O…kay?

I'm assuming they're out of here.

I feel Sophie start to get antsy.

"Easy sweetheart…we're almost out of here…" I hear her mom say to her softly.

…

I follow the lead of the woman opposite me and start filing back towards the back room.

Sabine and her family right behind me.

Once I reach the next room, I step aside.

_I don't want to lead everyone._

I don't have a clue where I'm going.

Sabine simply sidled next to me, holding Sophie's hand.

"Why'd you stop?" She asked me.

"I don't know where I'm going." I reply, shrugging at her.

"Well, it's the reception now. We're supposed to mingle." Sabine's mom said, appearing beside Sabine.

"Talk to people." Mr. Wren clarified for Sophie.

"Oh." She said simply.

Then Sabine hit me in the ribs with a sharp elbow, causing pain to shoot thru the entire left side of my chest.

"Ow. Yeah?" I ask her.

Sabine simply smiled and pointed up and to the left.

I glance up…and smile.

_Kanan._

With his typical smirk.

Hera's got two cups of…something.

"Let's go say hello. I'm sure they want to see you Ezra." Mr. Wren said, as he and Sabine started us towards them.

Sophie silently slid back to me and latched onto my arm gently.

I smile down at her and follow the others.

"Hey Sabine." Hera smiled, then sipped a cup of what looks like punch.

"Hi. You guys have met Mom and Dad." Sabine told her.

"We have. Nice ceremony I thought." Kanan replied, then shaking Sabine's father's hand.

"Hera Syndulla." Hera shook Mrs. Wren's hand.

"Bo-Katan Kryze." She smiled back at Hera.

"And this…" Sabine said, then gently pulling Sophie to her. "Is my sister Sophine."

Sophie went from smiling shyly at Hera and Kanan, to giving her sister a death glare instantly.

"Sophie." She frowned at Sabine.

"She likes to be called Sophie though." I compromise, causing Sabine's parents to laugh.

"Hi Sophie! I'm Hera." Hera crouched down and smiled at Sophie.

Sophie smiled back, then craned her neck to look at Kanan.

"Hey Sophie." Kanan said coollty, then waving.

"Hi." Sophie replied quietly.

_No lightsaber._

…

Wait.

He's not Kanan.

_He's Caleb._

…

Caleb.

"Nice outfit Ezra. When'd you get that?" Hera asked me, then sipped her drink.

"Oh…I got it on Denon." I say.

"You do look nice." Ezra's dad added.

"Thanks." I say, then shrug.

_Denon feels like a lifetime ago._

"Is that punch?" Sabine asked.

"Yeah." Hera smiled at her.

"Is it good?" Sophie asked softly.

"Yeah. I think so." Kanan replied, then smiled at her.

"You wanna go get some?" Sabine looked down at Sophie, who nodded.

Then Sabine and Sophie drifted off to find the punch.

…

"You look good Ezra." Kanan suddenly said.

"Yeah, really good." Hera added.

I shrug.

"I assume word got out about me?" I guess.

Beside me, Sabine's father nodded.

"It didn't sound great." He said.

I nervously shrug.

"Are you in any pain?" Hera asked me.

"Not really. Sabine elbowed me in the ribs earlier, and that hurt. Other than that I'm okay. I just feel…awkward."

Kanan's eyebrows furrowed, and Sabine's parents look lost.

"Explain son." Mr. Wren asked softly.

"I…everything I do feels off. Walking, this conversation…I don't feel like I belong. Like mentally." I try to explain.

_I can't describe it._

It's just in my head.

Everything is foreign. Even things that are familiar.

"You look fine. It looks perfectly fine to me." Kanan said.

I can't hold back an eye roll.

Of course it looks fine to him.

_I spent apparently 17 days being tortured._

I spend two weeks recovering from those 17 days.

I wake up one day, the next I'm at a wedding.

I'm sure I look perfectly fine.

He wouldn't know the half of it.

_They didn't have the fun with him that they had with me._

He didn't face Vader.

I prevented him from that.

"What have you guys been up to while I've been knocked out?" I ask, turning the conversation away from me.

_It's awkward._

"Little supply missions here and there. Nothing too big." Hera shrugged.

Meanwhile, Kanan is looking at me sideways.

"We had an idea while you were recovering." Mrs. Wren said.

I smile and turn to face her.

"Yeah?"

"Well, Ahsoka had the idea." She conceded.

"You and Sabine are going to come and stay for three weeks." Sabine's father told me.

_Whoa._

"Thank you. That sounds really nice. I appreciate it." I thank him.

"Give you time to put your head back together." Kanan conceded.

"Sabine said that you were a bit out of it when you woke up. Thought she was a dream." Hera said.

Immediately my temper spikes, and I almost whip back around to face her.

…

"They used…visions of everybody to try and hurt me. What can I say? After having a fake Sabine tell me that I was okay, having another Sabine tell me that I was out didn't seem trustworthy." I say, then sarcastically shrug.

_Is there anything she didn't tell them?_

It must have been while I was sleeping yesterday.

I napped for most of the day. Walked around the base to try and loosen up my legs.

"Did Sophie here about me getting captured?" I ask Mr. Wren.

He nodded, and my heart sinks.

_No…_

"Yeah…she didn't take it great. We told her that you'd be okay and all that. But she didn't buy it." Mrs. Wren told me.

"She called Sabine she was so worried." Kanan said.

"She did?" I ask.

Really?

"Yeah, we were in the mission briefing before Rex and everyone went to go get you, and Sophie called her."

"How?" I ask. "Isn't it supposed to be hard to contact us?"

Mr. Wren helplessly shrugged.

"Atin, you met him son. He said that Sophie told him some story about pressing a button that I always press."

"Which isn't how comms work." His wife adds.

_Atin._

That bastard must have lived.

And is around Sophie.

Great.

"We're back." Sabine declared, rejoining us holding two cups of punch.

She handed me one, and I glance down to see Sophie sipping on a cup of her own.

"Thanks." I smile at Sabine.

"You're welcome. What'd we miss?" Sabine asked Hera.

"Eh." Hera shrugged. "Caught Ezra up on what he missed. Not much else."

"Ok, okay."

Kanan suddenly raised his hand and gestured to somebody behind us.

I turn and smile.

_Rex._

And Echo.

They're…

They're with Senator Organa and his daughter.

_The Princess._

Wonderful.

"Ahh, there you all are. We were looking for you." Rex said, leading them all to the group. "You must be Sabine's father."

"That's me. Carid Wren." Mr. Wren extended his hand.

"Rex sir. It's a pleasure." Rex shook his hand.

Echo clapped me once on the shoulder, smiled, then shook Sabine's father's hand.

"Echo Mr. Wren. Glad to finally meet you in person."

"Likewise." He replied.

"And may we introduce Bail Organa, along with his daughter Leia."

"Bail. Pleasure." Senator Organa shook Mr. Wren's hand.

"Carid Wren."

Behind him, Leia's eyes are locked onto me.

I wonder why.

_Wait…_

…

LEIA.

…

LEIA.

_THIS IS PADME AMIDALA'S LEIA._

The princess introduces herself to Sabine's parents graciously, then bends down and says hello to Sophie.

…

_It's Amidala's daughter._

No wonder she's risen up the ranks so fast.

Compared to her mother, she's slacking though.

"Good to see you in one piece son. We were all worried." Mr. Organa says to me, snapping me out of my own thoughts.

"Thanks. I'm coming along. I appreciate the concern." I smile at him.

"Looks like nobody ever touched you to me. Those medical droids did their job." Rex smiled at me, looking quite happy.

I shrug.

"I agree."

"Would you mind if I borrow him?" Leia asked Hera and Kanan.

"No, not at all." Kanan said.

Suddenly and smoothly, I find myself followed the princess.

_I wonder what she wants with me._

This…is a little weird.

I just need to roll with it though.

"I'm sure you're up for some dancing. I need a partner anyway."

Huh?

I look up, and see it.

_A dance floor._

Oh great.

The princess doesn't wait for my reply, and pulls me out onto the floor, then wraps her arms around my neck.

Out of habit, I place my hand at her hip and go with the song, which is sort of slow.

_Wonderful._

Juuuust great.

"We really were all worried you know. Jedi in training is captured on an undercover mission. Unable to locate for over two weeks. Some were advocating to end the search." Leia said quietly as we danced.

"Oh really? Any names?"

The Princess quietly laughed.

"No…you'd be understandably angry with them." Leia said.

"How'd you know about that?"

She's busy being a Senator.

_Isn't that right?_

Last time I saw her she was like running or something?

Maybe just been elected?

"I keep up with the everyday dealings of the Rebellion. And like it or not, you're a big part of a possible solution to this conflict. So I kept tabs on the situation."

_Like it or not._

"When you say 'Like it or not', it sounds like there is a considerable faction that felt this way." I say simply, dancing.

This is interesting.

Something to think about at least.

"Well Mr. Bridger, as you might imagine, the Rebellion isn't a vanilla group. We can't afford to be picky and choosey. We take who we can get who aren't flight risks basically. And there are those who…don't agree with our stance of allowing Jedi, or former Jedi such as your masters into the Rebellion. They see the role they played in the last great conflict and the peace that has indeed followed."

"Their rule isn't valid. You know that." I say, trying to rein in my temper once again.

_It's been bubbling ever since I saw Kanan._

"Validity isn't the correct word, if I may say so. It was perfectly legal what Emperor Palpatine did. It is not democratic or just, but it is valid."

I roll my eyes.

"If this is peace, I'd hate to see their version of a war." I say.

The Princess nodded.

"I am right with you on that count. That is why I'm trying to use all diplomatic channels I can to reduce the Empire's power. In the name of the people the Empire claims to serve."

"But actually for our cause." I put the puzzle pieces together.

"Not entirely. Partially. But I do serve the people."

Yeah, I'm sure.

_Politicians._

Saying whatever I want to hear in order to get my vote.

Then they run off and do their own thing.

"You don't believe me." The Princess told me simply.

"I don't believe your motives. Let's call it that." I compromise.

_She's an okay person._

Not wonderful, but not everybody I don't get along with is evil.

There's a gray area.

Something I'm learning a lot more about.

_There is a lot of gray area. In almost everything._

"Diplomacy is often contextualized as lying to your face. I wouldn't do that to you. I respect you. And what you have just been thru." Princess Leia told me, sounding sincere.

"Then what is democracy? I admit I haven't seen the ideal version of it back on Lothal."

_My 'Representative' was a lying snake of a coward._

Who loved himself a lady of the night.

"Diplomacy is my stock and trade. It is the proper way of getting things done without having to resort to a blaster. Or in your case a lightsaber."

_Hey._

"I can shoot a blaster." I say, slightly annoyed.

"I never said you couldn't." The Princess said, as the song came to a crescendo.

I spin her out, like I did with Darcy, then release her hand.

The princess smiled at me.

"Very nice. Thank you. It was a pleasure to talk." She said, then drifted off into the crowd.

_Okay then._

I glance around, trying to find Kanan and the others.

When I finally can't find them and turn around, I see Echo waved towards me.

…

"Thanks. There's a lot of people here." I smile at him.

Rex lightly laughed as Senator Organa turned to me.

"Now where did Leia go? Did she drift off?"

I nod.

"Oh blast. I'll have to go find her then. She's discovered a taste in lesser men…it was a pleasure meeting and speaking with you all." He said, turning to the group.

"Ours as well." Rex said.

Then Senator Organa disappeared into the crowd.

"When'd you learn to dance?" Hera smiled at me, then nudging me softly.

I smile.

"I picked up a little thing here or there." I say sheepishly.

"Well it looked good." Kanan complimented me.

"Thanks."

"Can I go get an ice stick?" Sophie looked up at her father.

_Ice Stick?_

That actually sounds kind of nice right now.

"Yeah, sure sweetie." Mr. Wren smiled at her.

"I'll go with you. Do you know where they are?" I ask Sophie, who lit up at me.

"Yeah! C'mon!" She said peppily, causing Hera and Rex to laugh.

I move to follow her before she slows down and grabs my hand.

"They have up to seven flavors the guy said."

"How'd you hear that they had ice sticks?" I ask her, trying to make small talk.

_Easy conversation._

Kind of mindless.

I just want Sophie to smile.

_Don't focus on me._

Make Sof smile.

Maybe even laugh.

"When Sabine and I went and got punch." Sofie said, walking with me.

Before long we reach a table with a spread.

Full of ice sticks.

"What kind do you think _Sab'ika_ would like?" Sophie asked me, on her tip toes to see the ice sticks themselves.

_The table is kind of tall._

"Sabika?" I ask Sophie.

"Oh. Sabine. _Sab'ika_. I named her that." Sophie explained, then smiled up at me.

"I like that. That's cute." I say.

_It really is._

Quickly, Sophie frowned at me.

"You don't like it."

"No, I really do! Does it not sound like I do?" I ask her, as she keeps frowning at me.

"You sounding like you didn't mean it."

"I do mean it sweetie. Really." I say strongly, then smile at her.

Sophie's frown flips immediately.

"Okay. Can you get a chocolate twist for me? Please?"

I nod, then look up and see our options.

Vanilla.

Starwberry Sherbert.

Cookie.

Chocolate Twist.

Lime.

_LIME?!_

I grab a chocolate twist for Sof, then try to rack my brain.

What would Sabine like?

"Does she like Chocolate? I really don't know." I admit to Sophie.

"Every girl like chocolate."

I laugh, then hang my head.

"Okay. I think I'll get her what you got then."

Sophie smiled as I grab a chocolate twist for her, and on a whim, a cookie flavored Ice stick for me.

I start to turn back to the crowd and where the others are, when my brain's gears start moving again.

_Sophie._

"Hey Sof?"

"Yeah?" She asked happily, unwrapping her ice stick.

I turn around and see a little open spot by the ice stick tables.

"C'mere." I say, then move over to the open space.

When I turn back around, Sophie has followed me, but looks confused.

"Is everything okay?" She asked simply, then licking her ice stick.

"Yeah, oh yeah. Everything fine. I just wanted to say…your mom said you heard about me getting captured." I say, then smile at her.

Sophie quickly grabbed onto her ice stick tight.

"Uh huh…"

"She said you were worried about me. I'm okay." I smile at her.

_I'm not doing a good job expressing this._

Suddenly, Sophie tackled my legs.

I bend down and hug her.

"What's wrong?" I whisper to her.

"I…was really scared…Sabine told me…" Sof whispered back, sounding scared.

"Told you what?" I ask her.

"She said you got captured. Then you were hurt. I was scared…you weren't going to be okay." She said quietly.

Oh…

"Sophie…I'm fine. Okay? I'm here. I'm alright. Your sister wouldn't let me be here if I wasn't." I smile at her.

_C'mon._

Laugh, smile.

Break the tension.

_Don't cry on me sweetie._

Sophie laughed, and I smile again.

"You know that. Sabine can be bossy. I know you know that." I joke with her.

Sophie giggled.

"Yeahhh…"

I laugh.

"I'm fine. Did your mom and dad tell you I'm coming to stay for a little bit?" I ask tentatively.

Sof smiled and nodded.

"That's so I can rest. I'm tired." I tell her.

"Then rest." Sophie said simply.

I smile at her.

"I plan on it. Maybe we can even go and get some ice sticks in Keldabe okay?" I say on the fly.

_Doesn't sound like a bad time to me._

Sophie beams at my suggestion.

"Yeah! That sounds fun!"

I smile.

"Okay?"

Sophie nodded.

"Okay."

"Don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

Sophie quickly hugged me again.

I squeeze her back, then she lets go of me and nods.

"Okay."

"C'mon. Let's go find the others." I say, standing up and offering her my hand.

She snatches it up, then we start weaving back thru the crowd.

After a minute or two, Sophie and I arrive back where the others are casually chitchatting.

"Here you go…" I slyly say to Sabine, then holding out her ice stick and cracking a smile.

Sabine looks away from Kanan and Rex, who are talking, and then smiles widely.

"You didn't have to get me anything…" She said to me, but still taking the ice stick.

"We wanted to." Sophie smiled at her.

"That's thoughtful of you honey." Mrs. Wren smiled at Sophie.

I turn to face Rex and Echo, and see that they're smiling at me.

_Domesticated._

…

Maybe I am a little bit.

"So what's the plan?" Sabine asked, after a moment.

"Well, we're heading out tomorrow. There's a meeting everybody is supposed to attend." Hera told everyone.

"Everyone?" I ask.

To my surprise, Mr. Wren nodded.

"Yup. Kanan and Hera were nice enough to offer us a way there."

_Safe Zone._

It must be there.

"You're coming too. Don't try getting out of it." Kanan joked with Sabine and I, causing everyone to laugh.

"How are you getting there?" I ask Rex and Echo.

Echo shrugged.

"We'll find a way. No big deal." Rex said, not sounding concerned.

"Yeah, exactly. No big deal. Today's no big deal." I hear Lux joke behind us, and I smile and turn around.

_Ahsoka too._

I hear Sophie squeak, then run and tackle Ahsoka, who pulled her into a big hug.

"I knew she'd do that." Mr. Wren joked with Lux.

Lux smiled.

"She's happy, which is all we care about."

"Congratulations." Rex said to Lux.

"Thank you. And thank you all for coming. I really appreciate it." Lux said to everyone.

"No problem. Thank you for inviting us and not charging us." Hera joked.

_Charging?_

Who charges for a wedding.

Lux shook his head with a smile, then turned to me.

"It's good to see you out and about Ezra. You had us all a little worried."

I try to smile and keep it light.

"I'm noticing that. But yeah, thanks for inviting me. Sorry I'm not a little more functional."

"You're fine. Nothing a few weeks of rest and training can't fix." Lux said.

Then behind him, Ahsoka finally let go of Sophie and stood back up on her feet.

"Ezra! You're here!" She smiled at me.

_Why am I the center of attention?_

It's her wedding!

"Yeah, congratulations." I say sheepishly.

I don't like everybody being so happy to see me.

It's Ahsoka's day.

Ahsoka smiled, then quickly hugged me.

_Whoa!_

…

I don't think she's ever hugged me before.

"I'm serious. It's good to see you." She said, the letting me go.

I laugh.

"Thanks."

Ahsoka turned to Kanan.

"I hate to break this up, but I've got somebody that I want Kanan and Ezra to meet really quick if that alright. He's about to leave." Ahsoka said, mostly to Hera and Sabine's parents.

"Okay." Hera said.

This…is weird.

This whole day is weird.

I let Kanan pass in front of me, then follow him and Ahsoka thru the still mingling crowd.

I reach out with the Force, and find it immediately.

_I was afraid it would recoil from me._

After what happened when I was captured.

Instead…it's as close as ever.

Placid and calming.

Ahsoka stopped at a locked doorway, and entered a code.

When the door rose up, I see a glimpse of a man with silver streak in his brown hair, a beard wearing tan robes.

_It's the guy who walked Ahsoka down the aisle._

I walked into the room, and the door snapped down.

Ahsoka quickly relocked it, then turned to face everyone.

"Alright…does anybody recognize him? Ezra?" Ahsoka smiled.

"I do. How can I forget…" Kanan said, then extended both his hands to the man.

"Ahh yes…I remember you. Kanan Jarrus. I taught a lesson on the Temple's Emergency Signal."

THAT VOICE.

Kanan quietly laughed.

"That's me. I asked a dumb question about being able to reverse it—"

"On the contrary. The Temple is currently warning people to stay away. I…learned that idea from you. You've saved the lives of many Jedi, which in this day and age, is quite a task to be achieved." The man smiled at Kanan.

Kanan's eyebrows shoot up.

"I…did?"

"Yes, you did. And I see you've found a young one to teach."

Kanan nodded, then turned to me.

"I've heard of you sir. Obi-Wan Kenobi." I say, then smile at him.

The man smiles at me, then turns to Ahsoka.

"Did you tell him I was here?"

Ahsoka shook her head.

"No. But he has done a little reading about you. We went and saw Padmé like you suggested."

_Huh?_

"Ahh, yes. Did you enjoy it?" Kenobi turned to me.

"Yeah, I learned a lot."

He smiled at me, then turned back to Ahsoka.

"May I have the floor?"

Ahsoka smiled.

"Of course Master."

Kenobi's eyebrows dropped slightly, and he smirked at Ahsoka.

"You don't have to call me Master anymore Ahsoka…call me Ben or Obi-Wan."

"It's habit Master…See?!" Ahsoka said, with a laugh at the end.

"We'll work on it…Okay!" Kenobi smiled, hen clapped his hands together. "I wanted to speak to both of you because it appears right now that the two of you are the best Jedi the Rebellion has to offer currently."

_Wait…_

Hold on.

"Yes, I believe that's us." Kanan answers.

"You're not with the Rebellion sir?"

_He's a lot better than us._

I know it.

He trained Ahsoka's Master.

Their relationship is clearly strong.

_He came to her wedding._

Mr. Kenobi smiled at me.

"I've got a larger task at hand currently. One you'll learn about in the future I imagine, seeing as how you know about Senator Amidala and the state of things…"

Okay.

"Sorry, I'm sidetracked. What I wanted to do, is to speak to both of you. Kanan, you've done a magnificent job getting to this point. You've come a long way. Don't make a mountain out of a speck of dust. Embrace issues. Look back at your training. Don't be afraid to ask questions. Between the three of you, I'm sure you all can figure it out." Kenobi said to Kanan.

Kanan ran his hand over the top of his hair.

"I'll certainly try Sir. No promises, you know how difficult this is."

"That I do…" Kenobi said, then picking up several datapads off the table and handing them to Kanan.

"These are copies of some texts from the Jedi Temple, along with training techniques and other helpful materials. I'm sure you'll put them to good use."

_Whoa!_

From the Jedi temple?

I assume he's talking about the main one.

"And for you my boy…a few words of encouragement." Kenobi turned and smiled at me.

…

"I'm sure you know this, but I can feel the conflict within you. Just because you have escaped Imperial custody, doesn't mean you are free of them. I know it is difficult…but release your anger towards them. Release all of your anger. Your frustrations. Your memories of that time. It doesn't suit you as a Jedi."

I bite my lip.

"It's a lot more than that though." I say.

"I know that. I know. The path to becoming a Jedi is never a straight one. This is simply a detour on the road. Embrace your training. Embrace the details of it. From my experience, you will find that all the answers you need will present themselves to you. All you have to do is truly look."

Then Kenobi turned and grabbed two datapads and gave them to me.

"These should help you, both with your lightsaber form, and with some of the finer details of becoming a Jedi."

I…

I look up from the datapads and see that Kenobi is smiling at me.

"Thank you sir." I say, then nod at him.

Kenobi simply smiled and clapped me on the shoulder.

"And now…I must depart for home." He turned to face Ahsoka.

"Thank you for coming. I know it's dangerous for you to travel about. We really appreciate it." Ahsoka smiled at him, a look in her eyes.

_I think she looks at him a lot like a father figure._

…

They both have been thru a lot.

"I wouldn't have missed it for the world. I just did what needed to be done Ahsoka." Kenobi smiled at her.

Ahsoka swallowed and nodded.

"I know it's been on your mind all day. But I know Anakin would be very happy and proud of you. Not just today, but every day." Kenobi said to her softly.

Ahsoka nodded, and blinked quickly.

_The way he said Anakin…_

It was different.

Then it hits me.

_He trained her Master._

Kenobi trained Skywalker, who trained Ahsoka.

Who…is training me.

_I'm the weak link there._

For sure.

"Now, I must go. It was a pleasure to meet you both. Hopefully we shall see each other down the line." Kenobi turned to Kanan and I, shaking both our hands.

All I get out is a weak "yeah."

"That sounds like a plan to me Master. Thank you. Let us know if we can help you with anything." Kanan said to Kenobi.

"I absolutely will." Kenobi bowed his head, then put his hands together under his robes and slipped out the back door.

…

"Ezra, you just met the strongest living Jedi alive." Kanan turned to me.

"I didn't feel it." I admit.

"He was hiding his Force Signature. It has some real world applications, other than hiding from the Empire." Ahsoka speaks up.

My eyes fall back down to the datapads.

…

_These should be fun to look at._


	46. State of the Union

The hanger bay door opens to the sight familiar, yet nostalgic Ghost, parked comfortably and awaiting us.

"That's the ship?" Sophie asked her dad happily.

"That's it." Mr. Wren smiled down at her.

"What's its name?"

"Its name is the Ghost." Hera said, smiling at the end as she and Kanan lead Sabine and her family towards the door.

I'm hanging a step behind them, toting my duffel bag Sabine packed for me before we left Polis Massa.

_I would have packed it, but I was asleep._

She's done a lot for me.

Came and saved me, along with Rex and Echo.

Waited patiently for me to wake up.

When I did wake up, she dealt with my borderline delusional self.

Then she took care of me without a second thought.

She came with me to the wedding and made sure I was okay.

And now we're here.

Hera walked up the catwalk to the ship and unlocked it.

"Hisss…"

Kanan followed shortly behind her, with Sophie and her parents a step or two behind him.

Sophie's head is on a swivel, taking in everything.

When I step on the catwalk, I hear the familiar tones of a certain droid.

I quietly laugh, causing Sabine to turn back to me.

"What?" She smiled.

"Chop."

She nodded, then went ahead of her mom.

In front of Sabine, Chopper rolled into view and toodled a hello.

'_Hello!'_

Sabine bent down and quietly laughed, allowing her parents to slide by.

"Hey Chop. We've got visitors today." Sabine said.

'_Okay…If we have to…'_

I bite my lip and try not to laugh, causing Sabine's parents to look at me strangely before disappearing towards the cockpit.

Sophie is transfixed by Chopper in front of me.

"We have to. And they're special." Sabine said, then turning and waving to Sophie to come to her.

Sophie trudged up to Sabine's shoulder, and Chopper made a…curious noise.

'_Who is this?'_

"It's my sister. Her name's Sophie."

"Hiiii…" Sophie said shyly, then waved. "Whoa."

The ship slightly shook as we begin to take off.

"We're okay." I try to reassure her.

Sophie looks away from the ship around her and back to Chopper.

"You do whatever it is you do. But if you touch her. Shock her? I part you out. Understand?" Sabine said, frowning at Chop.

'_Got it. Can I shock Ezra?'_

"No. He needs to rest."

Chopper made a disappointed noise, then rolled past Sabine and her sister and towards me.

I crouch down and smile.

"Hey buddy."

Chopper let out a simple laugh, then prodded me with his electrical form on my left forearm.

OWW!

"Yah!" I yelp, then scramble away.

I hear Sophie giggle, then saw Sabine looking ready to explode.

"HEY!" Sabine yelled, then picked Chopper up and tossed him in the general direction of the cockpit.

Chop landed heavily, then laughed while wheeling away from us.

"Hey…you okay? Didn't get you too bad did he?" Sabine asked, looking at me.

I look down at myself and see that I'm shielding my left arm away from Sabine and Sophie.

Sophie's expression quickly changed from happiness to worry.

_That's the arm they drilled into me on._

And the lightsaber cut.

_And that scapel._

"Yeah…just surprised me." I say quietly.

I…feel funny.

Not bad necessarily…

_Just not normal._

Sabine's eyes lingered on me for a split second, then she turned to Sophie.

"We're about to hop into hyperspace. C'mon!" She said to her sister, who beamed and followed her towards the cockpit.

…

Breathe.

_Focus on your breathing…_

I let out a breath and close my eyes.

…

I need to get to my turret.

I can rest there.

_I need a minute._

…

I get to my feet and shakily stumble down into my little home in the lower turret at the bottom of the ship.

I collapse into the seat, then hang my head.

…

_I do not feel great right now._

That electricity and I are not getting along right now.

…

Must be a result of not being shocked for days on end.

I've recuperated enough I guess that it can just really hurt again.

I sit here for a minute, then the gears in my brain move.

_Osofibrillation._

Nervous system and skeletal…thing caused by excessive electrical shocks.

_Dr. Tarkin diagnosed me._

…

I wonder if they know that.

…

I'll have to ask Sabine.

She was there when I initially got it.

Kallus shocked me with those same staffs that the droids fought me with and gave me whatever osofibrillation is.

_I don't know what it is. _

A sickness? A condition?

It hasn't killed me.

Yet, at least.

…

…

_I'm starting to feel a little better._

Speaking of Kallus…

What happened to the intel I got on Denon?

…

How am I only thinking of this now?

_Vader, Shark Bait and Barriss never asked about it._

I was in too much pain.

And nobody else has mentioned it.

_I hope they were able to get something._

If Darcy defected, maybe she was able to talk Brie into joining her.

She's the one with all the information.

…

I keep my head down as I hear soft footsteps start to descend towards me.

…

"Hey." Sabine called out to me softly.

I wave behind me blindly.

_How stupid am I?_

That was my mission.

Find out what "Operation Remnant" is.

_And I failed spectacularly._

"You okay?" I hear Sabine ask me.

I shrug, as my brain is still flying.

I spent two whole months on Denon.

And all I did was failed.

I was a bad friend to Sabine.

_I was never around, and she was probably frustrated due to the fact she couldn't do anything._

I was a bad boyfriend.

_I broke Darcy's heart probably._

Even though I'll probably know for sure.

I left her on Denon, only for my secrets to get thrown in my face.

_Oh yeah._

…

I almost forgot about that.

My lightsaber was ignited by Kallus.

I close my eyes and quietly groan.

…

_Oh man._

Talk about a failure.

'_Failure…'_

Shut it.

I bite my lip and try to block it out.

Then Sabine gently sits on my knees, causing me to jump out of my skin and gasp.

"It's okay…I'm just sitting here…" She said quickly, then slipping her hands under my jaw.

"You okay?"

…

"I just remembered the end of Denon. The intel. We never got it." I say quietly, looking back down at my knees and the floor beneath me.

"We got a little. Your team, coworkers. Whoever the girls are. They all defected. Remember that?" She asked me softly.

Yeah.

I nod, and wait for her to continue.

"Whoever it was that was working on it said that it was something about crystals. Mining, refinement, everything."

…

"That's it?" I look up to see Sabine looking back at me.

Sabine nodded.

"Rex and a few others think it's related to Star Destroyers and their super lasers. But really, we don't know."

"Brie didn't know more?" I ask.

"I guess not. I don't know their names." Sabine shrugged.

I let out another groan.

Dang it…

_Nothing._

"Don't beat yourself up Ezra…please."

"It's a failure. I failed. The mission failed. It just let me get captured." I tell her bitterly.

"We got you back. It's okay Ezra." Sabine replied.

…

"Does Darcy hate me?"

"No. They wanted to come help us rescue you. But they got stopped by somebody."

_Yeah._

I'm too fried to remember who's in charge anymore.

_General Sato told us before Sabine and I went to Denon._

…

"She's at Safe Zone. You need to talk to her."

…

I gulp, and then nod.

"I don't think she'll want to talk to me."

"It's better than having her know you're there. This meeting isn't exactly a secret there. She and the others will be looking for you."

_Blast…_

"I'm stuck aren't I?" I ask her.

"Yeah…but you're also stuck with me." Sabine joked.

_Maybe._

…

Wordlessly, Sabine slid closer to my lap, and lifted my chin with two fingers.

"Even if she screams at you, I'm here. Okay? I'm always here."

I smile, but can't hold her gaze.

"Sorry for keeping you up last night."

_I couldn't sleep._

I don't know why.

"Don't be. I'm glad I was there. Better than you being alone."

"But I kept you up." I tell her.

Sabine sighed, then pecked my cheek.

"What did I just tell you?"

"You're always here." I parrot back to her.

"Which means that I don't care. I just want to always be there for you."

"But…"

Sabine stealthily wrapped her legs around me, and buried her head into my neck.

"I don't care."

…

"Darcy talked to you about me. Didn't she?" I ask.

_Sabine wouldn't wrap herself around me if she was still my girlfriend._

I guess I did break up with her before I got captured, but…

"Yeah." Sabine whispered in my ear.

…

Sabine wants me again.

_I think._

"I'm broken." I tell her.

"That's why we're taking you home. To put you back together."

"Sabine…you're not listening to me." I tell her, slightly aggravated.

_I'm not cut out to date anyone._

Maybe ever.

Probably forever.

Sabine let out a deep breath, then sighed.

"I don't care."

"I do."

"I'll change your mind." She told me, softly yet firmly.

_That's not a good idea._

"Sabine…it's complicated. But I'm not worth it."

I can't be a Jedi anymore.

I can still hear the dark side.

_Beckoning me._

"You can explain it to me?" She suggested.

I shake my head.

"It's too hard to explain."

"Nothing is too hard." She immediately replied.

I can't help but laugh.

_I can't believe this is happening._

Sabine…is completely wrapped around me.

"Where is everyone?"

"Cockpit." She replied. "We're in hyperspace. Going to a area of dead space where we can hang until we can go to Safe Zone."

_Huh?_

"Why wait?" I ask.

"So it won't look suspicious when we come into the sector. If 70 or so ships go into a sector, we're making it too easy for the Empire to find us."

…

…

That makes sense I guess.

…

I just sit here for a moment, then Sabine slides her hands under my shirt and onto my ribs.

"One thing at a time. Okay? We'll get thru this together."

…

_One thing at a time._

…

"Ezra?"

"Yeah?" I reply.

"Look at me."

I force myself to look at the girl who is inches from my face, and totally in my personal bubble.

_She's been spending hours there at night._

She's slept with me every night.

"You're going to be okay. You probably feel worthless right now because you failed, and because of what they did to you, and Darcy. But you're priceless."

I laugh.

"Priceless?" I say, trying to crack a joke.

…

"To me you are." Sabine whispered to me, then kissed my cheek tenderly.

I freeze up, and Sabine hummed softly.

…

"I'm not going to hurt you. It's just a kiss."

"I'm not worth it." I tell her.

I'm not.

"What happened to your confidence?" She asked, looking slightly worried.

"They took it." I say truthfully.

_They broke me._

They made me think what they wanted me to think.

Their thoughts, my head.

I failed.

"Well…I'll just have to rebuild it. Won't I?" She smiled at me.

I shrug, then put my head on her collarbone.

…

"Promise me something?" I hear Sabine ask me before lifting my head up again with two fingers.

"Okay."

"Well, two things." She amended herself.

I try to smirk at her, and feel like I fail.

"I guess…what is it?"

"Let me love you."

"What?" I ask.

"I…I'm gonna be affectionate sometimes. Don't let Darcy stop that. Please. Okay?"

"What are we talking about?" I nervously ask.

I cannot date her.

_No._

No No No No No.

"Sleeping in the same room. Cuddling and watching the holo. Kisses on the cheek. Shows of affection."

_Oh._

"Okay. I get it."

"I'm affectionate. What can I say?" Sabine joked.

I smile, then bite my lip and close my eyes.

"What's the other thing?" I ask.

…

"Kiss me back."

"Wha—" I manage to get out.

Before Sabine kissed me gently.

…

I close my eyes, and decide to obey her this one time.

_And kiss her back._

…

…

I hear Sabine breathe thru her nose, then slip her tongue into my mouth and moan softly.

I pull her closer to me and kiss her back.

…

_I missed her._

…

I missed Sabine so much.

I lean back in my chair, and mindlessly kiss Sabine.

Until I hear footsteps behind us.

And a high pitched gasp.

Sabine and I jump apart, and I look back to the stairs and see Sophie with her mouth open and her eyes wide.

_Oh._

Oh…boy.

"Hey Sof…" Sabine said quietly to her. "What's up?"

Sophie closed her mouth, only to smile widely.

"Uhh…you guys…" She mumbled, looking ecstatic.

I turn to Sabine, causing her to look at me.

"It's not what you think. We're friends." Sabine smiled at Sof.

"But…you kissed him. On the lips." Sophie said, smiling and playing with her hands.

"It was to make him feel better." Sabine quickly replied.

_Uhh…_

Yeah!

Let's go with that! I feel better!

"You don't like him?" Sophie said, suddenly looking crushed.

"No…Sof…" I start, then realize I don't know where I'm going with that.

"Why do you suddenly look so sad?" Sabine filled in for me quickly.

_Good question._

"I…Mommy and Daddy and me thought you and Ezra were boyfriend and girlfriend. They saw how you looked at him." Sophie said to Sabine.

Whoa.

I look back to Sabine, and see her blushing.

"I do like him…but he had a girlfriend back on our mission." Sabine told her.

Sophie's jaw dropped.

Then she came over and started whacking me.

"OW! Sof!" I say, unhooking myself from Sabine to protect myself from Sophie.

Who is currently blindly hitting me on the right side of my face and ribs.

_OW OW OW._

This hurts!

A lot!

"No! Don't do that! Like Sabine again!" Sophie said, swinging her arms at me.

I finally start blocking her , then grab her arms.

"Sophie! I do sweetie…It's complicated." I tell her.

Sophie looked at me, then—

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

Spots fly into my vision as I hear Sabine yells something at Sophie.

_Sophie brought my head down and her knee up at the same time._

OWWWWWWW!

_THAT REALLY HURT._

Bony knee!

"What did Mom and Dad tell you to never do?"

"Hit people!" Sophie said, sounding panicked.

"AND WHAT DID YOU DO?"

"I hit him?" Sophie said, sounding…confused?

_The tone was weird._

Thwack!

"Owww!" Sophie whined.

I turn and look in time for Sabine to set Sophie down on her feet, and for Sof to rub her butt tenderly.

"Do…NOT…hit him again. Say sorry!"

"But I want him to love you!" Sophie frowned at her sister, then blinked back tears.

_I…_

"Sof…" I breathe out, heartbroken.

Sophie turned to me, then basically tackled me.

"I'm sorry!" She cried, hugging me tightly.

_And crying._

I can feel her tears on my shirt.

"It's okay…And I do love Sabine. Okay?" I whisper to her.

Sophie froze, then sniffled.

"You do?"

I nod.

Sophie immediately hugged me as tight as she could.

I smile, then look to Sabine.

She's looking at us, with a slight smile.

I wink at her, then hug Sophie.

"It's okay. Just give it time. Okay?" I tell her.

"Okay." Sophie whispered, then let me go.

"Everything okay down here?" Mrs. Wren called down to us.

"Yeah! We're okay! Just debating whether or not to take the Phantom out." Sabine immediately said.

Sophie tilted her head to the side, then looked at me.

I shrug helplessly.

"I don't know Sabine…isn't that like a mini-ship?"

Sabine raised her arms in frustration, then compromised.

"We'll come up and talk to Dad about it." Sabine told her, then waved for Sophie and I to follow her.

I slowly get up, and Sophie quickly grabbed my wrist and arm, then started pulling me towards the ladder.

I laugh and take a few big steps to catch up to her.

I follow her up the stairs, then am pulled towards the cockpit, where I assume Sabine is going.

"—other ship that we can fly around in. I thought Sophie would like it." I hear Sabine tell somebody as Sophie and I walk in.

"Is this ship Corellian?" Sabine's father turned to Hera.

"Yup. Light freighter class." Hera smiled and nodded.

"So it's an attack shuttle."

_Whoa._

"How'd you know that?" Kanan asked, as Hera looks impressed.

"I wouldn't be doing my job if I didn't know almost every ship rolled out would I? They didn't make many light freighters with the ability to even carry an attack shuttle. And Corellian Engineering was the only people brave enough to devote the resources to this sort of light design. Things were moving to how they are now. Big, and with a lot of guns."

_Whoa._

Sophie's eyes are huge.

"You know your stuff." I say.

Mr. Wren shrugged and smiled.

"I don't know if it's a good idea though." Mrs. Wren said, looking worried.

"They'll be fine. I'm sure Sabine's piloted it many times. Am I right?" Mr. Wren turned to Hera and asked.

Hera nodded.

"She's our girl."

Sabine smiled, looking sheepish.

"So?" Sabine asked Hera.

…

"Go. Have fun. Keep the comm open." Hera said firmly.

"Yayyy!" Sophie cheered.

Sabine flew out the door, and Sophie tried following her while pulling on me.

"Thanks." I smile, then move to follow Sophie.

"Where'd she go?" Sophie asked me, looking around.

"Up!" Sabine called out, ahead of us.

I smile.

"The ship is up." I tell her.

_I usually have to jump in order to get to the ladder._

I'll have to pick Sophie up.

"But where'd Sabine go?" Sophie looked back at me, pointing to where Sabine's voice echoed to us.

"Down the hall and up sweetie." I tell her, then lead her to where the ladder is.

"Pick her up Ezra. Sophie, grab onto that ladder. Okay?"

I nod, then turn to Sophie.

"Ready?"

She nodded.

I gently grab her by the waist and lift her up.

"I got the ladder!" Sophie yelled.

I slide my hands down slowly and keep them under Sophie's feet.

"Now climb! Not too far!" Sabine said cheerfully.

I watch as Sophie nervously and deliberately climbs the ladder, then crawls into the Phantom.

"Whoa! It's big?" I hear her ask Sabine.

I don't hear her reply as I jump up and grab onto the third rung of the ladder.

_I'm losing it._

Last time I could get all the way to the sixth rung.

Granted, I whacked my elbow pretty hard, but I hung on.

I reach up and grab a few rungs up.

"Pop!"

I cringe and try to bite down a hiss of pain.

_That…was probably something keeping my synthiskin in place._

They did something different before I left Polis Massa.

"You okay?" Sophie asked.

"Yeah…I'm okay!" I call out to her, as a small part of skin right by my abs is on fire.

_Something tore._

"What'd he do?" Sabine asked Sophie.

"I don't know!" Sophie replied, sounding a little scared.

"What'd he do Spectre 5?" I hear Hera ask right before I reach the Phantom and sit on the floor.

"I don't—"Sabine said, before she and Sophie see me.

Sophie immediately cringed and Sabine bit her lip while moving towards me.

_There's blood on my shirt._

I let Sabine lift my shirt up, revealing a cut, with bright red skin under it.

"Sabine…" I hear Kanan ask over the comm.

"Ezra ripped a stitch getting in the Phantom." Sabine frowned.

"I'm fine." I tell him.

"No, you're not." Hera immediately said back.

"I'm fine. Doesn't hurt bad at all." I tell her.

"Is he bleeding bad?" Hera asked Sabine.

"No, just where it yanked out the synthiskin." Sabine said, causing Sophie to look lost.

"Synthewhat?"

"It's skin that lets my skin heal." I tell her.

That's how I understand it.

It's healing, and preventing me from scarring.

Sophie gave me a weird look, then peeked at where my stitch ripped.

"That looks like it hurts." Sophie said simply.

"Sabine…" Hera said.

_Crap, live mic._

"I'm fine…Let's get going." I tell Sabine.

Sabine climbed into the pilot's chair and pressed the button to close the door, and a moment later the familiar hiss of air floated up.

"Are we good?" Sabine asked Kanan and Hera.

…

"Yeah, I guess you are." Hera said reluctantly.

"Hold on now." Sabine smiled at Sophie.

Sophie grabbed onto Sabine's chair, and I grab a piece of rigging on the side.

Then we slowly drifted back, away from the Ghost.

"Whoa…" Sophie gasped, getting on her tip toes and seeing the Ghost slowly retreat from us.

Sabine easily floated back far enough to fire the engines, then did just that.

Sophie let out a loud laugh and cheered as Sabine gently looped around the Ghost.

She maneuvered us to where we can see the cockpit.

"Look. See, there's Mommy and Daddy!" Sabine said to Sophie, then pointed out at them.

"Hi!" Sof smiled and waved at them.

"Hi!" Everybody waved back at her.

"Pretty cool huh?" I ask Sof, who nodded.

"Do you ever fly this?"

"Nah. Sabine never lets me." I joke, causing Kanan, Hera and Sabine's parents to laugh.

"Hey!" Sabine said defensively.

"Well, it's true. I've never flew it." I say.

"Not my fault. You and Zeb are always goofing off. I always have to rescue you." Sabine smiled.

Sophie lit up, mouth open and turned to me.

"Really?" She asked, sounding like she can't believe it.

"Yup." Kanan said.

Sophie immediately giggled.

Sabine quietly turns and looks back at me and smiles.

I smile back as Sophie is transfixed with the view out of the ship.


	47. Points of View

I slowly blink and see Sophie wiggle her toes while trying to figure out the puzzle in front of her.

_It's something her parents brought along._

Never waste a chance to teach her I guess.

Sophie attacked it with gusto. It's a word puzzle, and you have to figure out the words that make the sentence work best.

In other words, it's a vocabulary test.

Sabine's next to her, leaned up against the wall and cleaning one of her pistols.

And I'm just sitting here, watching Sophie.

I don't think I can help her, even if she asked me.

_School was never my thing._

But Sophie's gotten off to a really good start.

She'll never have to be like me.

Street smart, yes.

Book smart…not exactly.

Silently, Sophie writes something on her datapad, then looks back at her sentence.

…

I jump out of my skin at the sound of the comm speaker firing up.

"Hey, we're almost there. Grab your stuff." Kanan told us, then clicked off the comm.

Sophie's looking at me weird.

"Why'd you jump?"

I shrug.

_Sudden noises were always bad._

Always.

"He's okay Sof. You got everything?" Sabine asked her sister.

"Mommy has everything except my shoes. They're over there." Sophie said, then pointing towards the ladder.

I glance over and see a small pair of slip on shoes.

"Well save that for later. It's time to go."

Sophie wordlessly obeyed her, then got up and put her shoes on.

"Will I have to meet people?" Sophie turned back to Sabine and I.

I shrug and turn to Sabine.

"Maybe. I don't know."

Sophie seemed to understand.

"Did Ahsoka and Lux come too?"

Sabine nodded.

"On a different ship. Then they're going to go on a vacation." Sabine smiled at her.

"For their wedding?" Sophie asked curiously.

Sabine nodded, and Sophie looked pleased.

"Are we okay here?" I ask Sabine.

_She's in charge._

I'm just going thru the motions right now.

Trying not to be nervous or seem too weird for Sophie.

That'd freak her out.

_And yesterday kind of freaked her out enough._

"Yeah. We aren't really staying. Just this meeting, then we're going home."

Sophie beamed at the word "home".

"Lead the way." Sabine told her, and Sophie quickly climbed the stairs.

I move to follow, pausing only to pull my datapad to me.

_My datapad._

Sabine brought it with us when we left Polis Massa.

Most everything else is in the cargo hold.

It's nice to have some familiar stuff around though.

My datapad, my blanket, my clothes.

_Mine._

When I reach the entrance to the cockpit, Sophie's already asked Hera a question.

"—send a signal to them, and they double check it to make sure it's actually us. Then they let us park." Hera smiled at Sophie, as her father smiled behind her.

"You always have a good question Sophie." Kanan smiled at her.

Sophie silently turned and smiled at Kanan.

"Thanks."

Sabine gently walked next to me and hugged my side as we're waiting for Safe Zone to get back to us.

_It looks…_

Like a floating top.

"What exactly is that?" I quietly ask.

"An old Clone Wars Medical Frigate. They found it floating out in space randomly, retrofitted it, and made it "Safe Zone"." Hera answered me.

"You've never been here before?" Sophie turned and asked me.

I shake my head.

"Nope."

"Ghost Away Team, you're cleared for landing in Docking Bay 1221." A unfamiliar voice said to Hera.

"Thank you." Hera shortly replied, then gently maneuvered us into the hanger.

…

_I can feel her._

I didn't really even try.

I just…felt her.

…

_I wonder why?_

It feels just like after I probe around with the Force.

But I didn't try.

_I just…feel her._

Weird.

The sound of the hatch opening brings me back to reality, and I slip out of the door of the cockpit.

Sabine leads her family out, and I bring up the rear, following Hera and Kanan off the Ghost.

"So, do we know where we're going?" Mr. Wren turned and asked Kanan and Hera.

"Generally. It's a little while until the meeting, so Ezra's going to take care of some business. I assume." Kanan said, then turned back to me.

_I…didn't say anything to him._

It must not be a secret that Darcy is here.

"Business?" Mrs. Wren smiled at me.

"I…yeah." I say sheepishly, then look at the floor.

Sophie gasped.

"You know it?" Her dad asked Sophie.

I glance up to see Sophie frowning at me.

"I have to sweetie." I smile at her.

…

_She's still frowning at me._

"I'm lost." Mrs. Wren said.

"I…kind of got a girlfriend back on Denon on our last mission…" I say quietly, then looking up and bracing for their reaction.

Mr. Wren slightly recoiled and blinked rapidly.

His wife's eyes widened.

"G…Girlfriend?" She asked me.

"I messed it up. I need to talk to her. Before she finds me. I'll be back before the meeting." I assure everyone.

"We'll comm you if not." Hera adds.

Sophie is still frowning at me.

"Did you know about this?" Mr. Wren asked Sophie.

Sophie nodded.

"Sabine told me yesterday."

"So that's what you kids were yelling about." Mr. Wren said.

I nod as Kanan quietly laughed.

"Yeah, she isn't a fan." I joke, getting Hera and Sophie's parents to laugh.

Sophie simply frowned at me.

"I'm assuming everybody knew except for us that she's here?" Mrs. Wren asked Kanan and Hera.

"Yeah. She, along with the rest of the team Ezra was working with all defected. When we found him, they made a big push to get onto the team that went and saved him." Hera explained.

"Oh. And they didn't go I take it by the way you're talking." Mrs. Wren added.

"Nope. They did not like it one bit."

Mr. Wren looked to me and shrugged.

"Sounds like you're going to have fun son." He smiled at me.

"A blast." I joke, getting everyone to laugh.

Then Sabine starts leading us towards the interior of the frigate.

Sophie latched onto Sabine pointedly, then turned back at me and scowled.

"Heh." Kanan quietly laughed.

"She's got a attitude." Hera said quietly to Mr. Wren.

"Yup. She's like Sabine was at that age."

_Oh?_

Hera and Kana quickly both looked surprised.

"Really?" Hera smiled.

Mrs. Wren nodded.

"Sabine burned thru two baby sitters when she was growing up. If you didn't listen, Sabine wasn't above throwing things."

"Mommmm…" Sabine groaned, not looking back at us.

I quietly laugh along with Hera and Kanan.

"I don't throw things." Sophie said simply.

"We know honey." Her mom smiled as we reach a stark white hallway.

_She's off to the left._

Down two levels I think.

She's definitely down.

"I'll see you all later." I smile at Kanan, then start off to the left.

"Bye! We'll comm you!" Hera called out as Sabine and her parents wave.

I wave back, then find a lift with a sign next to it.

"Down Only".

_Well, here goes nothing._

I press the button, and a few seconds later the lift pops up.

"Going down…"

I step in and look at the bank of buttons.

_Right now I'm on 5._

Okay.

Let's try 3.

I tap three, and the left chimes, then slowly starts descending.

…

…

"Ding…" I step outside, and see a circular hallway with doors on each side every few feet.

I reach out, and locate Darcy again.

_Lower._

Just one level though.

I turn back to the lift and press 2.

…

…

Yup.

_This is it._

In the back.

I quietly start down the hallway, footsteps echoing off the walls.

_I'm the only one here._

…

…

I stop in front of a door that; marked 44.

_She's right in there._

I can hear gentle chatter behind the door.

…

I let out a breath, then knock on the door.

"Coming!"

_Aiden._

…

The door opened to Aiden in a t-shirt and long pants.

Immediately she covered her mouth and screamed.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHH!"

A split second later, Mira and Katiey pop into sight, as Aiden turned away and bent at the waist, still covering her mouth.

Mira and Katiey both gasped, then Katiey screamed.

"Darcy!" Mira said.

"What? Who is i—" I hear Darcy say.

_Oh no._

My stomach immediately shrivels up, right before Darcy pops into view.

…

"AAAHHHHH!" She screamed, then sprinted at me.

Without thinking, I catch her as she flies into me and wraps herself around me.

"Oh my god. Oh my god…" Mira said as Darcy held onto me.

Behind her, Brie is looking at the door also.

_I…_

I kind of made a scene.

"Hi." I hear Darcy croak out.

I quietly laugh.

"Hi. May I come in?" I ask her.

"Yeah!" Katiey immediately said, moving behind me and pushing me.

"Get in here." Aiden ordered softly.

Darcy is still holding onto me for dear life.

I slip inside and see that it's a two person room, with a holo in the middle.

_There's clothes everywhere._

I don't recognize the show.

"Hey. I'm sitting down." I quietly tell Darcy.

She quickly crawled off of me.

I numbly sit on the edge of one of the beds as the girls quickly gather around.

"I…" I hear somebody say.

"How?" Brie asked.

"We didn't hear anything." Mira said.

"Yeah." Darcy added.

"Figures."

"Of course nobody told us a damn thing." Katiey muttered.

"I…thought I should come and talk to you all. I owe you all at least that much." I say quietly, immediately silencing them all.

_Yeah._

The last time they saw me was pretty bad.

"Well, yeah." Aiden said matter of factly.

"You've got a lot of explaining to do." Lana spoke up.

…

"Yeah. I do, don't I?" I say meekly.

_This isn't going to be fun._

Behind Darcy, Lana and Brie turned and started talking amongst themselves.

Bringing in Mira and Aiden.

"Let's start here." Darcy took charge, silencing the chatter behind her.

I nod.

…

"You're a rebel."

"Yes." I say to Darcy.

"Why?" Mira asked.

"The Empire took my parents away when I was a kid. I hate them." I say simply.

Katiey rolled her eyes.

Immediately my temper spikes.

_Easy._

I close my eyes and bite my lip.

Easy Ezra.

…

Easy.

'_Choke her…she will learn…'_

I shake my head, then breathe thru my nose.

_No._

"What'd you do?" Darcy turned around and asked Katiey.

"It's a sob story. Let me guess. They took Mommy and Daddy away for no real reason?" Katiey said to me in a slightly higher pitched voice.

I hop off the bed and move to the window.

"Katiey!" Mira hissed.

"Don't make fun of—" Aiden scolded her.

"Actually, there was a reason. Unauthorized transmissions. I don't know what they were. I was 7. But yeah. The Empire killed them." I cut Aiden off coldly.

…

"You don't know they are dead." Brie said simply and softly.

"It's been 10 years. It's easier that way." I reply.

…

_Breathe._

My temper is still bubbling.

"You're a Jedi too? Or were you just carrying that sword?" Aiden asked curiously.

I turn back to look her in the eye when I answer, but Katiey again catches my eye.

_She's playing with a Rix Square._

It's supposed to sharpen the senses.

Without really thinking, I pull the Square out of her hands and into mine.

"Yeah…and I'm here to talk to you Katiey. I'd appreciate it if you paid attention." I say simply.

All together, Katiey, Darcy, Mira, Lana, Brie and Aiden's eyes all widened.

"I'm not a Jedi. I'm training. Was, I guess. We'll have to see about what comes next." I shrug, then turn away from them and back to the view outside.

_It's just black space._

Better than the girls right now.

…

"You…sound different." Aiden said.

"Yeah. Not as sure." Mira added.

"What'd they do to you?" Darcy hit the nail on the head.

"You don't want to know that." I reply.

…

"Try us. We can learn."

Fine.

_I guess._

"Okay. So a Jedi gets his powers from something called the Force. It's what binds the universe together, and makes life possible. You can either use the Force to help others and protect people, and be a Jedi. Or, you could use it for personal gain and greed basically. They're called Sith, as I understand it."

"I don't mean to criticize, but personal gain and greed are subjective terms." Brie spoke up.

I nod and turn back to them.

"You're right. But it's the best way I can describe it. Another way to think of it as advancing yourself as opposed to advancing others."

Darcy nodded, and everyone else seemed to accept it.

"Have you seen any of the other side?" Lana asked.

…

"I was just with them before I was rescued."

I quickly feel each of them individually be shocked.

"Whoa." Aiden said quietly.

"That probably wasn't fun."

I nod.

"It wasn't. Getting back to your point though, is that they tried to convert me to their side. And to do that…they had to break me."

"…Break you?"

"Mentally, physically, emotionally. Yeah."

"Did it work?" Katiey asked.

"Obviously not. He's here now. If it had, he wouldn't be here." Darcy said.

_Ehh…_

I bite my lip as Lana's jaw drops.

"What?" Darcy asked her before turning back to me.

"It's not that simple." I compromise.

_It's not._

"Like?"

I shrug, then look back to the window.

"Mentally, they broke me. They had me thinking what they wanted me to think. I just never acted on them. Emotionally, I thought nobody knew where I was. Physically, I'm still a mess."

"Huh?" Darcy asked.

"You look okay. Normal. I don't see anything." Aiden smiled at me.

I frown, then lift up my shirt to where my stitch tore last night.

_More skin peeled._

They all gasped, and Darcy darted to my side.

"You're not seeing my skin. It's synthetic skin to let my skin heal. The red is my skin."

…

"They destroyed me." I say bluntly, as the girls are staring at me.

…

"Okay…I'm not understanding something." Mira said quietly.

I nod and wait for her to continue.

"Why are you so…different?"

"He's not that different." Lana said heatedly.

"But he is different. He's not the same guy!" Mira countered.

I shrug.

"I'd love to tell you. I don't know honestly. My brain still isn't at 100%. The best I can tell you is what I just said. They had gotten me to think what they wanted me to think. They wore me down. I lost. And now that I'm in control again, I barely know which end is up."

…

…

"You don't _feel_ good anymore." Darcy clarified.

I nod.

"That's part of it. Yeah."

"But we don't know what good is. What we thought was good isn't great. And now we're here, and we don't know anything either. They don't trust us!" Katiey countered.

"We're slowly figuring things out…" Brie reassured Katiey.

Katiey huffed out a breath then got to her feet.

"I heard you guys have bumped into some roadblocks. I'm sorry. Thank you for wanting to come save me." I tell them sincerely.

_I really do appreciate it._

I'm sure it wasn't easy to get me out.

Just wanting to go is saying something.

"How'd you hear about that?" Aiden asked me.

"Sabine."

At the same time, all of their faces fell.

"Oh." Darcy said.

…

"Look…I'm sorry for lying to you all on Denon. It was an undercover operation that went really bad at the end. You all were never supposed to know anything, and I didn't say anything so you could be safe." I say quietly.

"Is that why you sent that bullshit letter to her?" Lana asked, pointing to Darcy.

I close my eyes and hang my head.

"I…I didn't want you all to get hurt. If I said what I said in person, I was afraid Darcy would turn me in, or worse, get imprisoned because she knew a Rebel member." I attempt to justify myself.

_Even though it's crappy logic._

Darcy rolled her eyes and turned away from me.

Okay.

"What mission? What were you there for?" Katiey asked me.

"It was something called Operation Remnant." I say.

"Ohh…that's why they asked us all about that." Aiden turned to Brie.

Brie simply bored her eyes into me.

_And it hurts._

"So…you coming and asking me to help wasn't you being nice. It was you trying to pump me for information." Brie put the pieces together.

…

Ow.

I force myself to look up and look her in the eye when I answer.

"Yeah."

Brie popped to her feet and walked right over to me.

"You used me. Us. All of us."

WHACK!

I freeze where I am, cheek stinging.

"Fuck you." Brie muttered to me, then walked away.

…

_I deserved that._

I open my eyes and see everybody but Darcy glaring at me.

Well…

"Look, if you all hate me, I get it. That's fine. I did all lie to you, and use you. That's all true. But for what it's worth it wasn't an act. The only thing I did that was Rebel related was after the Cato Neimoidia trip. Everything else was real."

…

…

_Silence._

I'm beat.

Flat out beat.

"I…There's a meeting here in a few minutes that I can get you into. If you'd like. I don't know what it's about, but you all said you don't know anything." I say to Darcy.

_Worth a shot._

I guess.

Darcy bit her lip, and the others all looked to her.

…

"Fine. Let's go." Darcy said, getting to her feet and pulling on a jacket.

"She'll meet you outside." Katiey said brusquely, before grabbing my wrists and turning me around, then pushing me out the door.

SLAM!

…

_They're talking about it._

…

I can hear the voices.

I can't tell what they're saying.

_But they're trying to talk to her._

…

I lean up against the wall, close my eyes and try to find something.

Anything.

_What is redeemable?_

…

What?

I'm a liar, heartbreaker, self centered jerk that has made some of the people I've gotten closest too hate my guts.

…

_I don't know almost anything anymore._

I'm too angry, too corrupted to be a Jedi.

I'm too peaceful and calm to be a Sith.

I'm too far down this Rebel road to turn back now.

Sabine's family loves me. They all want me to get with Sabine.

And that's the last thing I want to do.

_All I've done since I tried to go to sleep last night is feel bad about that._

She…

Something changed with Sabine. I don't know what.

But it's different now.

And I don't want anything to do with it.

…

To my left, the door opens and I glance over and see Darcy walk thru it, then close the door behind her.

"Lead the way." She asked me kindly.

I nod, then start towards the lift.

…

"Are you actually okay? Or is most of this a façade?" Darcy quietly asked me.

"A façade." I answer without thinking.

…

"That bad?"

"Worse than that bad." I reply.

"What really did they do to you?" She asked, sounding anxious.

"Choked, assaulted, battered, beaten, shocked, tortured, sliced, diced, cut up into pieces. All while being scared to death the entire time. And that's not doing it justice."

…

Darcy swallowed, then nodded.

"So you're trying to put yourself back together."

"I'm not even sure I have the first piece really. I don't know anything anymore." I shrug helplessly, as we reach the lift.

I hit the button, then we wait in silence for it.

…

5.

…

"I'm sorry for what Brie said back there."

"I deserved it." I counter.

"Some of it. You were doing what you thought was best. I can't hate you too much for that."

"I…" I begin, then can't say anything more.

Darcy looked over at me, then leaned over and lightly hugged me.

…

"Any idea what this meeting is supposed to be about?" she asked me, letting go.

I shake my head.

"No. Just that they wanted me here."

"I'm okay right?" She asked, sounding apprehensive.

"You'll be fine." I say.

If somebody has a problem, they can bring it up with me.

_Darcy's trustworthy._

I let Darcy exit the lift first, then follow a couple of people towards what seems to be a centralized meeting area.

I follow them inside and see that it's mostly full.

Suddenly, people started saluting me.

"Commander." The man by the door said respectfully.

I raise my hand, acknowledging them all, then nod to the soldier at the door.

"Thank you."

"My pleasure sir."

I take a few more steps inside, then turn to Darcy.

"Commander…?" She said, smirking.

"It's automatically given to me. That's never happened before."

Darcy rolled her eyes, and we slip into a spot near the wall that nobody is at.

"A lot of people."

I nod, not knowing what to say.

"Seems unorganized."

"Last meeting I was at, it was pretty similar. I assume there is some sort of order to it."

Darcy seemed to accept that, and I quickly scan the room.

…

…

Rex.

And Echo.

_They're talking to some other soldiers._

…

"Can you excuse me?" I ask Darcy.

"Uh huh." Darcy nodded.

I smile at her, then turn and make my way over towards Rex and Echo.

When I get close, Rex lit up.

"There he is…you're looking better now."

I self-consciously shrug then smile.

"More comfortable maybe."

"Ezra, these are some of the soldiers that came and helped us rescue you. They're known as the "Bad Batch"." Echo said to me.

I turn and look at him.

"Bad…Batch?"

"Clones were generally referred to as batches back in the day. They have…advantageous defects."

I turn and see four clones, all looking at me.

"You all look different."

"Another advantage. Not part of a one man army kid." A man with a headband said to me. "Hunter."

I shake his hand and smile, then turn to the next one, a thin faced clone.

"Crosshair. It's a pleasure."

I shake his hand too, then, move down the line.

"Tech. How's the arm?"

"It's okay. Everything feels funny with it though." I tell him.

"As long as it works."

Finally, I turn and see a massive, boulder of a man.

"Wrecker! Hahah! Good to see you looking ready to fight kid!"

I nervously laugh, then smile.

"Not quite yet, but soon."

"Yeah, we've got a plan that we're sending along to you that will let you start getting back into shape and stuff." Echo smiled at me.

I jokingly groan.

"Back into shape? Aww man…"

Eevryone laughed, and the clone named Hunter clapped me on the shoulder.

"What'd I tell you? It never stops." Rex said.

"Is that the girl?" One of them said, peering off in the direction of Darcy.

I turn and see her looking back at us.

"yeah. I say, then turn back.

"How'd it go?" Rex asked, sounding genuinely interested.

"Her friends hate me. She's lukewarm." I shrug.

"Give them time. It's probably best that they get some space between you and them. They'll eventually see why you di what you did. Everybidy lived, and that's the most important thing." Rex said.

_That…_

That's some good advice.

"And if not, oh well. Nothing you can do." Echo shrugged.

"Better go back over there. She's getting antsy." The one named Crosshair said quickly.

"How would you know?" I ask.

"Body language."

…

"Okay. Nice meeting you all." I give in, then wave to everyone and make my way back over to Darcy.

…

"They seemed friendly." Darcy said to me.

"Yeah. Water?" I ask her.

Darcy nodded, and I spot a water dispenser a few feet away.

Quickly, I fill two cups and bring them back to her.

"The first two I spoke to are my instructors. Physical fighting, tactics, stuff like that."

"Sounds like you like them." Darcy said simply.

"They're good, and they don't dismiss any stupid ideas they have. I really appreciate them."

Really, they're the best.

"I saw Sabine. Is that her family?" Darcy said quickly.

"Huh?" I ask.

Darcy simply turned and pointed across the room from Rex and Echo.

_Where Sabine, Hera, Kanan, Sophie and Mr. and Mrs. Wren are._

"Oh. Yeah. They came with me here."

Darcy bit her lip.

"I'm not causing any problems am I?" She asked me.

"No. I needed to talk to you. They were on me about it anyway."

…

Darcy nodded, then the door we walked in sprung open.

And most everybody sprung to their feet.

I peek out and recognize who it is immediately.

_It's Lux and Ahsoka._

Ahsoka gracefully acknowledged everyone, and Lux almost immediately found me.

He smiled and waved with two fingers, causing Ahsoka to turn and smile.

I wave back, then turn and see Senator Organa walk inside, accompanied by his daughter.

_And a full security force behind him._

"Holy shit…Senator Organa. I should have known." Darcy muttered.

"Huh?" I ask.

"He's one of the few to vocally criticize the Emperor. Of course he's a Rebel leader…"

Oh.

_Figures._

I don't know where all this stands in the grand scheme of things.

Vader's right.

I think I know, but really I don't.

"And stop short selling yourself. You said you don't know anyone, then you talk to some of the best combat people you have, and are acknowledged by the Torguta Queen and her…friend. And you seem to know Senator Organa."

"Yeah, I've seen him. What queen?" I ask.

What is she talking about?

"The lady with the headtails. She looks royal. Am I wrong?" Darcy asked, then pointed to Ahsoka.

"No, she's not royal. She's…she's fine." I say.

_I don't want to single her out as a former Jedi._

It'll just put her in more danger.

The sound of a gavel being hit against a desk causes the room to go silent, except for a few murmurs.

"Attention!" A unfamiliar man called out.

…

"This gathering will not be long, but we do have a very important keynote speaker before we break off into our reported groups.

For those that traveled. First off, welcome. It truly is a pleasure to have you. However, this is the largest gathering of Rebels this galaxy has seen in 17 years.

Caution is of the utmost importance.

Please, _PLEASE_ obey a command from Logistical Command. A single Star Destroyer can come and wipe us out if we are not careful.

We are not big enough to fight the Empire head on. We must operate in the shadows. So our movements must be discreet. Logistical Command has a plan to get everyone in and out safely. We kindly request that you obey orders.

And now, I cede the floor to Senator Leia Organa, from the planet of Alderaan." The man said.

The room burst into applause as the Princess made her way onto a small dais, then gathered some notes.

"Thank you, Commander Seghie, for that introduction." Leia started effortlessly.

"Today, is a landmark day. Today, we are bold enough to gather as a group, for the first time. It is a day that will be discussed in classrooms and in books for centuries to come.

But we are far from done. Today, is about progress.

Currently, this operation has been primarily funded by a select few, willing to give away their last credit in the name of democracy.

To them, nothing is more sacred, than the voice of the people.

Unfortunately…it appears that the ideals of this Rebellion have been compromised repeatedly lately.

This _cannot_, I repeat, cannot occur again.

In the past year, there have been too many military operations sanctioned by this Rebellion. Ones on Onderon, Dantooine, Denon and in the Expansion Regions jump to mind.

Those actions have threatened the safety of everybody in this room." Senator Organa said forcefully.

_Whoa._

I glance over at Darcy, who looks mildly surprised.

"The stated goal of the Rebellion, from its founding before the birth of the Empire, was democracy. To overturn the dictatorial rule of Emperor Palpatine, and return the power to the people of this galaxy.

To where it belongs.

Diplomacy must always be the tool we reach for first when we discover a problem.

It must be the second tool we reach to.

It needs to always be the third tool we reach for.

Violence. Turning to a blaster…should be our last resort."

…

"We would get blasted out of the galaxy in a instant if our first instinct was to turn to violence.

Now, nobody in particular is at fault. As I told a friend a few days ago, we cannot afford to be picky and choosey. We take who we can get who are not say…'flight risks'.

But I believe their tactics and motives are flawed.

They do not reach for diplomacy. They reach…for a blaster."

_I feel like she's talking about us._

She said the flight risks thing to me two days ago.

I glance over and see that Kanan's jaw is set.

Then I swivel around to look at Rex.

He doesn't look pleased either.

"This Rebellion, and those in charge, both financially and logistically, will not tolerate their actions again.

We have been forced to turn away from some of these groups…however dangerous that may be.

Others will follow.

But this path will not be trekked upon again.

This road is not a golden one without end. Every man has their breaking that point is soon, if the direction and purpose of this Rebellion doesn't change."

…

…

"I thank you all for your bravery in joining this movement, along with the sacrifices you have made. One day…they will be repaid in full. Thank you."

The room bursts into applause, although much more subdued than it was when she walked up to the dais.

"C'mon…" I hear Darcy say, before starting to gently pull me out of the room.

I.

CANNOT.

BELIEVE.

HER.

The audacity…

Darcy continued to gently pull me back, as I glare at the Princess.

_I have all the money, and you're not playing by our rules!_

_We won't let you use our money unless you let us tell you what to do!_

"C'mon…" Darcy pulled me out the door, as people slowly started grouping together.

Rex and Echo, along with the "Bad Batch" just marched right up to Leia and lit into her.

Leia's eyes flash to me right before the door closes behind us.

"Let's get to the armory…then you can scream. Okay? Please."

I glance over, and see Darcy not looking thrilled either.

"Okay." I say. "I don't know where it is."

"Down 5 floors and on the right. Just hold on."

I nod, then take a deep breath.

_Easy…_

Slowly, I try to unclench my fists.

_Everything is taut._

…

I hang my head and try to slow my breathing as we enter a lift, then descend.

…

The door opened, and I let Darcy pull me into a room.

I glance around…and see that it's an armory.

"She…" I get out, before my temper spikes again.

"I know." Darcy smiled, clearly sarcastic.

…

"She's from Alderaan. The richest planet in the damn galaxy. This is a game to her." I spit out, pacing towards the blaster range.

Darcy nodded, and seemed to wait for me to continue.

"She's living in fairy tale land. It's a chess match to her. No, it's a boxing match!" I yell out.

"She's a politician. It's how she operates."

"She's lived in a poshy castle her whole life probably. She wouldn't know a normal life if it hit her in the face! She doesn't know a damn thing about the Empire. It's an idea to her!"

"She's an idealist. I agree. She knows Moffs and Generals in shiny uniforms. We know the other side of it."

…

"She might of just lost my crew. I don't know how they're going to take it." I say.

Darcy nodded.

"Seemed like there would be a lot less military action and a lot more behind the scenes dealings."

…

"Just because you have the freaking credits, doesn't make you qualified to run ANYTHING! All it means is that you know how to get money. That's IT.

Just because you disagree with how somebody operates doesn't mean you stop everything effective immediately!"

"I agree."

This time, my temper spikes and I whip around to the range.

Without a second thought, I raise my right hand and just let it out.

Blue lightning flies out of my hand and spreads across three stations.

I feed it everything I've got, but after 20 seconds I'm spent.

…

I slowly collapse to where somebody would stand.

…

…

I gasp for air, then see that Darcy's eyes are enormous.

"That…is what I mean. That's not good." I gesture to the range.

Darcy weakly nodded, then cautiously made her way over to me.

"Do you feel better?" She asked, slightly smiling at the end.

I shrug.

"I guess. Not as mad."

Darcy laughed.

"Well good."

"That's what I mean though. I didn't use to be so angry. I could bottle it. And now I can't. I learned powers that no Jedi should ever use. All that was anger." I say, then shake my head.

"You're human. Forgive yourself."

"Jedi are supposed to be better though." I reply.

"But they're all human. You're allowed to mess up and get pissed off. She deserved every word. She's an idealist. She doesn't truly know what you all are up against."

…

I hear a quiet knock on the front door, and Darcy pops up and answers it.

"Who is it?"

"My name is Xyndahar Yusjhew. I'm an aide for Senator Organa. She would like to speak to the boy." A foreign voice said.

"The WHAT?!" Darcy yelped, sounding livid.

"I apologize Miss. I do not know his name. But Senator Organa would like to speak with him immediately."

"First off, he is a MAN. Get that straight. Second, which Senator? They've both served in the past 10 years." Darcy snapped at the person behind the door.

"The serving Senator Miss. Senator Leia Organa."

"No. He isn't interested." Darcy spits out.

_No, I'm not._

She's said enough for today.

"But Miss—"

"I don't care. She's said enough for today. Plus, he has been in a medical center for the past week at least. Her little speech has infuriated him. Which is the last thing he needed. As well it should have. You, and her both need to back up and give him space to rest. He doesn't want to hear it. And neither do I." Darcy said acidically.

…

…

"Alright Miss. Can you please pass along that the Senator will leave her contact information with his crew, and would love to speak with him at any time."

"I'll do that." Darcy said coolly.

…

Darcy quietly shut the door, and I let out a breath I'd been holding.

When she's reached me again, I smile at her.

"Thanks. You were right on. I don't want to hear it."

Darcy simply sat next to me.

"And if you decide to talk to her, you'll know how to contact her."

"In a castle, on a snow capped peak of a mountain. Sipping cooled wine that were crushed by servants probably." I shake my head.

Darcy giggled.

"You really don't like rich people. Do you?"

"They're full of it. I lived on the streets before my crew found me and discovered I could become a Jedi. I've seen how they look at everyone else. So, yeah. I guess I'm not their biggest fan."

Darcy giggled, then gently hugged my shoulder.

"I agree. They can go stuff it."

I laugh, and Darcy smiled at me.

…

…

_Us._

Oh great.

"So…I imagine that I'm about to leave pretty soon." I begin.

Darcy smiled.

"Yeah, I don't imagine you'll be staying."

I laugh, then we settle back into the silence.

…

"About the letter I sent…I can't take that back Darcy. I'm sorry." I say, eyes glued to the floor.

…

I glance up and see her looking at me.

_Waiting for me to continue._

"Plus…the last thing I need right now, is a relationship. And I ruined whatever we had as it is. I…I'm sorry." I say, ashamed of myself.

_I am such an idiot._

…

"Yeah…I know. You…lied too much."

Look up at her you idiot.

_Be a man and take it for once._

I force myself to look at her before she continued.

…

"Ezra…if you had just told me…" She whispered, tears flying into her eyes. "You were wrong. So wrong. I…I would have made Brie give me the information, then let you go. I really would have. That's how much I loved you."

_WHAT?_

…

"What." I whisper.

Darcy sniffled, and wiped away a tear that was threatening to fall.

"When I said I loved you…I really did Ezra. I've never, ever let myself fall for anybody like that before. I…I'd never slept with anyone like that before. I loved you with all my heart and all my soul."

…

_Oh man._

Oh no.

"And you blew it. You…You fucking blew it Ezra. You lied…SO MUCH…" She whispered, voice rising as she sounded near tears.

…

"I…I can't look at you the same way. I can't. I get why you did what you did. And I understand. I really, truly do. But we can't be together. My team and I can't be near you. At least not for a while. We need to make our own name. Okay?"

…

I numbly nod.

"I know you're sorry Ezra…I really am too. I know. But…we can't go back."

I hang my head, and let my stomach fall.

…

_I never should date another girl again._

Ever.

…

Ever.

I'm not worth it.

…

In front of me, Darcy wiped her eyes.

Then we just…sit here.

For I don't know how long.

…

Finally, somebody else knocked on the door.

"I don't want to talk to them." I mutter, then turn and face the front of the firing station, but below where the ledge for your arms to rest on is.

_It's just blank._

Like me.

…

I'm such an idiot.

…

I cannot believe myself.

…

I hear a voice call out to me, and see that it's Rex.

_With Sophie sprinting towards me._

She tackled me and hugged me tight as I move to sit.

"It's okay…we're going home now." I hear her tell me.

I move to stand, and Sophie doesn't let go, leaving my only option is to lift her up too.

I walk to Darcy, and see that she's beaming at Sophie and I.

"It's Sabine's sister." I hear Rex tell her.

"Awesome. I…I'm around if you need me. Okay? I don't hate you. Even if the others do." Darcy smiled at me.

"Thanks." I give her a fake smile.

Then I walk out of the room, and follow Rex.

(A/N: Sorry for the chaotic update schedule this week everybody. This is the last week of summer for me, which means all of my friends came back into town. And they all wanted to hang out every night. I couldn't say no most nights. Anyway…a little change in the update schedule for the fall semester back here in the States. I'm going to update twice a week at least, Monday and Friday. With hopefully additional chapters as time provides. But since I cannot guarantee that I will have time, I make no promises. Thank you to everybody, for their patience, for reading this story, and for your feedback. It always makes my day. Thank you. –James)


	48. Cooking Up Something

_(Flashback)_

"You put up pictures?"

I glance up from my bag and see that Sophie's standing near the turret, looking at the pictures Sabine and I hung up of us, plus Sof after we fled Onderon.

_A million years ago._

I smile at her as Sabine looks up from her bag.

"Yup."

Sophie smiled back, then looked back up.

"Is this kind of like home to you guys?"

Sabine's eyes drift to mine, and I shrug.

"Sort of. Yeah."

Sophie turned and looked out the turret, to the rapidly approaching Keldabe skyline.

"Mommy really liked your paintings and stuff in your room Sabine." Sophie said.

"That's nice. They're not really much. But I'm glad you like them."

I close up my bag and walk over to where Sophie's looking.

"That's where Daddy works."

I look to where Sophie's pointing, and see that it's a large tower, with some sort of skull for a logo.

_We're approaching it._

"Did Dad gets us a spot to land there?" Sabine asked her sister.

Sophie shrugged.

"Do you want me to go ask?"

Sabine shook her head.

"Nah."

Sophie smiled, then looked back at the tower in front of us.

_(End Flashback)_

Diiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnnnnnnnngggggggggggggggggggggggg!

"C'mon…" Sabine grumbled, getting to her feet.

_The bantha chops must be ready to put on._

I get to my feet and follow Sabine from the couch, where we were comfortably lounging and watching the holo, to the kitchen, where the bantha chops have been tenderized and seasoned.

"Do they meet your standards now?" I tease Sabine, who smirked at me.

"…Yeah. They're good. Grab the foil please."

I open a drawer, hoping I'm right.

_She's looking for the flimsifoil._

I think she wants to set out the chops and prepare the pan.

I think.

_Not the foil._

"To the right of the sink. Second drawer." Sabine said to me, causing me to turn and look that way.

I walk over, and pull of the container of foil.

"Here you go." I say, then watch as she tears off a sheet and sets the 6 bantha chops off to the side on the foil sheet.

"Okay. Pan, then we can work on potatoes, corn and salad…" Sabine muttered, then looking around her for something.

"What do you want me to do?" I ask.

Sabine turned away from the kitchen and looked at me.

…

"Can you peel potatoes?"

"Sure." I nod, starting towards where we set the potatoes after we got back from the market today.

This is a surprise for her parents.

They both had to go back to work today.

One of Sophie's friends had been dying to see her, so Sabine's mom took her over this morning after her dad left.

_It's just been Sabine and I all day._

I grab the potatoes, then search thru the container full of knives, forks and spoons for the right sort of knife.

Long blade, good handle.

…

I finally settle on one, then glance over at Sabine.

She's using some…thing to press what looks like garlic.

_Okay._

I levitate the potatoes to me, then pull one to me and settle in at the sink.

...

_Let the routine relax you Ezra._

Today is the best day I've had so far.

I feel a lot better physically.

More natural.

_Everything is smooth._

I rotate the potato in my hand and continue slicing my potato.

Breakfast was a quiet affair. I had cereal with Sophie before her parents left.

Sabine slept in.

I set my first potato aside, and turn to Sabine.

"How many potatoes?"

She set one bantha chop inside the pan, and immediately began sizzling.

"Two per person, except for Sophie. Just one for her."

I quickly do the mental math.

"9."

Sabine shrugged, then started preparing another chop.

…

Halfway thru my second potato, the door opened.

"Hello! We're home!" Mrs. Wren's voice called out.

I smile and turn to the little hallway between us and the door just as Sophie busts in.

"What smells so good?" She smiled, then lit up and dashed to me.

"I'm cooking dinner." Sabine said, before setting another bantha chop in the pan.

The loud sizzling of the two drowned out what Sophie says when she hugs me.

I play it off by smiling at her, and she smiles back.

"What are you making?" Mr. Wren asked, closely followed by his wife.

"Bantha chops, mashed potatoes, dust corn and salad."

"I wanna help! Can I help?" Sophie asked Sabine.

"Of course you can." Sabine said, finally turning and smiling at her.

"But first, you're going to take your shoes off and wash your hands." Mrs. Wren said to Sophie.

Wordlessly, Sophie dashed back into the hall.

"You're…pan cooking them?" Sabine's father peeked in.

"It's an idea I had last time I made them. I thought it turned out good. Isn't that right Ezra?"

I jump at my name being called.

_Wasn't expecting it._

"Yeah, I thought it was great." I say truthfully.

It was really good. I just don't know how she did it.

"I'll get changed, then help if I can." Mrs. Wren said softly to Sabine.

"Okay. We should have it under control though." Sabine replied.

"Thank you darling." Her father said, before kissing the top of her head.

Sabine slightly blushed before smiling.

"Thanks Daddy."

I turn back to my potato and finish it just as Sophie rushes around her exiting parents and to us.

She quickly opened a drawer in the little island in the middle of the kitchen, and pulled out a little stool so she can have some leverage while she's working.

I start to turn, meaning ask Sabine how I can help Sophie.

But Sabine opened the conservator just as I opened my mouth.

"I've got her Ezra. You keep working on those potatoes."

I close my mouth abruptly, causing Sophie to giggle and then start peeling again.

Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick.

Rotate.

"Be carefulll…" Sophie said, sounding anxious.

"I'm okay Sof. Thank you though." I reassure her, still working on this potato.

Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick.

I set it aside with the other two and grab another potato as Sabine walk over.

"Okay…I want you to tear this lettuce into pieces and set it into this salad container. Okay?" Sabine said softly to Sophie.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Sophie take the lettuce from her sister.

"Once you are done with that, use the celery de-stringer on four stalks of celery."

I see Sophie nod as I rotate my potato.

"Then give that, plus the cucumber and carrots to Ezra. Don't try to cut them. Okay?" Sabine finished and turned to her little sister.

Sophie nodded.

"Okay!"

"Let us know if you need help." Sabine said, then rubbed the top of my head as she passed.

"Hey!" I say, smiling.

Sabine smiled back, then frowned at me.

"Don't cut yourself Ezra. Okay?"

I glance away from my potato and look at her.

"I'm being careful!" I say defensively.

"You're just going so fast…" She muttered before turning back to her chops.

We quickly settle into a little rhythm.

I peel.

Sophie tears.

Sabine does stuff to the bantha chops, then the room is filled with a sizzling sound.

…

…

"Okay. What can I do?" Mrs. Wren walked in.

I glance up and see she's changed into more comfortable clothes.

I shrug.

She comes over and peeks at how Sof's doing.

"Looking good Sophine…maybe a little bigger pieces though."

"Bigger?" Sophie replies.

I barely register Mrs. Wren nod, and Sophie slows down.

…

…

"is that okay?"

I turn and see that it's a moderately sized piece of lettuce.

"Great honey."

Sophie lights up, then turns back to her lettuce.

_She's doing really good._

That looks like a lot of lettuce.

"Mom? Can you put on the dust corn please? Sorry." Sabine said, right before the room was over taken by the sound of a sizzling bantha chop.

"Of course darling. Don't be sorry…"

Her mom drifts out of my view, shortly followed by the soft clanking of some pans.

I block out the soft chit chat between Sabine and her mom and focus on my last two potatoes.

…

…

I set the last one aside, only for Sabine to start snatching up the potatoes and setting them in a cylindrical pan.

"Where can I be applied?" Mr. Wren asked, just before he appeared.

"I…don't know right now." Sabine said, moving bantha chops around her pan.

"Okay." Her father replied, as I spot the cucumber and carrots.

_Ooh._

I can start on those.

"Great job Sophie…" Mr. Wren complimented her as I grab the cucumber and carrots and quickly wash them off.

…

"Ezra. Oval shaped bowl. Right side. Behind your head." Sabine said to me.

Okay.

I set my ingredients aside, open the cabinet to my left, grab a white, oval shaped bowl and put it behind my head.

Sabine takes one step towards me and takes the bowl.

"The entire cucumber too."

"Thank you." I reply.

_I was just about to ask._

"You two had me so confused there. Bowl, behind your head…" Mr. Wren said.

"Usually on the Ghost we help cook, and short little commands like that make it easier."

"So it's second nature." Mrs. Wren said, somewhere behind me.

"Uh huh." I say, starting to peel the cucumber.

Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick.

Rotate.

"Ezra…" I hear Mr. Wren say as I start on the lower half of my cucumber.

Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick.

Then I look up and smile.

"I'm fine."

"It's not a race though…" Sabine's mother chastised me.

I'm being careful.

"How are you over here?" I turn to Sophie.

She looks up from her lettuce and smiled.

"Almost done!"

She's about my shoulder height, thanks to the stool.

I reach over and brush the hair out of her eyes, then pull the carrots to me.

_These are easier._

I'll scrub the dirt off, then cut everything at the same time.

…

…

I ignore the sound of Sabine and her mother again, then more pans clanging together.

…

"Done." I hear Sophie say.

I turn and see that she's done with the lettuce.

And that her father is de-stringing the celery for her over the trash compactor.

"Good job."

…

"Daddy! That's my job!" Sophie piped up, reaching to take the celery and de-stringer from him.

"Okay baby. Sorry. Be careful though. Two fingers. Just like we have taught you."

"Uh huh."

I glance over and see Sophie bite her lower lip, then slowly, but easily, de-string a quarter of the celery stock.

"Good job Sof." I say, then turn back to my carrots.

Almost done.

…

…

I set them aside, then look around.

"Where is a cutting board?" I ask.

Sabine sets a bantha chop on a separate pan, then turns and points to where Sophie got her little stool from.

"There's several there."

I walk over and pluck a short, wooden one from the several available and walk back.

Sophie is still de-stringing.

I don't know what Sabine and her mom are doing.

Her dad's just watching.

I grab the cucumber, then line them all up.

Slice. Slice. Slice. Slice. Slice.

_Done._

"Didn't you grate the carrots?" I ask Sabine, right before I look over and see her pouring something into the bantha chop pan.

_What is that?_

"Yeah…it's cream of mushroom soup! Don't look all weirded out. It's the secret." Sabine smirked at me.

"Seriously?" I ask.

"Yeah. I bought it at the market for a reason dumb dumb." She called out to me, looking back to her masterpiece.

"You went to the market?" Mr. Wren asked her, moving in my direction.

"Yeah, about midday. Crowds weren't too bad."

"How'd you buy it?" Her mother asked.

"My credit stick." Sabine said simply.

"Heyyy…" Sophie turned and frowned at her.

"Receipt _ad'ika_?"

Sabine quietly sighed, then nodded.

"It's in the key drawer over there." Sabine said, then pointed off to the right.

Beside me, her father started grating the carrots.

_I'm stuck until Sophie finishes with the celery._

I turn in time to see Mrs. Wren pull the receipt out of the drawer and inspect it.

…

"38.41 Carid." She said to her husband.

"We'll transfer it tonight." He replied without a beat.

Sabine groaned.

"It's fine…I wanted to make this as a surprise." Sabine said, seasoning the chops.

_Now it looks like it did when I came home on Denon._

A big gloopy pan, with steaks somewhere within.

Corn is cooking above it.

Mrs. Wren kissed the top of Sabine's head.

"Well thank you Sabine. We appreciate it."

"But it's not your call." Mr. Wren finished for his wife.

…

I turn to Sophie just as she turned to me.

"Here ya go!"

_She's done with the celery._

"Thank you…" I take it from her and start lining them up.

This'll be quick.

"Darling, grab the napkins and begin folding them like we taught you." Mr. Wren said to her.

"But I wanna spin the salad!" Sophie peeked around me to her dad.

"You will Sophie. Fold the napkins first though."

Sophie silently listened and hopped off her stool.

…

I set the celery inside the salad container, which apparently is also a spinner.

Once I set the cucumber inside it, Mr. Wren speaks up.

"Bring that over here son, so we don't make a mess."

I grab the spinner and set it below the cutting board where he has been grating beside me.

Mr. Wren smoothly pulls the grater along the edge, then all the grated carrot is dumped inside.

_Huh._

Mr. Wren starts evening out the carrots a little.

I turn back to Sophie and see that she's at the table, folding napkins.

"Done!" She says, setting the last one down and racing over.

"Here you go sweetheart." Mr. Wren gives the salad spinner over to Sophie.

"Yayy!"

I glance over at Sabine and her mom, which are both standing over the stove.

Whirrrr…

_That must be the salad spinner._

Mr. Wren steps around me and opens the conservator.

"_ad'ika_, what dressing would you and Ezra like?"

…

"Uhh…doesn't really matter?" Sabine shrugs, then turns to me.

"I don't really care to be honest." I tell Mr. Wren.

"Well, we've got a vinaigrette, balsamic blend, Ranch for Sophie, and bleu crumbles."

I smile and glance to Sabine.

_She's turned back to her creation._

"Ranch will be fine."

Sophie pauses from her salad spinning to beam at me.

"YAYYY!"

Her mom and I laugh before Sabine speaks up.

"Does anyone mind if I spice up the potatoes?" She asked, turning around.

"With what exactly?" Her father asked.

"Pepper and _kri'gree_."

"Sure. You okay with that Sof?"

"Uh huh!" Sophie said, then placing the salad on the table.

"What's the last one?" I ask Sabine.

"_kri'gree_? It's just for a little kick. Nothing more. Not too bad. You'll like it." Sabine told me, sprinkling some pepper into the vat of potatoes, then putting blue milk on top of it.

"Ezra, can you grab some forks and stuff for everyone please?" Mrs. Wren asked me.

I nod, and I open the cutlery drawer and start fishing it out.

"I'll take it." Sophie walked over and smiled at me.

_The drawer is as tall as her._

I count out five forks and spoons, then give them to her.

"Thanks Sophie."

Sophie wordlessly walked away and started putting them at their places.

"I've got plates behind you…" Mr. Wren said, indeed behind me.

I duck right before he carries them over my head to where Sabine is.

…

"Okay. I think we're set." Sabine said, then wiping her hands off on a towel.

Mrs. Wren slipped in front of her and began doling out everything, presumably for Sophie.

"Go ahead Ezra. You two put all the work into this." Mr. Wren turned to me as Sophie drifted over to her mother.

"You can go first if you want. You worked all day." I counter.

All I've done is this really.

He seems to consider this, then walked to his wife and Sophie.

Sabine smiled and rolled her eyes.

"What? I am hungry, and it smells wonderful Sabine."

Sabine walked over to me, then smiled at her dad.

"Thank you."

I turn around and start grabbing glasses for everyone.

"Milk?" She asks me.

I nod, causing Sabine to turn away from me and to the conservator.

Sophie happily takes her plate over to her normal spot, then drifted back to me.

"Thank you Ezra."

I bend down and smile at her.

"You're welcome." I smile back.

Sophie's smile stuck on her face before she gently hugged me.

When I let go, Sabine is setting everyone's glasses at their spots.

Her mom got wine, her father, water.

"Go." Sophie gently shoved me towards the food.

"You go." I tease her, gently pushing Sophie towards the salad as her Dad reaches the table.

Sophie giggled and her father jokingly shook his head.

I turn to Sabine, who is looking at me.

"Go ahead." She orders me gently.

"No, this is your party. You go." I insist.

"You go Sabine." Mrs. Wren says, finishing her plate up before heading for the table.

"Yeah. Ladies first and all that." I add on, causing Sabine to turn back to me.

"When'd you become a gentleman?"

"I've always been one. I just keep it buried deep down." I joke, causing Sophie to loudly laugh.

"Ezraaa!"

I glance at her and wink, then start getting my own food.

…

…

_This does look great._

…

I take my food over and sit down.

On cue, everyone else starts eating.

Except for Sabine.

Who turned to me and whispered in my ear.

"Wasn't so bad, now was it?" She said, then smiled at me.

I shake my head.

_I never said it'd be bad._

…

I'm learning that I just like it here.

The atmosphere.

Everyone here.

_I just like it._

I finally feel okay.

Still not like a Jedi, but the Force has been calm all day.

Responded easily.

And now a great dinner.

…

I take a bite of mashed potatoes, with the gravy center.

"Mhmm…I see why you fried them first. Crisped them up. So you've got the contrast of textures." Her father said, then clearing his throat.

"I'm stealing this recipe." Mrs. Wren smiled at Sabine.

Sabine smiled happily, mouth full.

"Have it. I just found it on the holo."

…

…

_Just another night with the Wren family._


	49. Dead or Alive

Gushh…Shhhh…

…

_Oh no._

Gushh…Shhhh…

…

Shark Bait grins maniacally in front of me and presses a single button.

My body is lit on fire, and I can't control my limbs as they flail due to the electricity.

…

…

Stop.

Gushh…Shhhh…

…

Gushh…Shhhh…

"Again, Inquisitor."

Shark Bait presses the button again, shocking me with more lightning.

_AAAAAAHHHHHHH!_

…

…

I slump against my restraints.

"Your master is dead. Your girlfriend is dead. Only the Dark Side can save you now, Ezra Bridger…" Vader says, over me as I'm slumped over.

_NO!_

Sabine…dead?

Ezra!

"Again." Vader tells Shark Bait.

Gushh…Shhhh…

I grit my teeth and try to withstand the—

Ezra!

Suddenly I'm shook hard, and the entire world changes.

Sophie is in front of me, hands on my shoulders.

Looking scared to death.

…

I take a shaky breath, and look around.

…

_I'm in the guest room at the Wren's._

With Sabine, Sophie and Mr. &amp; Mrs. Wren.

…

I slowly turn back to Sophie.

_Her eyes are huge._

"It was a dream…are you okay?" Sophie said shakily, just before I notice her mom rushing up the stairs.

"What's wrong Sophie? What's going on baby?" Mrs. Wren barges into my room.

I take another shaky breath as Sophie turns to her mom.

"I think Ezra had a nightmare."

Mrs. Wren looked to me.

"You okay?"

…

I shakily nodded.

"Bad dream. Really bad dream." I tell them.

Sophie's expression doesn't change while Mrs. Wren smiles at me.

"You're okay Ezra. Carid and I are downstairs working on dinner for us if you need us. Okay?"

I nod, and Sophie's mom starts back downstairs.

I look back to Sophie just before she gives you a hug.

"Thank you." I tell her.

"You're welcome. I was going to see if Atin and Sabine went to the roof, but you were yelling and moving around and stuff. I wanted to make sure you were okay." Sophie told me, then letting to and sitting in front of me.

"Atin? He's here?" I blurt out.

Sophie nodded.

"Yeah. He came right after you came to take a nap. Mommy and Daddy invited him for dinner."

_Oh man…_

I'm not in any shape to see him.

'_Go confront him…he's propositioning her…'_

I shake my head.

No.

I hate how I can just…hear it now.

I don't know how to escape that…voice.

"What are we having?" I ask Sophie.

Sophie shrugged.

"Some big bird thingy. Mommy put it in the over a while ago."

_Big bird thing._

In spite of myself, I smile at Sophie.

"Thanks Sof. I'm going to go take a shower."

"You gonna be okay?" She looked up at me.

I nod, and try to reassure her.

"Oh yeah. And if not, you'll be the first one I call."

Sophie beamed.

_She loves being treated like a big girl._

I nudge her with my foot under the covers to get her to crawl off me, then hop out of bed.

_I'm soaked in sweat._

I really need a shower.

Sophie dashed out of the room, then judging by the sound of her footsteps, down the stairs.

Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump.

"Ughhh…" I groan, then hang my head.

…

_Stupid dream._

…

I shift around, grab some pants and a new shirt, then trudge towards the bathroom.

When I finally get the water flowing, I hang my head and just listen to the soothing sound of the water.

…

…

…

After a few seconds, I slip off all my clothes and toss them in the corner.

_Got a towel._

The first time I took a shower here, I didn't have one.

Sabine had to get me one.

Which was really embarrassing.

_Her mom felt bad, since she kept this bathroom stocked full of stuff for me when I came last time._

This time is a lot more laid back.

Sophie doesn't do lesson every night. Just 3 out of every 7 days.

Usually dishes are spread evenly above everyone.

Stuff like that.

_Ahh…_

…

This feels good.

…

Shark Bait.

…

…

_Stupid Shark Bait._

He's out there, somewhere in the galaxy.

Doing his insane, sadistic thing.

…

I need to go find him.

_He's my problem._

I killed him.

Well…I thought I did.

It turns out, that he's very, VERY much alive.

…

I run my hands thru my hair, then take a deep breath.

Atin's here.

…

I probe out, and find him and Sabine.

_Above me._

They must be talking.

…

No big deal really.

_He's lost._

Sabine chose to come with me on Onderon.

She rescued me.

She stayed with me while I recovered.

She was my "date" to Ahsoka &amp; Lux's wedding.

And she's basically told me that she wants to love me.

_With our little talk after we left the wedding to go to Safe Zone._

In the past…I would have killed for that.

But now I know what kind of boyfriend I really am.

Where's my shampoo?

_I probably need to wash my hair._

Since I woke up in a cold sweat and all.

I quickly pour out some shampoo and run it thru my hair, then wash it out.

…

_Okay._

I probably need to get downstairs pretty fast.

Sophie's probably a nervous wreck right now.

Quickly, I shut off the water and pull my towel to me, then dry off in near record time.

After throwing my clothes on, I hop downstairs.

_Smells delicious._

"That smells great." I say at the foot of the stairs.

"You're awake!" I hear Sabine say.

Sophie flies out of the kitchen and barrels into me, wrapping her arms around me.

"Hi."

"Hey." I laugh, then smile down at her.

"Ezra, you remember Atin. From Sabine's ceremony." I hear Mr. Wren say, causing me to look up and see Atin standing next to Sabine, stirring something.

"Oh, yes. I met him." Atin looks away from his pan.

Beside him, Sabine smiled at me.

I quickly probe to get a feel for thing—

_Whoa._

I disguise my surprise my walking into the kitchen and pulling out the napkins.

Atin…

He's crushed.

His body language is hiding it.

But I can feel it.

_He's just generally in…turmoil._

…

What'd Sabine say?

Sophie pops up beside me with a measured amount of silverware.

"Thanks Sof." I smile at her.

"You're welcome!"

6.

I need 6 napkins and sets of silverware.

Sophie, Mr. &amp; Mrs. Wren.

Sabine and Atin.

Plus me.

Mentally, I refocus on Sabine and Atin across the room as I set up everybody's silverware and place them next to each table setting.

Mrs. Wren's voice breaks me out of my thoughts after a minute or two.

"Ezra, honey, you didn't have to fold them so nicely."

_Huh?_

I look down to the napkins I just set at Sophie's spot and recognize it.

_That's how that napkins were at the Alderaanian restaurant Darcy and I went to._

"Whoa! How'd you do that?" Sabine asked, walking over to me.

I shrug.

Just folded them a few times. Nothing really special really.

"Folded it a certain way. Can I help you guys?" I ask.

Sabine shook her head.

"Atin's almost done with the gravy. Everything else is done."

Okay.

"Go wash your hands." Mrs. Wren told Sophie.

Sophie dashed off to the bathroom in the hallway as Atin reached for a container for the gravy.

_I assume that's what he's doing._

I blink and notice Sabine inspecting me.

Wordlessly, she inched closer to whisper in my ear.

"Sof said you had a bad dream?"

I nod.

"No big deal. I'm fine." I whisper back to her.

Sabine gives me a silent, skeptical look.

Then Atin slips by her and sets the gravy on the table.

"How are you?" He turns to me and extended his hand.

I shake his hand and try to look him in the eye.

_He's shorter than I remember._

"I'm good. How about you?" I ask, to be polite.

"I'm good, thanks." He replied, then turned to Mr. Wren.

"Calculating the tonnage of the potatoes sir?"

Mr. Wren looked up, confused.

…

"Oh! No. But it's 0.02581. In case you were wondering." He smirked at Atin.

_Whoa._

"Did you do that math in your head?" I ask.

It's a lot of potatoes.

Mr. Wren nodded.

Silently, Sophie slid by me and brought what looks like a bowl full of dust beans mixed with corn to the table and sets it next to the gravy and salad.

"Okay. Let's have everybody get the bird and potatoes here, then fix everything else at the table." Mrs. Wren told everyone, causing us all to spring into action.

Sophie jumped towards her mother and the food, while Sabine grabbed plates for everyone out of the cabinet.

"Thank you." Mrs. Wren smiled at Sabine after Sabine gave her the plates.

Atin stepped aside so that Sabine could follow her father and get her food/

I do the same to let him follow Sabine.

"No, you go." Atin says to me, then gesturing in front of him.

I shake my head.

"I insist." I reply.

Atin's eyebrows immediately snap down.

And the Force around him ripples from a spike in anger.

"Oh Atin you're practically family. Go ahead." Mrs. Wren said, doling out a piece of white meat to her husband.

"Okay." He immediately replied, sliding in front of me.

I, however, keep my focus on him.

_He's a little…off._

Does this clown have a weapon on him?

Or can I just worry about him taking a swing at me.

…

_I don't see a weapon._

As he steps forward, I check to see if he's hiding a blaster.

Old trick from Lothal back when I picked pockets.

_If he's got a blaster, don't even try it._

Most people tuck a blaster in their boot if they want to hide it.

Some people carry shrunken down blasters inside like a jacket or a pocket. Something like that.

I don't see anything.

In front of me Atin steps aside and Mrs. Wren hands me a plate with a MOUND of potatoes and gigantic pieces of…

"What did you cook? I never asked." I turn to her.

"It's called Tonitrky. It's a bird that used to be able to fly. Now it can't."

"And it's delicious!" I hear Mr. Wren say in the background.

"Thanks." I smile at Mrs. Wren, then turn back to the table.

_Atin…_

He's taken my spot.

…

Oh well.

I'll just have to make it look like it's no big deal.

I set my plate at the table, but don't sit down.

"What does everybody want to drink?" I ask the room.

"Bo and I already have our drinks. Thank you though Ezra." Mr. Wren tells me.

"Juice please." Sophie calls out to me.

"Nuh uh. Milk for you." Mrs. Wren replies immediately.

"Aww…"

I smile to myself.

_I was already planning to get her milk._

"Sabine? How about you guys?" I ask.

"I'll have water."

I nod, taking out glasses.

Four.

"Water for me also. Thank you Ezra."

"Nooo problem." I say, filling up two glasses with milk for Sophie and I.

_That's part of the instructions Rex and Echo sent along with me._

I need all the calcium I can get in order to keep recovering from the Osofibrillation.

Once I'm done filling all 4 glasses, I hand them out to everyone.

"Thank you!" Sophie beams at me as I sit down beside her.

"You're welcome." I reply, noticing out of the corner of my eye that Atin has already started eating.

I smile to myself, then dig into my own food.

…

…

"So son, how's the new job?" Mr. Wren says to the table.

_Huh?_

Not me.

I look across the table to see Sabine's fork suspended in front of her mouth as she's glaring at Atin.

"New job?" Sabine asked softly.

_Soft enough to draw blood._

"It's going well sir. Long hours, but I can't complain. The market is tough enough that I'm lucky to have work that's not Imperial." Atin answered, ignoring Sabine.

"What are you doing right now?"

"Cleaning out office building after everyone's gone home. Fixing the heavy machinery. It's hard work, but hey, as I said."

"I thought you were still a commandant." Sabine asked bluntly.

I cut off a piece of meat and take a bite a Sophie's swinging feet bump into mine.

"Sorry." She hisses to me, potato in her mouth.

"I…After I saw you and Ezra on Onderon, I knew I needed to get out. So I did." Atin turns to Sabine and replies.

WHOA.

"Whoa. You saw each other on Onderon?" Mrs. Wren jumps in.

"I thought you got caught and had to run on Onderon." Sophie says, voice ticking up a notch.

"We did. What made you leave?" Sabine plowed forward.

…

"A lot of things. This isn't the right forum."

"How did you see each other on Onderon?" Sabine's mother asked sternly.

Atin turned to her and cleared his throat.

"My battalion and I was coming to clean up the remaining troops at the base. Well, Sabine and Ezra were apparently in the city, Iziz, and ambushed us. Took out everybody but me."

_We did._

Sabine blew them up with a missile.

"Yeah…I wasn't exactly in a good mood." I say sheepishly, causing Sophie to look up at me.

_If he outs me here, I'm throwing him out._

With the Force.

I don't care.

"Yeah, you and Sabine blew that guy with a laser sword up, then blew into the base. After that…I was ordered to go get the guy's body."

I freeze up.

_HE GOT SHARK BAIT._

…

"Ezra? What's wrong?" Mr. Wren immediately asked, reach over and grabbing me above the elbow.

"That guy…when I was captured. I saw him. I swore we took him out."

"What?" Sabine said, squinting her eyes at me.

"He's alive."

Shark Bait is alive.

"Did I trigger something…?" Atin blunders forward.

"That's impossible Ezra. We blew him up. Together. Remember?" Sabine looked at me, incredulous and disapproving at the exact same time.

I fix my gaze on Sabine.

"I saw him. He's mostly why I'm here now. Dude hates me." I growl out.

I…

_I hate him too._

Breathe Ezra.

I slowly let out a breath thru my nose, and feel Sophie reach over and grab my arm.

"Ezra. That's impossible. You can't come back from the dead. That's preposterous." Sabine blew me off.

"They rushed him onto a transport ASAP. You did a number on him." Atin said. "They were talking about reviving him with something."

Sabine, in a smooth motion turned back to Atin.

"I don't care. I stuck a missile in him and he blew into two pieces. He's dead." Sabine snapped.

"Wonderful conversation for dinner. With a 5 year old." Mr. Wren says, sounding bitterly sarcastic.

_Biting._

I turn to him and his tone immediately softens.

"Not you son. You're fine."

"Was he scary?" Sophie pipes up.

Atin turned to Sophie.

"What sweetie?"

"Was he a bad guy? The people with light swords on the holo are always bad."

Atin makes a quick face, then immediately changes it to a calm look.

YOU BETTER NOT.

_I will take you out._

"He was bad Sophie, but not all people with light swords are." Atin said to Sophie softly.

Okay.

I let out another breath.

…

I've got to swallow my anger.

Like Dooku's manifesto upstairs says, anger and hate can only be used to a point.

_I've got to control it._

That reminds me, I need to read more tonight.

I've fallen asleep the last two nights.

"So you left because of what happened?" Mrs. Wren changed subjects.

"I refused to fight Sabine. And if we're on opposite sides, then that means that I'm probably on the wrong side. I looked in the mirror and didn't like what I saw. So I talked to my boss, and he fired me."

"Fired?" Sophie turned her head to the side.

"Not honorably discharged."

"That's why your parents are so upset with you…I was confused about that." Mr. Wren said before taking a bite.

I take a bite to give myself something to do with my hands.

_Tastes like toothpaste._

Nothingness.

I drizzle some gravy on the meat and cut it up.

"Yeah, I moved out right after I got back. My parents closed up my old place and took a lot of their stuff. So I got a little apartment with what I'd saved up. Then I got a job. And now I'm here. Thank you for the meal." Atin said meekly.

"We're glad to do it Atin. Do you have enough to eat at your place?" Mrs. Wren immediately asked.

Atin nodded, mouth full.

"Yeah. I've got food."

_He's lying._

Mr. Wren's eyebrows snap down.

"Atin…"

"I don't have a lot, but I've got enough. I'm fine. Thank you for the concern though. I really do appreciate it." He told Mr. Wren.

"This must be one Spartan apartment." Sabine said, giving him…a look.

Atin shrugged, then took another bite.

"There's enough for leftovers Atin if you want more." Mrs. Wren said.

I smile as he wordlessly gets up and starts cutting off some meat for himself.

"Does anybody else want more?"

I do.

"I would, if you can." I say, causing Sophie to beam.

_She likes it when I'm eating._

She's got this strange fixation that food will solve everything.

Oh well. It's cute.

"Sure. Big piece?" Atin calls back to me.

"Sure." I reply, looking at my plate.

I've gotten thru most of my food.

I reach out and grab some more beans and dust corn, then refill my potato lake.

…

_Breathe._

Bottle it for now.

…

I can do this.

I've done it before, I can do it again.

Atin comes back and places a piece of meat deftly at the open spot on my plate.

"Thank you." I say politely.

"You're welcome." He replies, then starts eating again.

"So what side are you on?" Sabine bluntly asked.

"Sabine!" Mrs. Wren yelped.

Sabine waved her down without a glance.

Atin paused for a moment, then shrugged.

"I'm on whatever side gets my family, and yours thru this intact. Outside of that, I don't give a damn. I don't know anything." He told her.

Huh.

…

_He's disillusioned._

I wonder if having my lightsaber leveled at his throat helped with that.

_Couldn't have hurt._

I let out a breath and keep eating.

Before long, Atin's gotten a discussion going with Mr. Wren about the ship he's working on, and my plate is clear.

I stand up and grab Sophie' plate, which has been clear for a few minutes and start towards the sink and set them inside.

_It's Sabine's night to do dishes._

I did them last night, with a little help from Sabine.

As I walk back to clean up my spot, Mrs. Wren is pulling out to-go containers.

"Mrs. Wren…" Atin says quietly.

"No use fighting it son. Like Bo said, you're always welcome here."

Atin seemed to accept that, then began clearing the little amount left on his plate.

Sabine took her father's plate and started piling everything at the sink.

Before long, Atin's standing in the doorway with food up to his ears.

"Thank you very much Mrs. Wren. I appreciate it." He smiled at Sabine's mom.

"No problem honey."

"If you need a place to crash for the night son, you know where to come." Mr. Wren said, as I hand to salad spinner to Sabine.

She snatched it from me angrily.

_Still mad._

"Thank you very much. Have a good night." He smiled.

"You too son."

Mrs. Wren calmly closed the door softly.

…

"Bo—"

"WHAT IN THE NAME OF SITH WERE YOU THINKING SABINE WREN?!" Mrs. Wren yelled at the top of her lungs, causing me to jump out of my skin.

_Oh my._

I've never seen her get mad before.

I hear her husband say something to her before Mrs. Wren barrels into a full blown tirade.

"He was here, to take a load off his feet. He's stressed. His parents KICKED HIM OUT OF THE HOUSE. Shamed him. PUBLICALLY! And then you come and pull this shit?!" She raged at Sabine.

I turn to Sabine and see that she' holding a brush in a death grip.

"I don't care. He lied to me!" Sabine bit back at her mother.

"You need to watch your mouth. You are under our roof. Under our rules for right now. That boy is family, just like Ezra is. You know that."

Sabine stepped forward and got nose to nose with her mother.

"I did what I thought was right."

"You were out of line." Her mother frowned at her.

Suddenly, I feel my arm get yanked down and away from my body.

"MMMMMPHHHH!"

I turn and see that Sophie is trying to pull me out of the kitchen.

She's pulling with all her might.

"—we were on the roof talking. Then next thing I know, you're saying Ezra had a nightmare and is taking a shower. How am I supposed to be calm? I told you he should stay in my room!"

_Huh?_

"Ezraaa…MMMMPPPHHHH!" Sophie said, pulling on my arm again.

I've moved a few inches.

"What?" I ask, glancing away from the kitchen, where it's turned into a three way argument.

"—I don't care Sabine. You aren't dating the boy, and that's the only way I'll allow you two to share a room." Mr. Wren said sternly.

"He's having nightmares about when he was captured! You're going to have him wake up alone? Are you crazy?" Sabine asked, bringing her arms out beside her.

"He knows where everyone is—"

"MMMMPPPHHHHH!"

"What do you need Sof?" I turn and ask, slightly irritated.

"I need to go to bed!"

Huh?

"You hate going to bed!" I reply.

_She does!_

Sophie simply frowned and took advantage of my lack of resistance to start pulling me to her room.

"Bed!"

Okay then.

_Bed._

I march behind her as Sabine and her parents keep arguing.

Once we're inside Sophie's room, she shuts the door until it's cracked against the doorframe.

…

"I don't like it when Mommy and Daddy fight. That's why I wanted to go." Sophie muttered.

Oh.

"Oh…I'm sorry sweetie." I bend down.

_I'm an idiot._

Sophie walks over, looking down.

"Can you stay here while I change into my pajamas?" She asked, giving me a slight smile at the end.

I smile back at her.

"Sure."

Sophie beamed, then quickly pulled out a onesie pajama…thing and dashed into her little bathroom and shut the door.

…

I stand back up and hear the continued argument.

_Can't hear what they're saying._

I've never seen anything like that before.

Sabine…and her mom.

…

I walk around Sophie's room, complete with the pink walls and the little collage that her mom must have made.

_Inspired by Sabine's room I'm sure._

Sabine is her whole world.

I don't recognize anybody in the collage except for Sabine and her parents.

The rest are children Sophie's age that she's playing with mostly.

I pace around the room.

_They're still going._

But it's tapering off.

I can feel that emotion level dropping.

_It was high on adrenaline at first._

Heat of the moment.

…

Sophie must have picked up her room today.

_When I was in here yesterday, she had some toys lying out._

Not now.

"I'm ready."

I turn and see Sophie, changed and smiling at me.

"Okay. What now?" I ask.

I don't know what I'm doing.

"Hand me that book? Please?" Sophie pointed to a book on her dresser.

I grab the little book, titled "The Drexl and the D'goonians." And hand it to her.

Sophie took it, then climbed into bed and under the covers.

Without a second thought, I pull the covers tight to her and crouch down.

"Do you want me to read it to you?" I ask.

Sophie shook her head.

"No. I usually read myself to sleep now."

I glance at the little light, stationed right next to her bed.

"Okay."

In front of my eyes, Sophie untucks herself a little and squirms around.

"Heyy…" I joke, then pull on the covers again.

Sophie giggles, then fixes her covers again.

"Fine. Have it your way." I tease her.

Sophie giggled.

"Night!" She smiled at me.

I smile back, then kiss her hair.

"Night Sof. Sleep well. Love you."

"Love you too Ezra. Come get me if you have another bad dream. Okay?" She said, eyes wide and holding her book.

I nod, and try to give a convincing smile.

"I will. Promise."

"Night."

"Goodnight." I say, then slip out the door.

Sophie simply opens her book and starts reading, using her finger as a guide.

…

_She's a little too grown up._

Reading by herself instead of needing a bedtime story.

I walk into the kitchen to find Sabine scrubbing away.

When I get close, she glances up.

"Oh good." She cuts off the water then waves for me to follow her.

"What about the dishes?"

"I don't care. C'mon." She said quickly, then starting up the stairs.

Okay…

I follow her up the stairs, past our respective rooms and onto the roof.

She shuts the door behind me, then locks it with a latch.

…

"Now seriously, are you okay?" Sabine turned and asked me.

"Yeah, I'm fine now."

_She's still a little angry._

"What was the dream about? Are you going to be okay tonight?"

"I'll be fine. It…It was a torture session. Not too bad." I say, trying to dismiss her concern.

"Not too bad? Ezra, you need your sleep. If you start having nightmares, then that's bad." Sabine immediately replied.

"I'm more worried about you and your parents." I say truthfully.

"We're fine. Atin was being idiotic and Daddy's picking a weird time to be traditional and old fashioned."

_Huh?_

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"When we got here, after you fell asleep, we talked in the living room. I told them that I'd been sleeping with you, and that I thought it was a good idea to let you sleep in my room this trip. Daddy said no. Which is stupid. You're not Atin, and this isn't the old times. You're not supposed to bring the biggest kill to him, then work out the terms of my engagement or anything…" Sabine muttered angrily to herself.

"What?" I say.

_They used to propose…with dead animals?_

And bringing them to the father of their girl?

What kind of people were these guys?!

"Nothing ,nothing. No big deal. I don't care. If you have another nightmare, you come to me. They can get mad later." Sabine said.

I shake my head.

"No. I'm not having you and your parents fight over me. I'll be okay."

"Ezra…" Sabine groaned, then turned away from me.

"Hey, don't blame me. Sophie pulled me into her room and said that she hates it when you all fight. I'm not doing anything that she is uncomfortable with." I say truthfully.

_The whole 'blowing up Shark Bait' thing was bad enough._

Even though Sof didn't bat an eye at that.

"She's a baby Ezra. Don't let her boss you around."

"She's a person too though!" I counter.

"I know that! But still Ezra!"

I roll my eyes and reach out with the Force.

…

_Pretty calm._

Other than Sabine.

"By the way, I told Atin to edit the story about you with a lightsaber."

I give her a forced grin.

"Thanks for that. Sophie definitely doesn't like lightsabers."

Sabine shrugged.

"She went off the holo, like Mom and Dad haven't said a word about it."

"I'm sure they have though." I say.

_They were pretty calm about it._

But then again ,they don't know I'm a Jedi.

…

"By the way, why'd you say that idiot you cut in half is alive? I saw it! You saw it!"

I almost jump in her face as my anger peaks.

"He's alive!" I snap at her, managing to restrain myself.

_Barely._

"That's impossible! You cut him in half!"

"I saw him Sabine!" I say emphatically.

"I did too! In two pieces, falling into that ravine."

"You think I'd lie about this?" I ask her.

I dare you to say no.

_I DARE YOU._

He tortured me every day.

EVERY DAY.

Sabine gulped, then took a step towards me.

"Ezra…I'm not saying you're lying. I think they had you drugged most of the time due to what they did to you. Made you see things." She said softly, then grabbed my wrist.

I yank my arm away from her.

"Sabine…" I begin, then stop myself.

_Easy._

…

Easy Ezra.

I spot a Durasteel bar, like on a fire escape, and pull it to me.

"When I woke up…I was surrounded by three people. The lady I fought in the tunnel. Vader. And that guy. I've nicknamed him Shark Bait."

…

"Okay. Let's call him Shark Bait. Ezra…you can't seriously think he's alive!" Sabine told me softly, sure of herself.

_She doesn't believe me._

I…

I really thought she would.

_He's alive._

…

And I'm the only person that knows.

…

"Sabine, he loved torturing me. He used to come and beat me up. Punches, kicks, everything. Shocked me with those staffs too! He hates me! I'm telling you, he's alive!"

Sabine gulped nervously in front of me, then took a step forward.

"Ezra…you can't beat death. Nobody can. No matter how hard you try. Nobody is immortal."

…

"Vader said it was something in his genes. Something they put in him."

"Genetically modified?" Sabine asked.

I shrug.

"I barely remember the details. I was more scared of Shark Bait glaring at me two feet away."

"But what about Vader?" Sabine asked.

I shrug.

"I guess yeah? But I didn't notice because the guy I had cut in half was alive in front of me!" I say, almost yelling at the end.

…

"Okay. I don't want to make you mad over this." Sabine said calmly.

"It's too late for that."

Focus.

I turn away from her and take two steps forward.

Then do what Kanan taught me back on Onderon.

Step. Swipe.

Step. Swipe.

Step. Swipe.

_Always be moving._

…

This bar has no flexibility.

…

_I need to make a new lightsaber._

I keep forgetting that.

"Ezra…"

I bite my lip, then hang my head.

"Go finish the dishes so you don't get yelled at please. I don't want to hear it either." I say.

Then focus back in front of me.

Step. Swipe.

_One hand._

Step.

Swipe.

(A/N: So…Sorry! The first week of classes absolutely mugged me. I had homework every night, including all weekend. I barely got to write this yesterday before getting back to work. I'll get better at my time management and produce like I promised I would. And besides, I owe you all a chapter. Thank you for your patience. –James)


	50. Kindling

I set the datapad down in front of me, then get to my feet to survey everything.

_How in the name of Lothal did I get 4 datapads?!_

I've got Sabine's.

I've got the two I got from Obi-Wan Kenobi at Ahsoka and Lux's wedding.

And…

There's one other one.

I think I know where it's from. But I don't understand how it got here.

In my room here on Mandalore.

…

When I was captured, Barriss gave me the datapad with Dooku's…paper on Makashi.

Plus some other assorted thoughts on lightsaber combat.

That's what's on the other datapad.

_Information given to me by…somebody associated with the enemy._

A Sith, really.

My real question is, how did it get here?

I didn't notice until I grabbed the wrong one last night before I went to bed.

_How did this datapad get here?_

I can condense the information onto two datapads.

Simply put all the information Kenobi gave me onto my personal datapad.

The one Sabine personalized for me.

I'll just keep Dooku's expertise on the datapad its on.

Thump Thump Thump Thump Thump.

I turn around to see Sophie running towards me.

"Hey. What's up?" I ask.

"Sabine's ready to go whenever you are."

"Okay. Let's go." I smile at her.

Sophie beamed at me, then looked at my four datapad set up.

"Why do you have four datapads?"

I shrug, trying to look causal.

"I accidentally brought them all here. When we get back home I'm going to put everything onto two of the datapads."

"So you won't need the other two?" Sophie asked as we both start down the stairs.

I nod.

"Can I have one of them?"

I turn to look at Sophie.

She's got her hand on the rail and walking beside me.

"Sure…I don't see why not." I say.

_Why not?_

"Yayyy! Thank you Ezra! You're the best!" She jumped the final three steps then landed heavily, causing Sabine to pop out.

"Easy there."

"Ezra's giving me one of his datapads!"

I reach the bottom of the stairs as Sabine turns to me with a blank face.

"Ezra…"

"I've got four. I need to condense anyway."

Sabine's eyebrows furrowed.

"How'd you get four datapads anyway?"

I shrug, then follow Sophie towards the door.

"Did you call a speeder?" I ask.

Sabine nodded.

"I used the program from Denon. Apparently it's here too."

I spin around and look at her.

_Last time I remember, she hated it._

Because of Darcy.

Sabine smirks at me, then grabs the door for Sophie and I.

I follow Sof out, then let Sabine lock up behind us.

When I turn to the street, I spot a speeder waiting for us.

"It's already here?" Sophie asked.

"Yup. It's magic." Sabine said cheerfully, then winked at me.

Sophie wordlessly climbs into the back seat, then scooting over so Sabine and I can join her.

Sabine quickly rattles something off in Mandalorian to the driver too fast for me to even guess what she said.

Then the speeder began moving.

"I can say hi to Mommy right?"

Sabine nodded as we slide into an established lane of traffic.

_It was her idea for this little excursion._

We've pretty much stayed in this whole trip.

But now that it's winding down, we're going to try and do some fun stuff with Sophie.

Of course, this isn't really "fun".

Sabine's gotten antsy about not working out.

So we're going to where her mom works, so Sabine can work out.

Sophie is going to an arcade that is apparently there.

And I'll find something to do.

_I don't really want to work out._

I'm still skinny, but that's more because I don't want to work out right now.

Rex and Echo told me not to do anything I don't really want to.

So I'm just obeying orders.

Sabine's been on me about working out with her.

She offered multiple times, saying that it'll help me get back into a groove and a sense of normalcy.

_That may be true._

But…I just think I should talk to Ahsoka and Kanan about my status as a Jedi before I do anything.

Just because I haven't heard the dark side whisper to me in a few days and bottled my anger when Atin came for dinner doesn't mean everything is all well and good.

Sophie taps the screen of a datapad Sabine must have brought with her.

_Huh._

I didn't notice.

…

…

I do have to admit, Atin wasn't nearly as bad as I was expecting.

He was polite, nice and covered for me.

_I was too mad at Sabine for not believing us about Shark Bait to recognize that._

Which is the other real shocker.

He backed me on the fact that he's alive.

…

I can't help but wonder if the scene went a little like this.

Atin wakes up, surrounded by his comrades.

Barriss is furious about losing us, and barks at him to go get Shark Bait out of the ravine I sent him into.

Atin goes and gets Shark Bait. Both pieces.

They load him up and start putting him back together.

Then he (I'm speculating) gets yelled at for losing us, and shipped back to Mandalore.

He thinks about it, asks out. Gets fired.

Now he's here.

My shoulder getting pushed brings me out of my thoughts, and I look around to see that we've landed.

"GOOOO!" Sophie whined.

"I'm going I'm going!" I joke.

Sabine and Sophie pile out, then Sabine takes the lead with Sophie bouncing on the balls of her feet.

"You know where you're going?" Sabine looked down at her.

Sophie nodded, then pointed to a dark room in the distance.

The closer we walk to it, the louder it gets.

With the bells, whistles and pings that'll turn any kid wild.

Sophie broke away from us about ten feet away then sprinted inside.

"Sophie!" I hear a boys voice call out.

Then Sophie was hugged by a girl her own age.

"Hi. What are you guys playing?"

"Space Invaders Inversion 11! Come on!" Another boy called out to her.

Then they all ran out of sight in the arcade.

_Aww._

I notice myself smiling, and look over to see Sabine beaming.

"What?" She asked, noticing me looking at her.

"You're smiling."

Sabine slightly blushed, then tucked her hair behind her ear.

"It's just nice to see her play with kids her own age…I don't know."

I shake my head and start walking away from the arcade.

"You're a mess."

Sabine strode a step behind me and shrugged.

"Maybe."

"Where is your mom?"

"Right up here on the left. There's a lesson about to start, so I'm going to hop in." Sabine said, pointing off to the left.

"You sure you'll get in?"

Sabine glanced at me, then smirked.

"I'm the instructor's daughter. They won't kick me out."

"You never know. I think it'd be funny." I tease her.

Sabine immediately frowned.

"I'll use you as a punching bag if you want me to."

"That's okay if I get a kiss afterward."

_Oh._

What did I just say?

Sabine's eyebrows immediately fly up.

Crap.

"Sorry. Too spontaneous." I quickly add on.

"You…sure?" Sabine asked coolly.

I nod, stomach twisting itself into knots.

_I…_

"Okay then. I'll see you in a little bit then." Sabine said, then turned around.

And _sauntered_ to the room where her mom is teaching, then slipped inside.

WHY DID I SAY THAT!?

I can't do this!

Darcy proved that I can't date anyone!

She hates me!

_Wait._

…

She doesn't hate me.

She hates what I did.

There is a big difference.

I shake my head, then look around.

_I need to find something to do._

Ooh!

A directory of events.

That'll help.

I walk over to the interactive, vertical sign.

…

Melee weaponry?

_Would that mean swords?_

I can't expect them to have a lightsaber.

That's the only thing I have the slightest desire to do right now.

The main problem with that is that my lightsaber was destroyed by Tarkin after he killed Kallus.

_And he handed it over to his weapons people I assume._

Next time I see Shark Bait, he may be using my weapon against me.

…

I'll go see what's up with the melee weapons.

That could help pass the time.

It's in room 301E.

_I'm guessing that means third floor._

Where are the stairs?

Or a lift?

…

Found it.

I open the door to the stairs, then walk up the three flights.

And I hear it.

Ping!

Ping!

Whoosh!

"HAH!"

_Swords._

I smile as I open the door to see flurries of movement everywhere I look.

And sword fighting.

"Hello my friend!"

I turn to look who called out to me and spot an averaged sized man.

I walk over and smile.

"Hi. I don't have an appointment or anything. I was just looking around."

"Okay! Feel free to look, and if you want, we can get you matched up!"

I nod, then smile again.

"Thank you."

The man bowed his head started off towards one of the combatants in my line of sight.

"No no you—"

I turn away and block out the string of Mandalorian that followed.

_I don't know it._

I need to learn it.

…

Maybe that's what I should have done most of this trip.

Instead of sitting around all the time.

_I've gotten lazy._

I look around the room, searching for a stash of weapons.

They would be best suited to have them all in one central—

_Found it._

I start towards the rectangular storage area.

It's easier this way, so that they know who picked up what weapon.

_Security cameras too._

I give them a cursory glance before ignoring their purposefully intimidating gaze.

_You're supposed to be put off I think._

I start filing thru the swords amongst other kinds of weapons.

Some are staffs, like Zeb's and those droids the Empire has.

There are also some weird ones.

Some spear looking thing.

A pole with chains attached to it.

Two…things held together by a chain?

…

OOH!

Oooh, ooh, ooh!

I push several other weapons aside, and pull out what I didn't think I'd see.

_A sword._

With a curved hilt.

…

I can practice some of the things I've read and learned.

I slip the sword into my hand, a little deeper in my palm like Dooku's paper said.

Then I wave it back and forth.

_This is nice._

"You chose a difficult sword!"

I scowl, then hide it as the man that initially greeted me rushes over.

"Would you like to fight?"

…

I nod.

_What the heck._

It'll be some actual exercise.

Most of these guys probably know what they're doing though.

_Lightsabers and swords aren't that different tactically._

Physically, it's a lot different.

The man gently pulled me by the shoulder into a 10 by 10 rectangular space.

_Small._

I'm used to open rooms.

A tan, buff man with a long sword stepped into the rectangle across from me.

"No deliberate injury, no head shots…these swords are tempered so that you cannot injure critically." The man told us both.

Then he turned to my opponent.

"Don't injure him too badly."

_Oh?_

The guy replied in Mandalorian, then looked at me.

Intimidatingly.

Head down, eyes looking right thru me.

…

Really?

_Is the guy actually serious?_

…

I laugh, then salute him and take a step back.

He also takes a step back, looking baffled.

"Go!"

He let out a primal yell, then brought both hands over his head.

_Telegraphed it._

I step aside as he swings as hard as he can.

Where I was.

I smile as he takes several steps past me.

I could capitalize on his mistake.

But I think I'll wait.

_This guy might need to be set down gently._

He's a little too cocky.

My opponent slowly turned around, as the greeter said something new in Mandalorian.

Then he moved towards me again.

This time, he slices diagonally at my shoulder.

I simply block it, then jab at him.

He batted it away.

Hah!

…

This guy isn't worth my time!

He sucks!

He's all brute force. Muscle bound idiot.

_He thinks it's about strength._

What a moron.

I retract my sword, then let him come at me again.

Same overhead chop.

Same result.

I hear a laugh behind me, then the man yelled something.

"Time out!" he said to me, then pointed at my opponent to come to him.

And started yelling something in Mandalorian.

Timeout?

_There's no timeout in a fight!_

I resist my urge to derisively laugh, then turn around to where I entered, and find a pitcher of water.

Thank you.

I pour myself a glass, then drain it in one gulp.

_Timeout._

"Time in! Stop being slow!"

I let my shoulders visibly slump, then turn back around.

"You called time out! How was I supposed to know it would be short?" I ask.

"Be quiet! And don't delay again! I will take my sword back!"

Okay then.

I raise my hands in a non threatening manner, then my opponent stepped back in the ring.

…

"Hah!"

I block a downward slice.

Then I spin around and completely avoid his next swing of the sword.

"STOP DANCING! Fight me you little brat!" My opponent yelled at me.

Brat?

"You stop swinging that thing like a mythosaur and actually fight and maybe I will!" I taunt him.

_This guy is dumber than a bag of rocks._

I can end this in three seconds if I want to.

He let out a frenzied yell, then charged me.

I side step it, then immediately go on the offensive.

This time, he lets out a higher pitched yell as I'm all over him.

Slice.

Chop.

He tries to elbow me in the head, but I duck under it.

_Oh you want to do that?_

That's how you want to play this?

Okay.

I feint a swing to his left, causing him to wildly attempt to block it.

Then I smack him in the face with my open hand.

I hear the man outside the ring yell, then my opponent shoves me.

The Force gives out a quick warning right before he takes a chop at my legs.

I flip up and over him, then land deftly.

_Hah._

I hear the room ooh and ahh, but block it out.

_This guy is going to lose._

He's done it now. I'm going on the offensive.

I step forward, and unleash three quick chops.

All on the right side.

Just as he tilts his body to counter my next chop on the right side, I go left.

He lets out a panicked cry, then does a emergency block on his left.

I counter by twisting my blade directly vertical, then stab at the hilt of his sword.

For whatever reason, he freezes up, and I easily disarm him.

His sword clatters on the floor, causing the noise to echo.

"I win." I say bluntly, then stick out my hand.

_I should be courteous._

My opponent just…stood there for a moment.

Then shoved me.

"You cheated!"

"How?" I ask.

"You didn't fight!"

"You're right. You didn't fight." I goad him.

_This guy._

"You danced the entire time!" He roared.

"You swung like an uncivilized animal. Fighting isn't about power. It's about thinking." I say.

It is.

"Don't you say that! He's one of my best students!" The man jumps in.

"Well, he can't fight." I say with a shrug.

He's a brute.

"You should leave now. Go."

…

_Okay._

I hand the man my sword back, then hop off the platform we were on and try to ignore the entire room.

_Everyone's looking at me._

I think that was one of his best students.

And I kicked his butt.

"Ezra!" I hear a high pitched voice call out.

I look around, then beam.

It's Sabine and Sophie.

_They're both smiling._

I smile back at them, then when I'm close enough, Sophie tackles me.

"You did a flip!"

I laugh, then look to Sabine.

"I guess I did, didn't I?"

_I feel great._

"You looked great. Like you felt no pain at all." Sabine told me, turning towards the door and the greater complex.

"I didn't."

I should have done this sooner.

_I didn't know I could practice lightsaber moves while I was here._

I didn't use anything I particular, but I got to move.

Got to think.

"Let's go get some ice sticks, then go home. What do you guys say?" Sabine asked, turning to Sophie.

Sophie made a loud squeak, then gave Sabine a toothy grin while holding onto my arm.

"Twist my arm…" I joke, getting both of them to laugh.

That man…

_I think he tried setting me up to fail._

He was very welcoming, then threw me to one of his "best students" as fresh meat.

Only I won.

_Makes sense._

I remember before I met Sabine's parents, on the trip to Concordia, that I read about a faction of Mandalorians that is especially hostile to outsiders.

I was afraid Sabine's parents were one of them

Hah.

We hop in a speeder, then Sophie starts messing around on the datapad again.

"Ezra, I'm serious. You looked incredible. Just like you were before we went on our solo mission. Maybe even a little better"

_She would know._

I turn and smile at her.

"Thanks. More in control maybe."

Sophie looked away from the datapad.

"You fight with swords a lot?"

I nod and smile.

"It's probably what I'm best at Sof. I can fire a blaster okay too."

"Can you teach me?" Sof piped up, then giving me a toothy smile.

Sabine frowned.

"Why do you want to learn? Mom and Dad haven't even taught you how to shoot a blaster."

"I know how to subdue though!" Sophie countered.

"You do?" I ask.

Sophie looked back and nodded vigorously.

"I don't know Sophie…" Sabine said, sounding very reluctant.

Sophie simply blinked and smiled at me.

"I'll ask your mom Sof. Promise."

"Ezra…" She immediately frowned, sticking her lip out.

"Hey. I don't want to get them mad at you."

…

Sophie's just looking up at me. Eyes wide. Lip slightly out.

"Sof."

"Okay…" She frowned, then pointedly scooted away from me.

_Hey now._

Sabine looked away from Sophie, then gave me a small smile.

As if to say sorry for her.

_She just wants to have fun._

She doesn't know what she's really asking.

I look around to see the speeder starting to descend…

There's a large crowd in the distance.

That's…not good.

I glance over to Sabine and see that she's looking at it too.

Sophie's engrossed in something on her datapad.

…

_What's going on?_

"Sophie?" Sabine spoke up, breaking our silence.

"Yeah?"

"Stay close okay? We're a couple blocks from home."

"Okay." Sophie said, not looking up from her datapad.

Sabine gave her a vicious eyeroll.

_I don't think she listened._

The speeder stopped on a landing pad, and we hop out.

This doesn't look like a great part of the city.

"Uhh…Sabine?"

"I know. That's why I told Sophie to stay close." She immediately replied, as Sophie scooted closer to Sabine and handing her the datapad back.

"Now let's go get ice sticks." She finished, then started us off down the street.

We're going the opposite direction of the crowd.

_And out of my Force probe range._

Oh well.

The chime of bells greets us as Sabine opens the door to a ice cream shop, and lets Sophie and I sidle in.

"Thanks." I smile at her.

She gave me a thin smile back.

"Hello! What would you three like today?"

I look down to Sophie just as she looked up at me.

"You first." I smile at her.

"Uhh…can I have chocolate and vanilla?" Sof asked the man behind the counter.

"Absolutely." He replied, then scooping out equal amounts of chocolate and vanilla, then placing them in a machine.

Another worker moved towards the machine as the first worker looked to Sabine and I.

"Who's next?"

Sabine and I look to each other.

I gesture for her to go first.

"Well, I'll have the chocolate swirl." Sabine said to the man.

_What do I want?_

"Okay…and for you my boy?"

…

"I'll have the half vanilla half chocolate she got." I say,

Sophie immediately beamed.

_The worker handed Sophie a ice stick of half and half, then got to work on Sabine and I's._

Discreetly, I try to pull out my credit stick.

Sabine will get mad at me.

She always does when I try to pay.

Just as I get it out, Sophie suddenly snatches it away from me.

"Sophie!" I frown, then stick my hand out.

"No!"

"What?" Sabine asked me.

"Sophie took my credit stick." I say, then turn back and stick my hand out again.

_Give it back Sof._

"Good!" Sabine said, causing me to turn to her.

"Sabine!"

"You're on vacation! You're resting. You aren't paying." Sabine said, shaking her head at the end.

"It's fine Sabine. C'mon."

Sabine simply stuck her hand out to Sophie.

Sophie high fived it.

Then Sabine paid with her credit stick.

I take our ice sticks, then when Sabine has signed for everything, I give her the ice stick she ordered.

"Thank you. Now let's go see what this fuss is about."

O…kay.

"Fuss?" Sophie asked, licking her ice stick.

"There's a big crowd up ahead."

"No, what's a fuss?" Sophie immediately asked.

"Uhh…" Sabine sputtered out, then looked to me.

I shrug.

"Don't look at me." I say defensively.

"Why not?" Sof asked.

"I don't know what it means." I reply.

"It's…like seeing what's going on. Oh!" Sabine said quickly, then bending down and unstrapping a holder off her leg.

Wordlessly, she extends one of her pistols to me.

_I thought those were empty._

Sophie freezes up.

"Why'd you bring those?" I ask, then slowly take it and clip it to my belt.

"You never know. You don't have a weapon openly. Maybe we look like easy pickings."

"We're not."

I don't care.

_If we get jumped, I'll fight, scratch, claw, lightning, whatever to get us out safe._

I'll fix everything later.

"Is it about the festival coming up?" Sophie asked.

"I don't know. Maybe." Sabine replies, biting her lip.

…

…

…

"_Sab'ika…_" Sophie quietly says, as the crowd is getting louder in front of us.

"It's okay Sophie."

"I'm scared."

Sabine glanced back at Sophie and I.

_She's grabbed onto my arm._

"Would it be better if Ezra held onto you?"

Sophie nodded, then turned towards me.

_Okay._

I bend down like I vaguely remember my Dad doing for me when I was tiny, then Sophie climbing onto me and wrapping her legs around my stomach.

"Better?" Sabine asked, giving her a reassuring smile.

Sophie nodded, then looked to me.

_Her face is so close._

"It'll be okay. Nothing will happen." I say to her.

Sophie curled to me, then let out a breath.

Right into my ear.

I move my head around and try to block the noise out.

_Gross Sof._

C'mon.

…

Sabine and I slowly make our way closer to the crowd.

Actually, it's more like a contained argument.

I can catch snippets.

"—Not justice—"

"enslav—"

Sophie grabbed onto me tighter as the yelling starts to blend into each other and become a cacophony.

I glance at Sabine, only for her to continue straight ahead.

About ten feet away, the picture becomes clear.

_Oh no._

There's a guy in Mandalorian armor.

Bleeding profusely from his head.

Several people are tending to him on the ground.

Others are yelling at some Stormtroopers and a officer.

Sophie attempts to turn around, but on an impulse, I stop her.

_She doesn't need to see this._

This is bad.

It doesn't look good.

Sophie made a noise of protest, but I ignore it.

Sabine seems to be assessing the situation as others quickly slide in behind us.

We're approaching a mob.

Then I freeze.

_The Force…_

"Sabine…"

We need to go.

"What?" She turned and asked.

At exactly the wrong time.

I see three red bolts.

POP POP POP POP POP POP POP!

The scene bursts into screaming and people running for their lives in the other direction.

I turn and sprint.

Then Sophie screamed right in my ear.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

I yank Sabine's pistol off my belt and continue running.

_I know the house is somewhere in this direction._

I glance over and see Sabine is right beside me.

In a dead sprint.

"Sof, it's okay. It's okay." I say, continuing to run as blaster fire starts ringing out.

Sophie's nails dug into me, but I ignore them as we continue to run.

Suddenly, a rush of rough looking men pop out at the same time as some Stormtroopers.

Uh oh.

I see Sabine bring up her arm up to fire at the closest Stormtrooper.

Then a man flattens him into the nearest wall.

The Stormtrooper fell heavily to the ground.

"What's going on?!" Sabine demanded of the man.

"They tried arresting a Mandalorian for wearing his armor in public. Said some shit about defying Imperial authority. They're cracking down."

Oh no.

"HHMMMMM!" Sophie quietly screamed into my shoulder.

"It's okay Sof. We're almost home." I say quietly, as Sof's nails are digging into my skin thru my jacket.

"We need to go." I say to Sabine.

"Do you live close? They'll probably want everyone off the streets by sundown." The man jumped in, voice gravelly.

"Very."

"Go. We'll make sure they're occupied."

WHOA.

Before Sabine and I can respond, the man and a few others in thick jackets sprint past us and towards the chaos.

Sophie screamed again into my shoulder, causing Sabine to look at her.

"It's okay. We're almost home."

Sophie's head briefly popped up, tears cascading down her face.

Then she buried her head in my chest.

Wordlessly, Sabine and I start sprinting again in the general direction of the house.

I continue to try calming Sophie down, but she doesn't really stop.

Finally, after what feels like forever, we reach the gates.

Sabine swipes her card, and we're both thru the front gates before it's fully opened.

A speeder buzzes overhead, then stops at the house.

A lone figure hops out, then turns to us and jogs.

_It's Sophie's dad._

"Sof, it's your dad." I say, right before we meet him halfway.

Sophie immediately thrashed around until I set her down.

Her dad quickly pulls her into an enormous hug.

"It's okay baby…It's gonna be alright…"

Sophie let out a loud wail as we close in on the house.

The moment Mr. Wren opens the door I hear Mrs. Wren's voice.

"Carid? Is that you?"

"Yeah! I've got the kids!" He replied as Sabine and I get inside.

I shut the door and lock it behind me.

"Good! Something happened down the road…Imperial Governor has imposed a curfew." I hear Mrs. Wren say as Sophie makes a noise.

"Already?"

I follow Sabine into the living room and see that Sophie's being hugged by her mom.

"What happened Sophine? It's all okay _ad'ika…_" her mom said quietly.

"Ezra and Sabine and I went and got ice sticks…down where we always do…" Sophie said, then loudly sniffled.

"Then we went to go see what was going on…then…"

Sophie started crying again.

"People yelled…and somebody shot something and…" Sophie managed to get out before letting out a loud wail and both her parents hugged her.

I hang my head.

…

The day was going so great.

_And now this…_

…

I let out a sigh.

"—reports at this time are unclear but Governor Ord imposed the curfew strictly as a safety measure to citizens…"

Geez.

"You've got ice stick all over you Ezra." Mrs. Wren said, causing Sabine, Sophie and I to all look at my jacket.

Oh great.

_The whole left side is smeared._

"I'll wipe it off. Should be fine." Sabine said, gesturing for me to take it off.

I do just that, but not without a couple twinges of pain.

_Ow._

That's weird.

Maybe the synthiskin got irritated or—

Sabine cringed, then looked closer at my shoulder

I see it just as she says it.

"I'll grab the medical kit too. You're bleeding."

"Bleeding?" Sophie yelps, turning to look at me.

_I am bleeding._

It's soaked thru my shirt.

"Take off your shirt Ezra. So she can clean it." Mr. Wren told me.

"Did you get hit?" Mrs. Wren asked.

I shake my head, then comply.

OWWW!

_MY Neck!_

I freeze up briefly, then slowly take my shirt off, toss it to the side and bring my hand to the left side of my neck.

When I take it away, I've got blood there too.

"Sophie…" I hear Mrs. Wren groan.

"What?" I hear Sabine ask from the kitchen.

I glance at my shoulder, only to see teeth marks.

_And blood._

"You bit him?" Mr. Wren said, sounding disappointed and a little grossed out.

"I don't know…" Sophie said, sounding super sad.

"It's okay. Probably immediately after the insanity." I say.

Her face was right next to my shoulder.

"Bit him…?" Sabine asked, then emerged with my jacket and the medical kit and gasped.

"Sophie…"

"I'M SORRY!" Sophie yelled loudly.

"Hey! It's okay…" Mr. Wren quickly said to her.

"It's alright Sof. I'll be okay."

Sabine bit her lip, then pulled out some gauze.

Beep Beep…

_Huh?_

"That's probably Fenn…" Mr. Wren muttered, getting to his feet and starting toward the holo in the room just down the hall.

The rest of us follow, Sabine totaling her medical kit.

I step aside just as the picture appears.

_I don't want Mand'alor to see me shirtless and bleeding._

That's not a good look.

"Ahh, good. You answered right away Carid. That's right down the street from you." _Mand'alor_ said, appearing in full armor, minus the helmet.

"Yeah…Sabine, Sophie and Ezra were down there. Do we have any idea what happened?" Mr. Wren asked.

"Hold on. Ezra and Sabine are there?"

"Yeah." Mrs. Wren said.

"Where are they? That's your daughter and her boyfriend right?"

"Not boyfriend. Not at the moment." Mr. Wren spoke up just before Sabine.

"We're offscreen. Ezra's bleeding." She said simply, dabbing antiseptic onto fresh gauze.

"She's patching him up." Mrs. Wren added.

"This'll sting…"

"Step in. Is he seriously hurt? I have medic going down there." _Mand'alor_ volunteered.

"It's okay. Sophie just accidentally bit him in the chaos." Mr. Wren told him.

I slide into the picture nervously right before Sabine slapped the gauze onto my bite.

"Yahhhhh…" I yelp.

_Still hurts!_

"Sorry…" Sabine said quietly as Sophie covered her mouth.

"So he didn't get blasted?" _Mand'alor _asked.

"No." Mrs. Wren said.

"Do we have any idea what happened?" Mr. Wren asked _Mand'alor_.

"Not really. I have people down there now restoring order and getting eye witness accounts."

"We were down there. Apparently some Stormtroopers assaulted a man wearing standard armor. He was bleeding on the ground when we got there. A bunch of people were yelling at the Imperials, then somebody shot and all hell broke loose." Sabine piped up, getting out a bandage and anti-bacterial cream.

"Why'd you even go down there? I'm sure it was obviously rowdy." _Mand'alor _asked Sabine.

Sabine swallowed.

"Well, I thought it was related to the festival this weekend."

Both of Sabine's parents groan quietly.

"Well that'll be wrecked." Mr. Wren says.

"Great point. I hadn't thought of that. Millions of our people coming in for the Festival of Life, just in time for chaos to break out…" _Mand'alor _closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

…

"Okay. I'm coming down there and dispatching some men to your neighborhood to ensure your safety. Don't be surprised if I make a house call."

Mrs. Wren suddenly cracked a smile.

"Give me a time and we'll fix you a plate for dinner."

_Mand'alor_ smiled.

"Bo, you're too kind."

"Come eat with us!" Sophie piped up.

_Mand'alor_ beamed, then looked at Sophie.

"Well now, I guess I can't say no can I?"

Sophie giggled.

"Let's guess 8:45. Very rough guess." He said to Mrs. Wren.

"We can do that." She replied.

"Okay…that's a plan." _Mand'alor_ sighed. "Lock your door. I'll comm when I'm at the doorstep. Don't open it for anyone Carid."

"I won't."

_Jeez, this sounds bad._

"Is it really that dangerous?" Sabine asked.

"No,"_ Mand'alor_ replied "but it easily could spiral out of hand. I refuse to take any risks with you all so close."

Mr. and Mrs. Wren nodded.

"I gotta go." _Mand'alor_ said.

"Bye." Mr. Wren replied.

Then the transmission cut off.


	51. Embers

I fold my shirt sleeves towards the neck, then make folds half way up and then to the top.

_Done._

I set that shirt aside, and then glance back to my bed.

I think that is all the shirts I packed that are clean.

Clomp.

…

Clomp.

…

Clomp.

"You got it?" Sabine called out.

…

"Yeah! Whoa…" Sophie replied.

I poke my head out of my room to see Sophie carrying a laundry basket almost as big as she is, full to the brim with clothes.

_Sabine's and mine._

I quickly step forward as Sophie lifts one leg onto the top step.

Then she wobbles.

"Whoaaaa!" She yelped, then I grab her.

"I gotcha." I say reassuringly.

Sabine suddenly grabbed the laundry basket.

Sophie's head immediately followed the basket, as she made the final step.

"I got it."

Sabine frowned.

"Didn't look like it."

"I got all the way up the stairs! All by myself." Sophie frowned defiantly.

"But that last step. You almost fell."

"I was being careful." Sophie immediately replied.

"Fine…" Sabine relented, then handed the laundry basket back to Sophie.

Sophie gave out a content little smile, then followed Sabine to her room.

_I think that load of laundry was a mix of our stuff._

I walk back into my room, and survey the scene.

I've still got some stuff in the bathroom, and some small things lying around.

Clomp clomp clomp clomp clomp.

"Here ya go." I hear Sophie say as I turn around.

I take the laundry basket from her and smile.

"Thanks Sof. You've saved me a bunch of trips up the stairs." I thank her.

Sophie beamed, then jumped onto my bed.

I set the laundry basket beside her and start pulling out my whites.

_It's mostly socks._

Wordlessly, Sophie started helping me, grabbing two socks and putting them together.

…

…

_They did it again…_

"Your mom bought me socks today. Didn't she?" I ask Sophie.

Sophie shrugged and gave me a smile.

I sigh.

_I should have known._

I grab one of the packages and open it.

Sophie does the same, and starts matching up socks.

…

…

I glance up at the sound of footsteps coming up the stairs.

_That's not Sabine._

Oh.

Sophie looked up, then waved.

"Hi Mommy."

Mrs. Wren laughed.

"You're folding socks?"

Sophie looked back at her and nodded happily.

"Yup."

"Thank you for the socks Mrs. Wren." I thank her, looking up from my own socks.

"Oh, you're welcome Ezra. Carid always burns thru socks quickly. I figured you could use some new ones."

I shrug sheepishly, then look to Sophie.

_She's still folding my socks._

I can't help but let out a laugh.

Sophie immediately looked up.

"What?"

"Nothing."

Sophie frowned and looked to her mother.

…

"Humpf." Sophie said, then picked up a pair of socks and threw them at me.

I let them bounce off my chest as Mrs. Wren laughed.

"Okay. C'mon Sophie. Time to go to bed."

"Already?" Sophie asked.

Her mother nodded, then Sophie hopped off my bed.

"Sleep well. See you tomorrow morning." I crouch down and smile at her.

Sophie simply stepped forward and hugged me.

"Night Ezra."

"Night." I reply, hugging her back.

I let go, then Sophie turns around.

"You mean you won't help me pack?" Sabine joked in the doorway.

Mrs. Wren and I laugh.

Sophie simply moved to hug Sabine.

"I thought he needed more help."

Sabine crouched down with a smirk and hugged Sophie.

She whispered something in her ear, then let Sophie go.

Then silently, Sophie and her mom walked downstairs towards Sophie's room.

Sabine stood up, then walked over and wrapped her arms around me.

"Hey."

"Hi." I smile at her.

"I'm almost done packing. Wanna go look at the night sky on the roof after this?" Sabine asked, then gave me a smirk.

I open my mouth, but then am distracted.

_By something a lot more important._

Knock Knock Knock.

Sabine jumped away from me, gunning for her room.

_Why run all that way?_

I lift my hand up and yank on where she always keeps her blasters.

On Onderon.

On the Ghost.

Here.

_On top of her drawer._

The blasters fly out of the doorway right as Sabine enters the doorway.

She wildly sticks her hands up, but manages to grab both.

_Hey!_

"Hey! I grabbed them!" Sabine said happily, turning around and revealing a wide smile.

"You're surprised?"

Sabine kept smiling, but dashed towards the hall.

"Don't get all soft on me now. Fly Boy."

Fly Boy.

I laugh and catch the pistol she flips back to me as we start towards the stairwell.

_I like Fly Boy._

I get to do flips.

That is, if this gets sketchy.

Sabine covers herself with the wall as I slip by her and slide two steps down, then do the same.

…

Sabine's mom waved Sophie into the room just off the hall with the holo in it.

_I don't see Mr. Wren._

…

I probe with the Force as Sabine raised her pistol towards the door.

Then Mrs. Wren opened it.

"Hell—oh! Hey! Come on in!"

"Huh?!" Sophie audibly yelled.

I didn't feel anything with the Force.

_Oh._

Ahsoka and Lux slipped inside and smiled at Mrs. Wren.

"Sorry to scare you. I know things got weird here. We were in the neighborhood and thought we'd stop by." Lux said to Mrs. Wren.

Sophie came flying out of her hiding spot as—

"Whoa…" Sabine said quietly, before lowering her pistol.

I do the same.

_Why are Kanan and Hera here too?_

Kanan's eyes pop up and lock onto Sabine and I.

He nudged Hera and pointed right at us.

Causing Ahsoka to laugh.

"Fly Boy?" Hera called out to us.

"That obvious?" Sabine asked.

"There's not that much higher ground with a fix on an entry point in a house." Hera reasoned.

Sabine nodded, then led me down the stairs in time to catch Sophie saying hi to Kanan.

"—ow are you?"

"I'm good…" Sophie replied, twisting back and forth while playing with the edges of her shirt.

Mr. Wren closed the door behind everyone and Kanan took a step forward.

"You're—"

"Shoes…please." Mrs. Wren called out to everyone, before they advanced into the house.

_She does like things to be neat._

Lux cringed.

"Sorry, forgot…" He said to Mrs. Wren as everyone trudged back to where everybody's shoes are lined up near the door.

Ahsoka was the first to start into the house.

"You're looking better Ezra."

I smile then shrug as Lux picked Sophie up and hugged her.

"How was your trip?" Sophie asked, beaming at him.

"It was awesome. We had a great time." Lux replied.

"Where'd you go?" Sabine asked, smiling.

"Water world in the Mid Rim."

"It was nice. A little too quiet though." Ahsoka said, causing Hera, Kanan and both of Sabine's parents to laugh as everyone made their way into the living room.

I hand Sabine her blaster back, and stand beside the large seat beside the couch.

Sabine sat in the chair, while Lux and Ahsoka sat on the couch.

Kanan and Hera sat on the love seat.

_They're not going to have any place to sit._

I spring into action and grab two chairs from the kitchen in time for Mr. and Mrs. Wren to sit down.

"Thank you Ezra." Mrs. Wren smiled at me.

"Do you all want something to drink?"

Hera shook her head, as opposed to Kanan, who shrugged.

"No, not right now. We heard about the riots and the Festival of Life being shut down." Lux said simply.

"What happened?" Ahsoka added.

"Well, Sabine, Sophie and Ezra were actually there." Mrs. Wren said.

"Getting ice sticks." Sabine hastily added, in response to Kanan's eyebrows quickly dropping.

"They supposedly tried arresting a man for wearing Mandalorian armor in broad daylight. He refused, so they assaulted him."

"We got there right before everything got nuts." I say.

"Somebody began shooting, and we had to run home." Sabine finished.

Lux suddenly looked worried while Ahsoka bit her lip.

"So…wearing Mandalorian armor in the daytime is now illegal?" Lux asked.

"Guess so." Mr. Wren said.

"They're trying to subjugate us again. It won't work." Mrs. Wren stated defiantly.

"But they completely shut down the festival." Lux added.

"All those jobs… Merchants gear up all year for that three day weekend. It can make or break their year." Ahsoka added.

Mrs. Wren nodded somberly.

"_Mand'alor_, our leader came for dinner two nights ago." Mr. Wren turned to Hera and Kanan.

"If memory serves me correctly, he is your highest ranking political figure that is non Imperial. Correct?" Kanan asked.

"You're right." Mrs. Wren said.

"How'd that go?" Ahsoka asked.

"It went well. He was exhausted." Mr. Wren replied.

"He was surprisingly normal." I say.

Everyone suddenly laughed.

_He was._

He came right before everything was done, with some sort of alcoholic thing for Sabine's parents.

Dinner was pretty normal. He informed everyone that the Festival was done for.

It was striking how modest he was.

I think he would have taken out the trash if Mrs. Wren had asked him.

"You probably heard. But the Empire imposed a planetary curfew for those three days, along with a blockade." Mr. Wren told everyone.

Hera nodded, while…

I glance at Ahsoka.

_She's giving me that look._

I look back to Kanan, and he's just looking at me.

Oh no.

"Is that…" Sophie said quietly, pointing towards Kanan's belt.

"Oh. Yeah." Kanan said, then smiled at Sophie.

Sophie took a noticeable step back.

"He's okay Sof. He's just like Ahsoka." Sabine tells her reassuringly.

_Kanan looks a little hurt._

"Ahsoka's said she's not a Jedi." Sophie immediately replied.

"I'm not." Ahsoka reaffirmed her stance.

"But you carry lightsabers." Sabine countered.

This is a conversation she, Kanan and I have had about three variants of.

Why does she consider herself Jedi?

"A Jedi is somebody that served the Republic during and before the Clone Wars Sabine. It was an organization, following several key tenants, along with the Force. But primarily the tenants." Ahsoka said.

_She's said that before._

"But now, that organization doesn't exist. We just use the weapon as a method of last resort. And follow the Force." Kanan finished.

That's exactly what they said last time.

"Isn't that a matter of semantics though?" Sabine asked.

Sophie's head whipped around to face her mother.

"Word choice." She clarified for Sophie.

"You can view it that way. But I believe that the old Jedi way was irrevocably broken. I don't think we should try that again." Ahsoka answered.

"I fall into the camp of "Follow the Force"." Kanan added.

"I hate to turn this into a sink-hole, but the Force you've described. There's two sides if I'm correct?" Mrs. Wren said.

_What?!_

I turn and look at her.

"How do you know about the Force?" Hera asked, sounding quite curious.

"My sister…used to be Duchess of Mandalore. She was assassinated by two Zabrak's with red blades."

"Sith." Kanan said quickly. "I'm very sorry to hear about that."

"Thank you…time has helped. But a Jedi came and attempted to rescue her. Helped me escape with my life." Mrs. Wren said.

"Yours as well?" Hera asked Mr. Wren.

"No. I didn't know Bo at the time. I was on Alderaan studying to become a ship architect." He replied.

I chance a look at Ahsoka and Kanan.

_They're still looking at me._

"Guys…" Sabine muttered quietly.

They want me to do it now.

I get to my feet and start to the kitchen, letting out a breath and allowing my frustrations to leak out into the Force.

"What?" Sophie asked.

"I'm not understanding." Mrs. Wren said.

"We'll answer your question in a second. But wasn't it the Force that brought you and Ezra together?" Ahsoka turned and asked Kanan.

I close my eyes and probe again.

_It's so calm._

Like…

I'm supposed to do it now.

They want me to trust in the Force.

"Yeah. It was." Kanan replied, turning to me.

_Well, I've got Ahsoka and Kanan here to help me._

I turn around and see everyone looking at me.

I hear Mr. Wren start to say something right before I raise my hand and pull one of Ahsoka's lightsabers off her belt and into my hand.

Sophie jumped and loudly gasped.

Mr. and Mrs. Wren's jaws drop.

Lux smirked.

Sabine lit up.

Hera and Kanan simply smiled.

Ahsoka's expression didn't change.

"No way…" I hear Mr. Wren say quietly before I look around me.

Do I have room to activate this?

_This lightsaber feels really weird._

The weighting is all off.

I ignite the lightsaber, then slowly wave it back and forth.

Hummmm….

Womp.

Hummmm….

Womp.

"The weighting is so off…" I mutter.

"You think it's off? That's normal! Yours had so much weight out front it was practically top heavy. I never understood how you fought with yours." Ahsoka smiled at me.

I turn my wrist over, causing everybody's eyes to follow it.

Womp.

"Ezra's a Jedi?" Mr. Wren asked quietly.

"Training. But yes." Kanan said.

I deactivate the blade, then toss it back to Ahsoka.

Sophie ducked and scrambled to Sabine's arm.

_Ohhh…_

"It's okay… It's Ezra." Sabine said soothingly to her.

"You've been a Jedi the whole time?" Mrs. Wren asked me.

I sheepishly nod, then walk to the sink and reach for a glass.

"You must have been fighting your instincts the entire time." I hear Mr. Wren say.

I shrug.

"Does anybody want some water?" I ask the room.

_I'm parched._

Everybody but Sophie shook their head.

Sophie….slowly nodded.

"Why didn't anybody say anything?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"Sophie." Lux said.

"Lux!" Mr. Wren countered.

"I wanted to say something. But Sabine told me that she'd be too shocked."

"Well that might not have worked." Hera said.

I chance a glance at Sophie.

_She's slowly approaching me._

"Hey. Grab a glass."

"I…can't reach it." Sophie whispered.

"You can if I lift you." I smile at her.

Sophie's eyes widened.

"You can do that?"

I nod.

"Hold on, and I'll lift you up and let you grab your own glass." I say.

Sophie nodded.

Everybody's looking again.

I let out a breath, then focus in on Sophie.

…

Sophie loudly gasped as I extend both my hands and lift her up into the air.

I carry her over the island, then stop her in front of the open cabinet.

Slowly and tentatively, Sophie reaches out and grabbed a glass.

Then she turns to me.

"I'm taller than you."

I grin, as everyone in the living room laughed.

"Yeah you are."

_I'm holding her higher up than I am._

I knew she'd get a kick out of grabbing a glass off the top shelf.

She can't reach the first shelf.

Gently, I float her over to me, then set her down.

"Cool, isn't it Sof?" Sabine asked her.

"Yeah!" Sophie replied, then sticking her cup out towards me.

I take it, then fill it.

When I'm turning back to hand it to her, I see…tears in Sophie's eyes.

"Here you go." I tell her, then hand it to her.

Sophie takes it with shaking hands, then slips past me and starts back to her sister.

I fill my glass as the conversation in the living room started up again.

"So that's why Ezra getting captured was such a big deal." Mr. Wren said.

"Yeah." Kanan replied.

"We were kind of afraid they'd turn him to the dark side." Ahsoka said.

"The side of the Zabrak's you mentioned earlier. They have red blades. We have blue."

"Or white." Ahsoka added.

_Hers are white-ish._

"Easy way to tell between the two."

Mr. and Mrs. Wren nodded, while Sabine rubbed Sophie's back.

_She's as stiff as a board._

"What's the difference? I never saw a Jedi before I met you Ahsoka." Mr. Wren asked.

"The Sith want power. They're greedy and will destroy anybody in front of them. Jedi try to keep peace, spread prosperity and protect the galaxy." Kanan answered. "But obviously it's a lot more complicated than that."

"Naturally." Mr. Wren nodded.

"Ezra's a pretty good student I'd say. He did really well back on Onderon." Lux said.

Sabine beamed and nodded.

"Usually students have issues dealing with their power. They're tempted. It's natural." Ahsoka said calmly.

"Especially after being captured. But it doesn't seem like Ezra's had much trouble." Kanan added.

"We haven't gotten to talk about it." I blurt out bluntly.

_We haven't._

The room went dead silent.

"So…you have had some trouble." Kanan replied simply.

"Reigning in my temper. Hearing the Dark Side. A little bit, yeah." I reply, turning to the counter and grabbing into it with one hand for support.

"It whispers. I know what you mean." Ahsoka replied quietly.

Kanan shrugged.

"I haven't had such an experience. I guess I'm lucky."

Yeah you are.

"_Kanan"_

"What do you mean whispers?" Sabine asked.

I haven't told her.

_I didn't say anything to anyone._

"You can hear little suggestions sometimes if you're mad. Stuff like "Toss somebody across the room. They deserve it." Temptations."

"So…if you give in and do it…you're treading closer to the dark?" Mrs. Wren guessed.

Kanan and Ahsoka nodded.

"It never takes much."

"The bad guys never think they're doing bad." Lux added.

I roll my eyes and drain the rest of my water, then move to get more.

"How long has it been since you've heard a whisper?" Ahsoka asked me.

…

"A week and a half ago. Sabine's friend Atin was here." I reply.

"He's here?!" Lux jumped to his feet.

"He's alive? After you two dealt with him on Onderon I'm surprised he showed his face again." Hera asked.

"Yes. Does this have to do with that guy you three got into an argument about?" Mr. Wren asked.

I growl and start to refill my water.

"Yes. Ezra thinks he's alive, by the way." Sabine said, turning to the others.

"Hey! Don't start this again." I snap at her.

"He can't be alive. You said you…beat him." Kanan edited himself on the fly, spotting Sophie.

"I though he got blown in two?" Sophie turned to Sabine.

"Actually, I fought him. He had a lightsaber. I beat him. Stabbed him in the chest." I answer.

"Congratulations son." Mr. Wren smiled.

I accept it, but bite my lip.

"You can't be serious Ezra." Hera said.

"I think they drugged him up and made him have visions."

I swivel my head to Sabine and glare at her.

_So much for her having my back._

I know we had disagreements, but can't that stay between us?

"I don't want to get into this. I'll get mad." I say, then pace around the kitchen.

"Wouldn't he have a lightsaber though?" Mrs. Wren asked Ahsoka and Kanan.

"Yeah, we've never seen a hint of it." Her husband added.

"The first trip here, the Rebellion told him not to bring it." Hera explained.

"This time…it's because they destroyed it." Sabine finished.

"Destroyed?" Sophie squeaked.

I nod, then turn back around.

_This is not what I want to talk about._

"Yeah, it's in two pieces. We have it on the Ghost." Kanan said.

"By the way, before I forget. That blaster in your stuff Ezra. Were you thinking of modifying it?" Ahsoka asked me.

_They found my Pike blaster?_

I shrug.

"The one with the curved handle?" I ask.

Ahsoka and Kanan nodded.

"Yeah…I haven't put much thought into it. It might not be possible." I say.

"You'll have Rex and Echo this time though. You'll be able to get one without too much trouble I imagine." Lux added.

"Speaking of them…how's the Rebellion at large? Doing anything big?"

_Whoa._

Ahsoka just shook her head.

Everybody's expressions just darkened.

"Right now…things are in flux. The Senator's speech you heard has caused many groups inside to speak up." Ahsoka answered.

"People are leaving." Hera added.

"Leaving?" Sabine asked, sounding incredulous.

"They think they can do more without being restricted or bossed around by a bunch of rich people." Kanan explained.

I agree.

"So, there's been splintering." Mrs. Wren cut thru the fog.

Ahsoka and Lux nodded.

"Are you all splintering?" Mr. Wren asked.

_Surely not._

Kanan shrugged.

"We don't know where we stand. Personally, I don't think this is diplomatically possible. There's actual suffering. Now. I don't like sitting around and watching like the Senator intimated." Hera said.

Sophie's eyes widened once more.

_Well this is a surprise._

We're the radicals.

In a Rebellion.

"So where do we stand? _Mand'alor_ stood up to do something." Mr. Wren said strongly.

"We know…we're probably going to have to get him to a meeting soon. Things are up in the air right now to say the least." Hera replied.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

"Well, we found a new base." Kanan shrugged.

"Where?" Sabine asked.

"Dxun."

"Really…" Mr. Wren muttered.

"Yeah. There's a lot of untamed jungle. We've barely got a foothold right now. That's where we're going after this. It's far from ideal right now. But there are a lot of resources there, and secrecy isn't hard to find." Ahsoka answered.

"Since the moon is _uninhabited._ For a reason." Mrs. Wren replied bluntly.

"We're picking up where people left off." Lux shrugged.

"Sounds fun." Sabine said.

Sophie turned around and gave Sabine a look like she has went mad.

Hera and Kanan quietly laughed.

_She's showing more of a personality._

And a temper.

…

"Well, it's getting late. And it's probably time for Sophie to go to bed." Lux suddenly said, getting to his feet.

Ahsoka, Hera and Kanan quickly copied him.

"Alright. What do you want to do about tomorrow?" Mrs. Wren asked, as Sabine stood up beside her sister.

"I was thinking we'd all go have breakfast some place. The Ghost is here, so we can leave whenever." Ahsoka suggested.

"Sounds good to me." Mr. Wren nodded.

"We'll stop by around 10-10:30. Will that work?" Lux asked.

Mr. Wren nodded, then everyone started moving towards the door.

I drain the rest of my water and set it in the sink as everyone else said goodbye at the door.

Then it went silent.

…

_I'm in trouble._

"It is way past our bedtime Sof." I hear Mr. Wren say.

Sophie groaned loud enough for it to float back to me.

"We've got her. Ezraaa!" Sabine called out to me.

"Coming!" I answer.

I hear a high pitched noise come from Sophie right before I pass the stairs and come into view of Sabine and her parents.

"Okay." Mr. Wren said, then starting into the kitchen.

Sabine grabbed Sophie's hand and led her into her room.

I let out a nervous breath and follow them into Sophie's room.

I walk in quick enough to see Sophie pull out some pajama pants and Sabine hand her a white tank top.

Then Sophie innocently looked at me, eyes wide.

"Hey." I smile at her.

"…Hi." Sophie squeaked.

"Go change and wash your face please." Sabine asked her simply.

Sophie quickly scampered into her bathroom and shut the door.

_Blast._

"It's okay…she doesn't know what to do." Sabine said to me softly.

I bite my lip, and try to relax.

This is what I was afraid of.

_All of Sophie's life, she's been fed complete lies on the holo, with some truth from her parents and Sabine sprinkled in._

When she is surprised by an actual Jedi, she freaked out.

_She's afraid of me._

Sabine gave me a small smile as I ran my hand thru my hair.

C'mon Sof.

_I'm not a bad guy._

…

The bathroom door opened to Sophie, now changed and holding her old clothes.

She trudged inside, then past both Sabine and I and tossed her dirty clothes in her little hamper.

Then she turned back around.

I open my mouth, but don't say anything as Sophie tentatively makes her way to Sabine and I.

"I…"

"What's up Sof?" Sabine asked.

Trying to get her to talk.

"It's okay if you're confused." I add.

"How's he been a Jedi this whole time? Jedi are supposed to hurt people." Sophie said to Sabine.

"Didn't Mommy and Daddy tell you that they were good?" Sabine replied.

"Yeah…but I've never met one before that fights. And they're supposed to be bad."

"They're not bad. Ezra saved me on Onderon. He's saved me a couple of times actually. Just because you know his secret now doesn't actually change anything." Sabine reasoned with Sophie, crouching down to her height.

Sophie glanced at me, then looked back to her sister.

"But he's been a Jedi the entire time."

"He's still Ezra though. He's a Jedi, but that doesn't change who he is. He's still the guy you like."

Sophie seemed to accept that, then ran towards me.

I quickly crouch down in time for Sophie to tackle me and wrap her arms around my neck.

"I'm just the same Sof. I promise."

Sophie let out a small sniffle, then started shaking again.

"You…you aren't gonna hurt me? Right?"

…

I…

"No…never…ever." I say, then hug her tighter.

Sophie let out a sob and squeezed me back.

"I'm never going to hurt you. I'm not going to let anybody else hurt you either. Or your sister. Not even your mom and Dad. I promise." I tell her.

I glance up at Sabine, to see that she looks ready to cry.

Sophie sniffled again ,then let me go and turned to Sabine.

"He saved you?"

Sabine smiled. "Yup."

"What happened?"

"I…think that it's too late for that."

"Sabineeeee…" Sophie immediately whined, then sniffled.

"It's bedtime. Do you want to read by yourself again?" Sabine asked her.

Sophie frowned.

"I want you to tell me the story of how Ezra saved Sabine."

I can't stop myself from laughing.

But Sabine's glare towards me stopped me from laughing beyond that.

Sophie turned and smiled at me.

"It's time for you to go to bed. Plus, Ezra and I need to finish packing."

"Humpf."

"She's right Sof."

Sophie opened her mouth, then started to yawn and clapped her hands over her mouth.

"See?" Sabine smiled. "You're tired."

Sophie turned towards me.

But I'm smiling.

_She opened her mouth, then yawned._

"Can you float me again?"

Sabine and I both laugh.

"Sure. Now you sound like your sister." I joke.

"What do you mean?" Sophie asked me.

"Sabine likes to use me as her legs. Instead of getting up to grab the remote, she has me grab it. That snack we just grabbed but she put across the room?" I say, then turn to Sabine.

Sabine simply shrugged, a nervous smile on her face.

Sophie laughed.

"Ready?" I ask her.

Sophie immediately nodded.

I let out a breath, then bring both hands up and lift Sophie into the air.

"Wheeeheheee!" Sophie squealed as I floated her towards her bed.

Sabine pulled back the covers right before I set her down.

And before Sabine can, I grab the covers and tuck them in around her.

Sophie looks delighted.

"My book." She said, then pointing—

"Sophie…" Sabine said, almost laughing.

"I didn't mean it! It was an accident!"

"You're lucky I like you." I joke, getting both Sabine and Sophie to laugh before I pull the book on her drawers into my hand and hand it to her.

"That's really cool."

I smile, then rub Sophie's hair.

"I think so too."

"Night Sof." Sabine said as I stand up.

"Night!"

I follow Sabine out into the hallway.

"Hey." Sabine said to her parents.

_Who were just standing in the hall._

"Hey darling. Sounds like Sophie had fun."

I nervously smile as Sabine laughed.

"Sort of."

"Everything sorted out?" Mrs. Wren asked Sabine.

Sabine nodded.

"We told her son. I promise." Mr. Wren said to me.

I shrug.

"Sometimes, you just have to see it yourself. And I'm really…really sorry I didn't say anything before this."

Mrs. Wren half shrugged before Mr. Wren spoke up.

"Eh. As long as Sabine's happy, and Sophie's happy, that's all I care about."

_Makes sense._

"Still though. It's the principle of it." I counter.

"And that's why I know it's a good thing Sabine met you. You've got character son." Mr. Wren smiled at me, then clapped my shoulder.

"Thanks sir." I say, then glance at the floor.

"No problem."

"Night. Get to sleep before too long. I'm sure they wouldn't mind you packing a little after we get back in the morning." Mrs. Wren smiled at us before they retreat back to their room.

Sabine slipped her hand in with mine and started pulling me up the stairs.

…

We stop at the entrance to her room.

"See? It didn't go so badly."

"She was shaking in my arms. I felt it." I counter.

"The end justified it! It's fine!" Sabine retorted.

I roll my eyes.

I hope she's right.

"Don't be all surly Ezra. C'mon."

"I don't want her to be afraid of me. I'd rather do the whole capture thing again than have even a part of her be afraid of me."

_I would._

"Don't say that."

"I just did." I say.

Sabine frowned at me.

"By the way…why didn't you say anything about being angry all the time?"

"It's not all the time!" I hotly reply, then take a breath. "It's just when I get worked up."

"Like now?"

"No."

_Not yet._

"Ezra…tell me this stuff. I'm on your side."

"I know. But this has to do with me."

"You don't have to handle it alone."

…

"What if I hurt you Sabine? I learned some dangerous stuff there. I used a little bit of it with the sword fighting. I won't let you get hurt by me."

Sabine bit her lip.

"The cockiness?"

…

I shake my head.

"No. That's because he was an idiot and didn't know how to fight." I reply.

"He was the best one they had! That owner threw you to the wolves!"

"That owner can't teach then. He didn't know how to fight!"

Sabine frowned, then looked away and put her hands on her hips.

"Ezra…you've got to realize this: You're on a different level. For normal people, he was good. But to you, he sucked."

_Huh._

"But he didn't think." I say.

He was a brute.

"That comes with age! I'm better now than I was a year ago with Hera when we were stranded. Is it because of my gear? No. It's because I know what to do better."

"That's skill."

"No, that's my head." Sabine countered.

"I disagree."

"Clearly." Sabine replied coldly. "You're special Ezra. Not just because of your abilities. It's because you can think."

…

"Maybe." I say.

_I don't think so._

I'm still a mess.

"This isn't why you don't think your worth it, is it? Because you're wrong." Sabine changed topics quickly.

I glance over at her, only to see her looking at me tenderly.

"No. It's because of how Denon went down. I failed. I screwed everything up."

"No you didn't! You didn't know how anybody would react!"

"You said I was being stupid and a coward at the time!" I reply.

"Not a coward!"

"Basically. Now her whole team hates me."

Sabine took a step back in shock.

"When'd this happen?"

"At Safe Zone? They yelled at me. Even Darcy. They called me what I was. A liar and a fraud. Which I was."

"But she came into the meeting with you." Sabine reasoned.

"That's because she didn't have any information. I was trying to get her not to hate me."

_But she does._

What she said afterward proved it.

"Ezra…that's not how you go about it though…"

I turn back around and start to my room.

"I'm done talking for now. I'll see you in the morning." I tell her, then walk into my room and shut the door behind me.


	52. Baby Don't Hurt Me No More

Gushh…Shhhh…

"Hahahahahaaaaaaaaaa Haaaaahahahahahaaaa!" Shark Bait laughed.

My head bounced as the electricity continued to course thru—

_NO!_

On the floor!

_Kanan…_

I jump out of my skin, then realize it's pitch dark.

"It's okay…"

_Sabine._

Sabine curled into my arms and gently wrapped her arms around me.

"It's okay…it was just a dream."

…

A dream.

_I'm sweating._

Sabine simply held me close and cooed into my ear while wrapping her legs around me.

"It was a dream Ezra. A bad dream."

…

"Okay." I say quietly.

Sabine smiled.

"You okay?"

I shrug.

"It's hot."

_It is._

I'm burning up.

"Yeah…they haven't gotten the climate control quite right yet." Sabine said, then looking up at—

_Uhh…_

Sabine doesn't have a shirt on.

Just her bra.

…

_She's sleeping with me._

They assigned us to share a room and be the first to stay in this new building.

"You okay?"

"I…" I open my mouth, but can't get the rest out.

"What…oh." She says, then looking at herself.

She smiled at me, then took her hands off me and started searching for mine.

"I was hot. You…I'm not making you uncomfortable am I?" She asked gently, finding my hands and slipping them around her own waist.

Soft skin.

Toned muscles.

_That's Sabine._

"No, it's just…I didn't know it was like that."

Sabine gave me a silly look.

"We've been thru this. I trust you. Trust yourself." She said softly.

"Sabine…"

Sabine sighed.

"You are uncomfortable."

"Just because it's sudden."

"What's sudden Ezra? We slept together every night after you woke up. No problem, no questions. Not even tonight. But when I take off my shirt, you're freaked."

"Because you're so exposed."

"Trust yourself…and even if you accidentally grab me, oh no. Now you're a monster? No. It was an accident."

I sigh.

Sabine responds by pulling me closer and kissing my cheek.

"You want to talk about your dream?"

I shake my head.

"Standard issue. Vader, Shark Bait, laughing, electricity." I say.

_I think I need a walk._

Sabine made a disapproving sound.

"Standard issue…maybe you need to talk to a medic. Could help you sleep."

"No. I've had two. And you know about them both." I shake my head.

Sabine sighed, then tried to hug me.

I slip out of her grasp.

_Yeah, I'm soaked in sweat._

"I'm going to go for a walk. Maybe work on my lightsaber." I tell her while getting to my feet.

Sabine sighed and sat up.

"Okay. Come get me if you need me. Promise?"

_She sounds like Sophie._

I smile at the memory and nod.

"I will." I say, before slipping on some shoes and walking outside of our room.

"Oh come on…" I say, shivering and the sudden drop in temperature.

_It's burning up in there._

I turn on my heels and crack the door to our room.

…

"Holy! That's cold!" I hear Sabine yelp.

I laugh, then slip away.

_I don't want her chasing after me._

Before long, I'm in the untouched part of the building.

Stuff EVERYWHERE.

Where the Rebellion has set up shop here, it's a complex that is so overgrown that when we flew over it in the Ghost, I didn't see it.

It's not visible from the air.

_That's what happens when you don't disturb the majority of a planet for thousand s of years._

Nature takes over.

There's 1000 foot trees, vines that are almost as think as me, deadly beasts that supposedly roam the surrounding jungle and bugs.

They've mostly solved that though. Before we got here, the bugs were apparently a lot worse.

This place is very much a work in progress.

They've cleared three buildings:

An old temple where most everyone is.

A hangar area.

And an old armory.

Now they're moving to our building.

It's half cleared out, and ours is the only "bedroom" cleared so far.

That's another reason why we got put in here.

_That's the only bedroom in this building._

There's a lot of just empty area, which they might do something with.

But nobody knows yet.

I raise my hand and open the door in front of me, which is made of stone.

All of these buildings are.

Everything is Mandalorian, and thousands of years old.

_I like it._

Not the glitz and glamour.

Just the here and now.

Physical.

The humid jungle air engulfs me as I start down the path connecting our building and the main complex, about 500 yards away.

It's far enough that we're a little isolated from the others, but close enough for safety.

I walk down the path, probing every 10 steps or so.

_I'm not really worried about beasts._

I have the Force as a weapon, which is greater than claws or talons.

I'm not really scared.

I'm learning that has taken on a whole new meaning.

_Fear._

Being scared.

I would like to talk to Kanan and Ahsoka about it.

Rex and Echo too.

They all know the feeling.

Ahsoka left the Order.

_She must have been scared in between then and joining the rebellion._

Kanan had the whole "Caleb" thing.

Which I need to be really careful mentioning.

Rex and Echo spent years trying to figure out which way was up.

And me.

_I've learned that fear isn't really a physical thing for me anymore._

Electricity kind of.

But I think I'm slowly getting over that.

_I used to kind of "feel" the currents._

I could have told you when Sophie turned the holo on back on Mandalore.

It's like I gained a sense briefly. I don't really know.

I'm getting off track.

It's not physical.

_I can take any pain you throw at me._

Fear is mental.

How they manipulated my own brain to go from "I'm never turning" to "Maybe I have to turn to escape"…

_Is troublesome._

We'll talk I'm sure.

I duck under a low lying branch and glance up to see the temple, now being used as home base so to speak.

The cafeteria is there, so is the barracks, so is the engineers and Rex and Echo.

I saw them today.

They were training a group of teens, and Rex actually brought me up and used me a an example of "aggressive defense".

If you want to actually win a hand to hand fight, you can't just dodge all day.

_You look for a slip up or an exposed area._

Then you hammer it.

Echo emphasized pressure points, along with joints as the areas they should target.

Knees, elbows, neck.

That was the focus.

Once they were done, Rex, Echo, Sabine and I all grabbed a caf from the cafeteria and headed towards what Echo called the arms depot.

_Quick aside._

I think the Rebellion knows how important food is, because the food is great once again.

Yeah, we're in a decrepit, falling apart Mandalorian base from a millennia ago, but we will have good food.

Sorry.

We all talked about how Sabine's sister was and how Mandalore went. Then we all started in on what apparently is the highest priority we have.

_My lightsaber._

Rex, Echo and Kanan had already grabbed it and inspected it to see how it works.

Then they made multiple copies of it, made of cheap metal and played with the basics of lightsaber design.

I liked what they all had, especially an idea Echo had about a trigger that retracted into the housing when I activated my lightsaber.

But that's about it.

All their designs ended up a little like my old lightsaber.

An outside attatchment.

_I don't want that._

I want it like the sword I used with Barriss.

Like the Mandalorian sword.

I want to fully embrace my style.

I can win with it. I know I can.

The trick is turning a lightsaber, into a blaster also.

I wave at the two guards that are posted within eyesight of the building, then slip inside and run up the stairs.

_There's 12 levels._

The depot is on the 11th.

…

…

_Whew._

I am out of shape.

I lean onto the wall right next to the door and take a second to cath my breath.

_This isn't going to cut it._

Kanan, Ahsoka and Lux mentioned that we'd be doing lots of things here.

Exploring for other buildings like ours.

Digging support structures since the leadership has banned above ground buildings.

Guard duty.

Speeder expeditions.

All sorts of things.

_And I can't do those things if I'm out of shape._

Rex and Echo all made jokes about how I look fat off of Mrs. Wren's delicious cooking.

Which, judging off how I looked before I was captured, is something I can't deny.

I've gained most of the weight back, but it is not muscle.

Sabine soothed my slightly bruised ego by telling me that you wouldn't know unless somebody pointed it out.

_Which helps I guess._

At least Darcy and the others aren't here.

They're apparently off being tested by the Rebellion. Some sort of mission.

The way Ahsoka said it tipped me off on two things.

One, the mission is difficult.

_So a test of skill and ability._

Secondly, it's a loyalty test.

To see if adding them was a good call.

Which…hey.

I can't protest anything.

_I lost that right._

Either way, they aren't here.

It's just everyone that was on Onderon. Minus Iziz as a city.

We're dependent on stealth supply drops at night when our orbit is protected from prying eyes by Onderon and Imperial eyes until we can become more self-sufficient.

That's something that got me today.

_When I wake up, I can see the planet that we ran from after seeing Barriss, Shark Bait and Atin on._

We ran…and now, we're kind of back.

…

Okay.

Enough of this.

I stand up, let out a final breath, then walk over to the work bench where we all were working today.

_And where my destroyed lightsaber is._

They pointed it out to me, but I didn't want to look at it in front of everyone.

That might have been the lowest point.

Kallus dead at my feet.

Tarkin vowing for me to become an Inquisitor.

Having that scalpel dripping with my own blood after literally opening up old wounds.

…

I shiver, then open up the drawer they told me it'd be in.

…

_Oh man._

I reach down and gently pull out my lightsaber.

_Just how I remember it._

Two pieces.

I set it down softly, and inspect it.

_The cut is just past the halfway point._

Clean.

It's a diagonal cut, so the edges of the cut probably can slice my skin open.

…

Man.

I let out a heavy breath, then bow my head.

…

_I've got to do this._

…

Yeah, it was a failure.

I failed.

Everyone's worst fears were realized.

But I do think I learned some things.

_Amazingly, the biggest one I'm pulling from Barriss._

I can't think normally anymore.

I have to think like a Jedi.

Constantly probing.

Always on the lookout.

I've just got to be better.

They're depending on me to do that.

The Rebellion is throwing a lot of resources into my training, allowing the Ghost to stop doing needed supply runs and pick Sabine and I up off Mandalore.

_But mostly me._

I really don't have much of a choice.

Kanan and Hera would understand if I stopped being a Jedi, bu surely would push me to reconsider.

Sabine would lose it.

Ahsoka…I don't know what she'd do.

As for Rex and Echo…they probably wouldn't like it either.

Besides, I'm falling back to an old standby for me.

_What would Mom and dad want me to do?_

I don't remember anything about them mentioning Jedi. I just remember them trying to mold me into doing the right things, being polite and just having fun.

I was a kid.

Of course, I promptly abandoned those ideals as soon as they just up and vanished on me.

But I do know that they want me to be happy.

Beyond that, it's up to me.

_And I just don't want to be powerless anymore._

…

I don't know how I became so strong in the Force, and Kanan and I have never talked about that.

But I think there must be some…reason.

Not like fate or destiny. But a reason.

_Something._

Maybe it's just me wishfully thinking that there's some higher purpose to all this, like the ancients worshipping to the Gods that didn't exist.

I don't know.

But the best way for me not to be powerless, is for me to continue training to be a Jedi.

My biggest obstacle amazingly, was my own fear, and Sophie.

Now Sophie knows, and seems to accept it.

And I can work on my fear.

_It's internal._

This morning Sophie woke me up basically at the crack of dawn to play a game with her.

I let her get her own juice, levitating her to be able to do so.

She enjoyed that.

Then we played our pyramid game until people started waking up.

Then we shifted gears and played a card game with Sabine until Lux and the others came over.

Breakfast was nice. I ate a ton, which Sof loved.

Then we grabbed our stuff and went to the spaceport.

_Leaving was a little easier this time._

Sabine parents said goodbye to everyone as Sabine and I hugged Sophie goodbye.

She basically tackled me, then told me how much she'd miss me.

I miss her already.

Sabine hugged her, and Sophie teared up but didn't cry.

I thanked Sabine's parents for everything.

Then we were gone.

…

I glance over at the clock and see that it's half past two in the morning.

_So technically yesterday._

I grab the top half of my lightsaber.

_Did I lose my power c—_

MY CRYSTAL!

_YEAH!_

I didn't lose my crystal!

I don't know how it stayed in there, after all it's been thru.

Cut in half.

Surely inspected by the Inquisitors and Vader.

Rescued, along with me somehow.

Traveled who knows how many miles.

_And somehow…is here._

In my hand.

…

At least I won't have to go get a new one.

_That was hard._

Granted, I was really jumpy inside that temple.

I barely had a grasp of the Force.

And had no idea what I was doing.

I smile, then set the crystal back inside the top half of my lightsaber.

_I need to bring Dooku's datapad up with me._

There were some tips in there regarding lightsaber construction to help with my style.

Plus I can incorporate some of Kenobi's ideas, ask for Ahsoka's help.

I have a lot of resources this time.

I stretch, then let out a big yawn.

_Maybe tomorrow._

It's late.

I need to get back to Sabine.

All this can wait until tomorrow.

I don't know if we're supposed to be somewhere tomorrow morning.

I start towards the stairs, hitting the lights as I go.

It's been a long day of travel and getting acclimated.

Sabine will probably want to do some decorating, since it—

…

…

_By the Force._

…

…

…

I'm stopped in my tracks.

Just standing on the top step of the stairs like a complet moron.

But I don't care.

_Did I…_

Have I blown past something?

…

Sabine and I were assigned a room together. No big deal to anyone.

We stayed together at the wedding.

We stayed together once I was out of bacta at Polis Massa.

…

I…I think I missed the biggest thing of all.

…

_Does Sabine love me?_

She's been everywhere with me.

Done everything she can for me.

Brought me along to rest with her family.

_I'm basically a member now._

They offered to let me keep some stuff there if I wanted to.

She's been my rock this whole time, as I've slowly tried building myself back up.

We kissed on the Ghost before going to Safe Zone.

…

_I need to get moving._

I start down the steps, brain spinning.

_I think Sabine loves me._

Not like "love" like a friend.

Love love.

That's great.

But Darcy.

_But Darcy is mad about the end!_

Not how I was as a boyfriend.

I like the think I was a very satisfactory boyfriend.

She said as much multiple times.

After we…worked out, she professed her love for me with little kisses.

Multiple times.

…

I sigh and run my hands thru my hair.

_I would have killed for this before Denon._

Sabine was being genuine.

That's why I ended whatever we had on Onderon.

_Was that real?_

Is this even real?

…

I could just be going nuts.

Overthinking it way way too much.

BUT SHE WAS IN HER BRA.

IN BED.

WITH ME.

Two clicks, and we…

Are exercising.

_Whoa._

Easy Ezra.

That's how the first nightmare was.

I'll call it what it was.

Fake Sabine was trying to have sex with me.

_And I was totally into it._

…

I would kind of be into it now.

If she does actually love me.

_She'd kill me if she knew I was thinking this._

Yeah Sabine, thanks for taking care of me.

Now take off the rest of your clothes and let's have a go.

_That's taking it too far._

…

She might love me though.

I can't dispute it. That's the other thing.

_She's given me no reason to think otherwise._

I…

Maybe the more important question, is do I love her?

…

I don't know.

I'd do anything for her, just like she's literally done that for me.

That's been clearly demonstrated.

But do I want to take tht next step.

…

I wave open the door to our little building, and slip down the hall.

Where the door is still slightly cracked to let cool air in.

…

_Hah._

Sabine's curled up under the covers.

I barely crack the door behind me, then slip off my shirt and slide under th covers with her.

_Still no shirt._

Sabine smiled happily, then curled up to me and let out a breath.

…

Inhale.

Exhale.

…

Inhale.

Exhale.

Sabine's head slightly droops.

Arms around me.

Legs slid between mine.

_She sleeps so funny._

It's like she tries to get inside my skin for warmth.

Inhale.

…

Exhale.


	53. Strung Up

"Sluuuuuurrrrp."

I smirk, then look over at Sabine.

_She looks embarrassed._

"Sorry." She smiled at me.

I roll my eye and keep walking up the stairs.

We just got off our first shift of guard duty.

Spoiler Alert: It might have been the most boring thing I've ever done in my life.

We just sat, barely within sight of each other and searched the jungle for ferocious beasts, droids or people.

Anything really.

We had the 12-7 shift.

Nothing happened.

Then we went to go eat.

I got a big sandwich. I don't remember what Sabine got.

_I'm tired._

But we promised Kanan and Ahsoka that we'd trek up to the 11th floor after we got off and ate.

I think this is the chat that I've been waiting to have.

Sabine will probably be mad at me at some point, after I say something that she wishes that I had told her.

If so, I'll go and grab another chocolate shake that she's currently sipping on.

Sabine takes the lead and opens the door to the arms depot.

"Hey. You two find food?" Ahsoka called out to us as I shut the door behind me.

"Yep." Sabine said, as I look around.

It's just Kanan and Ahsoka.

"Where is everyone?" I ask Kanan.

"Around. But we figured we'd talk to you first if that's okay." He replied.

I shrug.

_Fine by me._

"I'm sorry Sabine. You have to leave." Ahsoka turned to Sabine, looking solumn.

"What? Why?" Sabine asked, sounding indignant.

"We're going to talk about some top secret Force and Jedi business. You can't listen in without endangering your life."

"Endangering my life?! What on earth could endanger my life?" Sabine popped right back.

"Just associating with a Jedi is enough to get a life sentence in some systems." Kanan reasoned.

"We've had this conversation before. I should be the one to decide what I can and can't listen to. It's my choice to put my life in my own hands." Sabine glared at Kanan.

"I know. This is an exception." Kanan said simply.

I look away from Kanan and see Ahsoka looking completely calm.

_Sabine's livid._

"I can't believe this. He's just going to tell me anyway. You know that right?" Sabine frowned at Kanan again.

"That is his choice. We're choosing to not take that chance." Ahsoka told her simply.

"That should be _MY_ choice!" Sabine heatedly replied.

"Sabine…please." Kanan asked her gently.

…

Sabine snorted out a breath, then marched thru the door.

"Seriously? Why'd you do that? She's seen Vader." I turn back to Kanan and ask.

"This is different. And besides, you two seem to be at odds over the Inquisitor you defeated." Ahsoka answered, sitting back in her seat.

"I…yeah. Do you guys believe me?" I ask.

_Please._

Guys, come on.

Kanan and Ahsoka quickly exchanged looks.

_Uh oh._

"Ezra…you defeated him. I don't see how it's possible." Kanan told me.

"It's happened before, but very differently." Ahsoka said placidly, causing Kanan to turn around.

"Huh?"

"Remember the Zabraks that Mrs. Wren told us about? About 12 years previously, Master Kenobi defeated one of them by cutting him in half. He survived."

_WHAT!?_

"How!? If he's cut in half—" I blurt out.

"The way Anakin explained it to me after having Obi-Wan explain it to him, is that our best guess was that his hate somehow…I don't know how, kept him alive and sane enough for him to slowly build a lower half of his body and return."

…

"Maul." Kanan muttered.

"Yes." Ahsoka replied.

_I don't remember any Sith being in that Holo history of the Naboo crisis._

But then again, it's the Holo.

It's whitewashed.

"I remember a little bit of that. It was right as Master Bilaba took me as her apprentice. Something about him calling Master Kenobi out, alone?" Kanan said, biting his lip.

_He's trying to recall details._

"Yes. We don't know what happened to him after the Empire rose."

"What happened to the other one? You mentioned more than one." I ask Ahsoka.

"The other one was found by a Republic Clone squad that attempted to restore order to Mandalore. To little success."

_So he's still out there?_

"And we currently don't know where he is?" I ask.

Ahsoka shrugged, then shook her head.

"No, but I imagine he's either dead or is in prison. I'm sure the Emperor personally dispatched Vader after him." Kanan said.

Good point.

"Anyway, that's not the point. Yes, you can recover from a near mortal injury Ezra. But you gave him a mortal one. You said that you sliced off both of his arms and stabbed him in the chest." Ahsoka said to me.

"I did."

"You can't live thru that Ezra." Kanan immediately replied.

My temper immediately spikes, and I clench my fists.

"You've got to be kidding! After everything I went thru?! And NOBODY BELIEVES ME?!" I yell at them.

_I CANNOT BELIEVE THEM._

"Ezra…calm down."

"It's not that we don't believe you. We just believe Sabine is right in that they drugged you. When Rex and Echo saved you, they had pumped you full of drugs."

"To keep me alive maybe!" I retort.

_They destroyed me._

"We're still working on everything they put you on. It was over 50 solutions." Kanan said calmly.

I turn around in anger.

"I cannot BELIEVE THIS…YOU DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT HE DID TO ME! DO YOU?!" I yell, whipping back around.

_Never believing in me._

I'm the weak link.

"No…I guess not. We've never spoken about it." Kanan said simply.

"Let's start here. What did he do to you?" Ahsoka asked me simply.

Invitingly.

I let out a breath, then close my eyes.

"Well, first he assaulted me physically. Hand to hand combat. Then I busted his nose open early on and he decided that he'd keep me shackled to my little table. And shock me for hours on end. Used to come in, right when I was about to fall asleep. And shock me. But just when I was about to fall asleep."

Kanan swallowed while Ahsoka looks a little sick.

"He's sadistic. He's furious that I beat him on Onderon. So he made me suffer endlessly for it. It's a miracle he didn't drag me out with him." I tell them.

Kanan bit his lip.

"They didn't have any trouble getting you Ezra. That was the strange part. The place was abandoned essentially." Ahsoka said.

"Really?" I ask.

"You don't remember that?" Kanan asked me.

"No. the last thing I remember before I woke up at Polis Massa was Shark Bait torturing me like always. Then somebody called him away, and I noticed a bunch of people moving around outside in a panic. Then some Stormtrooper came in and knocked me out."

…

Ahsoka turned to Kanan.

"We got the drop on them. No wonder the place looked so hastily abandoned."

"Once they knew we were in the system, they cut and ran. Why didn't we get more intel there?!" Kanan groaned in frustration.

"Because it was a recovery mission. Get in, get out. They used that against us." Ahsoka closed her eyes and slumped her shoulders.

Ouch.

…

_Ouch._

Ahsoka sighed, then shook her head.

"Missed opportunity. Nothing we can do now."

"It'd be cleared out." I say.

_They would have saw that they left immediately with me, then emptied the place._

"Who is Shark Bait? Same guy?" Kanan asked me.

I nod.

"That's my personal nickname for him. He looks like a shark to me."

Kanan and Ahsoka both smiled, then both slowly faded.

"Okay…let's just say for now that he's dead."

I open my mouth to respond, but Kanan raised his hand.

"Nope kid. Let's just go with it."

_Fine._

I cross my arms and lean up against the closest table.

"What else happened? Who did you see? Did you hear anything interesting?" Ahsoka asked.

"Well…I learned the other Inquisitor's identity. She knew who Kanan was." I say.

Kanan's expression immediately darkened.

"Who?" Ahsoka asked me, sitting up.

"Was?" Kanan added, looking at me closely.

_He doesn't think I know._

But I know.

And I know he doesn't know.

This'll be fun.

_He lied…and is lying to everyone._

"Her name is Barriss Offee and—"

Ahsoka jumped right to her feet and screamed.

"WHAT!?"

Kanan and I both jump out of our skin at the sudden outburst.

"What? Wasn't she Master—" Kanan asked before Ahsoka cut him off brutally.

"Yes, she was. She was also the one who framed me for the bombing."

…

"WHAT!?" Kanan and I both yell.

WHAAAAATTTTT?!

_No wonder she never mentioned Ahsoka!_

"She said she was a Jedi at the end of the Clone Wars, then was disillusioned."

Ahsoka sneered.

"Of course she said that. How did you find this out?" She asked me.

"I…she told me. After I'd been tortured for what felt like forever, I was basically beat. No food, no water, nothing."

"You were beat." Kanan said. "I never got to that point."

I ignore the last part.

"To my disbelief, she took me down this hall to a room full of nutria-bars, fruit and blue milk. And there she talked to me."

Kanan and Ahsoka have the same look on their face.

…

"What?" I ask.

"They switched up tactics. They tried forcing it out of you. They tried waiting you out. Then…they tried to tempt you with information. About the past." Ahsoka said.

_Oh._

I turn to Kanan, and he looks at me.

I felt that.

In the Force.

_He knows I know something._

"What'd she say exactly?" Kanan asked.

…

"I don't remember exactly. Just the gist of it. She said that she is actually the Head Inquisitor. The guy you killed was just a underling." I tell Kanan.

"That's comforting."

"What else?" Ahsoka asked.

"She said that the Clone Wars was an inside job by the Jedi. That we created the clone army. We moved to killed the Chancellor. It was all a grand plan for power."

Kanan and Ahsoka both shook their heads.

"Do we know who created the clone army?" Kanan asked Ahsoka.

"I don't know. Maybe. I'll ask Obi-Wan. I don't personally. They don't tell padawans that stuff."

Interesting.

_So their culture of not trusting his trickled down to me._

"Why are you frowning?" Kanan asked me.

"Nothing. Just that the stance of don't believe your students or telling them anything has lasted thru the ages."

Ahsoka whipped back around, looking hurt.

"Hey! Watch what you're saying! We're doing our best!" Kanan said hotly.

"Oh yeah? You sure about that?" I heatedly reply, getting right up next to him.

"Yeah! I'm sure! We're doing the absolute best with what we have! We don't have everything we want, but we're making due I think. You're doing great."

"You sure about that? Caleb?" I spit out.

Kanan immediately froze up.

"Caleb? How'd you—?" Ahsoka asked, before I cut her off abruptly.

"Barriss told me. She told me that my master, the man who saved me from who knows what on Lothal isn't who he says he is. Your name is Caleb Dume. _Kanan._" I scowl at him.

…

"Yes. It is." Caleb said quietly.

"How _DARE_ you…does Hera know? Zeb? Sabine? I have a duty to all of them. And if you've lied to any of them—" I say, then extend my arm, pull a blaster to me and level it with Caleb's forehead.

"EZRA!" Ahsoka yelped, then moved to grab the blaster.

I Force Push her away without looking at her.

"—I will have no problem personally ending this charade. The Inquisitor was right. You are a coward." I spit out.

'_He's a failed Padawan! He can't teach you! KILL HIM. KILL HIM.'_

I hear Ahsoka pull her lightsabers to her and activate them.

"Drop the blaster! Don't do something stupid Ezra!" Ahsoka said, before Rex and Echo burst into the room.

'_KILL HIM. KILL HIM. HE DOESN'T DESERVE TO LIVE.'_

"What in the name of—WHOA!" Rex yelped, as Echo scrambled for a blaster.

"Ezra…" Ahsoka growled.

"What is going on? I thought you were going to talk about his capture!" Echo asked her as he and Rex closed in on me.

Kanan's eyes are huge, and he hasn't budged.

_He's afraid._

I can feel it.

'_Do it now! Shoot!'_

"Don't do something stupid Ezra…come on." Rex muttered.

…

I sigh, then lower the blaster.

Ahsoka let out a heavy breath, then shut off her lightsabers.

Kanan even looked relieved.

_He still hasn't moved._

"You…have the right to know a little." Kanan said, voice barely above a whisper.

"I have the right to know everything! I'm a Jedi!" I snap at him.

'_He's a failure! He's outlived his usefulness.'_

Rex moved to raise his pistols again before Ahsoka waved him down.

"Long story. Kanan…well his name isn't Kanan." Ahsoka explained quickly.

"Huh?" Echo said.

Rex simply cocked his head.

"I'm not seeing it."

"I had to change it after Order 66. Caleb Dume is still out there somewhere. To me, he's dead. Kanan Jarrus lived."

"Caleb Dume? He's the only Padawan to have survived…" Echo muttered.

"He's not a Padawan anymore." Rex replied.

"But why—?" I begin to ask, before Kanan cut me off.

"Because we went from fighting Separatists on Kaller to my Master telling me to run and having clones firing on me. That's why and that's all you're getting out of me. If you ever have to do the same, then you'll understand. I don't owe…you anything beyond that Ezra." Kanan said, ending on an angry…bitter note.

…

"Sorry for not saying anything. It's not something I tell people. Hera knows, and Ahsoka knows. Nobody else, until now."

"We won't say a word." Rex immediately told him.

"I appreciate that."

…

…

"You okay?" Kanan asked me, looking concerned.

_Huh?_

I guess I'm holding a breath in.

Quickly, I let out a breath and focus.

"Yeah…sorry about that."

"It's ok. They messed with your head. They didn't get a chance to do it with me. Probably should have expected it honestly." Kanan replied.

"Expected it? He just took three weeks off!" Rex retorted quickly.

_True._

"Well Ezra just dropped a bomb on us. Barriss is alive."

Rex and Echo both quickly take a step back.

"No way…" Rex muttered.

"She's not dead or in prison?" Echo asked her.

I shake my head.

"They switched up tactics on him. They tried to beat him into submission, then wait him out, then Barriss." Kanan said simply, then glancing at me skeptically.

_Like I'm a little crazy._

"You okay? Need some water?" Echo asked me.

I nod.

_I need something._

I'm not even cold.

Just numb.

Wordlessly, Echo walked over to a water dispenser and grabbed a cup.

"I'm not mad at you Ezra. Believe me. They worked on you for weeks and weeks. I'm sure that was quite a shock."

I nod, then start to where I put Dooku's datapad this morning.

"Where are you going Ezra?"

"Grabbing the datapad she gave me." I tell her simply.

"What?" Echo said flatly.

"Are we sure it's not bugged?" Kanan immediately asked him.

Rex grabbed some sort of scanner off his hip and quickly made his way over to me.

"I'm an idiot. I didn't even think…" I mutter as Rex takes the datapad from me and runs the scanner over it.

…

…

Beep Beep!

_Green._

"It's clear. No bugs." Rex told Ahsoka, who nodded.

"Why didn't you say anything before this? It's a big deal that they gave you a datapad." She said, as I walk back over to them.

"This is my first real chance. I wasn't going to in front of Sabine's parents. I'd sound like I've lost it."

"You might have." Echo frowned at me, handing me my water at the same time.

"Thanks." I reply flatly.

_Vote of confidence right there._

I'm trying here.

Kanan took the datapad from Rex, and started flipping thru it.

…

"This is the complete works of Dooku's thoughts on Form II. By the Force…" He muttered, sounding…

_In awe actually._

"Really?" Ahsoka replied, coming to look for herself.

"Yup…" Kanan said, eyes scanning a page intently.

"I heard Master Windu say once that he was probably the best in that form that the Order had produced in 1000 years." Rex said.

"Doesn't surprise me. He was in his eighties and fought me, Master Obi-Wan and Anakin to a draw at worst. He made it look so easy." Ahsoka said.

"This will help you." Kanan added.

"It already has. That swordfight I had on Mandalore? Used some of those principles. Especially the footwork." I tell them.

"Where you did the flip?" Ahsoka asked as Kanan smirked.

"Oh no. He's bragging about his footwork."

"It's better!" I say.

"We'll see…I'm going to make a copy of this for us. Keeps looking at this."

"You aren't worried about it?" Echo asked skeptically.

"They could have slipped something in." Rex added.

"True, but I don't think they did. Here's my quick hypothesis on what they did. They failed to turn him and tried to reason with him. Gave him something he needs. They wanted Ezra to start seeing their point of view."

"That's…dark." Rex said quietly.

I sip my water and nod.

"Didn't work, did it?" Kanan looked at me.

I frown at him.

_Did you see what I just did?_

"Not talking abiut that. I'm talking mental. Did you start to turn a little."

…

I slowly nod.

"Okay…talk us thru it." Ahsoka said.

"And help us understand please." Rex asked her.

Ahsoka nodded.

"Well, it's kind of simple. They worked into my head. Right before you guys came and got me, I was wondering if I had to go dark in order to escape. Find a way to get to Mandalore, then contact Sabine's parents and go from there."

…

…

_Everyone is silently looking at me._

…

"I would really appreciate some positive feedback. Because this has been eating me up." I say.

That jolts Ahsoka into action.

"I mean…good thing we came and got you then. I can't blame you."

"But I can't be a Jedi because of that. I almost fell. They had me fight some robot droid things. Beat them. Stormtroopers came and talked smack. I destroyed them. I'm done."

"No, you're not." Rex said reassuringly.

"You…it was a situation that not doing those things wasn't an option. And I can feel it Ezra. You're in the light." Kanan smiled at me.

I…

"That reminds me. I learned something from Ahsoka. It's bad." I tell him and Ahsoka.

Both of their expressions darkened.

"Bad?" Echo asked.

"I can do lightning on demand now." I tell Ahsoka.

"Ohhh…Barriss taught you. Didn't she." Ahsoka replied flatly.

I nod.

"Figures. She's always been a thinker. Temping you with actual power along with knowledge." Ahsoka frowned.

"You can do lightning?" Rex asked.

"I thought those powers were one or the other. Choking or lightning." Echo added.

Kanan shook his head.

"No. You can do both. It's just not common. Depends on your personality mostly."

"You know lightning?" I ask Rex and Echo.

Rex nodded.

"Got zapped by Count Dooku during the war. Not something I'd like to repeat."

"I wasn't, but it'd absolutely fry me now since I'm 50% machine basically." Echo added.

_Definitely don't shock Echo then._

Silently, Ahsoka pulled her lightsabers to her.

"Okay, I just thought of something you need to learn. But first Ezra, can you demonstrate the lightning?"

WHAT?!

"Demonstrate?" I ask in disbelief.

"Good idea. See what we're up against." Kanan told Ahsoka, who smirked.

"Go." She told me, then pointing to the empty wall across from us about 15 feet away.

I swallow nervously, then gather my nerves and close my eyes.

_Focus._

I need anger.

Something I hate.

_Shark Bait._

Too Easy.

I open my eyes and focus on the wall.

Then I step forward and unleash my lightning on the far wall.

_A little higher than I wanted it._

…

…

I pull my hands back in and kill the lightning, then turn to Kanan and Ahsoka.

…

"Okay. Seemed like you had a little control over it. What was it that you wanted to teach him?" Kanan asked Ahsoka.

"Oh, right." Ahsoka said, then started walking towards the wall.

…

"What are you doing?" Echo asked.

Ahsoka stopped right where I shot the lightning, then activated both of her lightsabers.

"Shoot your lightning at me Ezra."

"What?!" Rex said quickly.

"No! I don't have control. It just looks like it." I tell her.

_I don't!_

"Ezra, just do it. I want to show you something." Ahsoka frowned at me.

"okay…" I mutter, before refocusing my thoughts in on Shark bait.

And shoot lightning right at Ahsoka.

_WHOA!_

I hear Rex or Echo say something, and Kanan smiled.

She's…letting her lightsaber absorb the lightning.

I stop the lightning and perk my head up.

"When'd you learn that?"

"Years ago. It actually grounds it up to a certain point. Then it either begins reflecting back or disarms you."

"How do you do it?" I ask.

_Barriss does it._

I need to know.

I also need to discover a way to combat Vader's choking.

"Later Ezra." Ahsoka smiled at me.

"yeah…I think this is enough for one night." Kanan added.

"It's a lot for one night." Rex said.

_Dramatic._

"Okay. Thanks for listening. And…sorry again." I say to Kanan.

Kanan simply frowned at me.

"Ezra. It's okay. Live, learn, get better from it. You'll be fine."

Okay.

"Sleep well. Have fun cuddling with Sabine." Rex smirked at me.

I open my mouth to retort, but am silenced by a loud giggle from Ahsoka.

"Hey!" I say.

Come on now.

Ahsoka smiled, then raised her hands sheepishly.

"Why don't you just admit you're dating her?" Echo asked.

"I'm not. That's all I'm saying." I say shortly.

_I'm not getting into this now._

I…

Actually, I do just want to go curl up with Sabine.

That sounds great right now.

"Is this because of that Denon girl?" Rex muttered.

"Of course it is." Kanan answered him.

I whip around to face Kanan.

"You told me to dump her!"

"Because you were going to leave the planet!" He replied simply, smiling.

"Whatever. And she and her friends hate me. So no. I'm single for awhile."

"Sure." Ahsoka said sarcastically.

"They do not hate you." Kanan added.

"They think I used them. Which I did. I lied and everything. They have good reason. When I saw them, they unleashed on me."

Ahsoka and Kanan glance at each other.

"I did feel that…"

"Anyway. Goodnight." I say, then turn for the stairs.

"Night kid," I hear Kanan say.

I don't catch what Rex and Echo say to me.

_I'm exhausted._

…

I want to go to bed.

I pulled a blaster on Kanan.

I told them about how I almost turned.

They didn't believe me on Shark Bait…

And that's not even the half of it.

I try to keep my mind empty and alert on the walk over to Sabine and I's building.

_They haven't been back to clear more stuff out._

Sabine and I have looked at some of it.

Mostly old droids.

Good scrap metal.

_More than likely, that's what my lightsaber will be made of._

A melted down old droid.

…

I need to work on a design.

Quietly, I slip inside our building and walk to our room.

_They've fixed the climate control, and we have limited Holo access now._

Fancy.

I crack the door to see Sabine curled up under the covers looking at…something.

_Some sort of form._

"Hey. How'd it go?" She turned and smiled at me.

I shrug.

"Long. Can I explain tomorrow? It's a lot of stuff." I ask.

_Please._

Sabine nodded, then patted the space behind her.

"C'mere. You look tired."

I nod, then slip off my shirt, change into shorts and slide into bed behind her.

Sabine hit the lights and switched to some program.

_I don't much care._

I sigh happily when my head hits the pillow.

"You sound tired."

"I am tired." I reply.

"Sleep."

I smile, then kiss the top of her hair.

"Ok."

Sabine quietly laughed, then turned to face me.

"I liked that. Do more of that."

I smile at her.

"Okay."

Silently, Sabine rose up and pecked my lips.

"Please."

"I will."

Sabine smiled, then wrapped her body around mine and did her thing of slipping her legs between mine for warmth.

"You sleep so weird." I whisper quietly.

"Shut up…it's comfy and you're really warm. I'm taking advantage of it."

"You taking advantage of me?" I say, pretending to be shocked.

Sabine smirked at me, then…

I nervously laugh.

"What was that?"

_She like…nipped at my jawline._

"Go to sleep."

…

Okay.

Don't have to tell me twice.

(A/N: Sorry about the no Monday update guys. Tests all week basically. Had one today, no fun. Anyway, update schedule should be more normal now. I'm fully in a routine and am starting to figure out the best times to write without distractions. Thank you for your paitience, and for reading. –James)


	54. Oracle

Flick.

The power conduit that I just pulled to me slips into my hand, and I close my hand around it, then turn back to my work bench.

_I'm sure this looks like an unorganized mess._

There's a method to the madness.

While on guard duty today, I had an idea about my lightsaber.

Unfortunately I'm not allowed to have a datapad with me on duty, so I tried to hold onto my idea until I ate.

The other guard I was with didn't seems to notice that my mind was elsewhere.

To my left, the paused Holovid dims slightly, indicating that it is timing out.

I reach out and scroll a little, keeping the image active.

Spread in front of me is both of my datapads, open to the sections about lightsaber construction thanks to Master Kenobi and Dooku.

I've also gathered some general lightsaber construction materials that were lying around the room.

Off to my right I've set my old lightsaber and the Pyke blaster I lifted off that unsuspecting guard next to each other.

I've got to turn one, into the other.

Finally, I've got a picture up on the screen to my right.

_I'm far from done, but it's a start._

I have everything for the casing. It's just the making it work part that's interesting.

Rex, Echo and I had a little meeting about my lightsaber this morning.

Echo crunched some numbers and believes that we'll have to get a better energy modulation circuit because this lightsaber is going to be a lot more powerful than the last one.

Which makes sense. Last time I made sure that my lightsaber could draw more power if it needs to from the blaster part.

And this time, I'm not doing that. It's all in one.

I've completely cannibalized this room, using both the screens and combining two tables.

_But what can I say? I want to do it right._

I'm slowly narrowing down my lightsaber design.

Today I've made two decisions on it.

It's definitely going to be a sawed off blaster.

The other idea I had was to incorporate some sort of handgrip at the bottom, so I don't accidentally fling it out of my hand.

Last time I could slip my hand inside and stop myself.

Not now.

Looking at Dooku's schematics, I don't see one for him.

Just a subsection of the hilt itself that's made of a lighter, softer material to grab onto.

I prefer the idea of a handgrip.

Thankfully, Kenobi's schematics included both his personal lightsaber design, along with both of Ahsoka's master's designs.

_I don't know why he needed two, but he made two._

Rex and Echo didn't recognize the first one when I showed them, but they did recognize the second one.

I felt their immediate sadness thru the Force.

…

It would have been nice to have him as a resource. But these schematics will have to do.

Both designs had a long handgrip that I like.

So I'm copying it.

I'll just have to find the material for it.

Rex had a thought about when I want to switch from a blaster to a lightsaber.

_It's so simple it's scary._

For it to be a blaster, pull the trigger back.

For it to be a lightsaber…push the trigger forward.

It would be retractable so it doesn't get in my way when I'm dueling.

Other than that, we're just trying to think of thinks we are forgetting.

An extra strong power conduit.

Adding an extra energy cell.

Blade length controls to make it easier for Kanan to use in a pinch.

Power regulator so I can practice with Ahsoka and Kanan.

I've already got the crystal.

_And I know how to put it together._

Tap Tap.

_Huh?_

I turn around to see Sabine smiling softly at me.

"You done yet?"

I laugh, then frown at her.

"It took a lot longer last time." I reply, scooting over so she can look at the workbench.

"Well yeah, but you know what to do this time."

"I don't know how to put it all together." I counter.

Sabine rolled her eyes, then shrugged and look at the screens I have set up.

"Why do you have Ahsoka's master on the Holo?"

"For actual examples of his handgrip. Look" I reply, then point to the bottom of his lightsaber.

"You're copying it?" Sabine asked me.

"Yeah. I like the look."

Sabine nodded, then looked back to the screen.

"He just looks powerful. Like somebody who would enjoy beating you."

_Ehhh…_

"I don't think so. That's not how the Jedi were. They wanted balance, not a battle." I say.

"Eh. Anakin had a temper." I hear Ahsoka call out from behind us.

Sabine and I both turn around to see Ahsoka smiling and looking at us.

"Hey." Sabine said.

"Hi. What's up?" I ask her.

"Came to see how you were doing. Why do you have Anakin on both screens?" Ahsoka asked me.

"Looking at his lightsaber hand grips." I reply.

Ahsoka tilted her head.

"Okay…I thought Master Obi-Wan's datapad that he gave you had the design on it."

"I wanted to see the visual. They were on both of his lightsabers."

"Both?" Sabine's eyes turned to me.

"I only saw one design…before the Clone Wars?" Ahsoka asked me.

I shrug.

"I talked to Rex and Echo about it today. That's what they thought." I reply.

"Is it on the datapad?"

"It's the second tab." I tell her.

Ahsoka slid past me and grabbed my datapad off the workbench, then flicked to the image.

…

"Pretty similar. Had a blade guard though."

Sabine leaned over to glance at the image.

"Is that the pointy thing on top?" She asked.

"Yeah. You might need to incorporate that into your design Ezra."

"Really?" I blurt out.

_Why?_

"Yeah, so it looks a little more blaster like. And adds a little weight to the end for you."

I bite my lip.

Maybe.

Ahsoka hands the datapad to me, then looks at my workbench.

_I don't know…_

It would look weird to have a curved "blaster" with something on the end.

"Aren't you all afraid of Ezra being a little too much like Dooku?" Sabine asked quietly.

I look to Sabine just as she's looking nervously at Ahsoka.

"No, not really. Dooku was a master strategist and excellent duelist. It was his personal leanings that caused him to be on the wrong side of the Clone Wars."

"What? I thought he was a Jedi." I ask.

The datapad said so.

Ahsoka shook her head.

"Don't take everything in that datapad as fact Ezra. Dooku was a Jedi, then a Sith. He used your style, just like you're learning too."

"Was he smart?" I retort.

_Like they're trying to make me._

"Yes. He knew every trick in he book and created some more. Might have been the smartest foe I've ever faced." Ahsoka told me.

"So you're basically molding Ezra into him." Sabine crossed her arms.

"How'd you know about him? Dooku's basically wiped from the HoloNet." Ahsoka asked her.

"My parents. They told me stories and have actual, physical books and pictures." Sabine replied.

"So you've known for awhile."

"No. I just knew the look of his saber and how his fighting style was like Ezra's. It wasn't until this new lightsaber and stuff that it's clicked for me."

Ahsoka smiled.

"Count Dooku, I believe was a good man that was driven to do terrible things by the corruption of the Republic. You two don't know what it was like. Yes, it was better. But not in every way. Bureaucracy ruled everything. Endless regulations. Slavery. Many other things. Dooku, as I said, was a Jedi first. He chose to leave. Supposedly because of how the Republic was decaying and the arrival of Sith back into the galaxy."

Whoa.

"How'd you hear about that?" I ask her.

"I…overheard Master Kenobi and Master Windu talk about it in the hall one day."

"Master who?" I ask again.

"A Jedi Master. Probably the second strongest after Yoda. I…He could be a bit hard to take." Ahsoka waffled.

"What do you mean?" Sabine asked.

"It doesn't matter now Sabine. Presumably, he is dead. So there's no point in discussing it."

"O…kay." Sabine slowly said.

Ahsoka looked to me and smiled.

"You look almost ready Ezra. I'll gather the remaining materials for you so you can build it and we can resume your training."

"No, I need to get the materials." I counter.

_It's my lightsaber._

"No Ezra, we need to get you going. We don't want you sitting here for weeks, scouring the place looking for the remaining materials. I'll get what you need."

"Ahsoka—"

Ahsoka held her hand up to stop me.

"Hey. We used to give Padawans everything they needed in order to build their lightsabers. They just had to get the crystals. You did it the hard way. Take something easy for once. You always like taking the hard way." She smiled at me.

_Ow._

That hurts a little.

"Okay."

"Have you been to the gym today?" She asked me.

I shake my head.

"Yup."

"Good. And I take it you haven't had time Ezra?" Ahsoka assumed.

"Yeah. I had guard duty."

Ahsoka nodded.

"Okay. Well you should get going there now and get your workout in. I'll just put up a sign so nobody moves anything."

I wince, causing Ahsoka to smile wryly at me.

_She's not going to budge._

"Okay. I'll do Force training too." I placate her.

Ahsoka smiled at me.

"You know what you need to do. I trust you'll be capable Ezra."

"Night." Sabine called out to her, then turning for the door.

I move to follow, and notice that Sabine is in her workout clothes.

"Did you come straight from the gym?" I ask.

Sabine nodded.

"I don't smell, do I?" She asked.

I shake my head, causing Sabine to let off a small grin.

"Good. She was right by the way. Not everything has to be hard. Let us help you."

"I don't always take the hard way." I counter.

Sabine frowned at me.

"The last three nights you've stayed up late, working on that lightsaber."

"I needed to work on it!" I reply. "I didn't even know the color!"

"You could have been done two days ago if you'd called Ahsoka and Kanan to help. But no. You did it alone."

…

_Guilty as charged._

"C'mon Ezra. Please. I know you're going to get thru this. But you don't have to always do it alone. We're on your side. Stop blocking us out. Ask for help. Everybody loves helping you." Sabine pleaded with me as we step outside the building and start home.

"Sabine, making my own lightsaber is MY thing. It's mine. It's a personal thing."

"You've done it once before. If I didn't know you better, I'd say you're sandbagging. Don't let the Inquisitors and Vader scare you off! You can beat them." Sabine said insistently.

I…

"I'm not afraid."

Sabine looked at me, a knowing look on her face.

"Stop looking at me like that." I ask her.

"No. You're afraid of them. And that's okay."

"No it's not. Fear leads to Anger. Anger leads to Hate. Hate leads to suffering. That's the path to the Dark Side."

Sabine frowned at me.

"You make it sound so black and white. You can't be afraid of anything then? No. You're human. And I have to say, some of the old Jedi ideals were ridiculous." She said semi-bitterly.

"It's not black and white. That's one of the things I've learned."

Sabine's eyebrows rose slightly.

"What do you mean?"

"I don't think that there is a light side and a dark side. I think that it's all about actions and intentions. If you are motivated for personal gain, you fall under the dark. If you go the other way, you follow the light."

"So like there's the Force, and everything just falls under an umbrella?" Sabine asked for clarification.

"Kinda. Like shades of gray."

I was more thinking like Dooku.

_Powers are powers. The Force is simply greater._

Impossible to defy or subjugate.

Sabine slowly nodded, then paused to think about it.

…

"That helps my argument. You can use a dark side power, as long as you're doing it for the right reasons."

_Hey._

Blast.

I let out an annoyed breath thru my nose, causing Sabine to laugh as she unlocked the building and let us in.

"You know I'm right."

"Your attitude isn't helping me thru this Sabine." I tell her, following her to my room.

"Hey, you don't have the answers. I don't either. I'm just trying to help. I won't let you wallow forever Ezra."

"I'm not wallowing!" I bite at her.

The moment she has the door open I slip inside, past her and start grabbing my gym clothes.

"Hey."

I ignore her and slip on my other shoes and socks.

When I turn around, Sabine is right there.

She snatched both my hand and slipped them around her, then wrapped her own arms around my neck.

"Hey. Kanan told me way back on Onderon that us getting involved with each other might not be the best thing for you as a Jedi. I think they're wrong. I think I can help you get stronger." Sabine said softly.

"You definitely can." I say.

_If I'm ever in a hand to hand ombat situation, I can definitely win because of what I've learned with her._

Speaking of which, I need to get back to training with her, Rex and Echo.

"Then let me help you. Please?"

…

"I'll try." I concede, causing Sabine to beam, then kiss me softly.

"Good. That's all I can ask for."

I smiel at her, then let go of her waist.

"Have a good workout. Don't overdo it."

I smile at her, then walk to the door.

"I won't." I say, then slip back out the door and toward the front.

…

…

I wave at the door, opening it and slip past.

Back into the humid jungle air.

…

I'm not afraid.

I just don't like Shark Bait.

_I almost hate him._

What he did to me was so…wrong.

So wrong.

Vader is Vader. Physical, intimidating and skilled.

Barriss…I don't know.

The more Kanan and Ahsoka talk, it's like they tried planting seeds in my head to grow and turn to their side.

I gasp, then stop dead on the path.

…

_I just figured it out._

Sabine, Rex and Echo all said that the mission to come get me was weird.

Everybody has.

The place was abandoned. Except for me.

They…gave me up, leaving me with my memories and the knowledge of the power of the dark side.

_They're still trying to turn me._

But from a distance.

…

I'm falling for it too.

I haven't done anything really since I got here.

Just talked and done guard duty basically.

_I'm playing into their hand._

I can't let them win.

I have to do this.

I have to become a Jedi again.

_They think they still have me._

They don't.

…

…

…

They don't.

On a whim, I take off at the end of the path and sprint to the main building.

Up the stairs.

To the gym.

Let's go.

_I've got a lot of work to do._

And I've got nothing but time to do it.


	55. Beacon

I flick off the water spicket and bring my cup back to my workbench.

_Everything is done._

Ahsoka found all of the components that I didn't have.

I settled on a design and color.

Most of the hilt is a dark metal from a droid, with the handgrips remolded from somewhere.

_I don't know._

We ended up making the hilt two pieces, screwing in the middle so I can take it apart for repairs if need be.

An outer layer covers the connection so it doesn't get worn.

_Now I just have to meditate on it._

Last time I was so worried that I hadn't done it right that I barely remember the actual moment I finished it.

I just looked at it, liked what I saw then went to everybody in the Ghost.

…

Nervously, I glance around.

_It's after dinner, but not too long._

I haven't done anything today other than run. But that was the plan today.

Upper body workout two days ago, plus running.

Lower body workout, and more running.

Today, just running.

Tomorrow, the cycle starts up again.

Upper body weight training.

My Force training has been limited to lifting weights kinetically until I finish this lightsaber.

Deep breaths.

_I've got this._

I just have to focus…and relax.

The rest will take care of itself.

I set the crystal in between the two hilt pieces, with the ring to protect the opening beside it.

Quickly, I glance around to see if I've forgotten anything.

…

_Nope._

Trigger's on there.

All the focusing crystals and emitters are inside.

Handgrip's on.

…

Time to do this I guess.

I let out a breath, then close my eyes and try to let go of everything.

_Kanan said for me to let my mind to wander._

The weapon will come together, but not if I try to force it.

I have to relax.

Part of me doesn't understand how I did it last time, I was so tense about it all.

…

…

Rex, Kanan and Lux are downstairs in what will be the sparring room.

Probably a meeting.

On a whim, I probe around more.

_Where's Ahsoka?_

I think Sabine's at our place.

…

Ahsoka's near the docking bay.

_That's right. _

There's an incoming shipment of supplies coming in tonight, along with a few new people.

I assume they're engineers.

_Everything's calm._

It's a normal night.

_FLASH—_

I snap my eyes open and glance around.

_What's going…_

Whoa.

…

I look around and see an unfamiliar locale.

Mountains.

I'm in a house, looking out the window.

Up at a massive mountain range.

_What is going on?_

I'm wearing my normal clothes.

Jacket with my pauldron.

_Sabine's insignia is on it in red._

It's a patch.

I open my mouth, then click my tongue.

"Click."

_Huh._

What's on my face?

_I can barely feel it._

I reach up and press my hands into my cheeks.

Whoa.

Where's a mirror?

I turn and quickly look around the room for a mirror.

_There._

I rush over, and see myself in the mirror.

Like normal.

_But with a beard._

It's following my jawline.

Mustache could use some work.

Wispy.

But the beard is thick.

The same color as my hair.

I take a step back from the mirror and look around again.

_This is weird._

I don't have a beard.

I've never been in this house before.

I have no clue where I am.

_Is this some sort of a vision?_

The sound of a door opening causes me to whip around.

"Who is it?" I ask wildly, hand darting to my—

My lightsaber on my belt.

_It's finished._

I look down and pull it off my belt.

"Click…"

This…is nice.

I like it.

"It's Sophie. Back from my training at the range. Has Sabine heard anything from Mommy and Daddy about Yavin IV?" A high pitched voice that kind of sounds like Sophie said.

I force myself to look away from my lightsaber to a small girl with brown hair past her shoulders and a massive metal bow over her shoulder.

"I…" I start, but don't get any farther.

_Sophie?!_

This is Sophie?

_This has to be the future somehow._

She's 5 right now.

And I don't know when her birthday is.

"You okay? Bad news?" Sophie asked, happy expression slipping into a worried look.

"I…haven't heard anything."

I didn't even know she's here.

"Oh. So she's still talking to everybody?"

I hesitate, then shrug.

Sophie briefly gave me a funny look, then turned towards the kitchen.

"Can I make a sandwich? I'm starving." She poked her head out at me while opening the conservator.

"Sure. Don't let me stop you." I reply.

_Sophie._

She's…growing up.

My goodness.

Without looking, Sof set her bow on the counter and started digging in the conservator.

"Do you want something while I'm in here Ezra?"

_I…_

"Sure, I'll have a slice of cheese I guess." I say nervously.

Sophie's head pops right up, looking even more confused than before.

"A slice of cheese?!" She asked, sounding incredulous.

"Yeah, is that weird?" I ask her.

"Kind of, yeah. Are you feeling okay? Did the Force tell you something?"

I shake my head reflexively and probe out with the Force.

_Very…calm._

Peaceful.

"Nothing. I—" I begin, before a door behind me opens.

I turn around in time to see Sabine appear from behind a door, then shut it behind her.

"Okay, I'm off the Holo. Hey Sof, you're back." Sabine beamed at me, then Sophie.

"Yup. Ezra asked for a slice of cheese." Sophie said, looking amused.

Sabine smiled at me, then rubbed the bottom of my chin with the top of her hand.

_She looks incredible._

Her hair's a little longer. Still blue.

A little stronger.

She's wearing her armor, but with the same insignia that's on my jacket on her chestplate.

She repainted a few things, but it's basically the same.

_A little battered._

"How'd you shoot kiddo? Get me a slice of piameinta and bread please." Sabine said, marching past us both and towards a dining room past us.

"Missed 33 out of 250 shots. Hit all the stationary ones." Sophie replied immediately.

"That's not good enough Sof. Come on now."

_WHAT?!_

Sophie hung her head in the conservator.

"I know…"

"Nobody's going to be standing still if you're actually going to fight. You need to be over 90% on MOVING targets."

Sophie simply nodded.

2_17 hits and 33 misses is great! Over 90%!_

"I hit like half of them. But not enough." Sophie said simply, emerging from the conservator with an armful of sandwich materials.

"Maybe the disk can help you." Sabine said, then looked to me.

"It's moving to fast too accurately be a person though. Daddy said so." Sophie replied, setting her stuff down then throwing a wrapped piece of cheese at me.

I clumsily catch it then look up to see Sabine easily catch her snack.

"But it is a moving target. Droids?" Sabine asked me.

_If she needs moving target practice?_

"What about those moving targets Rex and Echo practiced with us on Onderon?" I reply.

"Oh gosh I remember that. What was that? 5 years ago?" She asked me.

"Was this when you all had to run from that Inquisitor before you killed him?" Sophie turned to me.

_WHAT?!_

He's dead?

I nod, then look back to Sabine.

"Maybe…I'll also ask Daddy to program some droids for you to shoot at when he and Mom come up tomorrow."

"They're coming?" Sophie beamed and jumped in the air.

"Yup." Sabine smiled, then taking a bite out of her bread with meat inside.

_Like a mini sandwich._

Nervously, I take a bite out of my cheese.

…

It's cheese alright.

"What happened with Yavin? Did everything end up okay? Where are the plans to that Death thing?" Sophie asked her sister.

_Death THING?!_

I swivel back to look at Sabine, who is smiling at me.

"Yeah, they blew it up."

"WHAT!?" Sophie and I both yell at the same time.

"Yeah, the strike team they sent right before Yavin went out of radio contact found the weakness from the stolen plans and used it to blew the whole thing up!" Sabine smiled happily.

I quickly use the Force to probe Sabine.

…

She's telling the truth.

What is even going on?

_What's Yavin IV?_

_What's this Death Thing?_

Where is everyone?

"So what now? Senator Organa's father is dead after Alderaan blew up. What do we do now?"

WHAT?!

"Alderaan what?" I blurt out.

Sabine's eyebrows snapped down and she looked on me strangely.

"You were with me when Kanan told us Ezra. They blew up Alderaan with that Death Star's superlaser?"

"The whole planet?!" I ask incredulously.

_THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE._

The entire Imperial Fleet couldn't destroy the entire planet.

"Yeah. Anyway, Mom and Dad are coming to pick us up and are going to take us to Yavin IV, where the Princess and the Rebellion is holding a special ceremony for the pilots that blew it up. After that…I don't know."

_What about the other planets?_

If the Empire SOMEHOW destroyed an entire planet, I doubt the others are thrilled.

They could be next.

This is the Empire we're talking about.

And apparently they've stepped up their game.

"Have any other planets done anything about Alderaan?" I ask Sabine.

Sabine smiled.

"Yeah. Dad said _Mand'alor _told him that multiple planets are coming to him and asking to join us. It's about to be civil war soon."

"Civil War?" Sophie's eyes bulged, mouth full.

Sabine sadly nodded.

I instinctively reach down for my lightsaber.

…

_I'm going to need this soon._

To protect Sabine and Sophie.

I glance up and see Sabine steal a sip from Sophie's bottle she set beside her sandwich."

Sophie giggled, then snatched back her drink.

"Hey! It's mine!"

"Not anymore."

I laugh quietly, then move to take a bite of my cheese.

_Not bad._

I blink, and turn to see if I can find out where the heck I am.

…

_Crap._

…

It's over.

I'm back at my workbench.

…

_Dang it._

I wanted to talk to Sophie more.

I love her right now, but she's going to get more fun the older she gets.

_Especially if she keeps shooting that gigantic bow._

Whatever that was.

It almost was as big as she was.

I let out a sigh, then look down at the workbench.

_I haven't even started putting my lightsaber toget—_

It's in my hand.

I guess I put it together while I had that…vision.

If you can even call it that.

Half of it didn't even make sense.

_I should probably start writing stuff down that I remember._

It certainly seemed realistic.

Reaching over, I grab my datapad and immediately start typing.

Sophie

Big Bow

Name?

Model?

Sabine

Meeting

Yavin IV

Death Star Thing

Explosion

Alderaan?

Senator Organa's father dead?

Mountain range?

Location?

…

_That's all I've got right now._

It all kind of makes sense. It's rational.

Well, except for the whole destroying Alderaan part.

Alderaan is rich. They have some influential people in the Imperial Senate.

_They won't destroy it._

They'd spark a galactic revolt.

And that's just what Sabine said had happened.

…

_I need to talk with Ahsoka and Kanan about this later._

Last time I had this happen, it didn't turn out so great.

I look back down at my hands, and see my finished lightsaber in my hand.

It's…light.

I raise my hand up, then flick my wrists a few times to simulate a block or a slice.

Easy.

Very easy.

It's light, the handgrip is solid, the curve is great.

_Does it work though?_

Might as well practice here.

I raise it up and rest my finger on the trigger.

There's a crack in the back wall.

Let's aim for that.

…

I pull the trigger and—

A shot rings out before a blue bolt shoots to the opposite wall.

_Barely missed._

Really close though.

That part works.

Now let's try the lightsaber.

I push the trigger forward slightly, and glance at the top.

…

I push the trigger again gently.

_Blast._

One more time.

I push the trigger forward a little more firmly, and it retracts immediately while greeting me with a familiar sound.

Hummmm…

…

I turn my wrist.

Womp.

Womp.

_I like it._

I switch hands and inspect the hilt quickly.

…

Everything looks good.

Trigger's pulled in perfectly fine.

It just took a little coaxing.

We ended up attaching that part to a spring.

Might need to adjust it. It rocketed back into the hilt.

_If I'm not careful I'll pinch my finger and take some skin off._

Which I'd rather not do.

…

I wave my lightsaber a little with my left hand, then mime a Force Pull.

…

_Wait._

How do I turn it off?

"Karabast…" I mutter to myself, inspecting my lightsaber.

…

Let's try pressing in on where the trigger disappeared.

I press it, and immediately the trigger pops back out, extinguishing the lightsaber.

_Hah!_

A little complicated and slow, but I'll take it.

Maybe a little button would be better.

Probably would.

Behind the trigger to prevent accidental activation.

I smile to myself, then start towards the stairwell.

_Let's go find Kanan and Ahsoka so I can say that I'm finished constructing it._

For now.

I can always make little tweaks.

Happily, I jog down the stairs a few floors and slip into the firing range/sparring room.

Kanan, Rex, Echo, Lux and Ahsoka are all in the sparring room.

With…

"Zeb?" I call out, causing everybody to turn around.

"Hey kid. How ya doing?" Zeb smiled at me

"I'm good. When'd you get here?" I ask him.

"Just now."

"He came on the last ship." Hera smiled.

"Glad to see you're okay kid." Zeb smiled at me again.

"Thanks. I'm getting there. Lot better than I was." I shrug. "How's life as a General?"

Zeb laughed.

"Busy running simulations mostly. Ever since the Princess had her little speech after you were rescued I haven't had much hands on stuff to do."

"You were there?" I ask.

_I didn't see him._

"Yeah."

"I would have said hi if I had seen you. Sorry." I say sheepishly.

_The last time I saw Zeb was…_

A long time ago.

Onderon.

And even then I didn't see much of him.

_I got busy with my training, and never checked in to say hi._

"Don't worry about it kid. Kanan and everybody's been running you ragged. No need to feel bad."

"Still though." I reply.

Zeb simply shrugged while behind him, Ahsoka smiled.

"You finished up there Ezra?" She asked me.

"Oh, yeah. It's finished for now. Probably going to add a button to make it easier to turn off the lightsaber part. But that's later."

"How'd you turn it off this time?" Kanan asked.

"Pressed on the trigger after it retracted." I say, pointing it out.

Wordlessly, Ahsoka took it and looked it over.

…

"Yeah…we didn't think of that did we?" Ahsoka turned to Rex.

"It's too easy to think of." Kanan added.

"We were too worried about making it work than what came next. Easy fix." Echo frowned. "I can pull up the blueprints we made and see how to wire it."

"Sounds good to me." Ahsoka replied.

"Can you show us how you did it?" Kanan asked me.

I nod, then step back and press the trigger back firmly.

The trigger jumped into the hilt and ignited the lightsaber.

Woomph!

Hum….

…

Everyone smiled before I tilt the hilt down and press in on where the trigger retracted.

The blade extinguished itself, and the trigger popped right back out.

"Hmm." Ahsoka muttered.

"A little difficult. More of a nuisance than anything." Rex muttered.

"In the heat of a duel, that might cost him a limb." Echo flatly countered.

"More likely the advantage he would be seeking. Right?" Kanan looked to me.

_Kind of._

"Yeah…I do try to keep it as a change of pace sort of thing and not rely on it too much." I reply.

"You haven't had to use it to create space in a pinch yet, have you?" Ahsoka asked me.

I shake my head.

"No."

"One of these days we'll have to get you to recreate your duel with that Inquisitor." Kanan told me.

"How?" I ask.

"It's kind of like a hologram, but you can input data and look back at how the battle went. If you should have done something differently, that sort of thing." Ahsoka smiled.

"It also works by camera." Rex added.

_Okay._

"Can we spar?" I turn to Kanan.

His eyes immediately widen, and he took a step back hesitantly.

"Uhh…I'm not sure Ezra. You haven't had any practice or anything." He said nervously.

"How's he going to practice without starting?" Zeb asked everyone.

I smile and turn to him.

_Good point!_

"Uhm, I don't think so." Ahsoka said, looking over my shoulder.

"Uh oh. I forgot to mention that…" Zeb said, suddenly looking nervous.

"What?" I ask, turning around.

_Oh._

Oh no.

"Did you find your room alright?" Lux asked.

Darcy closed the distance between herself and everyone over here, then nodded.

"Yup. Thank you for your help."

"Happy to do it." Lux replied.

"I don't think I've introduced myself. I'm Kanan." Kanan smiled at Darcy, then extended his hand.

"Darcy, it's a pleasure." Darcy shook his hand, then turned to Hera.

"Hera."

Darcy shook her hand, then turned to Rex and Ahsoka.

"I'm not interrupting anything am I?"

Ahsoka smiled and shook her head.

"No, just inspecting Ezra's new weapon."

"New?" Darcy turned to me.

"Long story." I say nervously.

_How is she here?_

She's supposed to be on some big mission!

"How was your mission?" Echo asked formally.

"It was fine. The Shadow Collective does seem to still be operating deep underground it appears."

Quickly, both Ahsoka and Rex frowned.

"I assume that means something to you two?" Kanan said simply.

_You can almost see the brain waves coming out of Ahsoka's and Rex's heads._

"It's off an idea I had." Ahsoka frowned. "Did you already file your mission report?"

"Yes ma'am."

Zeb laughed once before Hera turned and gave him the death stare.

"I think I'd like to take a look at that. If you'll excuse me." Echo turned to Ahsoka, who nodded.

"I haven't had my debriefing though. That is supposed to be tomorrow." Darcy told Ahsoka.

"I know. I'm running it." Ahsoka said, biting her lip and looking away.

Kanan quickly glanced at me.

_I don't know what's going on._

"If I'm not interrupting, I'd like to talk to Ezra, if that's alright with you all." Darcy said to Ahsoka, then turned to Kanan.

"Sure. We're pretty much done here." Kanan said, turning to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka simply nodded, then turned back to a table.

Darcy started forward towards the door.

I guess I better follow.

Quickly I fall in behind her and walk out of the room.

Thunk.

"Hey." Darcy smiled at me.

"Hi. How'd you get here? I thought you had some sort of mission?" I ask her.

"I did. We went to Imperial City. Hung out in the Underworld. Fair bit happened. Mind showing me the other building?" She asked me.

_She wants to pull me aside._

I know how she operates.

"Sure. There's actually three other buildings." I tell her.

"I know. But I was sworn away from where you and Sabine are staying. And I saw the little armory." She said calmly.

I whip around and look at her.

"What?!"

"Yeah, General Tano ordered me to stay away. And I'm not going to disobey a direct order."

"Darcy…"

Darcy frowned at me, then started down the stairs.

Both of us are silent until we reach the jungle outside.

"I'm not mad. I promise Ezra. When you were captured, she freaked out. Screaming, crying, everything."

_I…_

Why am I not surprised?

Seems perfectly normal.

"That bad?" I ask.

Darcy silently nodded as we start down the path towards the hangar.

"She…You probably already know, but she said she loved you."

Immediately, my stomach shrivels up.

_Uh oh._

I glance over at Darcy.

She looks perfectly calm.

"No. I…didn't know that. Not like that I'm sure." I tell her.

"That's a lie and you know it Ezra." Darcy frowned at me.

I open my mouth, then change my mind on what I was going to say.

_I was going to say she hasn't made any sort of move._

She hasn't but she hasn't had to.

"Is there a reason you're telling me this?" I ask.

"yeah. Go get her. I'm happy for you."

Yeah, right.

I give her a skeptical look and roll my eyes.

"I understand why you don't believe me Ezra. But I think you know, deep down. She might have loved you before you met me. I don't know."

_No…_

The whole act on Onderon proves that's wrong.

I shake my head and probe with the For—

_Whoa._

Quickly, I grab my blaster off my belt and swivel to my left.

"What?" Darcy asked quickly, scrambling for something on her belt.

"I felt something." I say, scanning the jungle to the left of us while probing again.

_Right._

"Right." I say to her.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see the flash of a blaster.

Good, she's armed.

"Uhm…are there predatory animals in these jungles?" Darcy asked me quietly.

I nod, then see a flash to my left.

Both sides.

Whatever these things are, they're tracking us.

"Ezra?" Darcy asked quietly.

"Yeah, there's predatory animals. Stay close in case I need to get out my lightsaber."

"Well get it out!" She snapped at me.

_Fine._

I flick the trigger, and my blade immediately ignites.

"Rawrrr…"

Hummm…

I slowly back farther onto the path, as Darcy sticks with me.

In front of our eyes, two large cats slowly appear.

_Eying us._

Quickly I probe again.

…

Nothing behind us.

This is all we got right now.

"Why don't you all post signs about dangerous beasts? Warn a girl!" Darcy muttered.

"It's supposed to be in the brochure! Come to Dxun, home of all the scary beasts…" I quip back focusing on the green, muscular cats.

_These things are massive._

If they make a move, I'm going for it.

"I don't have the firepower for this shit…"

I do.

The cats let out a slow, menacing growl and keep walking toward us.

"Don't make any sudden movements. We're okay." I reassure her.

"You sure about that?" Darcy asked.

I nod, then probe again.

_Still good._

I can handle two.

Three, and I'm setting off my emergency flare and letting loose.

_I'm sure these guys don't like lightning._

It's either that, or I'm dinner.

I focus in on the cat directly in front of me.

_It's eyes are locked on me._

…

Scary.

I'll admit it.

I let out a breath and try to loosen up.

_I'm going to be okay._

The cat in front of Darcy took a large step forward, causing Darcy to jump back in a panic.

I slide in front of her and hold my lightsaber out.

"It's—" I start to say, before the cat jumps toward me.

_Oh no you don't._

I extend my arm out and separate the cat's head from it's body, then push the body away with my other hand.

Quickly, I turn and see the other cat rock back, then rocket towards my head.

I give a short little cut, and the ca lets out a horrible screech.

_No more claws._

I can't let it suffer though.

I step forward, causing the cat to look at me.

_In fear._

"It's okay. No more pain." I smile, then stick my lightsaber in it's chest.

For a brief moment, I see the pain in it's eyes.

Then…the light disappears.

…

…

I turn back to Darcy, and see that her eyes are wide.

"I…you moved so fast."

_No, that's slow._

I'm rusty.

I shake my head, then roll up the sleeve of my jacket, press my comm and type in the number for the guards on watch.

…

"Front watch, what's your emergency?" An unfamiliar voice said.

"No emergency, I'm just reporting an attempted jungle cat attack headed towards the hangar." I say, causing Darcy's eyebrow to arch.

_I don't think she knew where we were going._

"We heard a screech headed out that way. Are you currently in any danger?" The voice asked.

"No. The threat has been taken care of."

"Alright. Please come back in then. We'll send out a clean up crew to take care of the remains and to ensure that the path is secure."

"Thank you. On our way back." I say.

Click.

"Which way is that?" Darcy asked me.

I turn and point the direction we were backing down.

"Oh good. We don't have to go deeper into the jungle."

I smile at her.

"That's my first attack too. It isn't too common. They mostly like to chew thru power cords." I try to reassure her.

Darcy shrugged then started down the path, blasters still at the ready.

"Anyway, what is it that you wanted to talk about?" I ask her.

"Sabine's Mandolorian right?"

_Huh?_

"Yeah…why do you ask?" I ask her.

Darcy stopped dead and turned to me.

"On our mission, we saw a group of Mandalorians working with the Shadow Collective."

Okay.

"Well, I know that a lot of Mandalorians are contracted out for bounty work." I say.

"It wasn't like that I don't think. There was rumors of an old Clone Wars general for the Separatists that fought on Mandalore near the end."

Old Separatist general?

…

"I don't know. I'm not the one to ask."

"Please ask Sabine. I don't want to cause tension between me and her. I'm just telling you what I saw."

"Okay. She'll understand."

"One of them had armor similar to hers. Same helmet."

Whoa.

I take a step back.

_That's her mom's helmet._

Clone Wars, that dates back to when Kenobi and those Zabrak's were there.

_But they were Sith._

Not Separatist.

"I'll pass it along."

"It's in my report. I wanted you to know before it gets dug up."

I nod, then start down the path towards the base.

Pretty soon, two men with large blasters appear.

"You two the ones that got attacked?" One of them asked us.

I nod, then point down the path.

"About a click and a half." Darcy says.

The soldiers nod, then pick up the pace.

…

_Suddenly, I've got a lot to talk to Darcy about._


	56. Begin Again

Block.

Spin.

Block to my left.

Block to my right.

The droid darts off to the right, briefly escaping my vision.

I whip to my right and sweep my lightsaber low.

_Ready._

I raise it just before the droid shoots another bolt at me.

Block.

Spin.

Block.

The droid flies at me, and I resist the urge to slice it into pieces.

_We probably don't have many of these things._

An actual training droid from the Jedi Temple before the Empire.

I've obviously used it before, but I didn't know it was a legitimate piece of history.

_I've spent probably a hundred hours with this guy._

Used to use it every day on Polis Massa, and every other day on Onderon when Rex and Echo trained with me.

Block.

Block.

To my surprise, the droid darts to my left.

I wheel around, ready to deflect a blind shot.

_It's got me like that before._

Instead, I'm greeted with the sight of Ahsoka holding the droid in her hand, a small smile on her face.

"Having fun?" Kanan asked behind her.

I shrug.

"Couldn't sleep." I say.

_Didn't really try._

I worked out, and I'm not tired.

Ahsoka and Kanan both filed in, followed by Rex.

"How are you feeling?" Ahsoka asked me.

"Better. More…centered." I say.

_I haven't gotten mad in a few days._

_No whispers of the dark side, tempting me._

I've just settled into a rhythm.

Guard duty three times a week.

Working out every day.

Cardio work every day too.

Blaster deflection practice every other day.

"Good." Kanan smiled.

"I think we can take you off of guard duty." Ahsoka joked, then smiled at Rex.

Rex smiled wryly.

"You guys had me doing that?" I ask.

"Yup." Rex nodded.

"We wanted to give you time after you got here to settle in. We're trying not to rush anything. Better to wait three weeks and have you be ready than rush and go in fits and starts." Kanan said to me.

_Makes sense._

"Basically, you're going back to full time Jedi training." Ahsoka smiled.

_Yes._

I smile happily, then look for my water.

"Thanks." I say sheepishly.

"No reason to say thank you. You just needed time. Which is on our side right now." Ahsoka replied, as I find my water and take a big sip.

"You're doing great kid."

I laugh as I'm gulping down my water, nearly sending it thru my nose.

Everybody quickly laughed as I cover my nose.

"Not funny…" I mutter, as it feels like my nose is on fire.

Kanan shook his head at me as Ahsoka rolled her eyes.

I toss my water bottle aside and shake my head, then try to clip my lightsaber on my belt.

_Key word, try._

Thunk.

I scowl, then bend down to pick it up.

"Having trouble over there?" Kanan teased me.

"Kind of. That's been happening a lot." I reply, looking to my belt as I clip my lightsaber back in position.

"Magnetized it." Ahsoka said simply.

"Huh?" I ask.

"When you add the button to the hilt, put a magnet in the hilt. Then put a magnet inside your belt. That way you don't have to worry about it. It'll just stick."

Rex quietly laughed.

"When'd you learn that?"

"Master Plo taught me that after I had my lightsaber stolen."

"Just one?" Kanan asked.

"I sued to just use one. Anakin didn't want me to use two at first. Said I'd be too reliant on both."

"Was he right?" I ask her.

Ahsoka frowned, then nodded.

"It's something I always try to work on. I'll never be as good as I am with two, but it'll come in handy in a pinch."

"Just like your style Ezra." Kanan added.

"With the one handed strikes."

Both Kanan and Ahsoka nodded.

"You seem to have partially overcome the biggest weakness of the style, which is blaster deflection." Kanan said.

I shrug.

"I don't know about that. I just square the bolt up and try to send it right back where it came."

"But that's good. You have a plan." Ahsoka smiled.

"Did Master Dooku do that?" I ask her.

"Count." Kanan quickly corrected me.

"He did when he had to. Didn't happen much. But he did." Rex said.

"How many times did you bump into him?" Kanan asked Rex.

"You don't know?" I ask.

Kanan turned to me, looking slightly aggravated.

"It's not something I just talk about." He said, and then turned back to Rex.

"I don't know. Over 20. Grievous was worse. All droid it seemed like. I remember once Commander Cody told me of a time that eight clones jumped into him to wrestle him to the ground. Grievous threw all eight off. Cody and one other clone were the only ones that got up, and he got a concussion out of the deal."

_Ow._

"Why do you ask about Dooku?" Ahsoka asked me.

"I didn't really know he used my style. And he was in the Clone Wars. Seems like the closest point of comparison for me."

Kanan sighed, and Ahsoka bit her lip.

"Ezra, I don't mean this badly. But Dooku was a technical master first, and a Jedi second. His ability as a Jedi wasn't overwhelming. Masters Yoda, Kenobi, Skywalker, others were objectively better. But Dooku absolutely owned Form II. That's what you need to try and be." Ahsoka said, sounding sad.

"Are…you saying I'm not that strong?" I get to the point.

_That's what I'm getting out of it._

Dooku wasn't anything super special, but made the absolute most of his abilities.

"Kind of. Kanan and I…just are stronger. Have more potential." Ahsoka said gently.

I frown.

_Kanan didn't get thru half his training!_

"I don't understand." I say.

"I got the most training. Kanan is honestly, a freak. And I mean that in the best way possible. You're strong, but you can't top us. Unless you become like Dooku."

"How is Kanan a freak?" Rex asked Ahsoka.

"He can do things with the Force that I couldn't dream of. It's hard to describe. But you shouldn't be able to do what he did when Ezra first came along as I've heard. Go from gunslinger back to a Jedi in seconds basically."

I glance at Kanan to see him look nervous.

"I don't know about that. I just did what I needed to do."

"What I'm saying Ezra, is that there's a limit between you and me and Kanan. It's not your fault or anything, but it's a fact." Ahsoka said to me.

"You're still a lot better than any normal person could be Ezra." Kanan added.

I stifle my annoyance and crack a smile.

"You sound like Sabine."

"What do you mean?" He replied.

"On Mandalore right before the curfew and stuff, we went to where her Mom worked and I fought some guy with a sword. He couldn't fight at all. I dodged half of his swings. Sabine and Sophie saw more than half, and Sabine said the same thing afterward. I thought he sucked, but Sabine said that I'm just leaps and bound better, not that he sucked."

Rex and Ahsoka both smiled.

"She's right." Rex said.

"Don't view it as a limitation Ezra. It's not." Ahsoka said cheerfully.

"Capitalize on it. When the day comes, you'll be ready if you keep working."

_Hey._

That reminds me.

"Hey. Anything new with the Shadow Collective?" I ask Ahsoka.

Darcy's debriefing was two days ago.

_And thank goodness I told Sabine beforehand about the revelation about the helmet style being there._

She freaked out to me, but was a Durasteel wall in the meeting.

Sabine told them what I already knew. It was Sabine's Mom's helmet first. When Sabine first got her armor, she got her helmet modeled after her mother's.

Not knowing what it meant exactly.

Sabine said that it wasn't until years later that her mom told her about her past.

Which is actually quite dark.

_Sabine told me that she was in something called the "Nite Owls"_

The helmet was a design unique to them.

So was their jetpacks.

They were part of the group that initially wanted to overthrow the Mandalorian government that the Republic supported.

Apparently Ahsoka and Sabine's mom met at some point, but on opposite sides.

After the Empire came into power and she met Sabine's dad, Mrs. Wren essentially buried that part of herself and focused on Sabine and rebuilding Mandalore, one person at a time.

_And now it's been dug up._

"No. I talked to Bo about it. She told me what I already knew. When Duchess Satine died, she quit right then and there and began again. If other members rejoined the Collective, then they did. She's not part of it." Ahsoka replied.

"Of course not, she's tried moving on." Kanan said, looking annoyed.

"I know. I felt bad even asking. I know it's painful for her. But we'll keep looking." Ahsoka said, looking frustrated.

"What's important is that there's no connection. That could have been very bad." Rex added.

"You don't think they'd go after her, do you?" I ask Rex. "To try and bring her into the fold?"

"No. Bo was their leader and abandoned her post after her sister died. To them, she's worse than dead. The only way they'd make a move on her is to neutralize her. And good luck with that." Ahsoka smiled.

Rex quietly laughed.

"Yeah, that probably wouldn't go well for them." Kanan smiled.

"And nothing on that General?" I ask Ahsoka.

Ahsoka shook her head.

"The Separatists didn't have a general there late in the war. I don't understand that part personally."

"What about the Zabrak's? I remember them. We know they were there." Kanan replied.

"They weren't Separatists though. They were part of the Shadow Collective."

"But it can't be the same one right?" Rex added.

Ahsoka shook her head again.

"My guess is that this is a group of thugs that adopted the name and the fear associated with the name. Something to watch, but nothing more right now." Ahsoka said definitively, then turned back to me.

"You want to practice? Get your blood going?"

"Yeah. I'd love to. You think I'm ready?" I ask her.

Kanan smiled.

"We've got to take the training wings off you sometime Ezra."

I laugh, then grab my water.

_I guess this is the start of my second chance._

Quickly, I gulp down a mouthful and toss my water bottle aside.

When I turn back to Ahsoka and Kanan, the similarities are jarring.

_The room looks just the same as Onderon._

Crates to my left.

The ceiling is considerably lower.

Rex grabbed a cup from the water dispenser on the right side of the room near the door.

I rotate my shoulders and let out a breath.

_It's normal to be nervous._

"Speak up if you want to stop." Rex smiled at me, then rubbed my hair.

I scrunch my eyes, then shake my hair out.

"I will." I reply.

Rex barked out a laugh and moved to sit on the crates.

"Okay. No throwing things with the Force. Speak up if one of you thinks it's getting out of hand." Ahsoka said, then turned to me. "Ezra?"

"Yeah?" I reply.

"Don't exhaust yourself going full bore. Leave some in the tank for tomorrow."

I smile and nod at her.

_Tomorrow._

When I look back to Kanan, he's fiddling with his hilt.

Oh yeah.

Quickly, I make sure my blade's power is turned down to a safe level.

_I had to turn it down so I wouldn't destroy the droid._

But better to be safe than sorry, especially in this case.

Kanan smiles at me, then his lightsaber clicks into place.

He's ready.

Silently, Ahsoka looked from Kanan to me, then back again.

Then she took a step back and stood next to Rex.

_Okay._

Basics.

Kanan's style is defensive.

I can beat him.

I know I can.

_But that's not the point of this._

I'm just getting my feet wet.

I should just try to enjoy myself.

Kanan takes a step forward, then makes a strong move in my direction.

I jump straight up in the air as Kanan moves back to his original position.

Rex, Ahsoka and Kanan all laughed.

"You're jumpy. Relax…" Ahsoka said to me.

I let out a breath and try to loosen up.

I ignite my blade and salute him, causing him to ignite his blade in acknowledgement.

_Okay._

Let's go.

I take three steps forward, then jab over his left shoulder.

He lazily moved to block it, doing so easily.

Immediately I spin on my heels and slice at his waist.

Kanan lets out a noise of surprise and quickly gets over to block me.

I hear somebody in the background say something, but I can't make it out.

Kanan takes a step forward and swings at my chest.

I block it with one hand until Kanan leans into me.

I quickly dig in and put my other hand on my hilt.

_Oh no you don't…_

…

…

I grit my teeth as Kanan bears his.

…

"Gahhh!" Kanan sighed as I spin out.

_There's no point._

It's a stalemate.

And we're both doing things that we don't like doing.

I close the gap between us and quickly slice at his left shoulder.

Block.

Right shoulder.

Kanan blocks it and pushes me off my spot.

_Blast._

I advance again, only to have Kanan push me away.

Fine.

_Be like that._

I fake an advance, and bait Kanan into coming after me.

I block his first strike, then duck under his second slice.

Kanan quickly makes a noise of surprise and I rise up to try and take the advantage with an elbow.

_There's a pressure point I'm going for._

Instead, my elbow flies straight into the armor on his wrist.

WHACK!

_OWW!_

I slide away from Kanan and refocus.

_Fine._

I jump forward and jab at him.

He evaded the jab by simply raising his arms and letting me fly by him.

Hah!

_Gotcha._

I grab him by the shoulder and toss him bodily away from me.

"Whoa!" I hear Rex say as Kanan caught himself in a three point stance.

"Okay…" He said quietly, then advanced and sliced down at me.

I block to the left and keep my feet moving.

Kanan reversed direction and sliced at my right side.

I block it and spin away.

When I turn around, all I see is blue.

_WHOA!_

I quickly do an emergency Force push and scramble down and away from where Kanan's blade was.

_Wow._

I was not expecting him to be there.

I was expecting another slice.

Kanan simply landed on his feet and deactivated his lightsaber.

"I think that's enough for today."

I let out a breath, smile then switch back to my blaster and walk back to him as he's walking to the water dispenser.

When I arrive, Kanan turns to me and hands me a cup, full to the brim with water.

"Thanks."

"No problem. I liked how you fought." Kanan said simply.

"Yeah. Very methodical." Ahsoka smiled.

"Didn't look to me like you missed a beat." Rex admitted, joining us.

Kanan stepped aside to allow him to get some water too.

I shrug helplessly, then look back to Kanan.

"You blocked my big move."

"The elbow?" He laughed.

I nodded.

"I like it Ezra. It might not have been the best idea, but I like the thought behind it." Ahsoka smiled.

"Changing it up, being fluid." Kanan added.

"What do you mean not the best idea?" I ask Ahsoka.

"You telegraphed it." Kanan replied.

_Aww…_

"Really?" I ask him.

Beside me, Ahsoka nodded.

"When you ducked under his slice, there was three things you could have done. The high elbow, the leg sweep or sliced at him."

"If you had sliced, then it would have been over." Kanan said. "You never really know the right play unfortunately. The only reason I guessed you were going to elbow me was that I pushed you off me."

"You assumed." Ahsoka said bluntly.

"That he'd return in kind."

"You'd kill me for assuming like that! I say quickly.

_They both would._

"But I was right." Kanan smiled.

"Just because you were right doesn't make it right!" I counter.

"Sometimes it's better to be lucky than good." Rex said simply.

_Really._

"Kanan's right though. You can only react sometimes in that kind of spot. The right play is almost never obvious." Ahsoka told me.

"Use what you've got to your advantage. The high ground, debris in the area. It doesn't always have to be one on one." Kanan smiled.

"Now you sound a little like a soldier. Use your surroundings." Rex smiled.

Kanan shrugged.

"I learned it from my Master, but I guess you're right."

"You get what we're saying." Ahsoka got us back on track and smiled at me.

"Yeah. Don't be linear all the time. Be fluid." I nod.

"Which you were. Good job." Ahsoka smiled.

I smile at her, then try to stifle a yawn by covering my mouth.

Rex smiled and laughed.

"It is late."

I smile and nod.

"Night. I'll see you all in the morning." I say sheepishly.

"Night Ezra." Kanan said as I walk to the stairwell.

_Whew._

...

…

That went well.

I think.

I start down the stairs and try to loosen up my shoulders.

_I didn't get cut or anything._

I didn't get close to getting Kanan.

He beat me physically.

…

So I guess I lost.

But that wasn't the point. It was a warm up.

Oh well.

No harm, no foul.

_I need to keep getting stronger._

I could have done something if I had been able to win that blade lock.

I wave my hand at the front door, causing it to raise up.

_It's pitch black out._

Probably after midnight.

I never checked the time.

I just had dinner, worked out, then went to practice my blaster deflection.

I wasn't expecting to spar.

_Maybe that was part of why they decided to do it._

It's not like I know when I'm going to fight.

On Onderon, I went to a birthday lunch with Sabine and ended up meeting Shark Bait.

On Ord Mantell we rushed into a hanger and ended up meeting a Sith Lord.

Just his name caused Darcy to nearly burst into tears.

Good thing I didn't know his reputation before I met him.

Otherwise I might have never made it out.

_I almost didn't anyway._

I probe the surrounding forest as I start down the path towards—

_Whoa._

Quickly I pick up the pace and jog down the path.

Why is she out right now?

She should be asleep.

I probe again and keep jogging.

_She's coming this way._

Why?

I burst thru the path and look up to see Sabine slowly starting towards me.

"Hey. Are you okay?" I ask softly, causing Sabine to yelp and jump in fright.

_Crap._

"Sorry…"I say quietly.

Sabine looked at me, then ran and tackled me.

"You okay?" I ask her, pulling her closer.

_She's wearing my jacket._

And sweatpants.

"Come home. It's late." She said softly.

_She's got a tanktop on under the jacket._

"Sure. Let's go." I say, then start walking home.

It's not far.

I can see our building.

_Ow._

I lsip my hand in between us and pull out one of Sabine's pistols.

Sabine looked down, then smiled shyly.

"I didn't want to go out unarmed."

"You could have just commed me." I say as we keep walking.

She shrugged, then curled closer to me.

I carry her all the way to the door, then to our room.

With a smile, she hopped off me and slipped off my jacket, which covered her up past her waist.

_She's not that big._

She's strong and muscular, but her frame isn't like mine.

"C'mon. Bed." Sabine ordered me, pushing me towards our bed as she started taking off her sweats.

_Uhh._

Oh.

Sabine smiled and shook her head as she kept her shorts on and slid into bed next to me.

"You're okay. Promise." Sabine said softly, rolling over to face me.

"Are you okay?" I ask her gently.

_She was halfway thru the jungle coming to get me._

If she had just wanted me to come to bed, she'd have commed me.

Sabine paused…then nodded.

"Sabine…"

"I…was just worried. Okay? Don't overwork yourself." She muttered, then curled closer to me.

"I won't. Promise." I smile.

Sabine snuck a glance at me, then pecked my lips.

"Night."

I smile and kiss her hair.

"Night babe."


	57. Culmination

Clink!

I stand up fully after setting the last of my weights away and look around.

_I'm the only one in here, which is a little strange._

Usually there's other people in here working out, and I have to make two trips to the gym.

I'm not supposed to show off my Force powers in case we get compromised.

You can't betray me if you don't even know a Jedi is here.

Today's been pretty quiet. Normal routine.

I took lunch to Sabine while she was on guard duty.

Kept her company.

The other guard didn't say a word the entire time, which made it kind of awkward.

Sabine told me that he hasn't said a word the entire time either.

She said that it was one lonely shift.

I ended up staying longer than I was supposed to, past her "lunch break", which isn't really a break at all.

_Keep your eyes peeled while eating some food and trying to enjoy the time off._

I feel bad. I haven't been a very good friend to her this week.

I spent the first part of the week rewiring my lightsaber so that I don't mess with the trigger anymore.

The blade ignitor is now attached to a little button on the hilt.

I also put in a magnet inside the hilt and my belt so that I don't have to focus on attaching it to my hip.

I just get it in the vicinity and it'll go where I want it to.

Other than that, I've just been working out.

And not spending much time with Sabine.

Our lunch together today was the most I'd seen of her all week. Almost two weeks.

My training is taking up pretty much every hour I have free. Then I eat, sometimes with Sabine, sometimes with somebody else, like Kanan or Hera and go to sleep.

I probably should get her a snack before I go home.

Call it an early night.

I pull my water bottle to me and start to the door.

Right before I get to it, the door flies open, causing me to jump back.

"Hehe."

I frown.

"I scared you." Darcy smiled at me, wire coming out of one of her ears.

"I wasn't expecting it." I say, stepping aside so she can come inside.

"Suuuuure you weren't." Darcy teased. "Did you hear about those visitors that are coming?"

"Yeah." I nod.

_They're coming in 6 days._

Lux told me that Sabine and I are supposed to greet them personally.

For whatever reason.

"Oh. Okay. I didn't know if you knew." Darcy said, looking embarrassed.

"It's ok. Thank you." I tell her, trying to cheer her up.

_I don't think anybody else has gotten back yet._

Darcy's just here by herself.

Darcy thinly smiled, then turned back into the gym.

I follow her lead and start to the kitchen.

_This time, Kanan got me a key to the kitchen before I even landed here._

No need to ask, no odd questions or anything.

Not awkward at all.

I slip thru the swinging door, then stick the key in the lock and jiggle it.

The lock's loose, so usually I don't have to actually unlock—

Click!

_Hah!_

I'm in.

I slip my keys back into my pocket and walk into the pantry.

…

_Now what would Sabine like?_

I know what she would want.

She'd want an ice stick.

But she can get that herself.

_Hmm…_

Ooh!

I smile, walk a few feet and grab a pan of pastries.

_They look fresh._

I'll grab one for her.

I do just that, slip out of the kitchen and start back home.

This should make amends, at least a little bit.

On the walk home, I try to let my wind just wander.

_Relax Ezra._

Sabine said today that I look tight.

She's right.

I need to find a better balance between training and the people around me.

_Kanan and Ahsoka want me to be a strong, capable Jedi. But not at the expense of everything else surely._

Tonight's a start at least.

Before I reach the front door to our building, I probe out one more time and find nothing out of place.

Sabine's in our room.

I walk inside, locking the front door behind me and start back to her.

"Knock knock…" I call out as I enter the room.

Sabine spun around, a smile spreading across her face.

"Hey, you're here awful early. What's that?" She asked me.

"For you." I smile, then extend the pastry to her.

"You got me a pastry?" She asked, beaming.

I nod.

"Thank you. I love it."

I smile, then slip my jacket off and hang it on the hook that's attached to the back of the door.

When I've turned back around, Sabine's taken a big bite out of her pastry, leaving purple jelly on either side of her mouth.

I quickly pull a napkin roll to me and hand her a few.

Sabine let out a nervous giggle, then wiped her face.

"Sorry. Did you mean to get grape?"

"I just grabbed one. They all looked good." I shrug.

Sabine shook her head, then set the pastry aside.

"Is everything okay? Why are you here so early?" Sabine asked, looking slightly concerned.

"Everything's fine. I just skipped deflection practice for tonight."

Immediately, Sabine frowned.

"Ezra. You shouldn't have done that."

"Why not?" I ask her.

"Because! That can save your life! Or my life! Coming home early for a night isn't worth potentially not doing that." Sabine said with a scowl.

"It's not like that. C'mon. You know it. You saw it on Onderon. And I'm better now."

Begrudgingly, Sabine smiled.

"I don't know how you did it, but I think you got better. Even after being captured."

_Wait._

"You're gonna kill me…did I tell you that they made me fight when I was captured?"

Immediately, Sabine's eyes shot open.

"What? No! How?"

"It was some weird…droids. I don't know. They looked piecemeal to me. Speakers for mouths and all that. But they made me fight with a lightsaber they gave me."

"Did you do okay?"

I nod.

"Yeah, I did. I won, but I used the dark side."

Sabine briefly flashed a annoyed look, but her worried expression quickly returned.

"I'm just glad we got you out." She said.

"Sorry for not saying anything. I almost don't know what I've told you and what I haven't." I admit.

"That's ok. We'll figure it out…" Sabine said, then moved to hug me.

I wrap my arms around her as she leans into me protectively.

…

"Sorry I haven't been around." I say to her.

"You've been busy."

"But still. I should be around more. You deserve it."

Sabine squeezes me softly, then makes a quiet noise.

…

"Don't say you don't. Because you do." I say softly, then kiss the top of her hair.

Sabine let out a breath, then looked up and kissed my jaw tenderly.

_Uhh…_

I don't move as Sabine moves to kiss me again.

Then she separated from me and smiled.

"You…bit me."

"Softly." She smiled up at me.

"But you bit me."

She was kissing me, then raised her head up to bite me softly, then turned it into another kiss.

"Did you like it?" She asked, looking up at me thru her eyelashes.

"I guess. It just surprised me." I admit.

Sabine smiled and me, then turned back to the holo she was looking at when I walked in.

"What are you looking at?" I ask curiously.

"I decided to do some digging on Ahsoka, back at the end of the Clone Wars. I actually found a lot of stuff." She said, extricating herself from me fully.

"Really?" I ask.

_I would have expected it to be wiped clean._

"Yeah, I was surprised too. I found an article that I think you'll want to look at. It's about the old Jedi Order. It's got interviews from her old master, and another Jedi."

Whoa.

"Can you play one?"

Sabine turned back to me.

"It won't exactly make sense without reading the article first. They're embedded in it."

"Play it." I say to her, then add on a "Please."

Sabine smiled, then opened up a file.

An image of Ahsoka's master popped up onto the screen, sitting in a chair with who Im assuming is a reporter across from him.

…

Sabine tapped the corner of the screen and the video began playing."

"Well yeah, I'd say that Ahsoka and that group of Padawans are a lot different than me and my group. My group grew up and were maturing right at the beginning of the war. It's almost like two different generations of Jedi, even though they're just back to back. I didn't know the gravity of the situation on Geonosis, nor did I know that the situation would last this long. As opposed to Ahsoka, who remembers a time before the war, but the majority of her training has come in the intervening years with Master Obi-Wan and I.

My training was different. Perhaps it was my master, but I was always told and taught to reach for my lightsaber as a last resort. Now, combat situations are the primary focus for all incoming Padawans. Lightsaber combat, blaster deflection, battlefield tactics, everything you would need on the battlefield. They leave the Temple here on Coruscant ready to be on the battlefield. As opposed to somebody like me, that when the war came along, I didn't really know exactly how to lead a squadron of soldiers in battle. That took me a little while and thankfully, the men of the 501st were willing to let me learn as I went the first few months of the war." Skywalker said, finally looking at the reporter across from him and smiling.

"You mentioned, your Master, Master Kenobi. Before I ask you about your relationship with him, I'd like to ask about your Padawan. Do you think that she's picked up a few things from him? The three of you have spent a large amount of time together fighting." The reporter said, as Skywalker looks very stiff.

_Maybe he'd loosen up if the question wasn't so awful._

"Yeah." Skywalker nervously laughed. "She's picked up a few things. He always says that she's the miniature version of me. But I personally disagree. I was a raging gundark at her age. I didn't know half the things Ahsoka knows. You guys on the holo wouldn't be so impressed with me if I'd been on camera as much as she is now." Skywalker nervously laughed again. "I just wanted to fight and be in the middle of whatever action we were sent to calm down. Ahsoka is a very quick thinker on her feet, and isn't above taking the long way around if it means fewer casualties. She always does what gets the mission accomplished and what protects the men as best she can."

Sabine tapped on the edge of the screen, and my eyes are drawn to the lower left hand corner.

_4:00/55:47_

This interview is almost an hour long!

"He didn't really answer the question." I say.

"Yeah. But it's funny hearing him talk about Ahsoka like that. She must have been about as old as us I think." Sabine said.

_Had to be._

"Can I listen to the entire interview?" I ask.

"Yeah, it's all here. It's not all about that stuff. I think it was as a means to keep morale up. Some of it seems to border on propaganda."

"Makes sense. Get a Jedi on camera in order to reassure to people that you're winning the war." I say.

"But he's extremely uncomfortable. You saw it, didn't you?" Sabine gestured to the screen then looked back to me.

"Interviews probably aren't his thing." I say.

"Yeah. I'd hate to be interviewed."

I smile and shake my head.

"You'd be good."

Sabine quickly frowned and stared at me.

"Do you want to read the article before watching the other video?"

_Sure, why not._

"Sure." I say.

Sabine simply taps the screen a few times before a large amount of text popped up.

Do the Jedi have a compassion problem?

By Begvico Coday

"As the Clone Wars quickly approaches its third bloody year, it is clearly time to reevaluate the war. The Separatists have shown far more courage and strength than anybody thought could be possible. There have been multiple times over the past two plus years that it has looked like Separatist victory was inevitable. But the front lines have held firm, thanks to the unquestioning, unfaltering Clone Army.

In the past few weeks, I have been turning over a question in my brain. At the onset of the war, many inside and outside the Galactic Senate Chambers considered the war a trivial task, due to the fact that the main fighting force for the enemy were mindless battle droids, helpless without orders coming from above. Those were the good days, before General Grievous and Ventress joined Count Dooku to create their triumvirate of terror. During the course of the war, we may have been looking past a fatal flaw in our own ranks, the heroic and courageous Jedi Order.

The Jedi have reluctantly taken the lead all across the galaxy, putting their ideals aside while the Republic has desperately needed them in her hours of need. But they, being a human group, are not without fault. The Jedi, in the very code they adhere fanatically to, have a weakness: Attachment.

On the surface, it looks very confusing. Why would the Jedi have a problem with attachment? Well, a well versed but unwritten rule is that a Jedi cannot marry. Cannot love. Cannot give back to the galaxy in the most basic of ways. I believe this taught resistance to attachment is why we're stuck in this position in the war. Tantalizingly close to victory, but not having the gall and fortitude to see it thru.

The Jedi, at their core are peacekeepers. Not the Commanders and Generals that the Senate has pressed them into becoming. They abide by a very strict code, taking its initiates away from their families at very young ages so that they do not become attached to their families. They are then put thru years of training, beating any semblance of individuality and creativity and becoming the strong, placid backbone that they are now known across the galaxy for.

Sound familiar?

Like it or not, the Jedi Order is stuck in its ways, unwilling to tread upon its sacred code in order to do what must be done. This war is one of many examples that the Republic simply is not as strong as it once was. It has decayed, silently until this point. Perhaps the Mandalorians of old were right in that aspect, that peace breeds decay.

The Order is full of contradictions, least of which is the subject of marriage. The official stance is that no Jedi is allowed to hold a wife, or have a family of their own in order to prevent the dynastization of the Jedi Order. That is, to keep the powers of the jedi in the hands of the very few. While that is all well and good, there is currently a Jedi Master that is married. Master Ki-Adi-Mundi. Master Mundi has multiple wives, multiple children, which any of whom could be Force sensitive.

The children are perfectly fine. In fact, quietly it is encouraged that the Jedi refuse celibacy over the prospect of marriage. They are taking a very carnal approach to human attachment.

While the opposition to the dynastization of the Force is to be applauded, why not open that rule up? Anakin Skywalker, "The Hero Without Fear" who is oft rumored to be the fabled "Chosen One", the one who will bring balance to the Force could have children, perhaps even with Senator Padmé Amidala and still fulfill the prophecy. Why not? Many in this galaxy work long hours in order to keep their families fed and safe. Wouldn't a Jedi such as Skywalker do the same, and fight with even more vigor?

The Jedi Order now is very different ideologically than it was before the war. An entire generation of Padawan Learners are being bred, not of peace but of war to to this conflict. Skywalker's own Padawan, Ahsoka Tano is one of this breed. Tano was seen recently on the planet Onderon with the son of the late Senator Mina Bonteri, Lux. She has not been formally punished for being seen out publically with a man, but one would assume that is indeed coming. I asked her Master about that, in an holo-view that will be posted concurrently to this peace.

I also asked the former Grand Master of the Jedi Order, Master Mace Windu about the Order's official stance on attachment."

Silently, Sabine tapped on the visible video.

…

"With regards to your question about the Jedi Order and attachment, marriage is not a aspect of the Code that we have ever strictly investigated. A core ideal of our order is that one cannot possess another human being. Marriage is a form of possessing someone. In regards to young Skywalker and his relationship with Senator Amidala, we have strong assurances from both parties that the relationship is strictly professional. This is the case with all Jedi, and will continue to be the case." A dark skinned man said bluntly, looking quite irritated.

Sabine wordlessly scrolled down to the rest of the article.

"Famously, Skywalker and the Order have clashed on the subject of Amidala, with the Order initially ordering him to stay away from her publically. An order which Skywalker brazenly and boldly defied. Skywalker simply is cut from a different cloth. It is not hard to see that he does indeed care on some level for the Senator from Naboo, and the fact that is not allowed due to the organization Skywalker aligns himself with is shameful. The same goes for his Padawan Learner.

One could argue that each of these are simply kid crushes, with the Senator and Skywalker's relationship going back to their prepubescent years. I argue that it simply is unfair to them. Every citizen of the galaxy should have the unalienable right to love whoever they choose, regardless of their position. The Jedi are depriving Skywalker and surely other Jedi of this basic right, all in the name of their Order. And in the process they open themselves up to the possibility of a failed student going out and ruining all that their Order has done.

That of course has already happened, with Count Dooku formerly being a Jedi Master before renouncing the Order and retaking his title of Count of Serenno. Where he began the grassroots movement that has become the Separatist Alliance and the Confederacy of Independent Systems.

We can only sit back and wonder, in this third year of a galaxy destroying war, that our greatest warriors are somehow holding themselves back in the name of a Code."

…

…

"Whoa." I say quietly.

"Yeah." Sabine replied quickly.

That's a lot to take in.

_Skywalker._

And Amidala.

And Ahsoka.

AND LUX.

_BACK THEN!_

The author basically wrote a assassination piece on one of the founding tenants of the Jedi Order.

…

_Wow._

I would have assumed that there was a lot of propaganda at that time.

"I'm surprised it got published." I say.

"Well, think about it. It's year three of the war. People are tired of it. They're asking why it isn't over yet. Why haven't we won? You could easily find the Jedi, and that rule and just rip it to shreds. Like he did. It would make too much sense, and you know a lot of people would read it."

"He definitely did that. And yeah."

"Plus, wouldn't somebody like Vader want that published?"

_Oh yeah…_

Kanan said way back when that he thought that the whole Empire thing was an inside job.

"An inside job?" I turn and ask.

Sabine shrugged.

"You've got to have a lot of resources to create an army that ends up killing almost all the Jedi. Call me crazy, but yeah."

But who would have that…

_Emperor Palpatine._

Surely not.

It can't be him.

I think we'd know if he was in league with the Sith.

_From how Kanan described them and how Vader acted, I don't think they'd take a backseat to anyone._

…

"Your brain is moving fast." Sabine smiled.

"Trying to think who it could be, going down that road." I say.

"That's a scary road. Not many people. Could Vader be the guy?"

_He did kill Skywalker._

I shrug, mind racing.

But what about Padme?

_She was pregnant._

She had those two kids.

…

"I didn't mean to freak you out. I just thought you'd want to read that. You okay?" Sabine asked, looking up at me while wrapping her arms around my neck.

"Yeah. I'm okay."

"You don't have to follow that rule on attachment do you? Because it's stupid." Sabine smirked at me.

I smile at her, then shake my head.

"No. I've already defied it once." I tease her.

Sabine looked away shyly.

…

I swallow nervously.

"Are…you okay?" I ask softly.

_She just got really nervous._

Sabine nodded, but laid her head on my chest.

"Talk to me."

"I…I wish you'd never gotten involved with Darcy." She said, voice barely above a whisper.

_Oh._

"You could have said something." I say gently.

"I…did. But I messed it up. And now you don't want to let yourself love. For no reason. It's stupid." Sabine said bluntly, gently smacking me in the ribs.

"I…'ve been working on it." I reply gently.

Sabine's head immediately popped up.

"Really?"

I smile and nod.

…

"So you do care."

I laugh, then hang my head.

"Yeah. I always have. You know that." I admit.

_I've loved her since I met her._

And now…

Well, I don't know.

We could try us.

I'm not against it.

_I just don't know if she wants that. Or if she wants to stick to what we've been doing._

"I know. But have you ever thought about maybe…having me become Darcy? Trying that?"

OH MY.

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.

…

"I…kinda. Yeah. But never seriously. You'd have to—" I start, but Sabine cut me off.

"I do."

_What?!_

I freeze up as my brain frantically processes what she just said.

_I thought it, but I didn't actually, really think she felt that way._

…

Sabine's in love with me.

…

"You…do?" I ask weakly, then nervously swallow.

Sabine smiled, then rose up and pecked me on the lips.

"Yes. I love you."

I…

I open my mouth to say something, I don't know what but Sabine speaking silences me.

"I have for awhile. Ever since we got to Onderon and you started really training. I just didn't think I did until you…were with Darcy on Denon. And it was too late."

It's not now.

"That's why you stayed with me and all that?" I ask her.

Sabine nodded then looked back up at me.

"Kind of. I would have done it if you were my friend. You've done so much for me. But sleeping with you, showing you my family…I wouldn't have done that if I didn't really, really care about you. And I think that's love."

_Think._

"Think?" I quietly asked.

_Now she does it._

This is where she breaks my heart.

"I…don't really know what love is Ezra. I had a puppy love for Atin, but you're different. I…don't know how to describe it. I just know that I don't want it to stop. Ever."

…

Sabine loves me.

…

I quickly let out a laugh, then pick her up and kiss her tenderly.

Sabine immediately wrapped herself around me and deepened the kiss, causing me to lose my balance and fall into the dresser.

_But neither of us care._

We just stand there for a minute, gently kissing and relishing the moment.

I…

_I never thought this would happen._

Finally, Sabine separated her lips from mine and giggled.

"I'm guessing that means you feel the same?" She smiled at me.

"Kind of."

Sabine let out a high pitched giggle, then kissed my cheek.

"I'm taking that as a yes, and kissing you whenever I want to now." She smirked at me.

"Fine by me." I joke, before Sabine kissed me and slipped her tongue between my teeth.

I let her play around for a minute before breaking off the kiss.

"How…far do you want to take this though?" I ask quietly.

_I don't want to ruin this by going too far._

"You can't take it too far." Sabine mumbled, then nipped at my ear.

"Sabine—"

"I know. But I offered to sleep with you months ago. And I'm still willing to. Maybe now it won't be a one time thing. Besides, have you heard the old saying about Mandalorian women?"

Numbly, I shake my head.

"There's no better person in bed than a Mandalorian. We'll keep you up all night."

…

Oh.

Sabine smiled, then hopped off me and pushed me towards our bed.

"Okay funny guy…since you got all quiet…"

Sabine walked over and violently shut off the light.

I instinctively hop onto our bed and watch her figure as she comes back to me.

"Okay…"Sabine muttered as she crawled onto the bed and…

Flung her shirt off into the corner while simultaneously yanking mine over my head.

"get under the covers." She told me.

I hurry to obey.

_Okay._

Don't need to tell me twice.

Sabine quickly slipped off the sweats she was wearing then slid onto my chest.

"I love you. Okay?" She said quietly, hands deftly slipping down to my waist.

"Love you too."

"Good. Now prove it." She said quietly.

Then she kissed me.


	58. Buried in the Jungle

The sheets gently rustle as Sabine shifts in her sleep.

…

_What time is it?_

It feels early-ish.

Not at the break of dawn, but not late in the morning either.

I crack my eyes and see Sabine curled to me, using me as her pillow.

My arm apparently found its way around her in the night.

_The night._

Hah.

We didn't sleep much. Haven't for the past four nights now.

Since we started…

_Dating?_

I don't know what it is.

Kind of.

It's very physical right now.

Very.

I'll leave it there.

Other than that it's been a little more touchy feely, and a lot sweeter.

She got on me yesterday about keeping my same schedule.

No cutting blaster deflection short in order to come home early.

She's right of course. It's just hard not to.

The last few days have been the same thing over and over again.

Rex and Echo have me run all around the complex four times.

Then I help out some of the engineers move stuff that they aren't strong enough to move themselves.

_It's surprising how heavy the parts to an engine and hyperdrive are._

And somehow the entire thing can get into the air and space without any trouble.

I can't use the Force when I'm with them unless I'm about to drop something on myself or somebody else.

Nothing I carry will break, but it will crack a bone easily.

I'm pretty sure that a lot of the guys down there have figured out that Kanan and Ahsoka are training me. The three of us all had lunch together recently and all the engineers were having lunch together.

Not hard to put two and two together. And they're the smartest people here.

After lunch, Ahsoka and Kanan usually have me practice levitating stuff on the roof while doing a handstand like Kanan had me doing on the Ghost.

Then it's my normal stuff the rest of the day. Sparring every other day, target practice with my blaster, blaster deflection, weight training then go to bed.

It's 17-18 hour days with almost no stopping.

_But it's what I signed up for._

And at least they stopped making me wake up at dawn back on Polis Massa.

"Ughhh…" Sabine groaned, then rolled off of me.

I can't help but laugh, causing her to blindly whack me in the stomach with her hand.

"Ow!" I yelp.

"Don't laugh at me…." She groaned.

"I'm not laughing at you." I say, smiling at her.

Sabine rolled over, pulling the covers over her so she's decent.

"These people we're supposed to meet better be important. We're dressing up for them."

"Yeah." I agree.

Ahsoka asked both of us to dress in our best.

Meaning Sabine is going in her full Mandalorian armor, and I'm wearing my jacket and dark pants.

She didn't say anything about my lightsaber, so I'm keeping it on me.

"Do you know what time it is?" She asked me, then blinking tiredly.

I shake my head, then peek up at the clock on the desk near the far wall.

10:30.

"It says 10:30."

"Feels like 6:30." Sabine immediately groaned and laid her head on my stomach.

_We were up until 3, so I guess that makes sense._

Seven hours of sleep isn't enough.

"I don't regret it though. It was worth it." She smirked at me, lifting her head up.

I shrug, not knowing what else to do.

"You can say yes. I'm not going to judge you." She smiled at me, then sitting up.

"It was good. I don't really know what else to say." I admit, then smile at her.

Sabine smirked, then slithered onto my chest, grabbed my face and kissed me gently.

"Good morning."

I laugh, then smile at her.

"Morning."

Sabine scooted away from me, then let out a massive yawn and sighed.

"Okay. I guess we've got to get going. The ship is supposed to get here at 11."

"Do you want me to go grab a caf for us?" I ask her as she rolls out of bed and starts looking for her base layer of armor.

The base layer is comfortable, non-restricting clothes than give her range of motion. Long socks, tights, athletic bras, that sort of thing.

Then comes her armor.

I imagine that she's going to pass up the sleeves on her arms this time, since we're in a humid jungle.

Her suit has a little bit of climate control, but that's just her core and helmet for safety more than anything.

"That'd be great." Sabine said, finding some tights and jumping into them.'

I quickly get myself together, putting on my jacket, dark pants and white shirt.

When I look back to Sabine, she's halfway thru changing shirts.

"I'm headed out." I tell her while pulling my lightsaber to me.

Sabine pops her head out of her shirt as I come to kiss her goodbye.

"See you soon."

"Sounds like a plan." I joke, before briefly kissing her and slipping out the door.

Immediately I'm greeting by the normal sounds of the early morning jungle.

Birds singing and chirping.

The hum of the random bugs.

The soft sound of my footsteps.

I try to enjoy it as I quickly make my way to the main building, probing as I go.

_Nothing to really worry about._

It seems like we've finally got a good foothold on the surrounding jungle.

The cats and other jungle predators seem to be avoiding the area. There haven't been any attacks for two weeks.

Animals aren't stupid. If others go to a certain spot and die, then you start avoiding that area.

_I know I would._

As I enter the main building, Rex, Echo and their training class are walking out towards the jungle.

I politely wave and smile at them, causing several students to stare at me in awe.

_I'm not that much older than them._

They probably are wondering how I know them.

This isn't the first time I've gotten these looks.

"General…" Rex waved back to me with a smirk on his face.

Echo laughed quickly, then waved as well.

_General._

I am so undeserving of that title.

Ahsoka, Kanan, Hera and I.

All Generals.

But Rex and Echo are just Captain and Commander, respectively.

_I don't like it._

It's all about what you are and not what you've done.

I'm a Jedi and haven't seen a tenth of the battles Rex and Echo have, and technically I outrank them.

Ridiculous.

Quickly, I slip into the deserted cafeteria and pour two cups of caf into reusable cups, then hustle back towards the front door.

These cups are the last things we need.

Sabine always gets caf in the morning, and I get it most mornings.

We're up to our necks in these cups, just because they're so easy to use.

_Just grab, and go._

I just threw out a stack of them last night.

And now I'm grabbing more.

Hopefully I remember not to take it home this time.

Halfway to the hangar, I sip on my caf, thinking that it's cooled enough.

"Ah!" I yelp, then run my lips over my tongue.

_Nope!_

Hot!

I cringe as the path opens up to the hanger, revealing the normal sights and sounds.

Welding, raised voices and loud music.

_I don't understand how they work like this._

I'd be too distracted to do anything I think.

I'd want to sing or talk to somebody instead of work.

Instead, they're all doing their jobs as I walk past the workshop area and into the open hanger bay.

Sabine turned around just as I approach.

Wordlessly, I extend the cup to her.

She takes it with a smile.

"Thanks."

"It might be hot still. Mine was." I say, just before she sipped it.

Sabine shrugged, then swallowed and cringed.

"Ahh…that was hot." She said, a painful look on her face.

I give her a sympathetic look, and she smiled back.

"You look nice." She said, brushing something off my shoulder.

"You look better. Did you polish your armor?" I ask.

Sabine immediately looked disgusted.

"No. You don't polish armor. You clean it."

"Oh." I say quickly.

_Didn't mean to make a big deal out of it._

"Polish would imply that I don't use it much, or that it is ceremonial. Which it's not." She said, then pointedly putting her helmet on.

"Sorry. Didn't mean to be offensive." I apologize.

"You didn't, but it hurt a little. It's a unspoken aspect of being a Mandalorian." Sabine explained.

"Then you can't hold it against me." I say simply.

How the hell am I supposed to know that?

Sabine simply turned her head towards me, and let her emotionless visor do the talking for her.

…

"Any other unspoken Mandalorian stuff I should know?" I ask, as Sabine lifted her helmet enough to sip her caf again.

"It's mostly stuff like that. Like when you're with _Mand'alor, _you always let him lead you. Unless he gestures or points for you to go in front to show the way."

"Makes sense." I reply evenly, then sip my caf.

"It's mostly ceremonial or logical stuff." Sabine replied as a small dot appears high above us.

_Guess that's them._

"Did you hear anything about who this is?" Sabine asked me, draining the remainder of her caf before handing me the cup.

I…

"Nope. I don't have an idea." I shrug

Sabine quietly sighed.

"Guess I'll have to make it up on the fly."

Oh well.

I turn around and walk to the conservator and throw Sabine's cup away, then walk back.

…

…

…

"I don't have anything stuck to my back do I?" Sabine asked, turning her back to face me.

"Nope." I shake my head.

"Good. You don't either." She replied happily.

"Cool."

We both look up again and see that the ship is indeed closing the gap.

_I don't understand the gap that all the ships that come here have to fit thru._

Before this, I thought all ships had to come at night.

…

…

"Looks normal." Sabine states.

"Yup." I say, as the ship keeps descending.

We're standing right where we're supposed to, behind the red line with the "DO NOT CROSS" lettering above it.

No reason to cross it and get landed on by a ship.

I take one step back as the ship finally closes in on the landing pad, then lands heavily.

"CRASHHHHHHHH…"

I hear Sabine clear her throat, then the familiar sound of pressurized gas rushed out along with three streams of white gas near the doors.

_I guess it actually is a pressurized gas._

Huh.

The side door opened easily, revealing two figures in Mandalorian armor, a woman in white with her hair coiled up and—

I laugh as Sophie sprints full bore towards her sister, laughing the whole way.

Sophie tackled Sabine into a hug, who stood and spun her around.

"How are you here?" Sabine asked, sounding thrilled as I look back to the other people, just now exiting the ship.

_It's her Mom._

And…I think…

_Mand'alor?_

This must be important if he's here.

Behind him is Senator Leia Organa.

"Mommy brought me with her!" Sophie giddily answered Sabine, then hugged her tight.

Sabine hugged her back, then realized who is in front of us and hastily put her sister down.

"_Mand'alor, Haat, Ijaa, Haa'it."_ Sabine quickly said, bowing her head.

"Rise, darling, rise. Thank you." _Mand'alor _replied smoothly and pleasantly, then turned to me.

"How are you son? You look much better than the reports I got." He said to me, extending his hand.

I shake his hand and smile.

"Thank you. Reports of my downfall have been greatly exaggerated." I joke, getting everyone to laugh.

"You do look bigger Ezra. You must be eating more." Mrs. Wren stated.

"Mom!" Sabine said quickly.

"Good to see you too darling." Her mother quipped back at her.

_I'm pretty sure she is being sarcastic._

"Senator. It's a pleasure. What's the reason for coming all this way?" I ask, politely extending my hand and smiling.

"I'm just assessing the situation here. Making sure that this outpost has what it needs, along with making sure _Mand'alor _Shysta's trip here is as pleasant as possible."

Immediately, the Force ripples thru both _Mand'alor_ and Mrs. Wren's Force signatures.

_That's not true._

"It's a pleasure. If you'll follow us, we'll lead you right to the main building." Sabine said cheerfully, then turning to lead the way.

I gesture for everybody else to go in front, only for Sophie to hang back for me, beaming.

"Heyyyy…" I smile at her, then bend down and hug her.

"Hiiii." Sophie said, hugging me tight.

I let her go, then smile at her and stand up.

Sof grabs onto my hand and we bring up the rear of the group.

"Have you had any trouble with the indigenous wildlife?" _Mand'alor _ asked Sabine.

"A little bit, but not too much. Ezra and I weren't here for most of the time they had troubles. But it appears to be under control now." Sabine answered.

"Makes sense. If a certain area seems to suddenly become dangerous, then it would make sense to stay away." Mrs. Wren mused.

"Or to retake the area." Senator Organa theorized.

Again, _Mand'alor_ and Mrs. Wren's Force signatures ripple.

In irritation?

Maybe.

Tap tap.

I turn to Sophie and smile.

"What's up?" I ask her.

Wordlessly, she pointed to my lightsaber, then looked up at me.

I smile widely.

"Yup."

Sophie jaw dropped in awe.

"Cool huh." I say.

"Can you show it to me later?"

I shrug.

"Let's ask your mom later. Okay?" I say.

_Wouldn't surprise me if she asked right now._

Sophie nodded, then kept walking with me as we start closing in on the building.

When we see it, Mrs. Wren speaks up.

"Senator, while you make your holocall, we're going to see the rest of the complex."

The Senator nodded, then broke off and began walking towards the building.

"Would you mind showing us where you're staying _ad'ika_?" Mrs. Wren asked Sabine.

"Uhh…sure." Sabine said, surprised.

_She didn't see that coming._

Sabine made the right turn and began heading towards our solitary building.

We didn't clean.

_Haar'chak._

"Now Ezra, a little Drexl has told me that you are training to become a Jedi warrior." _Mand'alor_ said smoothly, without looking back at me.

I quickly freeze up.

Sabine immediately whirled around to face her mother and started to protest.

_They told him._

"Darling, we know why you didn't say anything. But this is best. Carid and I told him because he is trustworthy." Mrs. Wren placated her daughter.

"With my life son. That's a promise."

"And Mandalorians don't break promises." Mrs. Wren added.

…

"Yeah. I am." I admit, then try to play it off with a shrug.

No big deal I guess.

"I understand your hesitance to say anything. But I appreciate your commitment." _Mand'alor_ told me.

"Actually, he wasn't surprised when Carid and I talked to him." Mrs. Wren said.

"Why not?" Sabine asked.

"A Mandalorian by the name of Boba Fett talked to me. He told me that you looked just like a little Jedi. They always stand a little straighter, are a little calmer and are just a little different." _Mand'alor_ answered.

Boba Fett.

I knew he knew something.

_He respected me immediately._

I can feel Sabine's eyes shift from _Mand'alor_ to me, then back again.

"Our place is just up here. Not too much further." Sabine said, turning forward once more.

Sophie happily continued to walk and hold my hand.

…

…

Sabine politely opened the door and held it open for everyone, then let me grab it.

"Thanks." Sophie said quietly, letting go of my hand to walk inside.

I shut the door behind me and turn back to see Sophie and _Mand'alor_ looking around.

"Is nobody else here?" She asked, voice echoing.

"Nope. We don't know what to do with it yet."

_Mand'alor_ nodded, then started down the hall.

When Sof and I get there, her mother is already inside.

_Sabine picked up._

The room is clean.

Usually we have a little bit of clothes and stuff, until Sabine picks it up on a whim.

Looks like she did it after I left to grab the caf.

I linger outside the doorway as Sophie walks in.

"Is it all rock?" Sophie asked her mom.

"Yes. But when you use it like this you call it stone." Mrs. Wren replied.

"It's not all stone. It's Durasteel with stone on top." _Mand'alor_ said suddenly.

"What makes you say that?" Sabine asked him.

I know this place. This was the camp of _Te Taylir Mand'alor _once." _Mand'alor_ replied simply, looking at something on the wall.

"Who's that?" Sophie asked, looking up at her mom.

Mrs. Wren is simply looking at _Mand'alor_.

"_Te Taylir Mand'alor_? Are you sure?"

"Positive. His marking is right here on the wall." _Mand'alor_ said simply.

I slide next to him and see the same marking.

It's the skull head that was on Sabine's dad's building where he works on Mandalore.

"Who is that Mom?" Sabine asked, as Mrs. Wren came to look.

…

"This must have been part of the complex he built, all those years ago."

"I'll ask the Senator to be very careful here. This is history." _Mand'alor_ said, almost reverently.

"Mom?" Sabine asked again, trying not to be insistent.

"_Te Taylir Mand'alor_ was known as Mandalore the Preserver to the greater galaxy. He united the Mandalorian clans over three millennia ago and fought side by side with the Jedi Revan against the greatest Sith presence this galaxy has ever seen." _Mand'alor_ said quietly, looking to Sabine.

I've never heard of that.

_I don't know who this Revan is._

"The greatest Sith presence? Greater than the current one?" I ask.

To my surprise, _Mand'alor_ laughed.

"Oh yeah. There are very, very good accounts. And many of them that say that the Sith in question once devoured all the life on a planet. Two, as far as I can know of."

…

"Devoured?" Sabine asked, sounding incredulous.

_Is that what happened to Alderaan?_

Some dude…

"What do you devoured all life?" I ask.

"I don't know. It's not in any holorecords. I only know because _Mand'alor_ past have created what may be the greatest archive of historical events known to civilization. Ink and a form of paper that never disintegrates. It just says that a Sith devoured all life on a planet."

"So he fought with this guy against this Sith?" Sabine asked.

_Mand'alor _ nodded.

"What happened?" I ask.

"I cannot say anything more. I've already said too much."

"AWW!" Sophie whined.

"What do you mean you can't say more? You've already started! You can't just do that!" Sabine said, starting to get worked up.

"Easy _mand'a_. I can do that. I'm already endangering you just by opening my mouth about _Te Taylir Mand'alor_. That name is famous because it was after a Mandalorian crusade against the Old Republic. Mentioning it again will only make what we're trying to do here that much more difficult." _Mand'alor_ said bluntly.

…

"Besides, the dear Senator is here to keep an eye on your mother and I."

_What?_

"Why?" I ask him.

"She doesn't believe I can be trusted. I'm the voice of over a billion life forms in this galaxy. I carry a heavy burden, and I don't do so lightly. They know that, and are curious as to why I decided to come here."

"Why?" Sabine asked.

_Mand'alor_ let out a short laugh.

"It'll become clear in the meeting." He answered Sabine.

Sabine raised her hands in frustration and began to pace around the room.

Sophie simply looked to me and smiled.

I smile back at her as Mrs. Wren stepped forward and flipped thru a few of my hanging shirts in the closet.

"You didn't mention you and Ezra finally broke down. Congratulations darling." She said, then turned to Sabine.

I freeze up and look to Sabine.

…

Oh.

"…Yeah. Thanks." Sabine said quietly.

Then Sophie tackled me.

"YOU FINALLY DID IT! YAYYYYYY!"

Sheepishly, I bend down and hug her and _Mand'alor _ laughed quietly.

"How long?" He asked me simply.

No room to wiggle.

"Not long." I say.

"But you were sharing a space before then." Mrs. Wren put the pieces together.

"Yeah. Like I told you back at home Mom." Sabine answered shortly.

_She did say that._

"Your mother just wants to make sure you aren't being taken advantage of Sabine. Nothing more." _Mand'alor_ said simply.

"Never." I say quickly.

Mrs. Wren laughed. "Good."

"Isn't the meeting soon anyway?" Sabine asked her, changing the topic quickly.

"Yes, we probably should be headed that way." _Mand'alor_ said, then began walking towards the front.

Sophie quickly hustled to keep up with me as I follow, leaving Sabine to lock up.

_I'll take the back again._

They all linger at the front for us to lead the way again, and Sabine starts us that way.

"I like it here." Sophie proclaimed simply.

"It's a little overgrown, but it has its appeal." Mrs. Wren said simply.

I smile and probe out with the Force.

…

…

_Not hostile._

But something's close.

I quickly double check to make sure Sof is right beside me before probing—

"Sabine." I say simply, knowing she'll get the hint.

"What?" Mrs. Wren said as Sabine smoothly grabbed her pistols and raised them.

"I feel it too."

Sophie made a quiet sound, and I glance down at her latched on to my hand.

"It's okay Sof. Just keep moving. You're fine." I say, looking around for a glint.

Eyes.

…

Any other day and this isn't a big deal.

I can either take care of it myself, or we can call the guards and they handle it.

But now Sophie's here, and this is scary to her.

Plus her mom and _Mand'alor_.

"I authorize you to use whatever force necessary." _Mand'alor_ said quietly, as we continue to walk.

"Great, thanks…" Sabine snipped.

"Hey! He's the law here. This planet belongs to our people Sabine." Mrs. Wren snapped at her.

"We'll I'll defend myself, you guys, Sophie and Ezra any time I see fit. I don't need authorization to do that." Sabine muttered, and I probe again.

_Gotcha._

I turn around and to my left and see it.

_Glinting eyes._

I hear Sophie gasp and _Mand'alor_ wheel around, huge rifle now in his hand.

I keep my eyes locked in on the glinting eyes locked on me.

…

"My goodness. Vine Cats. They must be thriving here…" I hear _Mand'alor_ say.

"I thought they were extinct." I hear somebody else reply.

"Well apparently not."

I retreat backwards, very slowly.

_Sophie's latched on to me._

It feels like with both hands.

"It's okay…nothing too bad yet." I say reassuringly to her.

Right before I hear two separate, low growls.

Oh boy.

I pull my lightsaber to me, but don't ignite it.

Then I see a huge, muscular green leg as the cat begins to emerge.

I hear somebody say something behind me, but I ignore it.

When the cat's first two legs are fully onto the path, I ignite my lightsaber.

Hummm…

_Keep it moving Ezra._

"Don't stop moving Sof. We're alright." I say reassuringly.

The cat let out another growl in response.

Okay then. I keep my eye contact and continue to slowly back up.

"Thirty feet." I hear Sabine say.

"I'd prefer if you don't kill it Ezra. These animals are considered extinct to the rest of the galaxy."

"Well definitely not here." I reply bluntly.

"It must be mating season. Look." _Mand'alor_ pointed off to my left, to a ridge.

I look up and see another cat.

Tail straight up.

_Female._

This one thinks that I'm trying to steal her.

Fortunately for him, she's not my type.

_I wonder if the ones I killed with Darcy were like this._

"Good call." I mutter, looking back to my male as he continues forward, distancing us from her.

I don't deactivate my lightsaber, but continue to back up slowly.

Until the cat stops.

…

…

I keep backing up, but the cat doesn't move.

…

…

The air around me suddenly lights up, and I see that we're out of the path.

And the cat is still staring right at me.

I rise out of my crouch, but keep my lightsaber on.

…

…

Then the cat turned around and jumped into the ferns.

I let out a breath and shut off my lightsaber.

_Whew._

When I turn around, Sophie looks terrified.

"You okay?" I ask, as her mother hugged her.

Sophie nodded.

"Yeah…that was scary."

"If that happens again, just back off Ezra. They won't harm you." _Mand'alor _said simply, holstering his rifle.

I didn't know he was armed.

I look up at Sabine, and her eyes linger on me for a brief moment, before she pointed to the main building.

"Well, here we are." She joked, getting her mom and _Mand'alor_ to laugh.

I smile as Sophie comes over and smiled.

"Thank you."

"No prob. That's my job." I smile and reply.

Sophie grabbed my hand again as Sabine leads the way inside.

_Whoa._

Soldiers everywhere.

This is a bigger deal than I thought.

_This place is on lock down._

I hear one of them tell Sabine "Fifth floor".

Then we're all going up the stairs.

I hold back a laugh as Sophie is making it, but doing so very clumsily.

She brings her leg up, then extends, and then has to almost jump to make it.

When we finally arrive, I hear her sigh in relief.

This time I can't help but laugh, causing her to turn and frown at me.

_Sorry Sof._

"Everyone, this is _Mand'alor _Shysta, along with my mother." Sabine said, to the assembled group in front of us.

Kanan, Hera, Ahsoka, Lux, Zeb, Rex, Echo, Senator Organa…

And Darcy.

"It's a pleasure. Thank you for having us." _Mand'alor_ said graciously, shaking hands.

"Yes, thank you." Senator Organa said to Ahsoka. "Things are getting weird, and I wanted to make sure that everything was going well."

"That is, that we're not making any unauthorized military moves here." _Mand'alor_ said bluntly, continuing to shake hands.

Kanan's eyes shot into the air.

"To the point. I like it." Rex smiled before shaking hands.

_Mand'alor_ smiled.

"Thank you. Now are you the one that made the Shadow Collective discovery?" He asked Darcy simply.

Darcy nodded, then swallowed nervously.

"Yes sir."

"Can you tell me what you saw?" _Mand'alor_ asked politely.

Darcy nodded again.

"I just saw three people, looked like men wearing armor just like hers, carry supplies off a ship and perform guard duty. Just like in my report." Darcy answered.

"Just like mine?" Mrs. Wren asked Darcy, who turned to look.

…

"Yeah, as far as I can tell the exact same."

_They're irritated again._

Hopefully not with Darcy.

She's been fully honest and upfront this entire time.

"All right. I've seen and heard enough from this that I'm contacting my lone known _Nite Owl_ member."

"Who?" Mrs. Wren blurted out, as Lux started moving towards a group of chairs.

"I think I'll keep that close to the vest, for their safety."

"I'd like to know." Senator Organa said smoothly.

"I'm including you Senator." _Mand'alor_ replied calmly.

"I have a right to know. My family is the reason we allowed you to have this area as a base—"

_Mand'alor_ cut her off quickly.

"My dear, you just said it. Your family. Not you. You have the funds that are financing this. But you don't know what you're up against. I'm overruling you."

"I—"

"Enough." Ahsoka blurted out. "There's nothing to be gained by fighting. Let's move on. Do we know anything else about the Imperial movements?" Ahsoka asked Senator Organa.

The Senator frowned at _Mand'alor_, then turned to Ahsoka.

"No. They've sent 20 Star Destroyers to the Unknown Regions. Reasons Unknown. Financing, unknown. I've tried digging thru multiple committees. We can't account for all the spending."

"Must be something out there powerful for Palpatine to devote that much resources to going and getting it." Kanan said quietly.

"What could be in the Unknown Regions?" Rex asked.

Ahsoka shrugged.

"No idea. It's just like the name. Unknown."

"How'd we even know about this movement? Isn't that hard to track?" Sabine asked.

"Yeah, generally. But they kind of made it easy. They lined up 20 Star Destroyers and sent them off." Senator Organa answered her.

…

…

"How about Mandalore?" Lux asked, coming with a chair.

To my right Sophie lit up.

"Thank you!"

"No problem." Lux said as Sophie clambered into the chair.

"It's worse. That's the other primary reason I'm here. To talk to you two." _Mand'alor_ said, looking from Sabine to me.

"O…kay."

"Worse?" Hera asked.

"Yes. The planet is essentially being ruled by martial law and might of the Empire. But people are out every night, marching, protesting, fighting."

Fighting.

"That sounds like a Civil War." Echo said quietly.

"In a lot of ways it is. The planet is almost totally on lockdown. If it gets any worse, the protesting will end and the fighting will erupt into conflict." _Mand'alor_ replied.

"How'd all this start in the first place?" Kanan asked quietly.

"Yeah, I've never heard anything about this." Darcy said, causing _Mand'alor_ to look in her direction simply.

To my surprise, Darcy cowered slightly.

…

Huh.

"It actually started when Ezra, Sabine and Sophie here all went to get ice sticks, if I believe." He said, turning to Sabine.

"Really? All of this from that?" Sabine asked, clearly surprised.

"Yeah. A man in Mandalorian armor like this was attacked in broad daylight on the street by a few Imperial officers. Supposedly the officer said something to the effect of "Your time on this planet is up. It's ours now." That attack caused days of rioting. A few casualties. Then things died down." _Mand'alor_ paused.

…

"Then, two weeks ago, a boy younger than Ezra was assassinated in the markets."

Everybody's jaws drop.

Hera covered her mouth.

"Execution style. Cameras and everything. The planet is in an uproar to this day." Mrs. Wren said bluntly.

I turn to Sophie, and she…

_She looks worried too._

"It's been scary. I can't go outside anymore." Sophie told me quietly looking very sad.

"What has our cell there been doing?" Senator Organa asked simply.

_She doesn't seem surprised by any of this._

"Handing out aid. They've been very helpful. Thank you for that." _Mand'alor _responded graciously. "But the situation is out of control."

"Are you guys safe?" Lux asked Mrs. Wren.

"Yes. Our neighborhood is well protected."

"But if things do devolve further, I'm asking Sabine and Ezra to come home and protect you all." _Mand'alor_ said bluntly.

"Fe—Sir. That isn't necessary." Mrs. Wren said, sounding agitated.

"And they can't go. They've committed themselves here." Senator Organa said simply.

"They aren't your property. And I dare you to try and stop them." _Mand'alor _said calmly.

_Yeah, good luck stopping Sabine._

"You won't go." The Senator looked to me.

Almost…desperately.

"I am if he asks. I'm keeping her safe." I say, then gesture to Sophie.

"He's my leader. I can't ignore a direct order from him." Sabine added.

…

Senator Organa sighed.

"All right…well I hope the situation doesn't come to that. Before we continue, I propose that we go eat. It'll give us all some time to decompress." She said.

Ahsoka nodded, then Rex and Echo began leading the way back downstairs.

I quietly let out a breath I've been holding.

_That…got intense._

And suddenly this just got a lot more dangerous.


	59. Peace Talks

I sip on my water and try to release the tension in my arms.

"_Can you meet me at 7:30?" – Leia_

Leia.

The Princess.

She's gotten into multiple arguments with _Mand'alor_.

He told everyone about an old temple not far from here, thinking we should check it out.

Leia said that's not important to the Rebellion. We can't use their fuel to go there.

_Which is stupid._

And impractical.

We have to get there by speeder. It's way too far to walk.

Leia again emphasized the need for diplomacy, mentioning that she wants Sabine and I to go and visit planets that could be thinking about joining the Rebellion.

_And bringing them over._

I'm not sure about that personally.

Seems like the job of a teams of negotiators.

Not Sabine and I.

Sabine's a warrior.

I'm a Jedi.

We fight. We don't talk.

_It's just not what we do._

That's not who we are.

Mostly, it's arguments about philosophical differences. _Mand'alor_ believes that we should be doing a little more and be a little more proactive.

Leia has dug her heels in about the diplomacy.

And patience.

_Which…yeah._

It's hard for me to think of a galaxy without the Empire.

I don't know anything else.

The idea that eventually we want a new ruler and new government is sort of unbelievable.

Everyone talks about the Emperor, whose name I didn't even know was really Palpatine until recently, like he's an immovable object.

Then there's Vader, who I assume works in some way for the Emperor.

_Vader's a Sith._

Like Shark Bait and Barriss.

That's the next layer of importance.

After that, I don't know.

Maybe Sabine's right. That this is all some kind of inside job.

_It…_

None of this makes any sense.

All of this had to have taken time.

The building up of the Empire.

The fall of the Republic.

The Clone Wars.

The Sith.

The Jedi.

It all had to have taken years.

_And somehow they all took place at the same time._

I need to ask Sabine to help me look into it.

_I don't know how she found that old article._

Maybe she can shed some more light on what happened.

Tap Tap.

_Huh?_

I turn around and see Senator Organa smiling up at me.

"Oh. Sorry Senator. I didn't hear you coming." I quickly say, bowing my head respectfully.

"It's fine. And I'm Leia right now. Not Senator Organa. This isn't official business."

_Oh._

"Okay…"

"Leia." She prompted me.

_Leia._

Padmé Amidala's Leia.

"Leia." I say obediently.

Leia immediately smiled.

"Great. I…How are you?" She asked me.

"I'm fine. How about you?" I ask, mind still spinning.

_She looks a bit like her._

But with a lot of royalty thrown in.

Pomp.

"I'm good. Enjoying the break from the Senate." She replied simply.

…

I sip my water to try and fill the awkward silence.

"I know that my being here hasn't exactly helped things." Leia said calmly, breaking the silence.

_Eh…_

I don't know.

I shrug diplomatically. "It's an ideological difference."

"Not one. Many." She said bluntly.

"What do you mean?" I ask.

_It's her versus Mand'alor._

"Well, you've got me. I represent the longstanding leadership of this Rebellion and our stated goal being diplomacy first, with armed conflict what we would like to avoid. And then there's you, your crew, Ahsoka, the Clones and _Mand'alor_ pushing to do something now. Which isn't really possible."

"Whoa. Hold on." I say.

I want to get back to that point.

"Yeah?" Leia asked politely.

"You…why did you call General Tano by her first name?" I ask her.

"Oh, I did say that didn't I? I meant General Tano." Leia said.

"That's not what I asked. I asked why'd you say that?" I repeat myself.

Immediately, the Force gives me a soft tug.

"Oh. I've known her for as long as I can remember. She and my father met back during the Clone Wars."

_WHAT?!_

"So you actually know her then?"

"Yeah! She's actually somebody I lean on. She has a lot of real world knowledge that I do not. And she has no problem with me doing that."

"Like her Jedi training?" I probe.

_How much does she actually know?_

I can't just ask her.

"Yeah, she told me some stories about the Old Republic and how she escaped Order 66 because she was on a mission to Onderon at the time. That's how she and Lux met. He took her in."

I…

_That's not what happened._

It kind of fills in some gaps.

But that's not what happened.

"True love." I say quietly.

_Nothing about Skywalker._

…

"I guess. I'm not a real believer in true love. But I probably shouldn't say that. Uhm, congratulations by the way." Leia rambled on.

"For what?" I turn and ask, confused.

"You and the Mandalorian. Sabine I think. I heard you're dating now? Congratulations."

"Thanks." I smile. "How'd you hear?"

_Sabine._

You think.

How about you get to know some names?

We're probably lucky we don't have to wear nametags.

_Sabine, I think…_

"I actually forget. I've just seen you guys and her sister walking around here. It's kind of obvious."

Oh.

"I assume that's how you met _Mand'alor_?" Leia asked me.

I nod.

"I don't know if you know, but that's a really really big deal. He's one of the most important men in the galaxy that isn't in the military or the Emperor's personal stock of advisors."

_Makes sense._

Leader of millions.

"He's a good person I think." I say simply.

She and him just don't get along.

"I don't doubt that. His view is just a bit impractical."

"Oh, I meant to get back to that. Yeah. Why?" I ask her.

"Nothing is possible right now. There…it's difficult to describe." Leia frowned.

"Try me." I suggest.

Leia bit her lip.

"Okay. There's the Emperor. Then there's a secret right hand that few know about named Darth Vader. I don't know what he does, or who he is or seen him in person. But apparently he exists."

_Huh._

I don't think she knows that I've seen him.

Three times now.

"After that is the Imperial Senate, which really is just pointless. We're the Emperor's rubber stamp if he wants it. It doesn't serve any actual purpose. Then there's the largest military this galaxy has ever seen, in peacetime or wartime. It's too much to move right now. Too much for a long time."

That…makes sense.

"I know it sounds pessimistic, but I'm trying to be realistic. I know there will have to be a military campaign at some point probably. I'd just rather not jump into that right away and avoid a civil war."

_A Civil War._

Sophie.

Alderaan.

Leia glanced back to me.

"I know I sound crazy. You can tell me that I sound crazy."

"You don't sound crazy. It makes sense." I reassure her.

_It does._

"You say that, but I tried saying the same thing back on the Medical Frigate and you and your crew and the Clones and everyone got mad at me!" Leia said, suddenly getting angry.

"It just sounded like you didn't know what needs to be done."

"I do know. I've seen too many refugee camps and victims of the Empire's genocides. Which is what they are."

_Doesn't surprise me._

"Crap, did you not know about that?" She suddenly said.

I shake my head.

"The Empire wasn't anything different back on my home planet. Doesn't surprise me."

Leia's expression quickly softened.

"Where's your home?"

"Lothal. It's a small planet. You've probably never heard of it."

Instead, Leia frowned.

"No, I know your "representative"." She said, making her fingers into actual air quotes. "He's womanizing scum."

_Yup._

"That's him." I say lightly, getting Leia to laugh.

"Are your parents still there? I've never asked how you found us."

_Blast._

"No actually. My parents died when I was eight. Years ago. Kanan just kind of found me and saved me from who knows what." I admit.

_Probably a lot of trouble._

I had a lot of close calls.

Especially right before I found Kanan.

I needed that shipment I stole from him and Zeb.

"How…How'd you survive?" Leia asked, looking apprehensive.

"Stayed on the streets. Picked pockets and stuff. I'm not proud of it, but I had to survive." I say, looking to Leia.

Leia immediately avoided my eyes.

"What about your parents? How are they?" I ask, changing the topic.

_Parents are easy._

Just not for me.

"Oh. Uhm…I'm actually adopted. Both of my parents died in the Clone Wars. I never met them. Daddy adopted me right after I was born and inducted me into the Alderaan royalty."

_Adopted._

…

…

This IS Leia.

"Really? How'd that go?" I ask curiously.

"It went well. By now I'm fully integrated and everything."

I nod politely, then sip my water again.

_Nothing really else to say._

"Anyway…I'm sorry if I've made any of this awkward to you. Or offended you." Leia said sincerely.

"You didn't mean it. I get it now." I reason with her.

"I know…but this is my first time doing this. I don't really know what I'm doing. And I'm just messing up right and left. Whether it's you or somebody else."

_It's not quite her fault then._

"It's your first time though. Don't be so hard on yourself."

"This may be our ONLY chance though. I have to get it right." Leia said emphatically, before my comm chimed.

Shoot.

"Ezra." I say, pressing the receiver.

"You're late…"

_Haar'chak._

"Sorry…" I bow my head as Leia gives me a sympathetic look.

"Get here. Everyone's waiting on you." Kanan said sternly, by softly.

"On my way." I say, then cut off the transmission.

"Sorry." Leia said looking nervous.

"It's fine. I'll see you before you leave. Tomorrow right?" I ask.

Leia nodded.

_It's late._

Like 9 at night.

I turn to leave and am almost out the door when Leia calls out my name.

"Ezra!"

I turn back to her.

"Yeah?"

"I…I'll leave you my comm number. Just in case you need anything. I want to help."

_That's nice of her._

"Thanks. I appreciate that." I smile at her, then dash out the door and up the stairs.

Once I'm on the right floor, I jog inside.

"Okay, I'm here…" I say, walking right to where Ahsoka and Kanan are standing and talking.

"Hey Ezra." Ahsoka smiled at me, while Kanan gave me a smirk.

This is practice.

_But it's also to calm Sophie down._

Just in case I have to actually fight somebody when she's around, everyone made a consensus decision to let Sof see me in action in a controlled setting where I won't get hurt.

She joined Sabine and I at the shooting range yesterday. It was a good time.

_She kept pestering Sabine to let her shoot with her blasters._

Sabine absolutely refused, to the point of driving Sophie to tears.

In fairness, her mom said no.

_Sof knew that._

"You ready? Or you need a minute?" Kanan asked me.

"I'm good. Would like a drink real quick though." I tell him.

Ahsoka simply nodded in the direction of the water fountain.

I walk over there and fill up a cup, then sip on it while walking towards my spot.

_What's with the crates?_

There's crates where there shouldn't be crates.

"Where'd these crates come from?" I turn back and ask Ahsoka.

"Shipped em in. They're foam so we can throw them."

_Oh._

More realistic.

I'm guessing the "No Force Pushing" rule is now out the window.

_I like it._

I smile, then walk over to a crate and push it lightly.

Yup, that's foam.

I smile and pace back to my spot, trying to ignore everybody's eyes on me.

Sabine and Sophie are over there.

Rex and Echo.

Sabine's mom.

Lux.

And Kanan's going to join them.

_It's me versus Ahsoka._

The last few sparring sessions haven't been great.

The first one was against Kanan. I made a mess of it.

_Well, of the ending._

I thought Kanan jabbed at me low. I SWEAR I saw a flash of blue.

I dodged it, then vaulted over him, thinking it was safe because he just stabbed and missed.

Nope.

I was completely wrong, he cut me in half and I crashed down to the ground in a heap.

Bruised my hip pretty good, not to mention my pride.

Kanan yelled at me for about ten minutes about not jumping, then made me run for awhile.

Last time was also against Kanan, and due to my bad loss the previous time we went at half speed, practicing moves that I can use in certain situations.

Like how to get out of a corner.

How to knock your opponent off balance.

All that stuff.

I gulp down the rest of my water, then hand my cup to Kanan as he stretched out his hand.

"Thank you." I smile at him.

"Can't have you fight with a cup in your hand now…" He joked, getting me to laugh.

Then silence quickly fell on the room.

…

"Okay. You both know the rules. No head hunting, no overaggressive kicked or punches. Throw ONLY the foam crates. Ezra."

"Gotcha." I smile back at him.

Sof lights up and waves quickly.

I smile at her before turning back to Ahsoka.

"This area over here is out of bounds. Any questions?"

I shake my head.

Ahsoka's demeanor is stoic.

"Then whenever you two are ready."

Ahsoka's eyes lock onto mine, then after a moment she smirks.

I simply let out a breath and try to focus.

_Don't get too fancy._

Don't do something stupid to lose right away.

Let's get a couple of blade locks in, then fight.

_Use my feet._

I see Ahsoka start to go for her lightsaber and I pull mine into my hand, then double check my blade is on 'Safety".

_It's goo—_

A sudden warning from the Force causes me to glance up and see that Ahsoka's on me.

SHOOT.

I spin out and away from her, then ignite my lightsaber and block a slice at my shoulder.

_She opened herself up._

Immediately I plant my foot in her chest and send her flying about six feet away.

"That's a cheap stunt right there! I was making sure my blade was on safety!" I call out to her, advancing on her.

"Gotta be ready." Ahsoka smiled at me.

_Yeah right._

I roll my eyes, then quickly jab at her off hand.

I need to make this a one on one fight.

_I can win that._

I've done it before.

Ahsoka flicked her wrist and easily blocked it, then jabbed back at me.

I get the tip of my blade on it and deflect it away harmlessly, then slide back and to my left.

"Ezra…" I hear Kanan call out to me as Ahsoka steps forward to engage me.

Slice.

Block.

Jab.

I parry it and miss her off hand again while continuing to walk backwards.

_I know exactly where I am._

Two feet to my left and everybody is too close for comfort.

But right now, we're fine.

Ahsoka smirked then swung both of her blades at my ankles.

I block, then spin back again.

Oh no.

_I shouldn't have—_

WHAM!

Ahsoka's foot lands perfectly on my jaw and I stagger back to gain my footing as the world is split in two.

I try to take a step back to give myself time to recover, but stumble again.

Then a hand grabbed my shoulder to steady me, then spun me towards them.

_It's Rex._

"I shouldn't have spun…I knew it the second I did it." I say, as Rex is looking right into my eyes.

"Then don't spin." I hear Kanan said airily.

"It's kind of hard to stop yourself halfway thru. I knew I opened myself up." I reply.

_That should be enough on that._

I knew it the second I did it, that I just messed up.

And Ahsoka made me pay.

"He's good." Rex said simply, then pushed me away.

"It's his glass jaw…" I hear Echo joke, getting a couple of laughs.

I shake my head, then reignite my lightsaber and put some distance between myself and everyone else.

_Let's not do that again._

"Ready when you are dancer boy." Ahsoka smiled at me.

I bank my annoyance until I hear a high pitched laugh.

_Then I can't help but smile._

I quickly hop into a jab.

Slice.

Block.

Riposte.

Ahsoka easily dodged it, then threw an elbow at my chest.

I block it with my forearm, then push her away a couple of steps.

Ahsoka raises her hand to grab a crate with—

Now.

I quickly let out a push, then jab at her.

Ahsoka got caught off guard and flew back onto her butt about ten feet away.

I smile and advance on her.

"Clever…" I hear Ahsoka mutter before I slice at her.

She easily evaded it and jabbed at me.

I sidestep it and strike downward at her.

Ahsoka brought both blades up to block me.

I smile as Ahsoka pushes me away, then looked around.

_Crate._

We both reach out and grab the same foam crate.

Then we both try to push it at one another.

…

The Force quickly bunched up around the crate as we both focus in on it.

_C'mon…_

The crate suddenly rips into two large pieces that immediately fly out at us.

Mine takes me right out, and knocks me onto the floor.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Ahsoka do a flip and stay on her feet.

Then smoothly leap over towards me.

_Oh crap._

I try to scramble to my feet, but Ahsoka's too fast for me.

I barely get myself off the ground and my lightsaber ignited before Ahsoka's pressing her advantage.

Pushing me down.

_I'm only supporting myself with one hand._

I can't do this for very long.

Wait.

I glance down at Ahsoka's feet.

_Hah!_

I sweep my legs under hers, causing her to land flat on her back.

I pop to my feet and point my blade at her.

I…

I win.

Ahsoka simply looks at my blade for three beats.

Then I shut it off and help her to her feet.

Immediately, Ahsoka grabs her lightsabers and throws them across the room and SCREAMED something at the top of her lungs.

_I didn't recognize the language._

"JEEZ AHSOKA! COME ON…" Ahsoka scowled, then flippantly pulled her blades back to her.

I nervously start back to everyone else, not knowing what else to do.

I didn't think she'd be so mad.

"Nice recovery." Kanan smiled at me.

"Thanks."

"Now you're thinking!" Rex smiled, then clapped me on the shoulder.

I glance over at Sabine to see her and Sophie beaming.

_Beside them are their mom and Mand'alor._

When'd he get here?

"What'd you think?" I hear Kanan ask Ahsoka, and quickly turn back to look at them.

"Stupid, cheap mistake by me. I should have seen that coming. Bad positioning by me. Really lazy." Ahsoka spit out, looking disgusted.

"Give him some credit now." Lux said diplomatically to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka simply turned and scowled at him.

"It was good. It's what we want. I'm just furious that I didn't see it coming."

"It was late. I didn't think he was going to do it, then it looked like he realized it and immediately did it." Kanan said simply.

"No reaction time." _Mand'alor_ spoke up.

"Exactly." Kanan nodded.

Ahsoka shook her head and let out a breath.

"Good job Ezra. You really did do good. I…I'm just mad at myself." Ahsoka sneered while looking at the floor.

"It's fine." I say simply.

_I understand._

She'll be calmer later and have more analysis.

"Go get some rest. Watch something with the girls. Enjoy the night." Kanan smiled at me, then pushed me towards Sabine and Sophie.

I stumble briefly, then Sophie runs and tackles me.

"You did great!"

I laugh and smile at her.

"Thanks."

"C'mon." Mrs. Wren said, causing _Mand'alor_ to rise and follow us out.

The door quietly shuts before anybody speaks up again.

"Really good job Ezra." Sabine's mom says, then smiling at me.

"Yeah. Looked great." Sabine winked.

"Count Dooku." _Mand'alor_ said.

Sabine and I simply look over to him.

"Yup." I say.

"I never saw him fight." Mrs. Wren said simply.

"Who?" Sophie asked.

"Bad guy. Long, long ago. Red lightsaber. Not blue like Ezra's." _Mand'alor_ clarified. "Is that by design? I admit I don't know too much about lightsaber combat."

"Yeah. There's six styles. I'm style number two. Ahsoka is a modification of style four." I explain, as we start down the stairs.

Mrs. Wren and _Mand'alor_ are on the second level.

"Why?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"My style is for somebody that isn't super strong. It relies on precision."

"You're not weak Ezra." _Mand'alor_ jumped in quickly.

"And you threw some elbows. It wasn't all lightsaber waving." Mrs. Wren added.

"Yeah. We haven't really decided whether to cut that out or not. I like it."

_I like being able to bust somebody's face open with an elbow._

I've never been able to really do that to anybody before. I was always too weak.

"It's your decision. Your style." Sabine spoke up.

"But I don't know as much as they do." I answer diplomatically.

"But it's YOUR style." _Mand'alor_ said simply as we reach the second floor.

I shrug as Sophie moves to hug her Mom.

"Be good. Don't kick or stay up too late."

"I won't!" Sophie chimes happily as she hugs her mom.

_It's her sleepover night._

She's staying with Sabine and I tonight.

I think I'm going to be sleeping on the floor.

Oh well.

"Night." Mrs. Wren said as _Mand'alor_ waved graciously.

"Night!" Sabine said, before the door closed behind them.

I look down to Sophie to see her smiling.

"Ride?" She smiled at me.

I jokingly sigh, then bend down and let her climb onto my back.

"YAYYYYY!" Sophie cheered.

"C'mon you two. Let's go…" Sabine sighed, sounding tired, causing Sophie to giggle.

(A/N: Sorry about Monday guys. In my defense, I had a paper due Sunday night, a test Monday afternoon and another paper Tuesday. Bad, bad week. But how about that trailer?! I swung and missed on Barriss, but hey, I got a little bit about Sabine's past right. And you know I'm going to use Sabine's big line at some point. And if you didn't now you do. Thank you to everybody for reading, and your patience. Thank you. It truly means a lot to me. –James)


	60. Log Book

I set my plate on the counter where the dishwashers like it and walk back to Sabine and I's table.

Dinner was nice and quiet. She got a sandwich. I got a salad with ranch.

It was good.

_Nothing to write home about._

Nervously, I glance down at my comm.

No new messages.

"I'm back." Sabine chimed happily in front of me.

I glance up and see that she's smiling at me.

"Got your caf?" I ask.

Sabine nodded, then slipped her hand in with mine and started towards the door.

We walk into the hall, then start up the stairs.

"You sure you want to dig into this?"

I nod.

"Yup. I don't see how we can't."

Sabine frowned, but keeps walking.

"Ezra…you may not find what you want to. The truth is never easy."

"I know. But I feel like this is…a vast conspiracy. What you said the other day about the publishing of that article being an inside job got my brain going." I reply as we walk onto the fifth floor.

Communications and monitoring.

"Womp Womp…"

"Hey Chopper." Sabine smiled as Chopper wheeled into view from behind a bank of servers.

Chopper made a series of beeps and boops, then Sabine laughed.

"No Chop. We're just up here from some research."

Chopper made one long, disdainful noise then wheeled away.

Sabine smiled and walked over to the farther terminal from the door.

"Can you get in?" I ask.

"Yeah. That's not the problem. I can find a way in and a place that we're supposedly getting in from. But I don't know where we're looking for." Sabine frowned while putting a data spike inside the holo.

_Day to Day._

Something in the day to day activities leading up to Empire Day and Order 66 has to tell us what actually happened.

"Let's just start with the week of Empire Day. Not obvious places to look. Speeder records on Imperial City. Troop movements. All that stuff has to be public domain." I reply.

Sabine bit her lip while typing rapidly.

I watch for a minute as her fingers fly across the keyboard.

_I should probably get a drink._

This is going to take a while.

As Sabine continues to type, I walk over to the water dispenser and pour a cup for each of us.

When I get back over to her, Sabine barely glances up from the holo.

"Can you put it over to the side? I'm almost in." She asked me, then began typing again.

"Sure."

I set her water over to the side and try to decipher what's on the screen.

_Intelligence Syst—_

_Access_

Multiple logos that I don't recognize.

Then abruptly, it stops on an empty browser.

"You want to start with the military ships that came in and out of Imperial City right before the "Proclamation of A New Order"?" Sabine asked, looking up at me.

"Yeah. Is that the document that changed things legally?" I reply.

"No. It was a speech. I watched it like 10 times at the Academy."

"Why?"

"I had to. It was the Birth of the Empire." Sabine replied flatly. "You've never heard it?"

I shake my head.

_I just now listened to all of Anakin Skywalker's interview with that reporter._

"It's…I don't know what it is. But you should watch it. Maybe that will make you think of something." Sabine said to me, then turned back to the holo.

I take a step back and lean on a desk.

It might be interesting.

_Maybe I can get an audio version and listen to it while I'm working out or something._

The Force tugging for my attention in Sabine's direction causes me to see her looking intently at something.

_She's…interested in something._

"What's up?" I ask politely, stepping up next to her.

"The 501st. It got called onto Coruscant the day before Empire Day."

_WHAT!?_

"Why…?" I ask leaning in to take a closer look.

16:5:22 – Transfer of 501st Legion of the Grand Army of the Republic to Coruscant

"Rex had to be gone by then right?" Sabine asked me.

I nod.

"He said he had that surgery 5 days beforehand."

"Yeah…look at this too." Sabine pointed to another entry.

16:5:22 212 Attack Battalion dispatched to Utapau.

_Utapau._

"That's the same planet that Rex said was the last battle of the war."

"Ye—"

_Whoa!_

I whip around, yank my lightsaber off my belt and activate it just as the door behind us opened.

"Whoa! It's us. Just us." Lux yelped as Ahsoka and Kanan jogged into the room, followed by Hera with a blaster in her hand.

"You guys okay?" Kanan immediately asked us, rushing over.

Sabine popped to her feet and nodded.

"Yeah. We're fine. Just doing some homework." I say, deactivating my lightsaber and clipping it back onto my belt.

"Why'd you come running?" Sabine quickly asked.

"The Force…it warned Ahsoka and I that something was going on up here." Kanan replied as Ahsoka is peering over my shoulder.

"What…homework?" She asked, sounding apprehensive.

"We're investigating the end of the Clone Wars." I say, as Rex and Echo walk up.

Suddenly, both Kanan and Ahsoka look worried.

"I'd be careful where you dig with that stuff." Kanan said simply.

Ahsoka looked back to the log behind us.

I probe with the Force quickly.

_What?_

I probe again and look right at Ahsoka.

She's…

_She's in lockdown mode._

I can't read anything.

It's like she's not even there.

Her expression is unchanging and stern.

_Just like it was after we saw Vader and went to Onderon._

She didn't say a word.

She just…left.

"—didn't you say we just lost an operative investigating this stuff? Why weren't we in that meeting?" Sabine asked, voice rising.

"We thought you'd be bored by the meeting. Most of them are boring with nothing of note."

"Well no more of that. I think I've earned that, and Ezra's definitely earned that. I want in those meetings."

Ahsoka seemed to come out of her reverie and looked over to Sabine.

"We'll let you in the next one and see how it goes. No promises after that." She said quietly.

Kanan's expression darkened and his eyebrows snapped down.

"You okay?"

Ahsoka nodded, but stayed silent.

"What made you guys even look in the first place?" Echo asked, as Rex is looking at Ahsoka with a concerned expression.

"I found an article from the last year of the war from some guy asking if the Jedi were the reason the Republic couldn't win the war." Sabine replied.

"I remember that article." Kanan said.

Ahsoka let out a laugh.

"I had to do a shoot for that. Master Skywalker got interviewed. I got shown off as the beacon of hope." She said airily, then walking over and beginning to type rapidly on the holo.

"I don't recall this." Rex said simply.

"You probably were too busy fighting Seps Captain." Echo said jokingly, causing Rex to turn and frown.

"I think I would have read an interview with Ahsoka and General Skywalker featured."

"Nope. You were off fighting when it was published." Ahsoka said, then pulled up the article.

_With more pictures._

"I didn't see those pictures when I looked at this." Sabine said.

The first one is Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka, walking in a hanger together.

_She…_

She's a lot younger.

Younger than me.

"How old were you?" I ask Ahsoka.

"16. A very old 16." Ahsoka replied.

"Seriously? They sent a 16 year old off to fight in that war?" Hera asked in disbelief.

"That war?" Rex asked.

Lux simply smiled.

"You should have seen Ahsoka back then. She and Sabine's mom got into it a couple of times."

"They met in the war?" Sabine immediately asked.

Lux smiled and nodded.

"She captured Ahsoka."

"It was when she was still in Death Watch. She didn't really do anything." Ahsoka said reassuringly, while maintaining her stern demeanor.

"I didn't mean it like that. I mean…I've seen what the Empire can do. They…that guy we saw on Ord Mantell. He and some other guy came in and _flattened_ us. On our home planet." Hera said quietly to Ahsoka. "Sending a 16 year old to face that is inexcusable."

The entire room turned and looked.

_What?!_

"You'd seen that guy before?" Kanan asked, eyes wide.

"From a distance. Yes. I didn't want to believe that it was him." Hera replied quietly.

The room suddenly went silent.

_I can feel Hera's…pain._

That was a bad time.

Kanan wrapped his arms around her and Hera let out a sniffle.

"I'm sorry. I didn't mean to get so emotional…" Hera said into Kanan's chest.

I look over to Sabine helplessly.

I've only seen Hera like this one other time.

_When Kanan got captured._

"Don't feel bad. The Empire's hurt us all." Kanan reassured her quietly. Sabine shrugged, then glanced back to Ahsoka.

I turn around and see that Ahsoka's looking at a holo of herself.

Both of her lightsabers are ignited.

_Backwards grip._

She's wearing a red…outfit I guess.

There's rings of fabric on her arms.

The main part goes all the way up her neck.

_It looks uncomfortable._

I glance from that picture, to Ahsoka now.

_Sleeker._

Now it's all light blue and slightly polished metal.

It has an old, royalty feel to it.

Darcy wasn't all wrong when she guess Ahsoka was royalty.

"What do you think Commander?" Rex asked her, causing everyone to come back to reality.

"I think we need to look at what Ezra and Sabine were looking at. There's obviously something there for the Force to react in such a way to Kanan and I." Ahsoka said simply, then closed out of the news story entirely, bringing up the log again.

"Where were you?" Ahsoka turned to Sabine and I.

"We had just seen that the Battle of Utapau and the 501st battalion both moved on the same day, the last one before Empire Day."

"The 501st moved?" Rex asked, stepping forward and looking at the log.

Sabine pointed out the entry.

Rex simply frowned and put his hand under his nose as a rest.

"That's…weird."

"Wasn't that your battalion Rex?" Kanan asked him.

"Yes. I wasn't there. Ahsoka and I had just finished fighting in the Siege of Mandalore a few days beforehand. At that time, I was most likely recovering after having my inhibitor chip removed." Rex answered.

"That's also General Skywalker's personal battalion." Echo added.

"Personal?" Hera asked.

"Most battalions stayed with one Jedi General." Echo explained.

"You fought in the Siege of Mandalore?" Sabine asked Ahsoka.

Ahsoka smiled and nodded.

"Yeah. It probably was the worst fighting I ever saw. Clan on Clan violence. Anarchy. Civil War. It was the worst I saw a planet."

"How'd you escape?" Kanan asked.

"I didn't. I…found Lux in time to avoid the first rounds of the Purge." Ahsoka said, pausing at the end.

…

"I moved on to where the 501st went once they were planet side." Rex called out to everyone.

"And?" Kanan pressed him to continue.

Rex didn't respond, and instead turned around to Ahsoka.

"Commander…they went to the Temple."

"WHAT!?" Kanan yelped.

Ahsoka simply set her saw as Echo jumped to look at the holo.

"—impossible. Does it say who commanded for them to go to the Temple? Because that's when—"

"I know." Rex answered him.

"When what?" Sabine asked Rex.

"They marched on the Temple. Order 66, in the name of freedom due to the supposed insurrection." Kanan answered flatly.

I turn and see Kanan looking somber.

"No Commanding officer. Or Jedi. Nothing." Rex growled.

"That's impossible." Echo said.

"I know that. Somebody must have led them to march on the Temple. They wouldn't have just marched up there."

"Check the logs from the Senate building." Ahsoka suggested.

Rex immediately began typing.

"Had to be Vader. Right?" Lux asked Ahsoka.

Ahsoka shrugged, looking exhausted suddenly.

"I don't know. I'd never thought of looking at that day on such a minute level." She said then turned to Sabine and I.

"Good job."

"Thanks." Sabine smiled.

I grudgingly smile at her.

_I don't feel like this is something I should be thanked for._

I glance back to Kanan and see that Hera's hugging him and resting her head on his chest.

Lux is eying his wife warily.

Ahsoka's expression is still dark.

Echo and Rex are pouring over the logs.

"The plot thickens. General Skywalker went from the Senate, to the Temple, and back to the Senate." Rex calls out.

Ahsoka let out a heavy sigh.

"Okay."

"After…Masters Windu, Fisto, Kiin and Tolar went to the Senate." Rex finished.

_Oh._

I freeze.

And the room is silent.

…

"Why?" Kanan asked Ahsoka.

"That sounds like an assault to be honest." Lux said.

"That's a lot of firepower Ahsoka. Master Windu." Rex said simply.

_That's the guy that was so harsh in his interview._

Ahsoka's expression stayed the same.

"The Chancellor did say that he was…attacked. By Jedi Masters looking to overthrow him and then the Senate."

"You seriously can't believe that's what happened though." I say.

That's IMPOSSIBLE.

Jedi don't go for power! That's the Sith!

The Jedi didn't suddenly all become Sith. That's not possible.

"That's what the official account says. Emperor Palpatine was permanently scarred before being saved by his guards." Ahsoka said flatly.

"Ahsoka!" Kanan protested before Ahsoka put her hand up.

"I think we should stop here. I…" She began, then stopped herself.

…

Ahsoka took a shaky breath, then steadied herself.

"Everything we just talked about is classified. Under the highest order. If you talk about this outside of this room, you're out of the Rebellion." Ahsoka said firmly.

"But—" I start.

"No. Whatever happened looks like it has been covered up. None of this makes sense. But all of it is very, very bad. I'm going to look into it myself. In the meantime, this isn't to be looked into further. Many people have died digging in this hole." Ahsoka said, then paused.

"I will not willingly let anyone here continue to dig when it's a death sentence. If I find something incriminating…then I might tell you all."

"Might?!" Sabine yelped.

"Good night Sabine. Ezra." Ahsoka said calmly, nodding to both of us.

I don't back down, and simply stand there for a moment.

_This is it?_

This is how this discussion ends?

We just found out the location of her Master, RIGHT BEFORE Order 66.

RIGHT WHEN some powerful Jedi moved in on somebody in the Senate.

_Apparently the Chancellor._

"Goodnight Ezra." Ahsoka said calmly.

I relent, turning around and starting to the door.

On a whim, I probe out again and find that Ahsoka's just as she was before.

_Hidden._

I shake my head, then Sabine and I silently start down the stairs.

About the second floor, I hear Kanan and Hera's voices begin to follow us down the stairs.

_They must have been booted too._

I don't hear anyone else before Sabine and I walk to the ground floor, then outside.

Neither of us speaks for a while as we walk home.

I can't believe this.

"Do you think we messed up?" Sabine asked me, breaking the silence.

I shake my head, then turn to her.

"No. We just asked a question."

"You. You asked the question."

"You just said we!" I counter.

"We in that we dug too much. You in that you started the digging." Sabine replied.

"So you're not culpable?" I ask.

"Well that's the maddest I've ever seen Ahsoka! Obviously that whole time isn't something she wants to rehash. It's almost like she knows what happens next."

I can't stop myself from frowning at her.

"Well yeah. Her Master died. All of her fellow Jedi died. Everyone died. The Republic basically died." I say bluntly.

Sabine opened her mouth as we reach the front door, but decided against it.

I unlock the door and follow her into our room, then start changing into more comfortable clothes.

"I don't know Ezra. I just don't want Ahsoka to kick anyone out of the order. She and Lux have known my parents for a really long time." Sabine turned to me, looking down.

"We won't talk. Simple."

"But what if somebody decides to go digging for themselves?" She asked me.

"Nobody will. Not now."

_My desire's gone from it._

It's in the past I guess.

If Ahsoka wants to tell any of us more, then we'll learn more.

Clearly we accidentally overstepped our bounds.

"I guess we've found the line of what we can and can't look into." Sabine said.

"Yeah." I agree.

"I can't believe she was at the Siege of Mandalore."

"Why?" I turn and ask.

"Mom once told me a story of how she thought the entire planet was going to destroy itself. Half the planet was on fire, with people on both sides of the conflict. Some supported the government led by the Separatists, other followed the Republic. Then there was Mandalorians that wanted Mandalore to be completely free and fought for that cause. Mom said it was madness that raged until the Empire came."

_Wow._

"I didn't read about that." I say quietly.

"You're not going to find it in a book. Mandalorians aren't supposed to spill other Mandalorian's blood unless there is a really, really good reason." Sabine said quietly, then shrugged.

"Did she fight?" I ask.

Sabine cocked her head to one side and smiled at me.

"No. Remember, I'm just barely older than you. She was about to have me."

_Oh yeah._

"I forgot about that." I admit quietly.

Mom and Dad were on Lothal, doing whatever.

Sabine's mom and Dad were busy prepping for their new daughter.

In that chaos.

"Turn the light off. Will you?" Sabine asked gently.

I silently obey, then slip off my shirt and slide under the covers next to her.

Sabine immediately curled close to me.

"Not right now…later. We will. Just…let's stay like this for a little bit." Sabine whispered into my ear.

"Okay." I whisper back, and listen to the silence.

(A/N: Hi everyone. Sorry about the week in between updates. It was a unfortunate combination of more tests in the first half of the week, then this chapter not turning out right at the end of the week. Hope you enjoy. Things are back to normal for the time being. See you Friday and thank you for reading.)


	61. At Long Last, Long Lost

_One more._

I gather my remaining strength and consolidate it while floating the weight back to me.

Okay.

I set the weight down, then spin on my back heel while lifting the weight with the Force using my right hand and use my momentum in conjunction with the Force to send the weight into the padded wall.

Done.

_Whew._

I laugh to myself, then walk to the weight while lifting the weight to where I can grab it without bending down.

I grab it, then pull my water bottle to me and empty it while setting my weight back in it's place.

It's about 10 minutes until 8.

I'm due to report in for the meeting then. Guess I ended my training just in time.

Hitting the lights on the way out, I start towards the stairs and the meeting room.

When I get to the fourth floor, I hear Echo or Rex call my name.

"Ezra!"

I glance back and see that it's actually both of them, along with Sabine.

"Hi. How are you guys?" I ask, trying to hide my exhaustion.

_It'll be nice to just sit down for a minute in this meeting._

"Good. Just helping Sabine with a weapon her mother gave her."

Oh.

"That's cool. When'd you get it?" I smile at Sabine.

Sabine gives me a embarrassed look.

_She didn't mention anything about working on a weapon._

"Right before Mom left. She gave it to me, thinking it could help me. She said that it used to be her favorite weapon back in the Clone Wars."

_Used to?_

"Okay. Have you had much trouble with it?" I ask, turning back and continuing down the stairs.

"Ehhh." Sabine waffled, before Rex and Echo.

"It's not the weapon that's been trouble."

Huh.

"Really? A weapon Sabine couldn't figure out?" I tease her.

"That's why we're here." Rex said as I reach the room where the meeting is.

I step aside and pull open the door with a flick of my wrist.

"Thank you." Echo said politely.

Sabine gently smiled at me before walking past and allowing me to follow.

"Ahh, there you all are. You're just in time." Ahsoka smiled.

Senator Organa, a man I vaguely recognize from Princess Leia's speech at Safe Zone along with two other I don't recognize are on the holo.

Kanan, Hera, Ahsoka, Lux, Zeb and Commander Sato are here on our end.

_I guess this is it._

Smaller than I expected.

I guess I do know all the major players pretty much.

"Commander." Rex nodded in Commander Sato's direction.

"Captain." Commander Sato replied before turning back to the holo.

"Ready to begin when you all are."

"We're ready. Go ahead Jun." Senator Organa said graciously.

"Alright. Soldier, lock the doors." Commander Sato said, turning to the near door.

A soldier came from nowhere to bolt the door shut, then moved to stand guard.

I spin around and see that another soldier has locked the way we came in.

"This is Meeting Number #0291 pertaining to the actions and intentions of this Rebel Collective and its Allies. All parties are here. Colonel Ackbar, you may proceed."

_Ackbar._

That's his name.

"Thank you Commander. As of this moment, I am very proud to report that the Mon Calamari government led by King Lee-Char pledge their support for our aims here in undermining the Galactic Empire and restoring democracy and peace to the galaxy. Under the table of course. But we have their support."

"Wonderful Colonel. Congratulations. And thank you for your efforts in persuading the good King." Senator Organa smiled at Colonel Ackbar.

"No thanks needed. I didn't really do that much in the end. It was more a secrecy issue, like it always is."

"King Lee-Char is still in charge?" Ahsoka asked, smiling at the end.

Suddenly, Ackbar smiled as well.

"Yes, he is. And he has grown into a fine leader."

"I'm glad to hear it." Ahsoka smiled at the Colonel.

"How about movements into the Unknown Regions? Do we know anything else about that?" Lux asked the room at large.

Senator Organa, Colonel Ackbar and everyone else on the holo shook their heads.

"Nothing. As you all know, information is hard to get about the Unknown Regions. Whatever the Emperor sent all those Star Destroyers out there for, we have no new information about them."

"And we cannot send anyone to go gather intelligence because we have no ties out there. We'd be going in blind, most likely to a hostile situation." One of the men I don't know spoke up.

"Agreed. For now, we need to focus on what we know and can have a modicum of control over." Ahsoka said. "How about the actions of "The 6"?"

"The 6?" Sabine asked quietly.

"The Denon Imperials that defected. That's their new name."

_The Adjustments to "The 6"._

I like it.

"Well, as of their last status update, they've run into a bit of a snag. They've ascertained that the Shadow Collective is indeed using the planet Alsaksan as a funnel for their funds. But they could discover no more without risking their cover being blown." Hera said.

"They've moved onto Imperial City and have entrenched themselves in the undercity for the time being. They've gone back to looking into "Operation Remnant." Zeb spoke up.

Of course.

_It's their bread and butter._

"Anything on that end?" Kanan asked Zeb.

"A little bit. They have nailed down that the project is indeed involved with crystals and some sort of weapon. They performed surveillance on a factory that was producing parts for it. Problem is: The scale is massive. Too big to be practical."

"How big?" Ahsoka asked Zeb.

"Operative Ridley reported 16 tributary shafts have been produced in the past 6 years."

"Years?!" Ackbar blurted out

_That's way too long._

No use in a weapon that takes that long to build.

"Yes."

"That makes no sense. Do we have any sort of specs on these tributary shafts?" Senator Organa asked.

"We've got them, but Operative Ridley didn't want to transmit the information over the holo. Thought it would be a easy tip off."

"Sounds like we're dealing with a big number." Echo said.

"For a weapon based off crystals? It's a superlaser I think. Just like on a Star Destroyer." Rex hypothesized.

"But those only have two tributary shafts and two support shafts." Echo retorted.

"Could it just be the place where they produce these shafts?" Kanan asked. "Like 2 per laser per Star Destroyer."

"So 8." Sabine said, doing the math.

"Possibly. There's a lot we don't know right now." Ahsoka spoke up.

"There is one more item of interest here Senator." Zeb turned to face Senator Organa pointedly.

"Go ahead General."

Zeb let out a massive sigh before speaking up.

"Operative Ridley reported in on a name that she said jumped out to her. A troublesome name they heard that was working on this project at some point in time."

"Name?" Kanan asked, looking irritated.

"Zeb, you're being obtuse." Hera said bluntly.

"Well there's no easy way to say it!" Zeb snapped.

"What's the name?" Senator Organa asked calmly.

"Mira Bridger."

_WHAT!?_

I whip around to face him as the Force goes crazy.

Whoa.

"That's impossible. Can't be the same Mira Bridger." Kanan blurted out.

Zeb shoots me a quick look, before looking away again.

"I'm afraid I don't understand the importance of this name." Colonel Ackbar said calmly.

"I believe that's the name of Ezra's mother. Am I right Ezra?" Ahsoka said gently, causing me to look over to her.

_Everyone's looking at me._

Partially terrified.

"Yeah. But…she and Dad worked with radio waves. That was their thing." I say calmly.

Somehow.

_I don't believe it._

This makes no sense.

"It says here that a Tseebo…this is confusing." Senator Organa says, reading off a datapad.

"We rescued him off Lothal and brought him to you." Hera explained quickly, turning to Ahsoka.

I…

_I can't believe I'd forgot about that._

That was my first lead.

Until now.

"It says here that Tseebo told us that…Mira and Ephraim Bridger escaped Imperial custody."

ESCAPED!?

"When?" Rex asked.

_YEAH WHEN!?_

"Three years ago." Ahsoka answered quietly.

WHAT!?

"And we never heard about this…why?" Kanan asked simply.

"We were all a little busy." Ahsoka replied.

"They're my parents! Three years is a lot better than ten!" I snap at her.

_She…_

She kind of hid this information from me!

Granted I didn't look for it, but still!

_I forgot completely!_

"I know Ezra. I'm sorry. But that's literally all we have. Tseebo said they got off planet. Then nothing."

"So that's it?" Sabine asked. "You just dropped it?"

"We don't know where they went Sabine. We can't devote resources to a manhunt." Lux said simply.

Ahsoka let out a heavy sigh.

"We…deemed the issue closed. We don't know anything about Ezra's parents other than what he told us, and what Tseebo told us. There really isn't any reason to pursue the matter further." Ahsoka said quietly, avoiding my eye.

"That sounds a bit cold to me." Sabine replied calmly.

"There's nothing for the Rebellion to gain. I can see why they did it." Rex said simply.

I turn to face Rex in time for Echo to raise his hands defensively.

"Not that we support it."

Whatever.

"Let's put this discussion on the back burner for now and focus on what we know. The Shadow Collective." Senator Organa stopped the conversation cold.

"They're stuck sir. Until they find a way to figure out how they're moving funds." Zeb answered him.

"Simple. Have us go and pick up supplies from the Shadow Collective." Hera suggested to Senator Organa.

"I like it General Syndulla." Senator Organa smiled.

"Wait, so we'll be trading with these guys?" Kanan asked Hera.

"I don't like the idea of that." Sabine added cautiously.

"We can mark the credits electronically. Find out how they process them, where they process them and where they go from there." Echo said.

"Good plan." Rex clapped him on the shoulder.

"We could even make it a regular thing to get more data." One of the unnamed men suggested.

"I like it. That should be our next move." Senator Organa smiled.

"Alright. When do you want us to head out?" Hera asked, as Kanan frowned at her.

"Let our operative lay the groundwork. Say that we need supplies. We've gotten supplies from the underworld before. They should be receptive to the idea." Senator Organa answered.

"Okay. We can do that."

"Anything else?" Hera turned to Commander Sato.

"Nothing that cannot be put in a data transmission. I'll compose on and sent it out tonight."

"Thank you jun. Senator Organa out." Senator Organa said, then hi holo disappeared.

Rapidly followed by the others.

Numbly, I turn to Sabine.

She smiled at me and moved to hug me.

"Well that was interesting." Zeb said.

Meanwhile Kanan is frowning at Ahsoka.

"I'll say."

"It slipped my mind Kanan. Sorry."

"It's alright. But…he could be mad." Kanan said quietly, then looked to me along with Ahsoka.

"I forgot about the whole thing. But I would have liked to have known." I add.

"You'll be notified." Rex jumped in.

"By the way, we forgot to mention the video "the 6" sent in of those Jedi fighting." Lux spoke up.

"I was thinking Kanan, Ezra and I would look over it together in a day or two." Ahsoka replied.

"Sounds good to me."

"Speaking of plans, Echo and I are going to take the kids and have a quick training session before we call it a night." Rex smiled, then looking to Sabine and I.

_The kids._

I try to hide my scowl as Ahsoka nodded and Kanan shrugged.

"Might as well."

"Alright then. See you all tomorrow then." Echo said, before leading the rest of us out of the room.

I let out a sigh and try to relax, then let out my frustrations with Ahsoka out into the Force.

"It's okay kid. After this mission, I bet they turn you loose to find out what happen with your parents." Rex said coolly, then putting his hand on my shoulder.

"It's not even that. It's…took so long." I say quietly.

_Does it even matter?_

I'm an adult now, legally.

I'm had more time without them in my life then in it.

For better or worse.

Sabine smiled gently over at me, then hugged my side.

"We'll find them. They're okay."

I shrug as we make our way up to the 5th floor, letting the door shut behind us.

"So…what are we doing?" I ask Rex, as Sabine walks towards her helmet and puts it on.

"A bit of a live fire exercise for both of you. Sabine is going to be trying to hit you with her new weapon while you deflect it back. The goal is for one of you to pin the other down in a corner or something." Echo answered, standing beside Rex.

"No lightsaber theatrics from you. You're going to have to blast your way out of this tight spot. Figured you could use the practice."

"Hand to hand combat?" I ask.

"If it gets to that point." Rex replied.

"Which you should really hope it doesn't." Sabine retorted behind me.

I turn back to her and wink, then turn back to Echo and Rex.

"Oh, and your eyes will be closed to start the drill." Echo remembered, lighting up.

_Oh great._

"Do you want to tie one hand behind my back or something? Make it more fun?" I ask him sarcastically.

"Nah. Just trying to get it off to a fair start." Rex smiled.

"Fine. Where do you want me to be?" I jokingly grumble.

Rex grabbed my by the shoulder and steered me to the other side of the room, where there has been some decoratively placed cover here and there in the form of crates.

I close my eyes and feel Rex walk away.

_I've just got to trust in the Force to start this off._

Then…we'll see.

Echo and Rex seem determined to make this as difficult as possible for me.

_I'll just have to prove them wrong._

"Ready when you are over here." Rex called out.

I breathe thru my nose and try to quiet my mind.

The sound of Sabine's feet quieting down tips me off.

Then the Force quickly warns me, and I spin on my toes, then roll behind some crates.

"HOW DID YOU ANTICIPATE THAT?!"

"You didn't tell me I couldn't use the Force! I got a warning!" I tease her, grabbing my blaster off my belt at the same time.

I can't make out Sabine's reply but hear her footsteps off to my left.

I wheel out from behind the crates and fly right past Sabine.

"THWING THWING!"

_What is THAT?!_

I get back into cover and peek out at Sabine.

She's got her fingers on her wrist and isn't anywhere near her blasters.

_That's really weird._

"hah!" I see Sabine light up, before holding down a panel on her wrist, and a yellow bolt comes flying right at me.

"THWING!"

"Missed!" I tease her, then pop out and let loose a few bolts to get her off my back.

_She's creeping up on me._

Sabine briefly ducked back behind a crate before vaulyting over it an getting a clear shot at me.

I quickly shoot at her, but Sabine doesn't even flinch.

She just fires another shot off of her wrist.

"THWING!"

_What?!_

That…

It missed, but it…

It sunk! Like it started at my head level and ended around my waist!

"What is that?!" I yell at her, scrambling to get away.

_Thank goodness that shot was wide._

How would I even block that?

"My new toy!" Sabine popped out, before releasing another volley.

"THWING!"

"THWING!"

"THWING!"

I spin away from the first two, but the last shot hits me in the shin.

_Oh crap._

I try to put enough weight on it to jump, but my leg immediately protests.

Sabine capitalizes on my situation and starts positioning me towards the corner.

I sweep my leg out to try and get her off me, but Sabine simply jumps to avoid my leg and levels her wrist blaster with my chest.

"I win."

"Nope!" I say when she gets close enough for me to push her away.

I'm two steps away when I suddenly go flying into the air before crashing into the wall.

_OW!_

"Now I win." Sabine said simply, walking back over to me.

_Fine._

I roll my eyes and accept her hand to help me up.

"I'm not so sure about that." Rex said simply, with a frown.

"Where was your aggressiveness?" Echo asked me simply.

"Well, it seemed like the point was to test Sabine's new weapon. So I played back."

Immediately, both Rex and Echo frown.

"I'll talk to Commander Tano. That's not how you should have approached that fight. It's no different than a normal fight. You basically laid down." Rex said, soundinh unhappy.

_I…_

I don't think I should say anything.

"A good soldier never lets anything get to him in the moment. Maybe it was a mistake to let him fight after the news about his parents." Echo turned to Rex.

Rex simply shrugged.

"I don't know about that. But I thought Jedi were supposed to be tougher than that. You shouldn't have fought like that Ezra."

"Sorry." I say sheepishly.

"I'll talk to the Commander tomorrow. See what our move is from there." Rex said, then turning to Rex and starting towards the door.

Sabine turned to look at me.

_Great._

Just great.


	62. I Know

"Just now arrived on Imperial City, is the next craze to hit the galaxy!" The advertisement proclaimed boldly.

_I'm sure it has._

Sabine slightly shifted her weight, letting most of it still shift onto my legs then let out a quiet breath.

"Different show?" I ask, guessing that's the source of the sigh.

_We just turned something on so it wouldn't just be the sound of us breathing._

"No. I'm just tired." Sabine replied quietly, before yawning and resting her head on my chest.

"Two more days right?" I ask.

She laughed in reply.

"Yes. It takes two days to kick in. That's what the doctor said back on Polis Massa. It hasn't been a problem so far. You've just got to wait." She replied, smiling deviously at the end.

"But I don't want to wait." I whine jokingly, getting a rise out of her.

Sabine gently whacked my arm before settling back onto my chest.

"You waited for over a year. Now you can't wait three days?"

"Nope."

"You're weak." Sabine replied bluntly.

"In my book, that's not a bad thing." I smile at her.

_It's not._

She's good. What she said was true as it turned out.

Sabine yawned again, then curled closer to me. "Do you mind shutting it off and calling it an early night? I'm exhausted."

I wordlessly comply, plunging the room into darkness before setting the remote on our bedside table.

Sabine pulled the covers closer to us, then grabbed my face and gave me a chaste kiss.

"I promise, you'll be well rewarded for waiting. Just like last time."

_Oh. I liked the night after last time._

I can't help but laugh. "I liked last time."

Thru the darkness I see Sabine smile.

"Good. That was the point." Sabine murmured before curling up to me and closing her eyes.

"Love you." I tell her quietly.

"You too. Stop talking." She replied without moving.

I let out a breath and close my eyes.

_I am tired._

It was a long day. Training with Rex and Echo.

We ran thru combat situations and what I should do. They brought up some old Clone Wars battles they were in and just let me loose.

I got to control everything. The Jedi's movements, namely Skywalker and Ahsoka, the 501st, everyone. The only thing I couldn't do was alter how the droid army reacted.

The first few times I pushed forward, using the 501st and Skywalker and Ahsoka to cut thru their lines like butter. From there we took advantage of their split lines against them in a pincer movement.

Then Rex and Echo changed things up on me. With mines.

Leading to me accidentally blowing up the entire 501st, both Skywalker and Ahsoka and no droids.

Kanan laughed at me, and Ahsoka acted like she was personally offended that I'd kill her.

_Which was an accident, but the point stands._

I enjoyed it, and they said I'd be doing a lot more of this in case I do have to go out and lead troops in a battle. I won't always have Rex and Echo to turn to.

I'll just have me. Which is a comforting thought.

After that, Kanan and Ahsoka had me run around the complex and do agility and reflex drills for over three hours.

Then dinner, weights and blaster deflection. And now…

Sleep.

I tilt my head over and pull Sabine closer to me, then close my eyes.

_I am tired. Long day._

_Tomorrow is leg day and dueling with Kanan._

_Plus whatever Rex and Echo have up their sleeve tomorrow. Probably more mines._

_I'll have to come up with something other than charging up the middle, then working from there._

_It was amazing how the simulation basically had the Jedi be untouchable while also protecting the 501__st__._

_Their blaster deflection allowed me to attack so boldly._

_Maybe I can split Ahsoka and her master off and have them meet in the middle._

_But would that work? Ahsoka definitely wasn't as good as her master._

_Skywalker was a monster. In a good way._

_It practically required a tank to take him down. And judging by how Rex, Echo and Ahsoka all talk about him, you would have had to send multiple tanks._

Beep Beep.

"_duraanir la adate_…" Sabine grumbled.

_Who would be comming me now?_

Beep Beep.

"Get it." Sabine growled, lifting her head off me briefly.

_It's on the desk across the room._

I grab my comm with the Force and pull it to me.

"Hello?" I say sleepily.

"Ezra. It's Ahsoka. I need you to come down to the main building. Holo room. Immediately."

"Immediately?" I repeat back to her.

_It's like one in the morning Ahsoka!_

"Yes. Sorry, I know it's late. But you need to get up here."

"I'm coming." I tell her.

"Thank you." Ahsoka said, before the comm shut off.

"It's lateee." Sabine groaned, rolling off me.

"Must be important." I mutter, getting out of bed and slipping into the pants it feels like I just got out of.

I slip on my same shirt and boots, pull my lightsaber to me and turn to the door.

"Sorry to wake you up." I apologize to Sabine.

"I was never asleep. And Ahsoka is robbing me of my pillow." She replied, before rolling over and turning away from me.

"I'll be back as soon as I can." I tell her, before slipping out the door.

_What in the name of the Force could this be about?_

Did Darcy finally transmit those details about those tributary shafts?

Or…is it about Mom?

_I really hope that this isn't about Mom._

But why else would Ahsoka comm me at one in the morning for? She knows I'm going to be asleep.

Well, normal people are asleep. I run a weird schedule here, and am far from alone.

I lightly jog thru the jungle, probing as I go to ensure that the way is clear.

Once I've arrived at the building I walk the stairs up to the ninth floor and the holo room.

When I open the door, I see Ahsoka turn and look.

"Thanks for coming Ezra." Ahsoka smiled at me, and then extended a cup to me when I approached.

"You didn't have to get me anything to drink." I tell her, sipping the cup.

_Ooh._

It's got a sort of tart, yet smooth taste.

"It's an Alderaanian tea. Supposed to stimulate you, but not enough to get you wired." Ahsoka told me, then sipped her own mug.

"So…what's going on?" I ask, after a moment.

Sabine's got a holo open of a huge city.

_Denon?_

Did they figure out what actually happened? How Kallus and Vader figured out that I was there?

"It's about…well…" Ahsoka started, then stopped.

"About…" I pressure her.

"You can't look into Order 66 anymore. Ever again."

"Why not?" I ask.

"You don't know the consequences of what you did."

"Can you explain it to me then?" I reply.

Ahsoka simply tapped on a datapad multiple times, then a video popped up of Hutts being arrested by Stormtroopers.

"This was two days ago. Half the Hutts on Nar Shaadaa arrested for hacking into the Imperial HoloNet."

_Oh no._

Sabine and I hacked in last week.

"Is this because of Sabine and I's digging?" I ask, even though part of me already knows the answer.

"Yes. I have it under pretty good authority that those Hutts, despicable creatures they are, were tortured, then killed because Sabine used a Nar Shaadaa IP to get into the HoloNet."

I nervously swallow, then sip my drink.

"Sorry." I tell her meekly.

"I know you didn't mean it Ezra. But you've got to realize that there are consequences to your actions. We can't just go barging into the Holo anytime we want to get some information. We'd have a Star Destroyer hanging over us in a week. That's why we have informants and channels."

"That's why you were mad."

"No." Ahsoka frowned. "I was mad because you didn't leave well enough alone."

"I was trying to see if there was a tip off for Order 66! Nobody knows what happened." I retort.

_I had a good reason to do that!_

"Actually, I do."

I freeze, cup halfway to my lips.

"What?" I ask.

"I know what happened. Which is why you shouldn't look anymore." Ahsoka said quietly, looking at the holo.

_Ahsoka knows._

I pause for a moment, then my brain starts working again.

"What happened? Do you know who Vader is?" I ask Ahsoka quickly.

_If we know, maybe she'll know where he is._

And how to beat him.

"I…" Ahsoka started, then sipped on her drink.

The Force suddenly radiated with nervous energy before I see Ahsoka's hand shake as she sets her cup down on the table next to the holo.

"Remember on Ord Mantell? How I swooped down and we had that quick conversation?"

"Yeah." I say, recalling the situation.

_We were beat._

Vader said "The Apprentice lives."

"Well, that told me who it…who it was." Ahsoka said shakily.

_Who?_

It has to be somebody that was powerful during the Clone Wars.

He knew Ahsoka, Skywalker, Amidala and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

"Who was it?"

Ahsoka turned her back to me.

"It…"

Ahsoka stopped, then let out a sniffle.

"Vader is…who Anakin used to be."

WHAT!?

"No…That's impossible!" I say dismissively.

Skywalker never would have turned.

"You don't understand Ezra. The old Order was broken. Part of it was Anakin's fault. There…was a prophecy that stated that a Chosen One would destroy the Sith and bring balance to the Force. It was generally assumed, due to how powerful Anakin was, that it was him. So that's a lot of pressure."

_Okay._

"When Anakin joined the Order, how I understand it is that it was right after the Sith popped back up in the galaxy. Previously, they had thought they were extinct, the prophecy a moot point. But no. The Jedi knew about the Sith. Count Dooku, the man whose style we're emulating for you exhibited many qualities of a Sith Lord. But the Jedi Council did not believe him to be the Sith Lord we were looking for."

"Add on to that the Jedi Code, which had by this point corroded the Order to the point of irrelevance. It's views on attachment caused…issues for Anakin."

_Amidala?_

"Amidala?" I ask quietly.

"Exactly. They…were married."

I can't stop my jaw from dropping.

_Oh yeah._

After Amidala died, they recovered some of Skywalker's stuff from Amidala's private residence.

It's all fitting together.

Ahsoka suddenly laughed once.

"Yeah. When I found out I was shocked too. But I kept his secret. Anakin was the best Master I could have ever hoped for. I can't do what he did for me justice, to be honest."

Then Ahsoka paused, sipped her drink, then the Force rippled again.

_She's trying to stay calm._

This must be tough for her.

"So it's late in the war. I'm gone from the Order, but I'm kind of around. The Council contracted me out to do missions for them. I never communicated directly with Anakin, but Obi-Wan always said that he sent his regards. Obi-Wan went out to Utapau to find and kill Grievous and end the war. He did."

This is going too well.

_We're too late in the game for it to be going this well._

"Then Anakin spoke to Palpatine. Who had always treated Anakin well, ever since he'd started his Jedi training."

"But Palpatine—" I blurt out, then stop when Ahsoka puts her hand up, silencing me.

"We…don't know what was said. Obi-Wan didn't know. But Anakin knew Palpatine was the Sith Lord we'd been looking for. According to the Jedi Temple logs that Obi-Wan showed me, Anakin spoke to Master Windu right before he went to the Chancellor's office to make sure Palpatine handed power back and stepped down. He had stayed long past his term limits. Obi-Wan said that the Council thought something major was wrong. And they were right."

Ahsoka took a breath, then continued.

"Windu, for reasons unknown didn't let Anakin come with him to arrest Palpatine. My personal guess, is that Windu didn't trust Anakin due to his and Palpatine's friendship, despite the fact that Anakin had just told him that Palpatine was the Sith Lord the Jedi had been looking for since the start of the war."

_That's stupid._

"Anakin, even when I knew him as his Padawan had trouble with the Council. He didn't think they trusted him. Sometimes, he was right. Others, I don't know. But Anakin was put basically on guard duty to watch the Temple while Windu went to go arrest the Chancellor. Now…" Ahsoka said, then began to type into the holo.

What are you—

_NO WAY._

Numbly, I turn to Ahsoka. "Is this real?"

Ahsoka nodded grimly, without looking back to me.

There's four men standing in the doorway to the Chancellor's office. The Chancellor's just sitting there.

"I'm going to just play it." Ahsoka said, then the video started.

"Master Windu. I take it that General Grievous has been destroyed?" The Chancellor said calmly. "I must say you're here sooner than expected."

Wordlessly, Windu and the other Jedi grabbed their lightsabers.

"In the name of the Galactic Senate of the Republic you are hereby under arrest, Chancellor."

_Oh, this is a great start._

"Are you threatening me Master Jedi?" The Chancellor asked, looked livid.

"The Senate will decide your fate."

"I AM the Senate!" The Chancellor growled, voice changing rapidly.

"Not yet." Windu replied firmly.

The Chancellor rose to his feet and—

"It's treason, then."

_WHOA!_

Two Jedi dead!

Windu and the other Jedi blocked a volley of strikes, then—

Three Jedi dead!

_WHERE DID HE GET HIS LIGHTSABER?_

He…

HOW?!

Windu and Palpatine suddenly exchanged lighting fast strikes, then started down the hallway.

The camera briefly switched to a hall camera, then another camera in the other room.

_Whoa._

Windu's winning.

I think.

Windu just missed badly on a kill strike, but Palpatine hasn't really threatened after the first volley in the other room.

Windu promptly gets into a saber lock with Palpatine, then brutally wins it.

_The Chancellor does look old._

I'd guess mid 60's.

The two exchange two sets of strikes, neither gaining an advantage before Palpatine started veering towards the window.

Simultaneously, Windu and Palpatine both shatter the window.

_Windu must have thought Palpatine was up to something._

I still think he's winning.

Windu and Palpatine battle back and forth before Windu miraculously kicks Palpatine's lightsaber out of his hand as he was moving away.

_What a good kick!_

Windu mercilessly advanced on the Chancellor, backing him literally against the wall of the window.

I can't help but yell at what I see next.

"NO!"

_ANAKIN!_

YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO BE AT THE TEMPLE!

"You are under arrest…my lord." Windu said bluntly, lightsaber in Palpatine's face.

Skywalker simply walked right up to them, looking at Windu.

"Anakin, I told you it would come to this!" Palpatine gasped, sounding exhausted. "I was right! The Jedi are taking over!"

"The oppression of the Sith will never return!" Windu declared. "You have lost."

"No…no…"

_What is going on with his voice?_

It just changed again.

LIGHTNING!

Palpatine just unleashed it on him!

Windu blocked it, taking a step back, then Palpatine seemed to turn up the voltage.

"He is the traitor AHHHH!" Windu yelled, looking like he's expending all his energy holding Palpatine back.

The lightning suddenly started looping back to Palpatine's…

Face.

_Oh my. His face is…hideous._

"I have the power…to save the ones you loveee." Palpatine gasped, lightning still deforming him. "You must choose!"

Skywalker looked back to Palpatine with a pained expression.

"Don't listen to him Anakin AHHH!" Windu cried out again.

"Don't let him kill me!" Palpatine cried out in pain.

Skywalker shielded his face from the lightning Windu was redirecting.

_The power must be incredible._

"I can't hold it any longer…" Palpatine said, then slumped to the side. "I…I …I…"

He's dying.

_He can't even form a sentence._

He's ugly, stupid and dying.

"Anakin! Help me! Help me!" Palpatine cried out, stopping the lightning.

Windu pointed his saber at Palpatine's throat.

"I…I…I…I cannot hold on any longer."

_Looks like it._

Windu looks livid. "I am going to end this, once and for all!"

"You can't." Anakin butted in. "He must stand trial."

_NO HE CAN'T!_

He just said

"He's got control of the Senate, and the courts! He's too dangerous to be left alive!" Windu reasoned with Anakin.

"I'm too weak. Ooh, don't let him kill meee." Palpatine begged Windu, voice rising to a whine.

_This is the Sith Lord?_

Whining for his life?!

"It's not the Jedi way!" Anakin countered. "He must live!"

Suddenly Windu reared back.

"Oh plea—"

"I need him!"

"Please do—"

"NOOO!" Anakin yelled.

_NO!_

Skywalker—

Everyone paused, as Windu screamed at the top of his lung and grabbed his arm.

_He cut it off._

Palpatine leaned forward, then lightning EXPLODED out of his hands.

"POWERRRRRRRRRRR! UNLIMITED…POWERRRRR!"

_Windu is cooked._

He's got to be dead.

Palpatine then threw Windu out the window, then collapsed against the window.

Anakin.

_What have you done?!_

Numbly, I look to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka has tears in her eyes.

"What have I done?" Anakin asked, looking horrified.

Palpatine effortlessly gets to his feet.

"You're fulfilling your destiny, Anakin. Become my apprentice. Learn to use the Dark Side of the Force."

"I will do whatever you…ask." Anakin gasped.

"Good…good." Palpatine replied, voice becoming horribly guttural again.

_My goodness he's ugly._

Gray skin, you can see the outline of his skull...

Anakin.

"Just help me save Padmé's life. I can't live without her." Anakin gasped.

_What's this got to do with her?_

She's not going to…

Oh no.

_She died._

Was that before or.

"The Force is strong with you. A powerful Sith, you will become. Henceforth, you shall be known as Darth...Vader." Palpatine said grandly.

"Thank you, my master." Anakin said, voice also changing.

_Like a servant._

"Rise." Palpatine croaked.

Anakin rose as Palpatine walked over to his desk.

"Because the Council did not trust you, my young apprentice, I believe you are the only Jedi with no knowledge of this plot. When the Jedi learn what has transpired here, they will kill us, along with all the Senators."

_What?_

No!

"I agree. The Council's next move will be against the Senate."

Oh no.

_Anakin…_

"Every single Jedi, including your friend, Obi-Wan Kenobi, is now an enemy of the Republic." Palpatine told Anakin, leaving no wiggle room.

"I understand, Master."

"We must move quickly. The Jedi are relentless. If they are not all destroyed, it will be civil war without end. First, I want you to go to the Jedi Temple. We will catch them off balance. Do what must be done, Lord Vader. Do not hesitate. Show no mercy. Only then will you be strong enough with the Dark Side to save Padmé." Palpatine ordered Anakin.

_No…_

The next trip to the Temple…was Anakin.

But he wasn't Anakin anymore.

_He's…Vader._

"What about the other Jedi spread across the galaxy?" Anakin asked, the tone of his voice just…off.

"Their betrayal will be dealt with. After you have killed all the Jedi in the Temple, go to the Mustafar system. Wipe out Viceroy Gunray and the other Separatist leaders. Once more the Sith will rule the galaxy! And...we shall have...peace."

_Wait…_

He just tipped his hand.

He knew where the enemy leaders were.

The video cut off there as Anakin moved out of the room.

_I…_

"Anakin…died there. Vader rose. Obi-Wan fought him on Mustafar. Obi-Wan said the fight was "barbaric", and was forced to cut off both of his legs and one arm. Then Anakin…caught on fire."

"On fire?!" I blurt out.

Ahsoka turned to me and nodded., revealing tear tracks running down her face.

"That's how Vader got in the suit. He can't live without it. Obi-Wan told me he thought he left him to die, but couldn't bear to kill him himself. About two months later, Obi-Wan was in a cantina and Vader popped up on the holo, putting down a Jedi insurrection. And that's how Obi-Wan knows Vader lived."

Oh man.

_Oh no._

"I…had some sort of vision. Back when I was on Polis Massa." I say quietly.

_I know what happened to Padmé._

She died in childbirth.

The kids…must be Vader's.

Anakin's.

"Of what?" Ahsoka asked curiously, then sniffling.

"I saw Padmé give birth…then die."

Ahsoka barely cracked a smile, then turned and typed something into the holo.

"No…" I say quietly.

Ahsoka turned and smiled.

_It's the Polis Massa scene I saw._

But on the Holo.

"I was going to show you. But it sounds like you already know." Ahsoka said simply.

I nod numbly.

"Luke." Ahsoka spoke up after a moment of silence.

"And Leia."

"Their kids."

_I can't believe it._

"He was right. She did die." I say to Ahsoka.

"Kind of. Obi-Wan said…" Ahsoka said then swallowed a lump in her throat.

"Obi-Wan said that by the time he and Padmé had found Anakin on Mustafar, he was too far gone. He choked Padmé, almost killing her and the kids. That's why she went into labor."

"She was already dying?" I ask.

"That's what Obi-Wan and Bail think." Ahsoka replied.

I turn back and run my hand thru my hair.

"Who is the green guy?" I ask, turning back to Ahsoka.

"That's Master Yoda. He's the Grand Master of the Jedi Order. He fought Palpatine and lost."

"Afterward?" I ask.

Ahsoka nodded.

Man…

_We had two shots at him._

"Order 66, plus that fight basically ended the Republic. Palpatine already had his control. The change to the Empire was in name only. It was already the Republic. He didn't need to do that. But he did more as a look thing I think than anything." Ahsoka said simply.

"In my vision…at the end." I start, then stop.

"What?"

"It wasn't the vision. I was just standing there, still feeling awful, stiff and numb. I couldn't believe what I just saw…and then she just appeared." I say, trying to explain what happened best I can.

"She?" Ahsoka asked.

"Her. Padmé. Like a ghost. But more. I don't know how to describe it." I admit.

Ahsoka suddenly beamed wider than I've ever seen before.

"I…that's awesome Ezra. Did she say anything?"

I shake my head. "She just hugged my arm."

"Did you feel better?"

_What?_

I guess I did.

I shrug. "I guess so."

"Then that's what she was going for. After everything you had just been thru, the Force gave you a vision and allowed you to meet Padmé. She made you feel better."

Really?

"Cool." I say quietly, in disbelief.

"That's really good Ezra. You shouldn't have to worry about your place in the Force now. If Padmé came to comfort you as you healed, then you are absolutely fine."

"I guess so." I reply.

I move to sip my drink, only to find it empty.

"Ezra. I hate to say this, but this isn't meant to be a destiny thing."

_Huh?_

I look back at Ahsoka, completely lost. "What?"

"Ezra, only Luke and Leia can defeat Vader and the Emperor. You can't. You aren't strong enough." Ahsoka said bluntly, but gently.

"What? I can put up a fight! I can—"

"You'll die." Ahsoka said simply. "You're sort of a trial run Ezra. That isn't your destiny."

_A trial run?_

"A trial run? Of what?" I ask, slightly angrily.

"To see if this rebellion can foster a Jedi. There's a long term plan here."

"Plan? For what?" I ask her.

"The plan…if this works correctly, is to train you to be a Jedi. Me, Rex, Echo and Kanan. Kanan doesn't know. But this is a plan between Obi-Wan, Bail and I."

"Bail?" I ask. "What's he got to do with this?"

"Leia."

_Yeah._

"I know. I figured that out after the vision. That's Leia Leia. Padmé and Vader's Leia."

"Anakin…and Padmé's Leia. Vader doesn't know they lived. As far as we know." Ahsoka told me.

"And that's a plan?"

"If he knew, wouldn't he want to kill them? Like he wants to kill me?" Ahsoka asked me.

"I…guess so." I say hesitantly.

"He would. And if not him, Palpatine would not hesitate. Vader is his puppet. If Vader steps out of line, Palpatine can fry his life support suit. And Vader would die."

"So he's a servant." I reply.

"A willing one. Of the Dark Side. Because of Padmé. That's why Kanan and Hera stopped pestering you about Sabine. I told them that all that would do is to create a wedge. Just like Anakin and Padmé created a wedge between him and the Council. He went to Palpatine, who used it to his ultimate advantage."

_Whoa._

She's right.

"If the Council hadn't had that one rule, Palpatine doesn't have a leg to stand on." Ahsoka said bluntly.

"So you're not having that rule." I ask Ahsoka.

"I can't imagine not being able to love Lux openly. Anakin must have felt ready to burst. The war, Padmé, the pregnancy, the prophecy. It sort of was too much. So I'm trying to tell you, so that you never have those expectations."

_I…_

"What do I do now?"

I guess I thought I was the only real hope I guess.

Now I know that I'm not strong enough, and apparently will never be.

_What now?_

"You do your best to become a Jedi. We'll need you when Luke and Leia get old enough. For what exactly, but we'll need everyone we can get."

_Wait._

So the line is going to continue on?

Obi-Wan trained Anakin, who trained Ahsoka, who trained me, who is going to help train Anakin's children, Luke and Leia so that they can beat their father and the Emperor?

_WHAT?!_

"This is too much." I mutter, then shake my head.

"It's a lot to take in." Ahsoka added gently. "Do you understand why you can't look into Order 66 anymore?"

I nod numbly, then Ahsoka walked over and filled two cups with water.

"How'd you get that video?" I ask.

"Remember after that fight? I disappeared while you guys went to Onderon?" Ahsoka asked me.

I nod in reply.

"Well I went to Bail, who told me where Obi-Wan is. He's watching Luke, making sure Vader doesn't find him. Obi-Wan told me what I just told you, then directed me to where I can get this to see for myself. I hired a team of Bothan hackers to get it. We used a Falleen IP address and got in and out."

_Okay._

"The Empire destroyed the entire population by the end of the week." Ahsoka said coldly. "In a rain of fire. The official reason was a biological experiment gone wrong. They had to sterilize the planet. Well they did that."

Oh.

"Another reason why you should be careful where you look for things Ezra. Bringing this full circle." Ahsoka smiled.

I slightly smile.

_She did bring it full circle._

"I understand. Can I tell Sabine?" I ask her.

Ahsoka nodded. "It would be unrealistic for you not to tell her. But do not tell Kanan."

What?

"Why not?" I ask.

"He'll want to go after Vader for revenge. Vader betrayed the entire Order when he cut off Master Windu's arm. And he was personally involved in Order 66. It took him long enough to warm up to Rex and the idea of a rebellion. We'd lose him. And you know it."

_Yeah._

He'd pack up and leave

"I'm here if you have any more questions Ezra. But don't talk about this to anyone else. This is beyond top secret. You're one of about ten people in the galaxy that know what actually happened."

_One of ten._

"Okay. Last question." I say, as Ahsoka turned to leave.

"Last question." Ahsoka parroted me, then smiled.

"Have you met Luke?"

Ahsoka smiled.

"I have. He's a lot like his dad. I can't wait for you to meet him."

I can't help but smile.

_There's hope._

"Night Ezra." Ahsoka smiled, then waved to me as she walked out of the room.

"Night." I reply, then look at the holo in front of me.

Ahsoka wiped the holo when I wasn't looking I guess.

It's blank.

_Wow._


	63. What's Old is New Again

_Okay._

I'm in a good spot. Everyone has moved forward. It wasn't mined like last time.

"I like how this is fully customizable." Sabine spoke up quietly, sitting nearby with her feet up on the dash.

"It's probably Echo's best work." Rex smiled at him.

"And you said you can also make it so that you can control the droids as well?" Kanan asked, standing behind Rex and Echo.

"Yes. You can also limit what Ezra would know. Black out the battlefield except for what he's seeing." Echo answered him.

"Making him rely on intel and reports from other battalions." Kanan summarized.

_That wouldn't be fun for me._

"He's playing 'God Mode' right now. He has everything at his disposal."

I need the practice, regardless.

"Can I get a shot at him?" Sabine asked, causing Rex and Kanan to turn and look at her.

"Let's just see how he handles the situation. 30 seconds Ezra." Echo replied, then smirked at me.

"Don't need it. Keep pushing forward."

Echo tapped a button and the battlefield began moving again.

My troops advanced, and information started back in.

_Blockade broken. Commander Tano ordered to sweep jungle for droid patrol. Follow? Y or N_

To see if it's a head on assault.

I tap the screen, sending Ahsoka on her patrol.

Ahsoka and a battalion broke off to the right, immediately followed by droid reinforcements in front of me.

"Spread the walkers out. We're not going to let them squeeze us thru the trees."

"Whole width?" Rex asked.

"Yeah." I reply.

I see Kanan smile as Echo enters my order and the troops spread out, giving each individual battalion more room to work.

_Can I get a push with Kenobi and 212nd?_

I want to have Skywalker and the 501st ready of Ahsoka finds—

_Contact with droids – Tano. Engaging so they don't surround position on main force._

Blast blast blast. If they're where I send Ahsoka, I'm betting they're already surrounding us.

_Blockade broken, sending gunships for assistance and potential extraction along with Master Plo Koon._

Another Jedi and gunships. Awesome. I'll win this battle.

"Send half the gunships to Ahsoka's position. That way I'm not surrounded."

"You're assuming that there is a unseen group off to the left?" Rex surmised.

"Well I don't hear or see anything that's proving me wrong." I reply as Echo puts in my latest order.

_Droid army closing in on your location. Recommend evacuation immediately. Will swing back to acquire Commander Tano. - PK_

"No, I can win this! Fall back, but mine the area so that the droids walk into it. Give us some space." I say.

"What about Ahsoka?" Kanan asked curiously.

"I'm halfway thru typing my request for more info." I answer, then send that report.

_Got droids on the run. Advancing now._

That's good.

_LZ clear. Unless immediate action is taken, both areas will be overrun. –PK_

Not good.

In front of me, the first round of droids start finding mines and blowing up.

_Bulge._

"Push forward. When we've broken thru, I want both Skywalker and Kenobi's teams to double back for Ahsoka. Use the walkers as a walking shield."

_They can take a hit. That's why they are here._

That's immediate action.

Suddenly, the battlefield froze again.

"Not too bad Ezra. I was actually in this battle. It froze because this is where your actions deviated from the actual battle." Rex spoke up.

"Kenobi ordered a full retreat. They didn't mine it like you did. They got out." Echo smiled.

"But Commander Tano disobeyed a direct order. She didn't want to stop her offensive. And boy was she mad when General Skywalker stopped the attack for her. Until she saw that she was surrounded."

"Really?" Sabine asked, looking surprised. "She overlooked it?"

"I recall she thought she had the advantage and could provide the breakthrough. Master Kenobi was particularly annoyed."

"He was a little "by the book.". But it worked." Kanan smiled.

"You knew him then?" Echo asked.

"He was briefly my Master. Before Master Billaba took me as her Padawan."

"Really?" I ask.

Kanan smiled. "Yup."

So when he saw Kanan at Ahsoka's wedding, that wasn't some random thing.

_There was history there._

"Is it my turn?" Sabine asked, lowered her feet off the dash and fully turned towards us.

"It can be. Or we can let it play out according to the most likely battle outcomes based on known tactics." Rex turned to Kanan, looking for his opinion.

"Let's let this play out. Ezra does have a bit of a bubble."

I smile, then quickly look back to the battlefield.

Echo starts it up and my previous order quickly takes shape, with the droid line being broken, and the walkers moving to protect the left flank.

"Go now. As fast as you can." I say.

_Gunships swinging around. What is their priority target?_

Good question. I could have them go help Skywalker and Kenobi. Or the clones holding the line.

I let out a sigh, then send them towards Ahsoka's position.

_The faster they get there, the faster they get back._

From there, our lines can regroup.

"Interesting." Rex stated as the gunships fly towards Ahsoka's position.

_Droid lines towards Commander Tano's sweep are falling back._

"Once they get her and her squad, bring them back to the main force. And have the gunships give the clones some air as soon as you can."

"Airships are having to rearm Commander." Echo immediately told me.

"Karabast." I mutter as Skywalker, Kenobi and Ahsoka pop back up on the screen.

The walkers held, but the lines are looking a little thin.

_Too thin. I need to make the smart play._

I sigh and lean back in my seat.

"Call in the evac order. The line is too thin. Make it so the ships can land behind and aren't being fired on when they land." I say quietly, then swat my seat and watch and wait as my order is followed.

Once the last gunship has left the area, the normal statistics about the battle popped up.

Over 1700 droids destroyed. 900+ clones killed.

_Galactic Republic loss of the Felucia system. 25,000 + shots fired by the Republic alone._

"Oh wow. That's a full five battalions." Kanan said quietly.

"That's a fatality rate of over 60%." Echo said.

"You killed me." Rex added flatly.

"I did?" I ask quietly.

_Blast._

"I don't know how. But apparently I did." Rex replied, as Echo pulled up the stats for the 501st.

"Says here you got hit by a mine. And left behind."

"That would never happen." Rex frowned.

"I'll fix it." Echo told him.

"Good idea Ezra. Just not good execution. I thought you had something." Kanan smiled at me.

"Where he messed up, in my opinion was sending the gunships to help General Skywalker get Commander Tano. They didn't need help." Rex

I cringe.

"I was thinking that the faster they get her, they faster they double back to the main force." I justify it, then prepare to have my point torn apart.

"But you didn't give the main force any help. You left them out there to fend for themselves." Echo said.

"While every clone would appreciate that sort of faith in them, you missed the breaking point. That being said, the retreat was the right option." Rex smiled.

"Nothing really changed though." I reply.

Kanan smiled and clapped me on the shoulder. "Sometimes, you just lose Ezra."

Sabine simply stood, causing Rex to stand.

"You'll have to control the droid army." Echo said, without looking up.

"Put them on the sand ball with the insect infestation. See how they have fun with that." Rex told him.

"And that would be…?" Kanan asked Rex.

"Geonosis."

_Where the war started._

"I'm limiting you both to reports. But not limiting the battlefield. Both sides saw things on Geonosis."

A brand new, red battlefield popped up, and my available troops popped up.

_Kenobi, Tano and Skywalker. Plus the 501__st__ and 212nd. Sweet._

Along with 18 battalions of infantry troops.

I quickly set up my battalions to deploy when the battle begins.

10 out right away, with 8 battalions in reserve. I'll also keep Kenobi and the 212nd back.

_Sabine's aggressive. She'll want to put me on the defensive. I can set up defensive, with the aim to draw her in._

Then I'll drop Kenobi on the side and let him, the 212nd and some airships have at them.

I tap my screen to indicate that I'm ready.

"I'm learning this, sorry." Sabine said quietly, moving things around on her screen.

_I can't see it._

No rush.

Kanan started to move around the table, causing me to pull up my attack strategy.

His eyebrows rose up briefly, then the Force rippled with an unfamiliar sensation.

"Looks like it's the Clones and Sabine versus the Jedi." Rex smiled at us.

"I like our chances then." Sabine added, causing Kanan to smirk.

"Don't get too confident now." Kanan told her softly, sitting beside me as Sabine indicated she's ready.

3\. 2. 1.

I tap the screen for my forces to deploy, then watch as Sabine does the same.

_Huh. She's gone light on the troops. What's she planning?_

She's got something up her sleeve.

Quickly, Sabine scowled and muttered "_iviin'yc!_" before quickly tapping her screen.

_Okay. She just deployed three more bat—no four more groups of droids._

I've already got her off balance. She wasn't expecting me to deploy so many troops.

Quickly, I bring up my screen and deploy General Kenobi, the 212nd and some airships.

_Primary force is taking heavy fire but holding position._

Hold.

Kanan watched silently over my shoulder as my troops maintain their position, barely affected by the numbers of the droids.

_Her reinforcements didn't do much._

"Ah! _Ures urilik di'kut!_" Sabine yelped as Kenobi appears behind her lines and starts carving a path thru the back of Sabine's line.

Hey!

_I know what di'kut means!_

It means that someone or thing is a useless or foolhardy individual.

I smile as the airships start bombing_—_

_No no no no!_

I quickly type in the order for my main infantry force to move left and meet Kenobi's force.

I do NOT want them getting hit on both sides.

"Watch it. He's adjusted his course. Reinforce that flank." Rex told Sabine, causing her to type rapidly.

_Nudge._

That's the Force, and Kanan.

I turn and see him pointing at my troop screen.

_I can neutralize her reinforcements._

Or I could snag her other side.

_Let's box her in. _

I quickly deploy three battalions off to the opposite side of Kenobi and the 212nd.

I smile as absolute chaos unfolds in Sabine's lines.

"Oh my." Echo said quietly as Sabine is quickly typing.

_All forces advancing._

I order all troops to continue advancing, but to be on the lookout for reinforcements.

"We're entering the Alsakan atmosphere. You guys might want to start getting ready." Hera's voice came on over the intercom.

_BLAST!_

I have her right where I want her!

"Well, this is as good a time as ever." Rex says, as Echo pauses the battle. "The outcome is already decided."

"I have more battalions I can deploy!" Sabine countered.

"Ezra has the decided advantage. Even if you do deploy all those battalions, Ezra's clones and Jedi have already gained a tremendous amount of territory, with Cruisers at their backs." Echo told her, causing Sabine to scowl.

"I thought he'd play it safe at first. I wasn't expecting a full army at first." Sabine told Rex.

"You overcompensated right away though. Ezra saw that and capitalized with the battalion at your back."

"How was I supposed to know he had three Jedi?" Sabine hotly replied.

"You never know, really." Rex said.

Kanan and Echo started walking towards the cockpit. Nervously, I smile at Sabine as she stood up and grabbed her helmet.

"It's harder than it looks." I admit.

"I thought there was a finite amount of troops you could deploy. I want a rematch." Sabine smiled.

"It's not a game, really. But that can be arranged." Rex smiled, then started toward the cockpit as well.

I turn back to Sabine and smile.

"You're on."

"And we'll learn something." Sabine added, then wrapped her arms around my neck.

I quickly kiss her, then pull her close. "Should be an easy mission."

"Boring. It's negotiations." Sabine told me, letting go.

_Yeah, with a criminal empire._

The Shadow Collective. We're buying a bunch of supplies from them above market value as a gesture of good will. Hopefully we can enter negotiations with them and start laying the groundwork for a supply line.

The ship rattled back and forth, indicating that we've landed, followed by Hera, Kanan, Lux, Ahsoka, Rex and Echo streaming into the room.

"We'll stay here and watch the ship, just in case." Echo told Ahsoka as we all start to the door.

"Why'd you come all the way out here if you just wanted to watch the ship?"

"To get off that planet! And somebody has to watch over things." Rex smiled.

Lux spoke up. "Ezra was going to. That was the plan."

_Hey!_

"Well it's his lucky day then." Echo replied.

Ahsoka simply turned and walked thru the doorway.

Quickly, Rex winked at me.

I laugh and follow everyone else down the landing ramp.

"—ly a pleasure to have you all. The supplies are right here, ready and waiting to be loaded onto your ship!" A creature said politely.

_I've never seen this species before._

"Wonderful. Now, we'd love to take you up on your offer of a refreshment and continue our discussion from earlier." Kanan said smoothly.

"Yes. Let's go ahead and do thattt…"

_Oh crap._

That's a Pyke.

I subtly slow my steps and slide closer to Lux.

"No children though. You two are welcome to wait with the ship." A large, muscular creature said, lowering a scythe down to stop us from walking forward.

"We're of age to go in." Sabine immediately replied, as Kanan and the others have turned back to look at us and the…man.

"We'll be back shortly. Won't take long." Hera smiled at us.

Beside her Ahsoka smiled at Hera and began walking again.

Sabine and I simply watched as the scythe wielder took up the rear and followed Kanan and the others out of sight.

"Great. Now what?" I say bitterly.

_We're not children!_

"We check the supplies for trackers." Sabine told me, turning back to see a few workers loading crates up to the _Ghost_.

"Now?"

"In a minute." She said calmly, before starting to inspect the Ghost.

I follow her lead, and a few minutes later the men finish up and dirve off in a speeder.

Sabine flippantly tosses me a pocket scanner.

"Every box. I don't want any surprises."

"Will these get thru?" I ask her?

_This thing is tiny!_

"Oh yeah. Power isn't the problem."

I hold down the button and drag it over the top.

A green light came on, along with a soft chime.

"Bing!" "Bing!"

Sabine and I make our way thru the cargo.

"Bing!" "Bing!"

_I think we're good._

Sabine turned to me after the last one, and I toss the scanner to her.

"I guess I was wrong. They aren't trapped." She said.

"Ahh. Problem-Solver. Long time, no see." A voice behind me said silkily, causing me to whip around and raise my blaster at her.

_Who is this?_

Problem-Solver…Is this one of Sabine's assassin friends?

_Great!_

"What are you doing here?" Sabine snapped, both pistols raised. "How'd you get here?"

"Oh come on. That's no way to greet your old boss. I just walked in. Crept around a little. You're not going to introduce me to your cute friend?" She teased Sabine, with a huge blade on her back and a pistol on her hip.

_But she's not going for either._

"Haha." I say flatly.

_I don't like her._

"E_—_This is one of my old friends from Alderaan I told you about. Markas Renless. The leader. FWTD."

Fate Worse Than Death.

"I remember. Nice name." I reply, not lowering my weapon.

"Pleasure to meet you."

"Why are you here?" Sabine bit at her.

"I've been around, like always. These "Shadow morons" think they've been quiet. Laser brains, they got our attention months ago."

"Months you say?" I bait her.

_Tell me more._

Renless laughed haughtily instead. "Nice try kid. I'm not going to talk. The underworld is a small place, like your friends just found out."

What?

"Excuse me?" Sabine asked her.

"Is he your boyfriend? He looks like he'd be fun for a night."

_Oh._

"He is. Jealous?" Sabine growled.

I think we're about to fight.

"Not really. Men are disposable. Get them whipped and they'll do literally anything or you."

"That's not your business." I say, raising my blaster even with her eyes.

"Don't make an enemy out of me kid. She'll tell you that." Renless snapped at me. "I know where to hit her."

_Oh shit._

I forgot. She does.

_Sophie._

The Force suddenly heaved, and I take a breath.

"Is there a problem over here?" I hear a familiar voice say, then turn and see that it's Rex and Echo, both carrying rifles.

"No, no problem." Renless say casually. "I'm an old friend of Sabine's."

"You don't _sound_ like an old friend." Rex said, raising his rifle.

"You're one to talk, clone. You're an antique. The galaxy has passed you by."

"_Excuse me?_" Rex growled, scowling.

_Uh oh._

Not good.

"You heard what I said old man. Although you don't look old. What'd you do, pay for implants of some kind?"

Echo frowned and raised his own rifles.

"What's… going on?"

I turn and see that a Pyke, is coming this way. Followed by Kanan and the others.

"Minor disturbance." Rex said without taking his eyes off Renless.

"She's one of our honored guests. Meet Madyia Bunko, from the far Outer Rim World of Asation." The large creature said.

"Sorry if my son caused a disturbance. He can be a little…hot headed." Kanan spoke up, placing his arm on my shoulder and directing me towards the ship.

"No hard feelings…so we have an accord?" The Pyke asked Ahsoka.

"We do. Thank you."

"I think it'll be mutually beneficial." The large creature said.

"Well, we don't wish to take up any more of your time. Thank you for your hospitality." Lux said graciously, as Sabine and I are already getting pushed towards the ship.

I barely catch the rest of the conversation before hera is already starting the engines.

"What in the Force was that Ezra?" Kanan snapped at me, standing in the doorway to the crew quarters.

"Don't blame him sir. Something was up with her. She knew way too much."

"As in…?" Kanan pressed us.

_I don't want to say anything._

"I worked with her a while back. Before I met you and Hera but after I left home." Sabine said very quickly.

I barely made the words out.

"She said something about "knowing where to hit her". Was she talking about your family?" Echo asked Sabine.

Sabine glumly nodded.

"Do we need to…do something?" Ahsoka asked gently, as the Force tugs for my attention.

_To Sabine._

"I…don't know…" Sabine said quietly.

"Her name wasn't what they said it was. Long story short, she works for the Empire discreetly. I don't think they know that though." I cover for Sabine while slipping my arm around her for support.

"Are they bad?" Lux asked softly.

Sabine looked up, then nodded.

"I'm coming Carid. Now." Lux said, sweeping past Kanan easily.

Sabine simply hung her head.

"I'm sorry."

"Don't blame yourself." Ahsoka said softly, then rubbing her back.

"Why didn't you ever say anything?" Kanan asked gently.

"It's…not something I'm proud of. And I told Hera. She said she wouldn't say anything." Sabine replied.

"Thanks for backing us up." I turn to Rex and smile.

"Any time. We heard that, then her remark about you and decided we needed to intervene."

"What'd she say?" Ahsoka asked.

Rex and Echo both cringed simultaneously. "Uhh…it's about the galaxy's oldest profession?" Rex said, going red.

"Oh." Kanan said simply, as Ahsoka's eyebrows rose.

"'SOKA! GET UP HERE!" Lux suddenly yelled, causin Ahsoka to dart towards the cabin, followed by the rest of us.

"What?" Ahsoka asked breathlessly.

"The Six got compromised. They got to one of the safehouses. But they were compromised right as we talked to the Shadow Colective."

The bottom of my stomach drops, and I suddenly feel sick.

"She knew…" Rex muttered.

"What?" Hera turned to look at Rex.

Numbly, I look over to Sabine, who suddenly looks terrified.

_Uh oh._


	64. Eyes of the Masters

"Leverage is perhaps the most underestimated force a user of Makashi owns. You can trade off the attacking force and turn it into a centrifugal force you can deploy against your enemy."

_Centrifugal?_

I lean over and activate the holo just in arms reach and type the word in.

"Centrifugal": moving or tending to move away from a center of a mass.

_Okay. So like a spin._

I get it.

"In that vein, the use of brute force can be even more useful than a perfectly placed blade. Often times, a quality opponent will crowd you, removing many of the cuts and jabs the form prefers. When that occurs, a well-placed elbow or knee to a soft spot such as the kidneys or neck will reset the situation and often leave your opponent reeling and open to a finishing strike."

I let a smile break out in my face and grab my water bottle.

_My instincts have been telling me to be a lot more physical since I got captured._

I'm not even breaking my style. I can let my weight lifting give me space and maybe even give me an advantage.

The sound of the door opening causes me to turn and see Ahsoka and Kanan.

"Sorry to keep you waiting Ezra." Ahsoka apologized as Kanan let the door shut behind him.

"No problem. I figured the meeting ran long." I reply.

"Actually, the meeting got moved at the last minute. We were sitting in on Rex and Echo's combat class." Kanan spoke up.

_I thought that thing was the last thing they wanted?_

"I thought that was a bad thing. The moving at the last minute."

Ahsoka shrugged. "Things do happen. We can't be paranoid just because somebody can't make it."

Kanan nodded, and I let it pass.

_Does make sense._

"What are you looking at in there?" Kanan asked, looking at my datapad.

"The part about using your body if your opponent gets too close." I tell him, pointing out the passage.

Ahsoka slips by us and sticks a data spike into the holo I was using just now.

"Centrifugal?" Ahsoka turned and asked me.

"I didn't know what it meant." I admit.

"You've added a physical element since we got you back Ezra. This does support it, but remember, all things in moderation." Kanan said calmly and quietly.

I frown at him. "You don't sound like a fan."

Kanan shrugged his shoulders, then glanced down and away at Ahsoka while running his hand over his hair. "The timing of it just concerns me."

"Have I been overly aggressive?" I ask him, probing at the same time.

Kanan immediately took a step back. "That's not what I mean Ezra. I…"

He backed away, causing Ahsoka to look over.

"It just wasn't something any of us were expecting you to add Ezra. We've had a few discussions on it. We don't know how to help or if it's effective." Ahsoka smiled.

Kanan smiled at me, then shrugged again. "It could open up a lot of doors. For instance, Form V is a lot more physical. You could add in some elements of that if we wanted."

I turn to Ahsoka.

_She's Form V._

"I'm reverse form. I don't like the idea of you reverse gripping a curved hilted lightsaber." She said.

"But I can do it. Like it's possible right?" I ask.

Ahsoka let out a breath, then brushed her head tail off her shoulder. "I mean yeah, but I wouldn't like it."

_Oh._

That's a pretty hard no from her.

Kanan cleared his throat, then added "I agree. You could try it, but I would really advise against it."

I nod, then drop it entirely.

"Didn't mean to be rebellious. You guys have just always fought that one tough." I say.

"Because I think it'd be a terrible idea." Ahsoka blurts out.

_Oh!_

Kanan turned to her, looking surprised, then looked back to me.

"It just takes away many of the forms natural strengths."

"Okay." I speak up calmly, trying to indicate that I'm done with the subject.

"How's Sabine?" Ahsoka asked, changing the topic immediately.

"She's okay. Been drawing a lot." I tell them.

_She's really stressed._

To everyone else, she has been acting a lot more like when I first joined Kanan and everyone. A little quiet, more standoffish and reserved.

_Which I now know is because she was trying to get comfortable._

Kanan nods in understanding. "Makes sense that drawing is a stress reliever for her."

Ahsoka spoke up behind him. "Carid said nothing has happened. We'll know if something happens."

I nod, then nervously stick my hands in my pockets.

_When we got back from meeting with the Shadow Collective, we had a quick meeting about what happened, plus what happened with Darcy and the others._

Darcy's back here, along with everyone else for the foreseeable future.

Sabine specifically didn't want her parents to be told about her connection to Markas Renless and House Renless, saying she wanted to do that personally, preferably in person.

_She lied when they asked about that when I first went there._

Ahsoka, Lux and Hera really didn't like that idea, so they told Sabine to get ahold of _Mand'alor_ and give him a heads up. That conversation was last night.

_And it wasn't fun._

_Mand'alor_ was the maddest I've ever seen him. He said he understood why Sabine what she did, but to let them in _that far_ was a very poor decision.

His words, not mine.

But he did reassure Sabine that nothing would happen to them, because he would be deploying a few men in their neighborhood, so she shouldn't worry too much. If things got too bad, he would call Ahsoka and ask for us to go to Mandalore like he promised.

Things didn't sound too bad there. Constant skirmishes and firefights however, so things are clearly still tense.

_He looked exhausted._

"I would go and talk to her, but she's kind of retreated to your place." Ahsoka smiled.

I let out a sigh, then shrug. "I know. But I'm not going to make her come out if she doesn't want to."

"Yeah, that's a very bad idea." Kanan said, with a quick smile.

Ahsoka suddenly laughed, then hung her head.

"Okay Ezra. Remember that we told you that your friends found some footage."

_Oh yeah._

I nod, the wait for her to continue.

"Well we've got a treat for you. Actual footage of Anakin, Master Obi-Wan…and Count Dooku." Ahsoka smiled at me.

_NO…_

"Really?" I can't hold back a smile.

This will help me a lot.

_I've never seen another user of my style._

"Yup. Speak up if you see something. We made you a copy so you can watch it yourself later." Kanan smiled at me.

"Going from theory, to practice. This should help a lot Ezra." Ahsoka added, then a image popped on the screen of Anakin and Obi-Wan, looking at a man with his hands around his throat.

9A/N: If you guys want to see this fight, it's on Netflix and YouTube. Season 6, The Lost One. In my opinion, the best Dooku fight in the Clone Wars, and the movies.)

Ahsoka tapped a button, and the man gave a last gasp, then fell to the floor while a door opened and a red lightsaber was activated, causing Anakin and Obi-Wan to turn.

"Dooku! For once you came to do your own dirty work!" Skywalker scowled, as he and Kenobi activated their lightsabers.

"Sometimes, things are just that important." Dooku discarded his cloak and…taunted?

_I can't read this guy. And he's a lot older than I found have guessed._

That's my style though. One handed, curved hilt.

Skywalker immediately jumped at him and engaged him, before sidestepping Skywalker's slash and directed his attention towards Kenobi.

Kenobi lets out two very light jabs that barely lock Dooku up before Skywalker and Kenobi both come at him.

Dooku, with a simple vertical slash, deflects both strikes.

_WHOA._

Wow! He just…did that! No hesitation or anything.

Kenobi quickly locks him up again with a more aggressive move, but Dooku shoves him away using brute force.

_Huh. Wait…_

"Pause it." I say, then take a closer look.

The camera just changed, and he's…

"He's fighting them one handed!" I say quietly. "Literally!"

His offhand is folded behind his back.

"I didn't notice that. Is he crazy?" Kanan said.

"No, Dooku always fought like that. His family was super rich, and that fed Dooku's natural arrogance. It was a subtle form of _Dun Moch._"

_Oh._

You'd get mad because it doesn't even look like he's trying.

"I can see that." Kanan nodded, before Ahsoka started up the video again.

_WHOA!_

Kenobi just whiffed BAD. Right out of the gate.

_He's focusing on Skywalker._

Skywalker locked him up again, then Dooku shoved him off his spot. Leading Kenobi to lean in and jab.

And miss AGAIN.

Dooku immediately capitalized by slashing at Kenobi, causing him to feverishly back up. Skywalker forced Dooku to turn to him by letting out a obvious downward slash.

Dooku simply took a step back, and the slash ended up cutting into the…bridge?

_What are they on?_

Kenobi stepped forward, and locked up Dooku three times in rapid succession before Dooku forced him to retreat.

This is amazing. He's using it all.

The footwork, blade control, the centrifugal thing from earlier with the missed jab followed by the slash to Kenobi.

_This guy is a Master._

Skywalker came in again with the same downward strike, and missed completely again before Kenobi came in to capitalize.

Dooku simply planted his foot in Kenobi's chest and sent him flying.

"Whoa!" I yelp, looking to where he landed.

Kenobi wobbled, lost his lightsaber and—

_He's going to fall!_

Skywalker looked horrified and stepped in Kenobi's direction, and—

_I'm guessing that was a Force Pull._

Dooku immediately released a pinpoint jab towards Skywalker, who barely avoided it.

Behind them, I see Kenobi grab onto the edge and start to pull himself back up, then vaulted to his feet as Dooku and Skywalker are GOING AT IT.

Dooku has Anakin on the defensive with exacting jabs, like he wants Anakin to do something specific.

_What could it_—

"Whoa!" Kanan yelled, as my heart leaps.

HE DID IT!

"Back that up. Please please please!" I beg Ahsoka.

_He did it!_

That's what he was going for. I don't know that move, but HE DID IT!

Ahsoka sheepishly smiled and backed it up.

"I noticed he was being very exact, like he was looking for something. Can you slow it down at all?" I turn to Ahsoka.

"Half speed sound good?" Ahsoka smiled at me.

"I didn't see him go at a specific thing. I just saw strikes." Kanan admitted as I nod towards Ahsoka, who played it.

Okay, so Dooku swung outwards to Anakin, and worked him back in.

_Like he wanted to core him._

"Why are you guys right?" I mutter, as the footage continues.

Dooku came straight down on Skywalker with a slash, forcing him to turn away from his Master and grip his lightsaber with both hands.

Exact cut, forcing Anakin to block completely vertically. Then a completely horizontal strike.

Skywalker's momentum took him back, and he stopped himself and reversed course.

_Just as Dooku adjusted his grip, went reverse, and cut at his throat._

"Well I'll be…" Ahsoka muttered.

"Very good job seeing that Ezra." Kanan commented.

"I'll admit this, that does look awkward." I smile.

_It does._

"But you're exactly right. He worked him up, then off to the side, then came at him with a move Anakin had probably never seen before." Ahsoka commented, then ran it back to full speed.

Skywalker dodged the jab, but clearly wobbled and Dooku stepped away from a errant slah from Skywalker, then sent him away with an ankle high slash.

Kenobi arrived in time to grab his attention and whiff AGAIN on a slash, then on a wild horizontal…thing, then got thrown past Anakin violently.

_He's no match for Dooku. Dooku is winning decisively._

It's pretty much Anakin versus Dooku. With Kenobi keeping Dooku off him.

Dooku stepped into a strong slash, sending Skywalker into a support structure with a kick.

"Oh!" I say, as Dooku finally misses and Skywalker extricates himself from the corner he was in, moving towards Kenobi.

Dooku isn't fazed, and focuses solely on Skywalker as he misses two more times on slashes aimed at his legs before reaching up to block a Kenobi strike.

In one smooth motion, Dooku locks blades with Skywalker, who then—

"Are you kidding me?" Ahsoka said bluntly in disbelief.

Kanan turned as Ahsoka rewound it. "Never, ever try something like that.

_He didn't…_

Ahsoka played it again, slower and…it did happen.

Skywalker used Dooku's momentum against him at the same time Kenobi came down with a vertical strike.

Dooku simply bent down and blocked it. BEHIND HIS BACK AND WITHOUT LOOKING.

Kanan laughed once as Ahsoka started it again at full speed.

Skywalker suddenly rolled, clearing the way for Kenobi to vault in the air and swing at Dooku, who simply slid back and watched Kenobi miss by two whole feet.

"Gahhh…" Dooku gasped, as a door behind them opened to reveal Pykes.

_Pykes._

"Wait, I've been there. I know where they are." I say.

"On that trip you went on with your Imperial friends?" Ahsoka asked me.

I nod. "They walked us thru there. I had no clue." I say quietly.

"How could you?" Kanan reassured me quietly.

"That's a small area." I speak up. Like you can't fit many more people on that thing."

_Good thing the Pykes are a small people._

Stupid too.

"You have no business left with the Pykes Tyranus…" The Pyke leader said coldly.

_Whoa._

"Tyranus? You're the one called Tyranus?" Kenobi asked quickly in disbelief, as the Pykes to Dooku's right all raised their blasters to fire.

_The same blaster I have._

"I told you everything you needed to know all those years ago Kenobi…" Dooku said silkily, raising his lightsaber to point at Ob-Wan. "You should have joined me! Sifo-Dyas understood. He saw the future. That is why he helped me!"

"Pause it." Kanan ordered Ahsoka, who complied. "Who is he talking about?"

"Tyranus must have been Dooku's Sith name. Like Vader. That's what Master Obi-Wan thinks. He told me that Sifo-Dyas was the one who ordered the Clone Army before the war. For Dooku."

_Oh._

So this was all one big plot. Sifo-Dyas made the clones for Dooku, who made them for Palpatine, who enacted Order 66 with the Clones.

_It was an inside job the entire time._

"We knew our enemy created an army for us, and we kept fighting?!" Kanan asked, almost angrily.

Ahsoka shrugged. "I was gone at this point. But yeah."

Kanan looked defeated all of a sudden. "Maybe you're right. Maybe this was like burning a forest so that we can get new life in the Order. Because that is indefensible. Get out of the war. Just get out. Save the order. They had to have known something was very wrong."

_He thinks that was a stupid idea._

Ahsoka shrugged, then played it.

"You lie. Minister Lom, if you intend to help us, now is the time." Kenobi told the Pyke.

"Kill Tyranus!" The Pyke bellowed, followed by all the Pykes unleashing a volley of shots.

Dooku blocked two immediately, then let out a Force Push that knocked back all the Pykes near Kenobi and Anakin, then charged the Pykes, pushed them all down as well and vaulted—

And killed the head Pyke, who let out an anguished cry.

Immediately, Skywalker and Kenobi stepped forward to box him in. Dooku complied and walked right to the edge.

_Whoa!_

Anakin and Obi-Wan rushed forward in time to see where Dooku fell in time to get a face full of engine backwash in their face.

_He knew that was going to be there._

Wow. He knew it all. Complete control of the situation.

Dooku simply turned away from everyone and pressed some button.

On the platform, Anakin and Obi-Wan looked at each other, then Anakin took a few steps back.

"I'll give you a push." Obi-Wan said before Skywalker jumped all the way to Dooku's ship.

_He has lost his damn MIND!_

Are you insane!?

Skywalker activated his lightsaber before he landed a slashed wildly at Dooku, who avoided the strikes without activating his own lightsaber.

Finally he did, blocking a vertical strike and pushing Skywalker spinning away, vaulted up to the engine, spun his lightsaber and destroyed it, sending Skywalker over the edge of the ship and forcing him to grab on to a railing in order to save himself.

Dooku simply stepped onto a waiting ship, then flew off.

Then the footage stopped.

Wow.

"That's a master." I said quietly.

_If I can be half as good as him…_

I feel like I can give Vader a run for his money. He's not invincible.

Destiny doesn't exist anyway. It's all about action.

"Yup. Can I get a copy of that?" Kanan asked.

"Absolutely." Ahsoka smiled.

"Master Kenobi looked dramatically overwhelmed. At least to my eyes." Kanan added.

"Once he got kicked, he really didn't matter." I say.

"That's how it looked like to me. Anything you saw Ezra?" Ahsoka asked me.

I shake my head. "No, but I just want to try some of that stuff now. Some stuff he tried was just brilliant."

"We can do that." Kanan smiled at me.

"Yeah. Let's do that. Us two versus you Ezra. Like a test."

_Ooh!_

"Great." I smile confidently, as Ahsoka shut off the holo.

I can't disregard Kanan like Dooku did Obi-Wan.

_But I can focus more on Ahsoka._

I'll need to.

I follow Kanan and Ahsoka down three flights of stairs before walking into the empty sparring room.

I walk over to the water dispenser and pour out a cup as Ahsoka turned on all the lights.

"Okay ezra. Just don't block like Dooku did. Okay?" Kanan smiled at me, as he and Ahsoka took their positions across the room.

"Okay. Anything else?" I ask.

Ahsoka shook her head. "No. Just try stuff out. Better to learn here than out in a real battle. We'll stop it if we have a tip or notice something."

I nod, drain the rest of my water then double check my lightsaber is on safety.

_Two on one._

Ahsoka activated her lightsaber, prompting Kanan to do the same.

I pull mine off my belt, activate it and salute them both.

Then Ahsoka turned to Kanan, nodded and they both jumped out at me.

_Back!_

I slide back and quickly block Ahsoka's chop at my waist, then barely redirect Kanan's cut at my shoulder, then slide thru the tiny space between them.

I need room!

Ahsoka immediately stepped in front of Kanan and swiped down at me with both sabers.

I quickly block and anticipate Kanan's attack, causing me to spin.

I hear Kanan yell in surprise, only for him and Ahsoka to crash into one another due to Kanan's momentum.

Jumping in, I quickly jab at Ahsoka's torso.

She blocked it, and I riposte into a slash at Kanan.

Kanan easily held his ground, then pushed me away. Ahsoka then stepped in front of me and slashed at my chest.

I step back, barely block it then grab her wrist and use her momentum to fling her away in the direction of some crates.

"Aaahhh!" Ahsoka yelled, before hitting the foam crates and tumbling from view.

Kanan smiled and took a step back, getting into a defensive stance.

Slice. Block. Jab. Redirect.

A sudden warning from the Force causes me to drop down and spin away.

Then Kanan yelled and also hit the floor.

"Okay! Rex, maybe it's time to ease up on Ezra's weight training!" Ahsoka called out as I get to my feet and turn to see Rex, Lux, Echo and Sabine all sitting on crates on the other side of the room.

_Okay, don't throw anyone or use those crates over there._

"I don't see a problem Commander!" Rex teases her.

"He's not supposed to be able to throw me!" Ahsoka yelled back, then pulled her lightsaber to her.

She must have thrown it, which is what the Force warned me about.

"Sorry." I say sheepishly.

Ahsoka's tone immediately changed, and she smiled. "Don't worry about it. Smart play."

Immediately, she jabbed at me, causing me to dodge it, reactivate my lightsaber and swing at her shoulder.

_And miss._

"Ezra, you're looking like somebody…" Ahsoka teased me as she and Kanan joined back up.

I roll my eyes, then jump at them and swing my arm out at Kanan to create room, spin around and slice down at Ahsoka.

Ahsoka blocked me with both hands before pushing me away, and Kanan moved toward me.

_Let him come._

I slide back and block his slice, then redirect his cut at my waist and turn it into a jab.

Kanan's eyes immediately widened before he spun down and away.

I don't hesitate to follow him.

_Get back here._

I hear Ahsoka say something, but I block it out and slice down at Kanan.

Then out of the corner of my eye, I see something swing at my leg.

My leg gives out before I have a chance to move, sending me into a faceplant on the floor.

_Oww…_

I roll over in time to see Kanan swing down at me, and raise my hand to block it.

_Space!_

Kanan simply leaned down and kept leveraging me before my whole left arm went numb and my lightsaber went flying across the room.

_Wait…she didn't cut me._

She kicked me!

Kanan and Ahsoka both raise their blades to finish me, but before they can I tumble backwards on my head, grab one of the foam crates and fling it at them blindly while scrambling away.

Ahsoka tears right thru it, causing somebody to yell behind us as it turns into a race.

It's either I get to my lightsaber, or Ahsoka beats me.

I scramble to my feet, take a few steps, then roll and grab my lightsaber in time to block a slice aimed at my head.

I barely have time to take a breath and shakily get to my feet before Kanan releases a diagonal cut that started at my shoulder and is going for my legs.

I block it, spin and nearly turn right into the metal crates.

_Shoot!_

I turn back, and Kanan and Ahsoka are right there.

I let out a jab to create space, then jump up and use the crate as a springboard and try to evade them while sticking my lightsaber out and guessing where Ahsoka's going to try and bisect me.

Her blade crashes into mine cleanly, and I land on my feet in one piece.

_Yes!_

Kanan suddenly raised his hands toward Ahsoka in acquiescence. In reply, Ahsoka nodded.

"Not bad." Kanan smiled.

I lean over and put my hands on my knees.

"Are…we done?" I gasp.

_I'm gassed._

I was on the run the whole time basically.

"Yeah. We won. But you did very well." Ahsoka smiled.

"It's hardly fair. That was two on one." Sabine spoke up, causing me to turn and look at her.

She smiled at me, then handed me a cup of water.

"he needed to be on the defensive for once. Which he did well. My only major complaint is the springboard job, and the need to be a touch more aggressive."

"I was on my heels the whole fight!" I retort.

I had no time! I could barely think before they were back on me.

"Use something to get them off you. Maybe a cut or a jab."

"You'll want to get some ice on your wrist." Echo speaks up, causing me to turn.

Oh.

"When'd that happen?" I ask dumbly.

"When Ahsoka took out your legs. You almost broke it, the way you landed."

"Tumbled." A familiar voice quipped, causing us all to turn in the direction of the voice.

_Oh._

It's the girls.

"Hi." I say, then casually wave at Darcy, Lana, Mira, Brie, Katiey and Aiden.

"Hi. Sorry to interrupt. Good job." Darcy smiled at me.

"You're not interrupting. How was the trip back?" Rex asked them.

"Uneventful. Everything after the safe house really was flawless." Aiden spoke up, then looked to Ahsoka.

"Good. That's how things are supposed to go."

"What'd you think? Not quite a trigger happy Imperial is he?" Lux smiled, then elbowed me in the ribs.

"Amazing." Darcy immediately said.

"You moved so fast. All of you." Lana said, sounding awe struck.

"Eh, that was about 85%. Wouldn't you say?" Kanan said, turning to Ahsoka, who nodded.

_85%?_

"Seriously?" I ask quietly.

"Yeah. You'd lose everytime if we went full bore. Can't have you losing confidence. We're mostly working on little things with you. Like footwork or something." Kanan clapped me on the shoulder, as Sabine turns and frowns at him.

"That'll keep the confidence up then." I pop off.

"You'd beat any normal peron though." Mira quickly said.

I look back to see the rest of the girls nod feverishly.

"Remember what I said about taking out a Jedi?" Darcy smiled at me.

"What?" Rex muttered.

"Forget it. I was wrong." Darcy blew past Rex's comment, then smiled.

_O…kay._

Doesn't really help though.

The sound of the door opening makes me turn around to see Zeb rush in.

"Kanan, big holo call. Do you want us to transfer it up here or come down to the comm room?"

"Uhh…" Kanan said, then looked to Ahsoka.

"We'll take it here."

Rex turned to face Darcy. "I'm afraid you all will have to leave."

"What?" Mira asked.

"Why?" Darcy added.

"Because that's an order." Ahsoka said darkly.

"How are we supposed to help you guys if you're not willing to trust us with a holo-call General?" Darcy turned to Ahsoka and asked.

"It's not just any holo-call." Zeb jumped in.

"And not everyone gets to know absolutely what's going on." Kanan frowned at Darcy.

Darcy frowned, then nodded to Ahsoka, Kanan and Hera, then led the others out of the room.

"She didn't acknowledge Ezra." Lux said to Ahsoka.

"They're gone. We can talk to them later. Put it thru Zeb." She answered him, then turned to Zeb.

Zeb tapped a button on his wrist. "Put it thru. Third floor."

The holo in front of us suddenly lit up, and _Mand'alor_ appeared.

"Generals, commander. I apologize for the interruption."

Sabine reverently bowed her head as Ahsoka nodded. "You're not interrupting sir. Is there an issue?"

_Mand'alor_ nodded. "I'm afraid there is."

"With Mom and Dad?" Sabine blurted out.

"No, but the situation here has gone too far. Another Mandalorian was murdered today. There's been all out warfare on the streets ever since news broke."

_Oh._

"Uh oh." Hera said.

"With all due respect to you and your organization, I'm going to have to ask for Ms. Wren and Mr. Bridger to come here and protect her family. I can't guarantee their safety now. The conflict is too far spread."

Karabast.

Ahsoka quietly let out a breath, then nodded. "Absolutely. They'll gather some things, then the _Ghost_ will start out that way."

"I imagine the Empire will begin a blockade or some sort of retribution. There's a high likelihood that the Empire won't take this lying down."

Ahsoka nodded, as Kanan is frowning beside her. "I understand. What about humanitarian aid?"

"That would be very much appreciated, but I don't know what we need right now. I was going to contact you when I know more." _Mand'alor_ replied.

"When we know more, we'll go take care of that. Another pair of eyes on the ground there." Rex spoke up, causing Sabine to smile.

Ahsoka nodded, then looked back to the holo. "Anything else?"

"No general. Thank you for your time."

"We'll get into contact when we arrive in the system." Hera spoke up.

"Contact her parents. That'll most likely be able to get thru. I'm expecting my communications to be jammed any minute now." _Mand'alor_ replied.

"Understood."

_Mand'alor_ nodded, then the comm faded out.

_Blast._

Looks like we're going back home.

Lux pinched the bridge of his nose, then looked to Ahsoka.

"What's the plan? It's late."

It's like 11 right now.

"Most likely there's nothing we can do until tomorrow afternoon. Pack your bags, and go to sleep. Be ready to go around 10. Alright?" Ahsoka turned to Sabine and I.

"Okay." I nod.

Sabine smiled, and Ahsoka returned it.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Sabine said to Rex.

"Absolutely. You need to go. And if you need us, call. We'll be right behind you." Rex smiled softly.

_He's the best._

"I'll go start making sure everything is ready to go tomorrow." Kanan turned to Hera, then started out of the room.

"It's late! Do it in the morning!" Hera countered.

"I'm not going to be able to sleep if I don't!" Kanan said, before the door shut behind him.

Hera huffed out a breath, then turned and frowned at me. "Do all you men have to be stubborn?"

I nervously laugh, then smile at Hera as Lux and Ahsoka laugh.

"Sorry. General."

"Oh quiet you. Get going. And get some sleep. You'll need it." Hera said, then pushed me to the door.

I jokingly salute her, then grab the door for Sabine.

_Who already looks very worried._


	65. Skyfall

I wheel around in the turret and open fire again on the ships.

"They aren't Imperial!" Sabine yelled.

_Well yeah._

They aren't TIEs.

I hear Kanan let out a growl as I hit one of the freighters and the side, causing sparks to fly across its hull.

"Got one!" I call out over the open comm.

"Concordian Navy should be inbound!" Rex replied.

"Great! We aren't built to fight freighters!" Kanan quipped.

I roll my eye, and keep firing at my prey. Hera wants everybody to cripple, not destroy.

_Which means I'm aiming for engines._

Unfortunately it's not that easy. I got one, Kanan hasn't gotten one, Rex and Echo are with Hera operating the nose gun and Sabine has nailed three.

I wheel back to my right, fully resetting my position and grudgingly pick a new target, while also seeing a white and blue craft streak in our direction.

"I think I see them! White and blue!" I relay, then fire on the new freighter I spotted.

Tensing up at the recoil of the turret, I keep firing, and finally hit an engine dead on, causing it to burst into flames and the ship to immediately droop on the right side.

"That's them! Hold your fire on the blue and white craft!" Rex called out.

I obey and sweep back, looking for my freighter.

_C'mon now…_

"Got an opening!" Hera yelled, before the _Ghost _lurches away from me, causing me to smack my head on my headrest.

_OW!_

I shake my head, then focus enough to see the Concordian Navy in a fight with whoever we got caught up with.

Whew.

We hopped out of hyperspace near Concordia, who said things were free for now. No Imperial blockade. Then those guys surprised everybody.

_It's been a long day._

Senator Organa commed me personally to know why I was going.

_I've already told her, but I guess she wanted to double check._

To make sure Sophie is safe. Her parents too, but they can take care of themselves. Sof can't do that.

_I can._

Then to make matters worse, after we took our time eating lunch, the fuel crew said that we'd have to wait four hours to get enough fuel to get to Mandalore and back.

So now it's late, plus that stupid fight, plus the fact that we haven't been able to get ahold of anyone on Mandalore itself since late last night and…I just want to get down there.

I let out a sigh and stay in my seat, wheeling around to see Mandalore getting larger and larger.

_No outward warning sounds._

It's dark and cloudy. Nothing weird.

Sabine said that it's going to be a little cooler than the last time I was there. Not cold, just cool. So I packed some of my warmer clothes into the crate that was supposed to be airdropped to the MandalMotors headquarters a few hours ago.

Other than that, I tried keeping it to the point. Stuff I need like extra lightsaber parts in a little bag, another jacket, pants, shirts, both datapads and a shirt Sof left at Sabine and I's when she was on Dxun.

_Normally I wouldn't worry, but I think it's one of her favorites._

"I'm parking in one of the clouds to see if we can get audio contact with your folks Sabine." Hera says over the intercom.

I hear Sabine reply, but not over the comm, shortly followed by her own footsteps down the ladder towards me. Then I hit the button for my turret to rise to the _Ghost_, as Sabine climbed off the ladder and turned to me.

Immediately Sabine sighed.

"Not a fan?" I joke, trying to loosen her up.

_She barely slept last night._

She was awake when I fell asleep, and was awake when I got up. I assume she did get some rest at some point.

_At least I hope so._

Sabine cracked a smile, then everything went dark as we hit the cloud cover. "At least it's not thunderstorm season."

"True. What is it?" I ask.

"Ice. Wet and Dry seasons. Plus the normal cool period. But it never gets down to freezing. Mom said last time that everyone was expecting a wet and cold wet season this cycle."

_Great._

Lothal got cold sometimes. I can't tell you when it did, I didn't know what part of the cycle it was. Wasn't fun though.

"We're not going to freeze up in these clouds though." I say, looking to Sabine for reassurance.

Sabine nodded as the ship began to gradually slow. "Yeah. Hera checked everything this morning. We're fine."

"Sabine, I'm starting up here." I hear Kanan call out to her.

I quickly unbuckle myself and follow her up the ladder, only letting my eyes linger on the pictures of Sabine, Sof and I that are taped up for a moment.

_We're here._

Time to actually do something.

When I get to where Kanan is working on the comm, he's scowling at the static emitting from the speakers.

"I hear it! Let me move a little more…" Hera called out from the cockpit, then the ship gradually moved forward.

The comm went dead silent, then Sabine handed Kanan a datapad with numbers on it, who immediately began entering them in.

"Looking good. Things are quiet it seems like. But we are literally in the clouds." Rex said, as he and Echo walk in, followed by Hera.

Kanan typed the last number, then pressed and held a green button on the side of the holo.

"Yeah, we're only going to be able to get audio." Hera said.

The room went silent as we all waited.

"Now pick up Mom…" Sabine frowned.

_I think he has to keep the line open until they pick up._

…

"Hello?"

"Yes!" Sabine pumped her first, as Kanan glanced over and smiled.

"Mrs. Wren, it's us. It's the _Ghost_." Hera said.

"Great! We were beginning to wonder." Mrs. Wren's voice said.

"Is she okay?" I hear Sophie's voice, sounding anxious.

"Yes sweetie, can you get your father for me please?" Mrs. Wren replied.

"Uh huh!" Sof replied, followed by the sound of her running out of the room.

"Sorry we're here so late. We had a few delays." Kanan apologized.

"It's alright. Things happen. I'll let Carid fill you in on the details, but I don't think you'll be able to land."

_Uh oh._

"We've landed in combat zones before Mrs. Wren. We'll be able to make it."

"The landing isn't the problem—Carid, explain the situation." Mrs. Wren said.

"Right. Sorry to interrupt." Mr. Wren apologized. "Did you all get in the area alright?"

"We're in the air over Keldabe, in some cloud cover. What's the issue?" Rex asked, as Echo is biting his lip.

_Calculating._

He's trying to work out the problem.

"Long story short, the problem isn't the getting to the planet right now. It's getting off. The ship that dropped off Sabine and Ezra's crate got hit by a rocket. No ship has been able to get out due to a barrage of anti-aircraft weaponry. That's the problem."

"We can only take one or two of those before we have a hole in us." Kanan said, looking at Hera.

"We'll find a way to do it." Hera said defiantly. "Do you know the type of anti-aircraft weapon they are using?"

"All rockets."

"They weren't able to get a Star Destroyer to the planet yet, but they were able to coordinate a plan." Rex said.

"The logical counter would be arms fire against any incoming craft." Echo said quietly.

"But what do we do to counter the counter?" Kanan asked.

I turn to Sabi—

I turn back around and see Hera looking at me, causing everyone else to look.

"Where'd Sabine go?" I ask.

Kanan shrugged.

_Best guess would be the cargo hold._

Maybe she's got something that'll protect the Ghost? Fighting fire with fire?

"I'll be right back." I tell everyone, then start walking towards cargo hold.

"Mrs. Wren, give us a minute." I hear Hera say as I walk.

Before I can reach Sabine, she nearly barrels into me, holding…

_What is that?_

"That's not helping the problem." I say simply. "What is that anyway?"

Sabine simply smiled at me. "It's called a WingSuit. The _Ghost_ was used the test ship to give these things a spin. They let you fly thru the air without power."

_Fly thru the air? WHAT?!_

"No. No no nooo." Kanan said, as the sound of his footsteps neared.

"What?" Hera asked.

"The WingSuits. No way!" Kanan frowned at Sabine.

"Wing-what?" Rex asked, as he and Echo joined us.

"Why not? It's the only way to get down there without having the _Ghost_ take a beating!" Sabine retorted, looking angry.

"They're prototypes of a suit that allow for the user to basically fly." Hera frowned, explaining to Rex and Echo.

"You mean those things are meant for them to jump out?!" Echo said, looking thunderstruck.

Kanan nodded. "Good idea Sabine, but no."

Sabine frowned, then shook her head. "We can do this! The _Ghost_ won't be able to get out. You'll all be stuck. This is Ezra and I's mission. Not even!"

"You're putting yourself at an unnecessary risk." Rex said evenly.

Hera suddenly looked uncertain. "They do have independent air supplies and a parachute. It's all about the wing part."

Kanan turned back to her. "Hera. That was the part that worked best in that test!"

Hera stopped for a second, then nervously swallowed. "I think this is our answer."

"Why?" Kanan immediately asked.

"We're not supposed to be stuck there. That'd be a disaster. Rex and Echo are supposed to go down later. We're all needed if the situation continues to deteriorate."

"They're jumping off the _Ghost_. All they have are the parachutes! Primary and backup!"

"Parachutes don't fail like they used to though." Echo said, causing Kanan to turn and frown at him.

"Rex?" Hera looked to him and asked.

Rex stepped forward, then cleared his throat. "I wasn't here for the test, but everything sounds like it's in order. And we don't want to compound the problem. If they want to do it, I say go for it."

_Okay._

I let out a breath, and try to slow my heart down.

_No big deal._

This all is very safe.

"Go grab your stuff. Ezra, don't forget your helmet. You'll need it." Hera told me.

I nod blankly, then hustle down to my turret and pull my lightsaber to me, slip on my jacket, throw on my backpack and grab my helmet.

_I haven't had to use this in forever._

When we were in hyperspace Kanan and Rex both agreed that I might end up doing some fighting, so bringing it was a necessity.

"I'm up here kid if you need to toss something to me." Echo said calmly.

"Yeah, my helmet. If you don't mind." I smile up at him.

Echo simply opened his hands and I toss my helmet up, allowing him to catch it.

Letting out a breath, I wipe my hands off on my pants, then climb the ladder.

"I know you're nervous. It's okay." Echo smiled at me, handing me my helmet. "The plan will work."

"Being nervous is a good thing. Means you're not dead." Rex smiled at me as Kanan pressed for the comm again.

"Mrs. Wren?"

"We're here. And we think we've got an idea." Mrs. Wren said.

"Okay, we've got one too. Ezra and Sabine are getting ready now." Hera told her.

"Now?!" I hear Sophie say loudly.

"Okay. I just got ahold of _Mand'alor_, and he said he can spare a few ships to give you cover both ways. It's risky, but everything is set." Mr. Wren said, as Sabine popped out of her room, fully dressed in the WingSuit, plus her helmet and some wires extending out.

_Those weren't there before._

"That's risking too much. Those ships will be dead in space once we get out. They'd get pulverized coming back down. We've got a better plan." Hera said simply.

"Alright." Mr. Wren said. "Let's hear it."

Kanan let out a reluctant breath then said "There's a prototype called the WingSuit. Powerless flight, complete with parachute and air supply. The idea is for them to jump out and—"

"JUMP?!" Sophie yelped suddenly, sounding terrified.

"Hey. It's okay." Mr. Wren spoke up to reassure her.

"No! They don't need to jump out of your ship!" Mrs. Wren countered.

Sabine took a strong step forward and slapped Kanan's hand onto the talk button.

"OW!"

"Mom! I don't want anybody else risking themselves. We'll be okay." Sabine said, sounding agitated.

Kanan took his hand off the comm and shook it.

"Sabine, there's no way to guarantee—" Her father said.

"Life doesn't have a guarantee Dad! And I refuse to wait around, or have somebody come cover us when a good option is available!" Sabine countered.

The room went silent as we waited for a reply.

…

"Fine. I'll contact _Mand'alor_ and tell him to get some eyes in the sky."

"We might not be that close to home. Might take us a bit to get home." Sabine spoke up.

"This is about as close as I'm going to be able to get you." Hera frowned.

"Sabiiineee…" Sophie whined.

_Uh oh._

Rex turned to me. "We need to get you suited up."

I swallow, nod and follow them into the cargo hull, where a suit is already waiting.

Echo took my helmet and set it on top of a few crates. "It's easy. Just step in."

He held the suit up, with the back end opened with a zipper.

I walk into the suit, letting my feet settle and slipping my fingers into the built in gloves at the end.

"Now, the oxygen. You have to keep this on Ezra. We're about 7,700 meters off the ground, so you HAVE to keep this on." Echo said strongly, slipping a mask around my mouth, then started tugging on some sort of straps.

I let out a breath, and my heart skips a beat.

_I sound like Vader._

Rex smiled. "Working perfectly fine."

Echo continued to tug on my mask. "The jacket will keep him warm, just like Sabine's armor will keep her warm.

Rex handed him my helmet, and Echo put it on, drastically shrinking my peripheral vision.

_I can see, but only what's right in front of me due to this suit._

It's almost skin tight.

"When you're done and on the ground, there's a red button that will shrink it small enough to fit into your backpack. Don't worry about how it's folded. Hera said it'll work next time no problem."

"Okay." I reply, voice coming out with a mechanical touch to it.

Rex smiled, and then tapped my helmet. "Sounding like a Stormtrooper there kid."

Echo laughed, and I frown.

"Hey." I say, and then try to get comfortable in the suit.

"No no…" Rex muttered, then pushing down my pauldron to lie flat.

I take in another breath, and the noise reverberates all throughout the suit, ringing in my ears.

"He's ready." Echo said, causing me to turn and see Kanan wearing a mask.

"Go give Hera a hug." Kanan ordered me.

I nod, then walk back to Hera, who I can vaguely hear talking to the Wren's still.

"—be fine." She said, then turned to me. "You ready?"

I nod, and barely hear Sophie say something in a high pitched voice.

"Sof…I'll be right there. Promise." Sabine said.

I move to hug Hera. "Thank you."

"No problem. Keep them safe. And don't forget about yourself. Trust your instincts." She said, hugging me tightly.

My spirits sink when she lets me go, then smiles.

_I can see her uncertainty in her eyes._

"Mom, we're going now." Sabine said, as I start back to the cargo hold.

"I'll open the hatch." Hera says.

Sabine follows me back, then I break away to Kanan.

"What should I do about my lightsaber?" I ask him.

_I thought about that a lot this morning. Plus the time we were in hyperspace._

"Try not to use it as much as you can. It sounds like madness down there. But don't hesitate to use it if you think the situation deserves it. Does that make sense?" He asked in reply.

I nod. "Purpose."

Kanan smiled. "Exactly. Trust your instincts. Lean on your training Ezra. The basics will always be there. Maybe meditate when you're down there."

_Meditate?_

I can't help but laugh.

"I'm serious Ezra."

"I know." I smile, before being cut off by the hatch beginning to open and the temperature instantly dropping.

"Whoa!" Rex yelped, as the wind reached us.

_Not bad. Just cold._

I can feel it thru my suit and jacket.

"Good luck." I hear Kanan say to me.

I turn back, nod then walk over to Rex and Echo and shake their hands.

"Commander." Rex smiled. "Have fun down there."

"We'll let you know we're down there as soon as we can." Echo reassured me.

"Thank you. Let me know if you need me for a mission." I offer.

"We will. Don't you worry."

Sabine suddenly appeared next to me. "I linked one of my comm channels to the radio. You'll get three tones when we're down there and okay." She told Rex and Kanan.

"Okay. Sounds good. We'll keep trying to establish more reliable communication with us." Kanan nodded. "Whenever you're ready."

_Uh oh._

I guess now is the time.

Fearlessly, Sabine turned and started towards the end of the ramp.

_It's nothing but black and wind gusts. No color or anything._

I take a deep breath, then try to let my nervousness out into the Force, only to have no luck.

_Great._

Then I move to wipe my hands off again, only to see that they're under the suit.

_Can't dry my sweaty hands. Wonderful!_

I guess I have to go.

_And jump out of a perfectly good ship._

I'm not afraid of heights…but this might be a little too much to ask for.

"Stay together!" Kanan tells us as I step next to Sabine.

She looked over. "When we get down there, upzip me first!"

_Why?_

I nod, swallowing my question.

"Oh! Parachute!" Sabine added, pointing at a cable with a hand grip attached to it.

"Okay!" I yell back to her, then give her a thumbs up.

Sabine turned back, gave Kanan, Rex and Echo a wave then ran out and jumped off the _Ghost._

_What?_

I guess I have to go right now!

I take a deep breath, then run and jump away from the _Ghost_.

And just fall.

(A/N: Look up Godzilla HALO jump. That's all the visual you'll need.)

_WHOAAAAA!_

I take a deep breath and spread my arms out. The fabric between my arms immediately catches the air and I begin gliding. Kind of.

_I'm FLYING!_

Focus Ezra.

_I don't know how high up I am._

I may need to land quick.

_Hold on._

I squint and try to focus in on…a dark shap in front of me.

_I think that's Sabine._

I take another deep breath, and try to calm down.

Everything's okay. I'm just falling thru the air towards a city that might be a warzone.

_This is insane._

And stupid.

The shape in front of me does something, and immediately slows down.

_I gotta speed up._

If spreading out my arms slows me down, shouldn't bringing my arms in tight make me go faster?

Sabine needs me to get to her as fast as we can.

_And seeing her will help cam me down._

AAH!

I turn away from whatever formless…thing I just hit.

_I can't see anything again. Has to be a cloud._

I turn back and look for Sabine again.

…

_Nothing._

But I think I see another cloud.

This time I brace myself for it, and cut right thru the cloud without flinching this time.

_WHOA!_

I see it! Keldabe!

There's little streaks of light seemingly everywhere.

I turn and find what I think is Sabine far below me.

_I gotta go._

We're still way way up in the air. I've got time.

I take a deep breath, bring my arms in and pick up speed right away.

The sound of the wind whipping past me fills my ears as I rapidly gain on Sabine.

Seconds later, I spread my arms out again.

_I'm about 20 feet or so from her vertically._

Somehow we've got some space between us so that we aren't on top of each other.

The sound of Sabine screaming causes my heart to race and start trying to escape my chest.

Oh no.

_Is she okay?_

I look over at her, only to see her looking at me, giving me two thumbs up.

Then I see her bring her arms in, hear a scream and she shoots away from me.

_She's…having fun?_

She's NUTS!

_She's absolutely lost it!_

Grudgingly, I bring my arms in and chase after her.

We fall together for what feel like forever, until the streaks of light become more apparent.

_It's blaster fire._

They're fighting street to street.

Oh man.

Sabine spreads her arms and rockets away from me quickly, spurring my brain on.

I spread my arms out and quickly join her.

The sound of her laugh briefly calms my nerves before I look back down.

_Okay._

We're starting to get into range. Kind of.

_We're heading towards a tree filled area._

Suddenly, Sabine bumped into me and pointed towards an opening.

_There._

I nod and give a thumbs up, then she pushes me away to give us each space.

_Well thanks._

I take another breath and try again to relax.

This isn't my idea of fun.

"FWING!"

I glance back in time to see Sabine's parachute deploy and her speed to immediately slow to a crawl.

_Where's mine?_

I look back to my leg, where it was and find it fluttering for my attention.

Quickly, I grab it and pull as hard as I can. A taut cord flies out and then I'm violently yanked.

"WOOMPH!"

I look up and see a small parachute has deployed and is slowing me down.

_Okay…_

Now I've just got to land.

I take another couple of deep breaths as we keep floating down to the ground, watching the battle unfold in front of our eyes.

_It looks like the nearest firefight is just a few streets away._

I'll have to get to Sabine fast.

_Okay._

We're here. Gonna land right where Sabine pointed.

One…Two…Three!

I get a running start and take four or five quick steps, then my foot hits something and I crash to the ground.

_OW!_

My parachute swallows me up as I grab my shoulder in pain.

_I think I'm okay._

Sabine.

Quickly I throw the parachute off me and see that Sabine landed about 10 feet away, and that she's jumping for my attention.

I rush over and start unzipping her, dragging my parachute behind me.

"Sorry, fell on my face…" I mutter.

"Typical. Ah hah!" She yelled triumphantly when her arm is free.

She quickly pressed a button and…

_Where's she get a blade stuck into her armor?!_

That thing looks ready to kill!

Sabine quickly hacked her parachute off, then turned to me and cut mine.

"You're free!" She said quickly, then kissed my helmet before running off to the right.

_Hey!_

"Sabi…" I start, then stop as she disappears into the park.

_I'll unzip myself I guess._

I reach back, and after a few second of fiddling find the zipper and unzip myself.

The air hitting my jacket and slipping underneath makes me smile and hang my head.

_So much better._

I quickly take off my helmet and the oxygen mask, then take in a huge breath of air.

Never again.

_Never, ever again._

Throwing my helmet back on, I scramble out of the suit and toss it on the ground.

_Red button, red button…_

Red button!

I hit the button, and the suit loudly starts shrinking.

Cringing at the sound, I look around to see.

_Did anyone hear that? And where'd Sabine go?_

"Over here! The parachutes were in this area…make sure this isn't a supply drop!" A voice nearby said mechanically.

Stormtroopers.

_Of course._

I scoop up the suit, double check that I have my lightsaber then dash behind a large bush.

"Psst!" A voice hissed from my left.

I turn and see that it's Sabine, crouched and ready to ambush.

_I've got to take care of this stupid suit first._

Quickly, I throw my backpack over my shoulder, open it and throw the suit in and close it, then put it back on.

Then a massive explosion rings out.

I dive away from it and the bush and fire on the nearest Stormtrooper, hitting him twice in the chest before he falls to the ground.

_Gotcha._

"Sir!" I hear a voice call out to me.

I turn around and see multiple people in Mandalorian armor.

"_Ni Mand'alor! Ni Mand'alor!"_ I say to them then turn back and see more Stormtroopers, along with Sabine retreating.

I rush forward, intending to give her some cover, but instead she reveals a missle, then fires it, cutting me off.

BOOM!

Multiple yells behind me cause me to change course and run thru the smoke to see if there are any survivors.

_Nope._

I turn back around and lightly jog back to Sabine, who is speaking to the Mandalorians.

"What'd you say?" Sabine asked me.

"_Ni Mand'alor."_ I say. "We're on their side. That's what I was trying to say."

Sabine loudly laughed, and several of the men chuckled.

"No Ezra…you said "I'm _Mand'alor_."

_Oh!_

"Oh. Oops. I'm sorry. That's bad isn't it?" I say, embarrassed.

_Good job Ezra._

I know a little Mando'a. A little. Why'd I try to immediately speak it when I got here?

_Heat of the moment, but still._

"It's understandable. Are you two the ones that fell from the sky?" One of the Mandalorians, apparently the leader said.

"Yeah. Where are we?" Sabine asked

"19th and _Buskca_. Where are you going?" The warrior replied.

"Spaceport."

"We'll escort you all the way to 7th. That's as far as the action goes."

"Okay." Sabine replied, before the Mandalorian in charge motioned for us to follow.

Sabine quickly looked me over, then nodded. "I radioed in. They got back to me in the middle of that fight. I assume everything is good."

"Great." I reply, smiling before remembering something.

_We can't see each other's faces right now._

Without another word, the Mandalorians start off, forcing Sabine and I to follow.

"How far away were you guys when you heard us?" Sabine asked.

"We saw you first. But we were about six clicks away."

_Six Clicks?!_

I thought the nearest fight was a few streets away!

Guess I was wrong.

"Well thank you for coming, we really appreciate it."

"Our pleasure, _Mand'a_." The warrior gruffly replied, before we continue rushing down sidestreets.

After two or three blocks, we stumble onto a street with a firefight just lik ours at the end.

In unison, Sabine and I move to go help, but I'm grabbed by the shoulder.

"No. That's their fight."

WHAT!?

"What?" I blurt out, not caring that I'm being rude.

_We should be going to help!_

"So we're not supposed to go help? And just keep going?" Sabine asked the leader, who has grabbed her by the shoulder.

"Yes. There's an order to who is patrolling what areas. If we interfere, that gets mixed up."

Sabine cocked her head to the side at the Mandalorian. He simply brushed it off and kept going, forcing Sabine and I to keep up.

_I don't like having to move on._

Reluctantly, we follow the five or so Mandalorians until all of their wrist comms go off.

"_Su._" The leader said.

"Where are you? Our scout just bypassed your area." A unfamiliar voice asked.

"We're escorting the children that fell from the sky to their destination." The leader replied.

"Children?"

The leader paused. "Maybe a little older."

"Then get back here. They can likely take care of themselves."

The leader simply nodded, then turned back to Sabine and I. "I think our journey ends here."

"Thank you. We'll be fine." Sabine said graciously, before bowing.

I mimic her motion, then look up in time for all the men to bow their heads to us before they all leave at a run.

Silently, I turn to Sabine.

"Now's as good a time as ever. We've got one more block, then we're hopping into the backyard."

"We are?" I ask. "Won't that look bad?"

Sabine shook her head. "While you were suiting up I got their radio frequency. I'm going to do the same thing with the tones, then I'll need you to lift me up and over the fence."

I nod.

_She can't get over that fence herself._

It's about 10 feet tall. Almost as big as the backyard of her parents place. It is big enough to cookout and stuff though, which makes it nice.

"C'mon." Sabine said quietly, grabbing her pistol and slipping down a dark alley.

I grab my lightsaber and probe out.

_W…Whoa._

I briefly pause and probe again before shivering.

I feel the chaos and anger.

_On both sides._

It's the Dark Side.

"What's wrong?" Sabine hissed to me, causing me to turn.

"Feels terrible with the Force. Let's keep going." I tell her.

"You alright?" She asked insistently.

I try to give her a reassuring nod. "I'll be okay when we get to your place."

_I'll be able to focus then._

Right now I just want to recoil from it.

Sabine didn't reply, instead leading me down to a familiar area.

_Those are the back of the buildings behind the house._

We're here. We're actually here.

Sabine hit her comm three times, turned to me, and I silently lift her up.

Once she got close enough to grab onto the fence, she vaulted herself up and over.

I hear her land, then the back door open and somebody cry out.

_NO!_

I immediately leap up and over the fence, lightsaber in hand and look around.

_Oh._

I was wrong. There's no danger.

_Sophie's tackled Sabine and is crying._

I stand there for a moment, before turning to the door and see Sabine's mom in full armor and her father looking tired.

_I'll let Sabine and Sof hug it out._

Letting out a sigh, I walk over to Sabine's parents.

"Hi. Sorry about all the stress." I apologize, then give them a smile.

"At least you two are alright." Mrs. Wren said.

Sophie letting out a loud wail gets all of us to turn back and see Sabine still hugging her.

"She was a mess after your idea. She didn't know what to do." Mr. Wren said quietly.

"Oh. Uhm, sorry about that." I say awkwardly.

Mr. Wren shrugged. "You're here. Everything's okay now."

Kind of.

I take off my helmet and run my hand thru my hair nervously as Sophie hugs Sabine.

Everything's okay now.

_Yeah, right._

The city's tearing itself apart.

Everything is not okay now.


	66. Bow and Blaster

"Russhhhhhhh…"

I briefly glance back at the door to make sure it's closed, then hop in the shower and let the water wash over me.

_Probably have done this last night after we got here._

Oh well. It happens.

Sabine ended up comforting Sophie for like 10 minutes, then took her right to bed since it was after midnight and WAY past her bedtime. Her parents said that the plan originally was to let her stay up a little later so we'd see her before she went to bed. Then things got crazy.

Sof adorably told me that she'd say hi and all that first thing in the morning, but she was tired.

_I definitely wasn't going to stop her._

Everybody pretty much went straight to bed after that. Sabine didn't give her parents time to protest me staying in her room.

When I got woken up in the middle of the night by the sound of rain hitting Sabine's window, I was surprised to be really, really warm.

_I mean, Sabine's warm, but I was hot._

I grabbed the comforter and moved to toss it off me, only to find Sof curled up between me and her sister.

_She probably got scared or something._

Oh well. At least I helped her get some sleep.

I smile to myself and quickly start cleaning up.

Mrs. Wren said that we're taking a speeder to her work so that Sabine and I can get some target practice in.

Sabine said after breakfast that we're going to be with Sophie, and that her mom is going to find out what the plan is for the next few nights.

Holos are out, radio communications aren't really being used, for fear that the Empire is monitoring them, so we're down to face to face communication as the only reliable mean of getting information.

I grab my shampoo and lather some thru my hair, then yawn before sticking my head back under the water.

_Sof was begging Sabine and I to let her shoot at the range._

I don't know about that. But my mind flew back to the vision I had.

_That I still haven't told Sabine or anybody about._

Sabine was freaked out enough about the Vader/Anakin thing. We didn't sleep the night I told her.

She put it best: "There's nothing left to say."

Anakin, for all intents and purposes is dead, and taken over by Darth Vader, the man in the suit. The goal hasn't changed.

_Nothing has._

Sof wants to shoot. And all I can think about is that huge bow she was carrying around.

I don't even know what kind of weapon it is. Energy? Does it fire projectiles like a rocket does?

_I don't know._

So even if that is the kind of weapon Sophie wants to shoot, I can't help her identify it.

I let out a groan, then turn off the water and grab my towel.

As I dry off and get dressed, I can vaguely hear Sophie and Sabine talking in Sabine's room down the hall.

_Well, I guess I've got to get this day going._

I open the door with a smile as Sof turns around in Sabine's doorway and smiles back.

"Hey Sof. You ready?" I ask happily.

Sophie nodded raptly. "Yup. Sabine's just cleaning her blaster."

_Really?_

"You did that on the way here." I say, stepping to the side to see Sabine crouched and looking slightly annoyed.

"I just don't want Sof to get it all sticky or something."

"I won't do that! My hands are clean! Ezra! Are my hands clean?" Sof quickly asked me, sticking her hands up towards my face.

_They…look clean._

"They're clean."

"See!" Sophie immediately turned back to her sister.

"Hey. I just wish you had your own blaster and didn't have to use mine." Sabine shrugged.

"They have weapons there! I'll use those!" Sophie piped up.

"Well there's our solution." I smile, causing Sophie to turn back and smile at me.

"No, those aren't properly balanced. You'll shoot and miss. It won't be an accurate test of your skills." Sabine shook her head.

_What skills?_

Sof's never shot in her life!

"I've never shot before though! How are you going to be able to tell the difference?" Sophie asked, voice pitching up slightly to a whine.

Sabine simply turned and frowned. "Don't whine."

"I'm not! Tell me!"

Sabine tossed the towel she was using off into the corner then smiled at Sophie. "I want you to start shooting on the right foot. Which means a balanced weapon, good footwork and concentrating. We're not going to half do this."

_Oh._

This isn't a "Sophie's being an annoying sister" thing.

_This is a "Sabine Super Sister" thing._

She doesn't want her sister to shoot a bad weapon the first time.

I smile as Sabine stands up fully. "Where's your jacket?"

"In my room." Sophie replied.

"Well go get it. We're about to leave."

Sophie frowned, but listened and rushed to the stairs.

"You were kind of mean." I say, turning to Sabine.

"The hands thing? It came out wrong."

I shrug. "Still though. She isn't going to know if her weapon's balanced or not."

"I want it balanced though." Sabine said bluntly, brushing past me and heading towards the stairs.

_I'm with you._

I shake off my annoyance then follow her to the living room, where Mrs. Wren is reading something on a datapad.

"You all ready? Speeder should be here any minute." She asked, looking up from her datapad.

"Yup." Sabine nodded, then walking over to the coat rack by Sophie's room and grabbing a jacket she brought down this morning.

No armor because technically, that's what started all this fighting.

_The Ice Stick Fight._

I can't help but laugh at the name, causing Sophie to peer out of the hallway looking confused.

"What's funny?"

"Nothing." I smile at her.

Sophie cocked her head to the side, then made a silly face as her mom walked past me.

"Okay you two. Let's go."

Sabine glanced back at me before Sophie grabbed my hand and started pulling us towards the door.

Sabine grabbed it before we all walk outside into a cool breeze.

_Not too bad._

Mrs. Wren pointed to the left, revealing a waiting speeder.

"When'd you call it?" Sabine asked her mother.

"When Ezra turned off the water in his shower. They were advertising longer times than usual, so it worked out." Mrs. Wren said as we approach the speeder and the driver hopped out and grabbed the door for Sophie and I.

"Thanks." I smile at him before climbing in.

Sophie scooted over to allow Sabine to get it, so her mom could sit up front.

Sabine smiled at Sof and I, then handed Sophie a datapad.

"Thank you." Sophie smiled softly, taking it and unlocking it before opening some game and leaning on me.

_Literally._

I'm like her pillow.

Self-consciously, I slip my arm around her shoulder and watch as she pulls up some sort of game.

I think it's a game.

_You've got to get the numbers 1-9 in nine spaces._

The game is already in progress, and she's completed two sections. It doesn't look like there's an order to it.

"What are you trying to do?" I ask Sophie quietly.

"I'm trying to get all the numbers in each column without repeating."

"And all the blocks?" I ask.

Sophie nodded.

_That's complicated._

"Have you ever played Ezra?" Sof looked up at me.

I shake my head.

"It's fun. I'll help you next game."

"Okay." I smile at her.

_Yeah, maybe not._

I'm not that kind of smart.

I nervously look out the side of the speeder.

_Things look normal._

…

Market's busy like it always is.

Spaceport looks undamaged, but oddly deserted.

_Usually the traffic from the spaceport and the market is one huge group of people._

I look back toward Sabine and see her looking off in the distance towards the MandalMotors building.

Mr. Wren left to go there before I woke up.

Suddenly, the speeder went into a dive, causing me to grab onto Sophie protectively before we pull up to Mrs. Wren's…

What is this place?

_Shooting range, gym, sparring rooms, track…_

It's everything you really need.

Sabine hopped out, followed by Sophie handing Sabine the datapad and doing the same.

We all follow her mother inside, who takes in the room, then breaks off to the left.

_Is that the guy that Sabine's parents spoke to right before Sabine got her jaig eyes?_

"Mr. Dala. How are you?" Mrs. Wren said as Sabine, Sof and I caught up to them.

"Good Mrs. Wren. I see your daughter and her boyfriend are back in town." He turns to me and smiles, extending his hand. "Good to see you again."

"Good to see you too sir." I say politely, shaking his hand.

"Yes, they came just before all this new rioting and fighting." Mrs. Wren told him.

"That's good. Word on the street is that an Imperial blockade is imminent."

"Who could blame them?" Mrs. Wren said simply.

"Exactly. Now I'm sure you didn't just come to say hello…" The man said, starting into a side room, leaving the rest of us to follow.

"—ondering what the general plan is. Carid's off at work coordinating supplies, leaving this to me. I apologize he couldn't come himself." Mrs. Wren said as the door automatically shut behind us.

"No, that's what I figured when you all came in. He's invaluable to us right now, and his off world connections are critical. Right now I don't know anything, but in all honesty your husband will know something before I do. He's _Mand'alor's_ right hand man right now after all.

_Right hand man?_

Wow.

Mrs. Wren smiled briefly. "Okay."

"I imagine you didn't come all the way just to ask for information."

"No. The kids came to shoot and I came to talk to my secretary."

_Secretary?_

I turn and look to Sabine.

She shrugged, then turned away and back to her Mom and Mr. Dala.

"Are they going to be out at night? If so, they need armor. Especially him." Mr. Dala said, then gestured to me.

Mrs. Wren looked back to me. "Do you have any sort of armor?"

_No._

"No." I shake my head.

"We can easily get arm and shin guards. I would just need his measurements."

"We'll get that to you." Mrs. Wren immediately replied.

"Mrs. Wren—" I start, before Mrs. Wren turned back and frowned at me.

I…

_I just got the Mom look._

The look Sabine and Sophie get when they're beat.

Fine then. I guess I'm getting armor.

Sophie simply giggled, and I look down at her and give her a smirk.

"Not funny." I whisper.

"Yeah huh." She whispered back.

I smile at her, then glance back up to see Mrs. Wren and Mr. Dala shake hands, then Mrs. Wren start to the door.

_I guess we're done here._

On our way out I politely wave to Mr. Dala, who returns the gesture before the door shuts.

"Okay, I'll be in my office. Take your time, and come get me when you're done." Mrs. Wren told Sabine, leaning towards a staircase.

Sabine nodded. "How long do you need?"

"Thirty minutes or so. This is more about you guys." Mrs. Wren smiled wryly.

Huh?

I quickly probe, then smile back.

_She's got something up her sleeve._

"What? What am I missing?" Sabine asked, glancing at me.

"You've got something in the works." I smile at Mrs. Wren.

"Details, details. Go shoot. Come get me when you're done." Mrs. Wren shooed us towards the opposite set of stairs.

Sophie didn't need to be told twice and took off, pulling me with her.

"Okay okay, slow down…" I smile.

"C'mon!"

_She's excited._

Her positive and cheerful attitude is so nice.

Sophie pulls me up all three flights, with Sabine behind us then barged right into the shooting range.

_Whoa._

"Oh!" Sabine said in surprise, before Sof let go of my hand and made a break for the guy behind the desk.

"Hiii!" Sophie smiled up at Atin.

"Hey! What brings you all up here?" Atin hugged her, then smiled at Sabine.

"Shooting." Sabine said simply.

Atin nodded. "Makes sense. Sof too? We've got stools and stuff for that if you want."

"Yeah."

"Can I pick my own blaster?" Sof suddenly piped up.

Atin smiley happily before Sabine broke in.

"Sof, we agreed that you'd shoot my blaster."

"What? No…We don't need to do that." Atin frowned at Sabine.

Sabine scowled at Atin. "No no. Nothing around here is balanced. I know my blaster is going to be accurate."

I turn back to Atin to see Sophie looking up at him hopefully.

"We'll see about that. Let Sof and I pick something out and we'll meet you in the private room. 17 thru 20." Atin replied, before taking Sophie out of sight.

Sabine huffed in displeasure then spoke up. "C'mon."

I turn back and follow her past a bunch of shooting stalls like on Polis Massa, Onderon and Dxun before finding a door marked 17abc, 18, 19 &amp; 20.

Flinging the door open, Sabine went right to a stall, slapped a button, pulled out her pistol and fired five times.

A quiet "Ding!" went off before a board above the stall.

_3/5._

Sabine took a deep breath, then turned back to me.

"You ok?" I ask quietly.

"No. I'm not. You should know that."

_Oh._

"Sorry?" I say sheepishly.

"He's being dumb. And trying to show off." Sabine said angrily, before turning back to the target and bringing out her other pistol.

_She's running too hot._

I know the best thing to do is to let her shoot her way out of this.

So I guess I'll just do the same.

I step into the shooting stall beside her as more shots from Sabine's stall whiz by and look at a large panel off to my right.

_Looks like you can switch up the targets with different colored buttons and with numbers._

Right now it's a standard bullseye target about 30 feet away.

I tap a blue button and a smaller target pops up farther away.

A green button pops one up closer, then disappears.

_Okay, I think I'm understanding it now._

Out of curiosity, I tap the '3' and glance up in time to see three targets appear.

"Ezra." Sabine snaps.

"I'm trying to figure out how to work this!" I say, biting off the end of my statement.

_Grouchy._

Shaking my head, I stand back up and grab my blaster off my hip, then hit the blue button and '5'.

I let out a deep breath, then fire five times.

_Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!_

Looked good to me.

"Ding!"

I glance up and see _4/5_.

_Where was the miss?_

Whatever. I'll go 5/5 next time.

I hit the buttons again, then fire five more times.

_Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!_

The door opens behind me as the board flashes _5/5_.

Better.

I turn to see what Sophie grabbed, then freeze.

_THE BOW._

"Whoa. What'd you grab?" Sabine asked as Sophie is grinning from ear to ear.

"A bow!" Sophie beamed.

"It's an energy bow. We've got bigger ones for when she grows more." Atin said as Sophie hustled over to the station next to me and put the bow on top of the little counter.

"Is it balanced?" Sabine asked calmly.

Atin quietly laughed. "Do you really think my boss would let Mandalore go into Rebellion and give its citizens a shooting range with weapons that aren't aligned down to the nanometer?"

_Oh._

That's a GREAT point. It's probably dishonorable to do that.

"No." Sabine said, with a laugh in her voice. "I take it you were the one that aligned all the weapons?"

Atin nodded, then moved towards Sophie's station. "I was looking for a little extra work, applied here, got accepted. Next day that poor kid got nailed. My first job immediately stopped in protest, and hasn't started up again. Lucky for me, the people running here thought ahead, called me in and gave me overtime until everything was aligned perfectly."

I cringe, then set up another round.

"Doesn't sound fun." Sabine replied.

"Credits are credits." Atin replied, then turned to Sophie. "Okay Sof. Two simple things, then you'll shoot. Okay?"

"Okay." Sophie said.

_Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!_

"First off, you need to stand with your feet perpendicular to the target. So if you stepped forward, you'd be stepping to the target. Can you do that for me?"

I turn and see Sophie do exactly what he said, feet spread out and towards the target.

Silently, Atin grabbed another stool and frowned.

_That's not going to be the ideal shooting surface._

But she isn't tall enough otherwise.

"Hold on. Let me see if we've got something bigger." Atin said quietly, then left the room.

Sophie looked to me and smiled.

"Why'd you choose a bow Sof?" I ask out of curiosity.

"I thought it looked cool. And it's not a blaster like you and Sabine." Sof smiled.

_Looks._

"That's what most people use Sof." Sabine said, before letting off another volley.

_5/5_.

"Yeah!" Sophie cheered, then smiled in Sabine's direction.

Sabine didn't look back to Sophie.

_Aww._

I smile at her to try and make up for it.

Regardless, Sophie frowned before looking at me.

"You shoot. I wanna watch."

"Okay." I say, then set up another round of five.

I let out a breath, then—_ Bang Bang Bang Bang Bang!_

Both Sof and I look up for my score.

_4/5_.

"How?" I blurt out.

I hit the damn target five times!

"I think it's broken." I mutter quietly as the door opens again.

"If you shoot too fast it doesn't register the last shot." Atin says without looking at me, totting a long, tall stool.

_It's like a platform._

"Okay Sof. You need to make sure your feet are good every single time. Not every two times, every time. Okay?"

"Got it." Sophie replied confidently.

"Show me."

Sophie stepped onto the platform, then mimicked her stance that Atin showed him earlier.

Atin smiled, then simply handed her the bow.

Behind me, Sabine made a small noise of protest.

"Now…line up your eyes with the sight."

Sophie raised the bow and squinted.

"Okay."

"Reach back." Atin told her.

Sophie obeyed, tentatively grabbing the rubber string guard and pulling it back.

"Let go."

Sophie obeyed again, and a bolt of energy flew out, hitting the top left edge of the target.

Sophie let out a little squeal, then looked to Atin.

"Not bad for your first shot ever. Try it again."

Methodically, Sophie set her feet, raised the bow, aimed, then brought back the string and fired.

This time the shot misses completely, causing Sophie to frown while lowering the bow.

"Hey. Don't get down. It's your second shot. Ever. How many times do you think your sister has missed?" Atin asked Sof.

"Not many."

_Hah._

Atin quietly laughed, then rubbed Sof's shoulder. "No silly. She's missed more times than she can count. We all do. I'm going to set this to twenty shots okay? Follow those steps and see how many you get okay?"

Sophie nodded, smiling again and set her feet.

Atin walked over to Sabine as I set up another round for myself.

Sof's first shot flew by just before Atin spoke.

"I heard about how you guys got into the city." Atin began.

"Oh yeah?" Sabine asked wryly.

"You're insane. You know that?"

"It was the only way to get here safely without jeopardizing anyone. And are you sure this is a safe place for a conversation?" Sabine quipped.

Atin smiled. "I work here, and I watch all the tapes. Nobody will hear this."

Sabine frowned. "Better not."

_Geez, have some confidence Sabine._

"You're grumpy."

"So?"

"Why are you grumpy?" Atin asked.

Good question.

"The city is in chaos. We're not supposed to go out at night. Ezra and I had to leave our cell to come home. It's bad."

"Then do something." Atin said.

"I plan on it."

"We are?" I ask, not able to help myself.

"Yup. We are. After we talk to Daddy today."

"Well he told me a couple of days ago that the next time there's a meeting I'm coming to help escort Sof." Atin said.

The Force suddenly jolts before Sabine bites back "That isn't necessary."

"Take it up with your dad. I'm just the messenger."

"Ding!"

I quickly glance back at Sophie's monitor

11/20.

"Not bad Sof!" Atin said happily, then moving to give Sof a high five.

Sof complied, then frowned. "I got tired. I was 11 for 13."

_Oh._

"Is that just hitting the target?" Sabine asked, suddenly standing next to me.

Atin nodded. "I think that's enough this time. Have your dad set up the shooting range in his office and practice okay?"

"Every day?" Sophie asked, holding her bow protectively.

"If you want to be good." Atin smiled.

Sophie smiled, then stepped off the platform.

"I better get back to work. I'll see you all around." Atin smiled at Sof, then nodded to Sabine and I.

"Okay. Thanks." I say politely.

"Wait, this isn't ours." Sabine pipes up as Atin has his hand on the door handle.

"Yeah it is." Atin said, then winked and left the room.

Sof let out a squeal, then jumped into the air.

"Lucky." I tease her, getting a smile in reply.

"C'mon. Let's find mom and go home." Sabine said, grabbing the door for us.

Sophie happily held onto her new bow with both hands as we walked down the stairs and thru the door to Mrs. Wren's workout area.

When I close the door behind us, I see Mrs. Wren talking to another woman, about a head shorter.

"Where'd you get that?" She immediately asked Sof, who beamed again.

"Atin gave it to me!"

"He did? Great _Ad'ika_!" Mrs. Wren smiled.

"You knew he was working up there." Sabine said, wearing a smirk on her face.

"Of course I did. I referred him." Mrs. Wren replied, before her friend spoke up.

"Well I better get going."

"I'll get ahold of you later." Mrs. Wren smiled at her, before she left the room.

"C'mon. Let's go home. Carid should be home by now."

"Really?" I ask, as we all turn for the door.

Mrs. Wren nodded to me and led us all the way back to the speeders.

_Huh, the sun's starting to fall._

We do need to get back.

The speeder ride home is easy. Sophie played her numbers game again while holding onto her bow with both feet.

When we arrive home, Mrs. Wren unlocked the door, opened it and called out "Carid? You home?"

"Yes _ni ka'rta_!" Mr. Wren's voice replied. (A/N: My love)

Sabine suddenly blushed as I let her and Sophie in.

"Daddy! Daddy! Look what I got!" Sophie sprinted into the kitchen.

"You got a bow?" I hear, taking my shoes off.

_Sof forgot._

I smile as I walk into the kitchen to see Mr. Wren looking at Sophie's bow.

"Atin gave it to me! He told me to set up to shooting range in your office."

Mr. Wren smiled. "We can do that _Soph'ika_."

Sophie let out a squeak, then hugged her Dad.

When Mr. Wren let Sophie go, he turned to his wife.

"I spoke to Fenn. Meeting in two nights. Time not set yet."

Mrs. Wren smiled. "I was about to ask. Mr. Dala didn't know anything."

"Not surprised. He's been a bit hesitant recently." Mr. Wren frowned.

_Huh._

That's uncharacteristic of him.

A moment passed, before Mr. Wren turned back to the stove.

"I started the roast. Would you mind taking over while I talk to Ezra for a moment?"

"Sure." His wife smiled.

_Uh oh._

I quietly follow Sabine's father out of the kitchen, up the stairs and into his office on the third floor, letting him shut the door behind me.

"Sorry to drag you away from everyone son, I just wanted to have a word real quick."

_Great._

"Sure." I say, voice somehow even.

I focus and try to relax and let some nerves out into the Force.

"Can I see your lightsaber first son? Or is that your blaster?" He asked.

I smile at him while unclipping my lightsaber. "It's actually both. The button on the side activates the lightsaber."

Mr. Wren's eyebrows rose. "Really?" he asked, taking my lightsaber.

"I'd rather not that you activate it with the window open. Do you have blinds…?" I ask nervously.

People can just look in, and we'd be in a ton of trouble.

"Oh yeah. Grab the remote on my desk and tap the third button."

Without thinking, I pull the remote to me and press the button, causing blinds to lower from the ceiling.

"Button right above it is the lights." Mr. Wren said without prompting.

I laugh, then hit the lights.

When the blinds were fully deployed, Mr. Wren activated my lightsaber.

"Hummmm…"

"My goodness son. This is really something." Mr. Wren said quietly, then clumsily waved it around. "Self-contained inside a standard, yet curved hilt that looks like a blaster."

Sheepshly I smile. "Thank you sir."

"Did Sabine help at all?"

I shake my head. "No. It was all Ahsoka and Kanan sir."

Mr. Wren nodded in understanding, then brought my hilt in for closer inspection.

"Now son, I do have to say. I was right."

"Huh? I say blankly.

_What is he talking about?_

"My daughter?" he smiled wryly at me before looking back at my lightsaber.

Oh.

"Oh. Yeah. I guess you were."

_I completely forgot about that._

"I know my daughter son. She loved you the moment you walked in that door. I just don't think either of you knew it."

I open my mouth to counter him, then stop.

_Now that I think about it…I don't think I did._

It was just an idea then. Now it's real. Physical.

Sabine's the middle of my entire world. I've built everything around her.

_Back then it was all about the Jedi training, with Sabine as a desire._

I liked her, but it was different.

"So you are dating now. Am I correct?" Mr. Wren asks, breaking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeeeaaah." I say, eying him nervously.

I do not like how this is going.

_He has my lightsaber._

"Why'd you tense up? I'm not hitting you with hard questions." Mr. Wren smiled at me.

"It's not that, it's that you have my lightsaber in your hand while you ask me those questions." I admit.

"Ohhh. Yeah." Mr. Wren laughed. "I can see how that can happen." He smiled, then tossed my lightsaber back to me.

I clumsily catch it, then clip it back on my belt.

"Better?" He asked me.

I shrug shyly.

_I don't know what to do._

I don't want to look nervous or anything. That'd look bad.

"You're nervous."

I nod silently, causing him to smile.

"Hey. The only time you should be this nervous is if something bad happened and she's pregnant. And even that's workable. Just not in my house, as a hard rule."

_WHAT?!_

"I—" I sputter out. "No sir. I—"

_Dammit._

"She's made the…arrangements. She's on birth control." I say quietly, while going bright red.

"Well that's good. When'd that happen?"

Dang it.

"Way back when we first met up with the larger Rebellion, even though I didn't know it at the time." I admit.

Mr. Wren laughed. "I imagine that's not something she'd want everyone knowing."

"Yeah, I guess." I say sheepishly.

Dang it, I don't know what to do!

"Relax son. I'm not upset or anything. Bo told me you guys were staying together when she and Sophie got back from Dxun. I'm not surprised. I just wanted to make sure everything is okay, and to thank you for coming." Mr. Wren said, slipping his arm around my shoulder.

"You don't have to do that." I tell him.

_I was coming anyway._

"Yeah Ezra, I do. You're a Jedi Warrior that's dating my daughter and has decided to come and protect my family in a time of crisis. It says a lot about you, both to me and to _Mand'alor_. I saw him today, and he wants to speak to you sometime about commanding a small squad of Commandoes in the case that we have a chance to end this conflict and win."

Whoa.

"I don't know about that." I say quietly, reaching up to rub my neck. "I'm no General. I just started doing battle simulations for that sort of thing recently."

"You're fine Ezra. Nobody is expecting perfection. And you're right. You aren't a general. You're a Commander."

I sheepishly smile before Mr. Wren smiled also.

"I'm glad Sabine came to her senses. And that you appear to have recovered from your little stint in captivity."

"Yeah, I think so. Even though this is my first sort of action since then." I admit.

_I don't like that._

"Son…ease up on yourself. You're not perfect. Nobody is asking you to be. Don't put that pressure on yourself. It'll cause you to break."

"I can't fail though." I counter.

"You won't. If Ahsoka and Kanan trust you enough to come here alone, they believe in you. And so do I."

_Oh wow._

"Thanks." I say quietly, bowing my head.

Before Mr. Wren can speak up again, the speaker that connects downstairs opens.

"Hey you guys. Dinner's ready. And somebody's got to do the salad." Sabine's voice came across over the speaker.

"We're coming!" Mr. Wren said, causing Sabine to close the channel.

"I'll take care of the salad son. I dragged you up here after all."

I smile at him, then follow him downstairs to join the others.


	67. Touch Gloves

(A/N: All information on the datapad belongs to the good folks over at Wookiepedia. If you haven't checked the site out, it's a must. Happy Thanksgiving, Happy Holidays and thank you for reading –James)

"The Force has been viewed from and broken down at many different aspects over the millennia. Just a few of these have survived to be retained historically, and are as follows: Light Side, Dark Side, the Living Force, the Unifying Force, the Cosmic Force and the Physical Force."

_Huh._

I always thought the Dark Side and Light Side of the Force were established facts. Not aspects.

Swiping the side of the datapad screen, I bring up my little note taking tool and tap on the link for the Living Force.

_Might as well start there. It's listed first._

Sophie lifts her head briefly then sets it back down on my leg, and Sabine continues painting, followed by the sound of her blow torch she's using to dry the paint.

"The Living Force is by far the predominant view accepted by Jedi over the course of the Jedi Order's history. Philosophy states that each living thing has the Living Force inside it and has a Force 'signature', meaning that a Force sensitive can connect to every living thing in the galaxy.

The Living Force has two distinct Sides to it: The Light and the Dark."

_Okay. I know this part._

"Master Qui-Gon-Jinn espoused a philosophy to living "in the moment" and relying on one's personal instinct instead of putting things aside due to 'destiny', as the Unifying Force belief system teaches. Thru the living Force, it has been hypothesized that a particularly 'pure' and become one with the Living Force, allowing them to maintain their identities beyond their death."

Yeah, I don't buy that.

I tap my notes and quickly add to my notes.

_Living Force: Connected to everything in the galaxy._

_Light and Dark Side comes from that. _

_Good and bad to every living thing._

"_In the moment" not destiny (Unifying Force)_

I tap the icon for my notes to save, then tap on the link for the Unifying Force.

It sounds like the beliefs Kanan and Ahsoka have taught about the Force is a mixture of all of this stuff. The Living Force makes a lot of sense, except for the 'surviving beyond death' pa…

_Hold on._

…

Padmé.

_She's dead. And I met her._

But she's not Force Sensitive…as far as I know.

_Unifying Force Ezra._

Focus. Don't get sidetracked.

"The Unifying Force is a belief that relatively few Jedi espoused and stated that there was neither a Dark or Light side to the Force, but that the Force was one single entity, and that practitioners of the Unifying Force should focus on what is to come and look forward for future possibilities, caring less on the here and the now, as the Living Force belief system believes in."

_Like that prophecy that stressed Anakin._

Past the breaking point.

The Living Force sounds mostly right to me, personally.

_There isn't such a thing as destiny. The moment is what truly matters._

On the other side of things, the Unifying Force might be right about there only being one Force.

I almost know for a fact that the Force has shades of gray to it.

_I'm a shade of gray. _

I'm not on the Dark Side, but I've used some of the powers of the Dark Side. Ahsoka, Master Kenobi and Kanan all have said that I'm on the Light Side.

I let out a sigh, then bring up my notes.

_Unifying Force: Destiny. Looking forward, not in the moment. _

_Prophecy. _

_No Light or Dark, only the Force._

It sounds to me like the Jedi Order during the Clone Wars was more 'Unifying Force' than 'Living Force'. Which makes sense, in war time. You're surrounded by death, destruction and misery. You shouldn't dwell on that, and instead look forward on how to win the war.

_It makes sense._

Suddenly, Sophie slithered up next to me, laying her head on my chest and looked at the datapad.

I smile down at her as she reads my notes.

"What's that word mean?" Sof asked, pointing at 'unifying'.

"It means like together. Bringing together." I answer her.

"Okay. And what's the Light and the Dark?"

I laugh, then smile down at her. "I'm light. People with red lightsabers are dark."

Sophie didn't respond, instead looking at the datapad with a blank expression.

"Does that make sense Sof?"

Sophie nodded, then sat up. "Yeah, it makes sense."

Sophie then slid off our little beanbag and moved off to the right where Sabine is still painting my helmet.

"Come to look?" Sabine asked, causing Sof to nod.

"Are you almost done?"

"Nope." Sabine said, as I sat up, causing her to look over at me.

"I made a couple of small changes if that's okay."

_No use now if I say no._

"It's fine, what'd you do?" I ask while walking over to where Sabine is sitting.

"I painted over the yellow lines on the jaw. They'll just stick out."

Lot more orange, like her armor.

"You're claiming me." I joke, causing Sophie to look lost.

"Huh?"

"What do you mean?" Sabine asked me.

I point to one of the new orange lines on top that is bordering the old red sections.

Sophie looked at me. "I don't get it."

"Look at her armor Sof." I say, then gesture to Sabine's armor that she's in.

_We're supposed to leave for this meeting soon._

Sophie looked at Sabine armor, then lit up.

"Orange!"

"Yup." I smile at her, causing Sof to giggle.

"I wasn't really going for that…I just thought it looked nice." Sabine said.

"Suuure." I joke, getting more giggles out of Sof.

"Can I put something on there?" Sophie asked, looking back to Sabine.

"Sure. Look away Ezra." Sabine ordered me.

"Why?"

"It's a surprise." Sabine said deviously, causing Sophie to smile.

_Did they plan this?_

"I'll be in the kitchen." I say, getting to my feet and allowing Sophie access to Sabine's paints that she's spread out all on Sophie's floor.

I smile as the Force spikes from Sophie's excitement on my way to the kitchen.

_Living Force._

Huh. I'd never made that connection.

"There you are Ezra. Sabine and Sof still relaxing?" Mr. Wren asked me.

"They're having fun painting my helmet." I answer him, causing Mrs. Wren to look up from the holo.

"I didn't know that's what they were doing."

I shrug before answering "Some paint came off somehow when Sabine and I jumped, so she was fixing it, then made some other tweaks. Then Sof wanted to paint something."

"She did now?" Mr. Wren asked.

Mrs. Wren smiled. "Maybe she's artistic too."

_I don't know._

Sof is Sof. I don't know what she is, other than fun and curious and happy.

"No, I think she's a little more like me judging by how she's taken to those math exercises." Mr. Wren replied.

Mrs. Wren didn't reply, instead turning and looking into the hall. "Having fun _ad'ika_?"

"Yup! Where's Ezra?" Sophie said, walking into view and followed by Sabine holding her helmet and Sophie's jacket.

"Here." I smile, causing Sof to turn, then run to me and hand me my helmet.

_I…don't see anything different._

"What'd you do Sophie? It looks just the same to me." Her father smiled at her.

Sof simply pointed to a horizontal blue line on the back, with a purple triangle on one side and a orange on the other.

_Sabine and Sophie?_

Sabine's orange.

"Are you the purple?" I smile at her.

Sophie nodded, then hugged me.

"I love it Sof." I say, hugging her back. "Thank you."

_Great idea._

"It looks a little like part of the Black Sun logo." Mrs. Wren spoke up, causing Sophie to let me go and turn to face her mom.

"Black Sun?" I ask.

_That name is vaguely familiar._

"The criminal organization?" Sabine clarified.

Oh.

_I saw that name on some of the Imperial files on Denon._

They were initially suspected of the arms trafficking to Cato Neimoidia before the stupid Pykes got involved.

"Yeah. They're still around, just not as big as they were during the Clone Wars." Mrs. Wren said with a suddenly dark expression on her face.

"Is it bad?" Sophie asked, voice barely quivering.

_Oh no._

She's afraid she messed up.

"No no honey. You're fine. It looks great." Mrs. Wren smiled gently at her daughter. "Now go grab your jacket, we're about to leave."

Sophie obediently turned, but was stopped by Sabine.

"No silly, I have your jacket." She smiled at her little sister

_I better go get mine._

Silently, I slip past Sabine and Sof and walk up to Sabine's room and Force Pull my jacket to me.

I slip it on while walking back downstairs in time to see Sabine slip her helmet on.

Sophie handed me my helmet, and then followed her parents to the door, where we all put our shoes on and I put my helmet on.

Sophie and her father are the only ones without helmets.

_I don't like this is standard procedure in order to go out at night._

It seems to breed chaos. Nobody can see your face, so you can do whatever you want and get away with it.

"Atin'll be at the meeting?" Sophie asked her dad as I grab the door for everyone.

Mr. Wren smiled down at Sophie. "Yeah _Ad'ika_. He just had to work a little late."

Sabine briefly turned, and Sophie smiled and kept walking.

We have to walk to this meeting. Speeders are still target practice for Imperials with rockets.

_Sabine's father is the only one that knows where this meeting is. So we're following blindly._

Well, semi blindly. I can Force probe and double check.

_Speaking of which…_

Smirking, I probe out, only to find nothing but nerves from Sophie.

Her Force Signature is different. I don't know how to describe it.

_The last time I did something like this was examining Vader vs. Shark Bait vs. Barriss._

Vader was a black hole, drawing everything to him. Shark Bait was an uncontrollable inferno, and Barriss was like ice, tightly compacted and cold.

That was one weird thing, looking back at it. Shark Bait wasn't cold. It's clear that he's clearly third in the pecking order.

_The plan was for me to replace him._

I usually don't examine people much. It seems like an invasion of their privacy. Maybe it was Sabine yelling at me about it that turned me off.

_Hold on._

That was before Sabine got interested in me back on Onderon.

_It can't be that bad. She just thought I was reading her mind._

On that impulse, I quickly reach out and get a read for Sophie and her father, walking directly in front of me.

_Sof's…warm. Not hot, just warm. A ball of warmth._

_Mr. Wren is very neutral. Not hot or cold. Like a square, sort of._

Effortlessly, I reach out and identify Sabine and her mom.

_Sabine's…_

Blue?

_It just jumped out at me._

Shaking my head, I glance around to see us slipping thru a side street.

_Gotta be care of your surrounds too, Bridger. I'll finish with the Force signatures, then be done with it and focus._

I let out a breath, then look to Mrs. Wren.

_She's…a lighter blue. If that makes sense._

She, Sabine and Sophie are all similar.

_They are all related, Mom and her daughters. It makes sense._

I pull myself out of my concentration on Sabine, Sof and Mrs. Wren in time for mr. Wren to discreetly slip towards a building and grab the door.

Instinctively, I take it from him.

"I got it." I say, and wordlessly he steps ahead of Sophie before walking inside.

I let Sabine and her mom in, then glance around to see if anyone is watching.

_Nope._

Quickly, I slip in and shut the door very quietly, then turn and Probe to see what we're dealing with.

_Lot of people. A lot of nervous people._

I walk down a set of stairs and follow the back of Sabine's helmet inside a massive underground room and off to the right.

Sophie smiles up at me when I catch up. "So what now?"

"_Mand'a lot_ should be speaking soon _ad'ika_. Shouldn't be long." Mr. Wren said quietly.

"It's kind of dangerous to have this many people in one place." Sabine added.

"Really?" Sophie asked.

Mrs. Wren nodded. "The Empire issued a decree forbidding citizens to assembly after dark."

"What does that mean?" Sophie asked, suddenly looking and sounding very frustrated. "I don't know what assemflea means!"

"Assembly." Sabine quickly corrected her.

"We'll explain later honey." Mrs. Wren said quickly, turning to me and handing me a small datapad then looking to her left towards the stage.

I follow her lead, and see that _Mand'alor_ has appeared on stage.

The noise level in the room quickly dropped as he walked to the front of the stage, then cleared his throat and began speaking in Mandalorian.

"Ladies and Gentlemen…people of Mandalore, thank you for braving the night to join me here today…

It is my great honor to have you here, but the circumstances bring me great sadness and shame. I regret to inform you, that I am declaring this planet, our Mandalore in a state of war during the nighttime hours for the next fortnight."

Beside me, a small hand yanked down on my arm.

I glance down to see Sophie smile at me, then bend down.

"Ride? I can't see the datapad."

I smile back, then let her climb onto my shoulders and have a look at the datapad.

"I do so with a heavy heart, but with a clear conscience. In the past week 18 speeders have been destroyed and too many civilian casualties have already been inflicted. Actions must be taken, and immediately."

The room remained dead silent before _Mand'alor_ continued.

"Intelligence from our Concordian brothers and sisters indicates that the Galactic Empire has placed a blockade out past their borders, not our own. I am currently working with the Concordian government in order to begin running his blockade with the ultimate goal of breaking it.

Currently, fighting has been relatively light on a whole, and security will continue to be maintained by each House and coordinated collectively. On their behalf, I do request that if you do go out at night, it be for emergencies or evacuations only in order to remove the possibilities of unnecessary casualties."

_House?_

What?

"Before we dismiss, I am pleased to report that slicers hailing from MandalMotors have been able to establish safe, encrypted communication over the holo."

The room burst into polite applause, and _Mand'alor_ turned to the left, took a step back and joined in, allowing a man with graying hair to step forward and accept the applause.

After a moment, it began to die off, and _Mand'alor_ stepped forward once more.

"There is a House specific code you can enter into your holoterminal that will begin to be distributed shortly once all the codes have been tested thoroughly."

Finally, be safe, be vigilant, don't be afraid to speak up, and your continued financial support of Mandalorian merchants is greatly appreciated. Thank you."

The room burst into applause, and Sophie turned and smiled at me.

I smile back, then bend down and let her climb off me.

"Thank you Ezra." Sophie said quietly, as the room begins to stream towards the exit.

"Did you understand everything?" I smile at her.

Sophie nodded, then opened her mouth to reply when her mother grabbed her by the wrist and started towards the stage with her husband.

"C'mon." Sabine said to me, grabbing my hand and guiding me to follow her parents and Sof.

Mr. Wren led us all the way up the stage, then thru a door where several people, including Mr. Dala are speaking to _Mand'alor_.

"—That technology is far from mass use sir. I'm not sure it was wise to give people the hope of clear holo communications." Somebody said.

_Mand'alor_ whipped off his helmet in frustration and scowled at the man. "I've had enough of your negativity. Go find a way to make it work. How about that? That's an order."

"Sir—"

"That is an order. You're dismissed." _Mand'alor _frowned pointedly at him.

The man stopped in his tracks, bowed then left the room hastily.

Right behind him, Atin poked his head in nervously and knocked on the door.

Knock Knock.

Sophie lit up and broke away from her father to run to him.

"Come on in son." _Mand'alor_ said, getting to his feet and walking towards Mr. Wren.

"Hi. Sorry I'm late. Work…ran late." Atin said quietly, then shook his head.

"It's alright. Things happen." _Mand'alor_ said kindly. "Besides, I think Mr. Dala has something for Mr. Bridger."

_Oh yeah. The wrist and shin guards._

"They're done already?" I turn and ask the room at large.

_Mand'alor_ nodded as Mr. Dala walked over and broke open a box.

Sabine and I walk over in time for him to take out two dark gray wrist guards with black straps.

"Huh." Sabine said. "Looks good."

Mr. Dala smiled as he removed the shin guards, which are the same color.

Quickly, I take off my helmet and smile at him. "Thank you."

"Try them on. We can make little fixes right here." He told me, handing me both wrist guards.

I hand one to Sabine and place one on my wrists, then strap it to my wrist.

_Huh. It goes all the way up to my elbow._

The strap isn't bulky at all. I can barely feel it.

Sabine hands me the other wrist guard, and I slip it onto my wrist.

"What do you think?" She asked, as I turned my wrist over and moved my arms.

"Not bad. I'll get used to it."

"Looks good on you son." _Mand'alor_ said, coming over with Sabine's parents and Sophie.

"The shin guards go on a lot easier. They rest better." Mr. Dala said, handing me one and Sabine one.

I bend down to strap it to my right leg, and Sabine gets down on a knee and straps the other shin guard to my left leg.

_There._

When I stand up fully again, Mr. Wren and Sophie are both smiling.

"I like it. But I have to ask, why the helmet?" _Mand'alor_ asked me.

"So nobody sees my face." I say, as Mr. Dala looks very confused.

"Okay. But humor me this: If you encounter someone you have to fight, won't your vision be obscured?"

_Yeah, but I'm not going to fight anyone in this._

I nod. "I'm not fighting anyone tonight though. This is usually just for training."

Mr. Dala looks from me, to _Mand'alor_ in confusion.

"You may leave Mr. Dala. There is something I need to discuss with all them that is rather sensitive."

Mr. Dala looked nonplussed, but bowed and left the room.

_Mand'alor_'s eyes snapped from the door to Atin. "I assume you know about Mr. Bridger?"

"Yeah." Atin laughed. "It was him with the lightsaber."

_Mand'alor_ suddenly looked surprised. "Oh! Okay then."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Sabine asked, turning to Atin.

"I…_Mand'alor_ and I have discussed our meeting on Onderon."

"Oh." Sabine replied.

"I was in a bad mood that day." I speak up, causing _Mand'alor_ to laugh quietly.

"You three never told us what exactly happened." Mrs. Wren said quickly.

"Other than that they took everyone out." Mr. Wren added.

"I was information. And Ezra here was in a very bad mood." Atin said, as Sophie looked up at his side. "He and Sabine wanted to know how many more trrops we had coming. And Ezra put his lightsaber in my face."

Sophie's eyes widened and Mrs. Wren gave me a stern look.

"He had just shot at me, was wearing Imperial armor, and we'd just been compromised." I say defensively. "I did what I could."

_Mand'alor_ shrugged as both of Sabine's parents eyes linger on me. "it's in the past, and we've got bigger issues besides the point." He said, then turning to Mr. Wren. "Carid, I partially lied earlier. I've got an emergency feed to me in case any of you have trouble. The code is 3224. Type that into the holo before my number and there won't be any interference."

"I appreciate that a lot Fenn." Mr. Wren said graciously.

_Mand'alor_ turned back to me. "I'm still working on your battalion. It's proving difficult, since I don't want to give you the worst we've got, and the fighting is pretty widespread."

I nod, then speak up. "I understand. Will I need to know anything about Mandalorian culture? I've been trying, but I haven't really had the time. I don't know how any of this works."

"No, you won't need to know. The effort is appreciated though. Most don't attempt to learn. What do you not understand? Surely between the…five of us, we'll answer your question." _Mand'alor_ said to me.

"Yeah." Mr. Wren said calmly.

"The whole House thing. How does that work?" I ask the group at large.

"Ooh! I know!" Sophie piped up, causing _Mand'alor _to smile down at her.

"Go ahead _ad'ika_."

I look down at Sophie to see her playing with her hands while looking at the ground. "It's, uhm, all the Clans belong to a House. Like we're in House Vizla."

"Basically, the House is the banner for all the families, or Clans. And when you become an adult, you get a title and your stated purpose in our society." _Mand'alor_ said, then looked to Sabine. "Miss Wren? Help your boyfriend out."

Sabine laughed. "Okay. I'm Clan Wren, House Vizla. I seek justice thru single combat.

_Oh._

I think I understand.

"And everybody in Mandalorian society is like that?" I ask her.

"Not everyone. I'm not. It's usually just the warrior caste." Mr. Wren said.

"Cast?" Sophie turned and asked her mother.

"Caste. It's like saying 'the warrior group'." Mrs. Wren explained.

"Oh."

"But you're the brains behind all of this Carid. You direct us all where to go to be most effective." _Mand'alor_ joked, getting me and everyone to laugh.

"Too much credit I'm afraid." Mr. Wren smiled, causing everyone to start laughing again.

"No, you don't give yourself enough credit." Mrs. Wren said.

"She's right. What you're doing organizing supplies and infrastructure is invaluable." _Mand'alor_ said, then smiled.

"Well thank you." Mr. Wren said graciously.

_Mand'alor_ nodded, then said "Well I don't want to keep you. I imagine it's close to her bedtime. Comm if you need anything or if the fighting heads that way."

"We will." Mr. Wren said.

"And Ezra, don't be afraid to get in the action. I'm certain that there won't be a violent response to you being a Jedi and fighting the Empire."

"What makes you say that?" Sabine asked _Mand'alor_.

"My enemy's enemy is my friend." _Mand'alor_ turned and smiled at Sabine. "Be careful out there."

Sabine's parents both bow their heads, along with Sabine and Atin.

_Mand'alor_ acknowledged them, then shook my hand before leading us to the stairs.

I hold onto my helmet and grab the door for everyone as we walk out into the streets.

In front of me, Sophie shivered.

_It got cold._

"C'mon. Let's get you home Sof." Atin smiled at Sophie, who grabbed his hand and led the rest of us down the street in the general direction of the Wren's house.

Sabine slid beside me as I let out a breath and watch it float up in front of me.

"Cold?" Sabine asked me.

"Not really." I say, then probe out.

_Huh._

It's tensed up.

Sabine's gaze lingered on me, but before she could speak up, the sound of heavy boots came up behind us.

"Stop right there. You're in a security area!" A Stormtrooper called out to all of us, causing me to look back.

_There's five of them._

"Dad, go. We've got this." Sabine said simply.

Wordlessly, Mr. Wren, Sophie and Atin started towards a alleyway.

"I said stop!" The trooper ordered.

Sabine answered by grabbing her blasters and firing two quick shots.

One Stormtrooper fell, and the other dove for cover.

_Blast!_

She missed.

I slide behind a waste compacter and grab my blaster off my belt, then peek out.

_NOPE!_

I quickly duck back as the spot where my head just was is peppered with shots from the Stormtroopers.

Mrs. Wren took advantage of that and rolled forward then shot a weapon off her wrist at two Stormtroopers, hitting both.

_That's the same weapon Sabine just got._

The metallic, wrist shot one.

Sabine and I both pop out in order to take advantage of our momentum.

_Right!_

I quickly fire at the trooper on the right, who turned right into my bolt and fell.

Sabine quickly took out the other trooper, causing Mrs. Wren to quickly start towards us.

"More will be following. Come on!" She told us as she passed.

I turn and follow her into the alley, where about halfway down Atin, Mrs. Wren and Sophie are crouched and waiting.

"It's okay _Sab'ika._ We're going home. It's gonna be alright." Mrs. Wren said as she slipped past all of them, then took up the lead and started deeper into the shadows.

I clip my blaster back to my belt and take up the rear next to Sabine, who hasn't put her pistols back in their holsters.

"What'd you feel?" Sabine asked quietly.

"Tense." I reply shortly.

"How tense?" Sabine shot back.

"Tenser than since we got here. I probed and there was resistance."

"Like before the bombing?"

I shake my head. "Not that bad."

"But like that."

_I…guess so._

"I don't like putting it in that category."

"We're being chased." Sabine countered, causing Atin and her father to look back.

"It's not imminent though."

"What are you two talking about?" Mr. Wren asked quietly, but urgently.

"Ezra can kind of sense when there's trouble around. He says it's there."

"We're being chased. Yeah."

"Shut it back there." Mrs. Wren said, before pausing at the edge of a set of buildings.

We all linger for a moment before Mrs. Wren waves us all across.

Quickly, Sophie, Mr. Wren, Atin, Sabine and I all dash across back into the shadows. Mrs. Wren glances back then joins us and retakes the lead.

Beside me, Sabine motioned with her fingers for me to repeat it by rotating her index and middle fingers over each other.

_The probe._

I obey and—

_Whoa._

Whoa whoa whoa.

_Hold on._

I rub my hands together, then blow on them to alleviate the cold then look around.

It's worse.

_I don't like this._

I give Sabine a thumbs down and she nods, keeping her pistols out.

_What could this be?_

Maybe the fighting is worse tonight. And since we're out on the streets and closer to the action, I feel it more.

Suddenly, a siren starts up in the distance, causing me to jump out of my skin.

_Easy ezra._

I let out a breath, then try and focus.

_It's okay. It's dark, and cold and chilly._

I can protect them.

Steeling myself, I probe again.

And stop in my tracks.

_No…_

Quickly, I probe again, and find the raging inferno again behind me.

_An unknown distance away._

"You need to go." I say quickly to Sabine, who is looking back towards me.

I have to go get him.

_Before he finds us._

"What? No, are you crazy?" Sabine asked, marching right up to me.

"Sabine, you need to go."

"What are you feeling?" Mrs. Wren asked, walking up with Sophie and her husband in front of her.

"Bad." I say, then turn to Atin and hand him my helmet. "Make sure you get them home."

"I—" He begins, bu I cut him off.

"No. Just listen, please. This once. I owe you."

"Who is it? You know who it is. Don't you." Sabine said, reading my face like a book.

"Not now." I frown at her.

"Ezra, he's dead!" Sabine says, extending her arms. "It's not him!"

I glance back and shiver. "I feel it Sabine. And we've been over this."

"He's not dead Sabine. I got him. He was still alive." Atin said.

"Who?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"The guy Ezra beat on Concordia." Atin answered.

"What's he look like?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"Ten feet tall, Arkanian. Looks blind but isn't. Very, very strong." Atin answered.

Sabine turns to me. "That's impossible!"

I take a step towards her and let out a breath. But before I can speak Sophie's wedged herself between us and is pushing us apart.

"No! Don't fight! Let's go home!" She said, sounding scared.

"Sabine. Take them. I've got this." I tell her.

Sabine shakes her head strongly.

"No son. Whoever this is, can either wait or we face him together." Mr. Wren said strongly and Mrs. Wren.

"Sabine." Atin said. "If anybody would know, it's him!"

_He tortured me!_

I shake my head and try to fight off the memories so I can focus.

"Dead is dead! You can't change—"

A heavy footstep cuts her off, causing everyone to look behind me.

"HAHAHAHAHA!"

I feel Sabine and Sophie's absolute terror as I set my jaw, step in front of Sophie and turn around.

"HAHHHHAHAHAHAAAA!"

Shark Bait is waiting for me menacingly.

"Look who it is…the pathetic Jedi and the sniveling Imperial. I get to take out all of Onderon's problems today." Shark Bait says, then smiled, revealing all his teeth.

_His lightsaber is on his back._

"Long time no see Shark Bait. Tired of hiding from me?" I taunt him, taking one step towards him.

"Tired? I missed your pathetic little SCREAMS!" Shark Bait bellowed, causing Sophie to let out a whimper.

I let out a breath and try to calm myself.

_This is it._

It ends here.

All the memories, the torture, the pain he put me thru.

_I get to give it back to him tenfold._

He dies TONIGHT.

"I don't think so. He'll beat you again!" Sabine called out.

"Hah!" Shark Bait laughed once. "You wish. Once he's gone, we're going to have a lot of fun…"

NO.

_NEVER._

"Ezra, let's go in together. I'll—" Sabine whispered to me.

"No I'm taking him NOW!" I cut her off, taking one hard step and sprinting full speed at Shark Bait and igniting my lightsaber.

"Go Ezra Go!" I hear Sophie say right before I unleash a strong slice right at Shark Bait's neck.

He activates his lightsaber and blocks it, opening himself up in the process.

I spin around and plant my foot in his chest, sending him flying away.

_Get away!_

Then we'll fight.

Shark Bait climbs to his feet and activates the other half of his lightsaber and smiles at me.

_You would._

Stupid fish.

I grit my teeth, put my hands over my head, grab my lightsaber with both hands and let out a lightning fast volley of slices and cuts in order to push Shark Bait farther away from Sabine and Sophie.

Shark Bait blocks the first, evades the second then let out a riposte, forcing me to spin away.

"Not bad Shark Bait. You aren't as Stupid as I thought." I taunt him.

_You're dirt._

Less than dirt.

And you die here.

Shark Bait smiled before cutting out at me.

I block, spin around and see his blade coming right at me.

_WHOA!_

I spin on the balls of my feet to evade the blow, then chop down at his exposed arm.

In one efforltess movement, Shark Bait blocks me, then pushes me away.

"Have you been practicing?"

OH SHUT UP!

I let out an angry yell before chopping down at him.

He blocked me and gave more ground.

_Keep backing up._

I'm going to win.

Quickly, I change tactics and let out a Force Push at Shark Bait.

Shark Bait easily bats it aside.

_Blast!_

I move from my frustration right into another downward slice.

Block.

I spin, only for Shark Bait to step forward and throw me bodily.

"Why are you here?" I ask him, getting to my feet.

"To make this entire planet fear me. Just like you fear me." Shark Bait sneered at me.

"I don't fear you. Dream on." I say dismissively.

_I don't._

He needs to die. So Sophie and Sabine can be safe.

_So this entire planet can be safe._

"You look afraid. You've never gotten over what happened! That is why you're losing!" Shark Bait yelled.

I practically see red, then jump out at him and try to take his head off.

Only to whiff.

Shark Bait disdainfully smacks the back of my head, causing me to crash to the ground.

In response, Shark Bait simply laughed.

"Hahaha! You were so good last time Bridger! So good! An actual challenge. And now…"

Angrily, I get to my feet, and move to take his head off.

Shark Bait roars, grabs me, and throws me again, this time into a wall, causing my hip to twinge in pain.

_OW!_

Instinctively, I whip around, raise both hands and throw all I've got at him.

Blue lighting flies at Shark Bait, causing him to raise his lightsaber and deflect it.

"See! You're weak! After a few volleys you're reduced to a huddling weakling, throwing pathetic lightning. You're not even an Inquisitor!"

"I don't want to be!" I roar at him.

Shark Bait leered at me, slowly coming closer. "You see? We left you back on Umbara as a test. The Inquisitor thought you had indeed turned, and the rest would take care of itself. When those stupid assassins contacted us and said you were still in league with the Mandalorian I was stunned! YOU TAPPED INTO THE DARK SIDE!"

"I'm not DARK!" I yell.

"What are you then? You're no Jedi! You're weak! Pathetic! A shell of your former self, stuck between the dark and the light! You can't be both!"

"You don't know that! You don't know anything!" I remind him.

_He's Shark Bait!_

"I know what I see! I was ordered to come down here and finish your coronation to the Dark Side. I don't even have to do anything! You're already there!"

_What?_

"No I'm not!" I quickly say, getting to my feet shakily.

That's impossible.

_I'm not dark._

No way.

"Look at how you've been fighting! It's all power! That's not how you fought on Onderon! You've changed!"

Nervously, I gulp and back down the alleyway.

_No._

He's right.

I…I've been so mad I haven't played my game.

_I can change that though._

I step forward and cut at his wrist, aiming to unbalance him.

Block.

"No. You can't just change back like that. It's not that easy! You're done!" Shark Bait roared, towering over me, turning his block into a saber lock.

_No._

I…

I've got to get out of here,

_NOW!_

I break the saber lock, turn around and jump towards a fire escape that's attached to the nearest building.

"No you don't! Come down here and fight me!" Shark Bait taunted me.

_No._

I…I have to get out of here.

My hands shake as I climb onto the siars and climb them as fast as I can.

"FIGHT ME!"

_Faster._

"FIGHT ME!"

I reach the roof and look around.

_They're connected._

I sprint across, away from Shark Bait's voice.

"FIGHT ME!"

"FIGHT ME!"

"FIGHT ME!"

_Go Ezra._

I keep running away, across rooftops until I can't run anymore and have to stop for breath.

"_FIGHT ME!"_

Hanging my head, I gasp for breath and see my hands shake.

_I didn't play my game._

He won. I lost.

_Is he right?_

Okay Ezra, focus.

_What would Kanan tell me to do right now?_

I breathe, and try to think.

He'd tell me to slow down. And to check if he's nearby.

_Probe._

I probe out, and find the Force free of any tension or cold.

_I didn't notice that at the time._

Shark Bait was there, and I didn't notice him at first.

_I chalked it up to it actually being cold._

I let out a breath and watch my breath float up and away from me.

Kanan would tell me to think.

_Think what I did wrong._

No. Not now. I'm not safe.

_Think about what I need to do._

I need to get to safety.

_Safety is Sabine's house._

How do I get to Sabine's house?

_Spaceport. It's by the spaceport._

But I don't know where it is! I don't know any of the street names or anything.

_One wrong turn and I'm out all night wandering the streets going the wrong way._

Okay, how can I figure out where the spaceport is?

_I could ask a Mandalorian where it is. But I don't know where any patrols are._

I could comm somebody.

_That's not safe. And I don't have anyone's comm numbers memorized or programmed._

I could guess, but then I could be going the wrong way.

_Speeders are out…_

Hold on.

I stop pacing, and look down at the store lit up below me.

_That's it._

Do I have my credit stick?

I quickly feel around in my pockets, hoping to find the little piece of plas—

_YES!_

I take it out, and let myself smile.

_I've got this!_

Quickly, I hop down to the street, jog over to the store and walk inside.

"Hi." I smile at the clerk behind the desk before I slip to the back of the store.

_Buy a drink, and while I pay, I can ask where the spaceport is._

That's a plan.

_And it'll work._

Slowly, I look around at my options.

_I need to get something that'll replenish me._

Energy drink.

My eyes dart over to the collection of colorful energy drinks.

_Red, blue, white, grren, purple, orange._

Is there really a difference?

I grab the red one, and examine the label.

"For the tired warrior, X-Lite Pro has all the vitamins and nutrients you need to recover and perform at your peak. Coming in berry, grape, hi-life orange and—"

_I get the point._

Sounds good, so I'll get it.

I force a smile onto my face as I walk up to the register and hand the clerk my drink.

"Thanks." I say politely as he scans it.

"It'll be 1.62."

I hand him my credit stick and put my hands back in my pockets in order to hide that they're still shaking.

"By the way, do you know what direction the spaceport is? I got separated from my girlfriend and don't exactly know where her place is." I say sheepishly, then look to the clerk.

The clerk looks at me funny, then raises his hand to point behind me.

"Spaceport is 25 blocks right down this road. Do you need a bag?"

I shake my head and take my drink and my credit stick.

"Thank you very much, I really appreciate it." I smile at him.

"Have a good one."

"You too!" I say happily, then slip out the door.

_25 blocks this way._

I let out a breath and open my drink at the same time, then notice a few raindrops fall on me.

_Great._

Just awesome. I better get going before it starts pouring.

_Or Shark Bait finds me again._

I won't stand a chance.

I take top cap off my drink and chug half of it, then start down the street at a jog.

_Don't be suspicious._

Just keep going.

_Don't think._

I can do that later.

Just get home Ezra.

_Just get home._

I try to keep my mind as clear as possible as I jog down the street.

When I see the spire of the spaceport, it turns into a run.

It feels like it takes forever until I spot the buildings that are behind Sabne's house.

Slipping into the alleyway, I probe out.

_No Shark Bait._

And they're the third house.

Okay.

I let out a shaky breath, then jog down to where Sabine and Sophie's Force signatures are.

_Both going crazy._

I let out a breath, then jump into the backyard and land with my eyes looking down.

I stay like that until I hear the back door open, followed by footsteps.

When I glance up Sabine's already tackled me and wrapped herself around me.

_Okay…_

I'm okay.

_It's going to be alright._

I pull Sabine closer and hang my head on Sabine's shoulder as she is saying something in Mandalorian.

We both stand there for a moment, until I look to the door and see Sophie being held back by her parents.

_Who are both looking at me._

I let out a breath, then wave for Sophie to come over and move to crouch down.

Sophie quickly starts bawling her eyes out when she grabs me.

"You're okay…I was so scareeddd…"

"I'm okay Sof. I'm okay." I tell her, as Sabine grabs onto her sister and me.

The three of us just stay like that for a moment, then Sabine moves, allowing Sophie to crawl onto my lap.

I pick her up and stand, causing Sabine to turn to me.

"What happened? Did you beat him?"

…

_No._

"No." I tell her, avoiding her eyes.

Sophie immediately squirms and grabs onto me tighter.

"I failed."


	68. Between The Ropes

_(Flashback)_

"What happened?" Sabine asks, as I walk thru the door.

The entire Wren family follows me in as I set Sophie down.

"I…didn't play my game. I got mad." I say quietly, sitting in a chair next to the kitchen.

"What do you mean by that?" Mr. Wren asked, as Mrs. Wren bustles into the kitchen.

"I have a certain style I use. A lot of finesse and precision moves. And tonight I used a lot of heavy downward strikes and went with power." I explain.

"You got mad." Mrs. Wren says quietly, as Sophie is stuck in the middle of the living room, not knowing what to do.

"Why? I think you mentioned it before, but I'm forgetting son I'm sorry." Mr. Wren turns to me.

"When I got captured he was the worst of it. Didn't let me sleep, beat me the worst, all of that." I answer shortly.

_I don't want to give Sophie any nightmares._

"I…don't understand how he's alive." Sabine says quietly, looking at the ground.

"I know how." I speak up. "Vader told me that he's something called an "Arkanian Offshoot", with Gen'daii genetics. I don't know what that means exactly, but it's got to have something to do with it."

"Arkanians are a scientifically inclined species that doesn't know how to leave well enough alone. Their species has…lost some of its humanity, for lack of a better term. Anything for the sake of discovery. And the Gen'daii are a species that is notoriously difficult to kill. You have to butcher them in order to do it." Mr. Wren spoke up.

"Vader said that I'd have to kill him with fire." I add.

"He did?" Sabine asked curiously.

"The Arkanians must have done something." Mr. Wren shrugged wearily.

I turn to Sabine. "Yeah. Shark Bait went at him for that. Didn't like that I know how to beat him."

"Who is Vader?" Atin asked quietly, causing everyone to turn to him.

_I forgot he was here._

"He's the worst Dark Side wielder the Empire has, as far as I know." I lie. "Way worse than this guy, or the other one on Onderon.

_The Emperor has that title._

"We…bumped into him once. It went very badly." Sabine says.

I nod ruefully, causing Sophie to look scared.

"How badly?" Mrs. Wren questioned, mixing…something in a glass.

"Kanan's shoulder protector got ruined, I got shot, Ezra nearly got broken in half, and Ahsoka had to bail us all out." Sabine answers bluntly.

Sophie squeaked, then the room went silent.

"Hold up, back up for a moment. You said that there's one more of these guys?" Mr. Wren asked, looking dumbstruck.

"Yeah. The guy you saw I've nicknamed Shark Bait because, to me he looks like a stupid shark. There's Darth Vader, the baddest one, and then there's another one."

_As far as I know._

"Is she coming?" Atin asked. "She's…messed up in the head."

I helplessly shrug.

_I don't know._

I hope not.

"You're in over your head." Mr. Wren said.

"Dad!" Sabine says harshly, as I shrug.

"I don't know sir. I…" I trail off, as an idea pops into my head.

_I'm threatening all their safety by staying here._

"If you want me to leave so I don't endanger all of you, I understand. You didn't sign up for this." I tell Mr. Wren quietly, forcing myself to look him in the face.

"NO!" Sophie yelped, running over and grabbing onto my arm.

"That's not the answer son." Mr. Wren shook his head. "Next time, you'll get it right."

"Next time, I'm coming with you." Sabine tactfully reminded me.

_Hey!_

"I wanted everyone out of there so they got home safe." I tell her defensively.

"You can't put me in that spot Ezra. I have to be there to help. That's my job." Sabine frowned at me.

"He did his best _ad'ika_." Mr. Wren said calmly.

"He ordered me away!" Sabine snapped.

"He has a lightsaber! What are you going to do?" Mrs. Wren asked. "I've seen those guys in action. There's not much we can do, other than be an annoyance. The power they have…it's incredible."

"Ezra beat that guy handily last time. I like his chances next time." Atin spoke up.

"You're not safe either. He recognized you!" Mr. Wren turned and frowned at him.

"I'll be waiting with my blaster and a knife." Atin replied flippantly.

"That attitude will get you a flame to your chest. Drink." Mrs. Wren frowned, then handed him and her husband a glass, then pushed two more glasses towards Sabine and I.

_Okay…_

I guess I can't say no.

"Can I get some juice?" Sophie asked.

"Sure." Mrs. Wren says, as Sabine throws back her glass.

_I guess that's how you drink it._

I copy Sabine's motion, and immediately my mouth starts burning.

_Ahh…_

Not the greatest thing I've ever tasted.

I purse my lips to hide my discomfort at the burning sensation still in my mouth.

"Son, you'll get him next time. He's not going anywhere." Mr. Wren turns back to me, looking confident.

_That's not the problem._

How many people is he going to get to between now and then?

_(End Flashback)_

Sabine lets out a quiet, but pleased groan and curled onto my chest.

_Okay._

Silently, she grabs my face and kisses me deeply.

I kiss her back, trying to ignore the warmth of her uncovered legs.

Sabine finally breaks the kiss, then releases another pleased groan.

"Sorry Daddy…I just had to." Sabine murmured into my collarbone before kissing it.

_Oh that feels strangely good._

I smile happily and pull her closer to me.

"He'd understand. I…after tonight, I wasn't going to let you go out there again without one more night." Sabine continued.

Impulsively, I kiss her shoulder, causing her to squirm.

"Oh no. No. Not unless you want to again." Sabine muttered, then nipping at my neck.

"Hey…Sof could get up here any minute…" I quickly remind her.

We snuck this round in.

_Really, this was a terrible idea._

One that I totally don't regret, but still.

Sabine let out a heavy breath, then turned over to look at me.

"Listen to me? For just a second." She asked quietly, eyes shining slightly.

"I always do…what's wrong?"

Sabine swallowed nervously, then moved to sit on my stomach.

"_Mhi solus tome."_ Sabine whispered, then pecked my lips.

"_Mhi solus dar'tome." _She continued, then kissing me again.

"_Mhi me'dinui an" _She kissed me once more.

"_Mhi ba'juri verde" _Sabine finished, voice shaking before burying her face in my neck.

_Okay…_

"You too…what'd you say?" I ask quietly, as Sabine continues shaking in my arms.

"Datapad." Sabine whispered back.

"Okay…" I say, pulling the datapad I put on the bedside table and handing it to her.

As Sabine scrolls to something, I notice tear tracks falling down her face.

"Sabine…what's wrong?" I ask again.

Wordlessly, Sabine thrust the datapad to me and buried her head in my chest.

""_Mhi solus tome, mhi solus dar'tome, mhi me'dinui an, mhi ba'juri verde"_ Translated loosely to, "We are one when together, we are one when parted, we will share all, we will raise warriors." are the standard Mandalorian marriage vows. Usually Mandalorians marry around the age of 16, or adulthood…" I read, eyes trailing off.

_No way._

Numbly, I look over at Sabine.

"No…"

Sabine kept crying silently, but nodded and continued looking at me. "I love you."

"I love you too. But…" I trail off again.

_I can't believe it._

"I don't want to…not have another chance. You almost killed me when you jumped out at him like that." Sabine sobbed.

"I'm sorry." I say quietly, as Sabine somehow curls closer to me.

"We can do this. I know we can. Just let me help." She begged me, voice shaking.

"I will…Is it just like that then?" I ask her.

Sabine nodded, then grabbed my face and kissed me.

Eagerly, I kiss her back and probe with the Force again.

_Everyone's asleep._

Like last time, I slip my tongue between her teeth to signal that the coast is clear.

Sabine replies by digging her nails into my back and throwing me into the mattress.

(7 Hours Later)

"Clink Clink."

I hand Sophie five forks and dull knives, then smile down at her.

"Thanks." She said to me, then started setting everyone's places up.

I look back to Sabine and her mother fixing breakfast, as Mr. Wren's voice floats into the room from the office.

"Okay…So you said—" Mr. Wren said, before Sabine cut the sound of his voice off.

"Plates Ezra?" Sabine asked me.

"I've got them right here beside me." Mrs. Wren spoke up, before flipping several pancakes in succession.

Beside me, Sophie trudged up and leaned on my leg.

I look down and smile at her. "Still sleepy?"

Sophie glanced back at me, hair sticking up in all directions. "Uh huh."

_She looks tired._

"Here you go _ad'ika_." Mrs. Wren said, extending a plate full of eggs, potatoes and pancakes to Sophie.

She silently took it and walked over to her spot at the table.

Mrs. Wren handed me my food, and I do the same, then turn back to start getting everyone something to drink.

"What do you want to drink Sof?" I turn and ask her.

"…Juice…please." Sophie says, a frown plastered on her face.

I smile at her, then start grabbing glasses.

"Okay. I've got to go…" Mr. Wren says as I set glasses on the counter.

Sabine slips by me as her father walks into the kitchen.

"So I know the plan." Mr. Wren said as his wife handed him a full plate.

"Daddy?" Sophie asked quietly.

"Yes sweetie?" Mr. Wren asked, walking to the table.

"After I eat can I go take a nap?"

Sabine and I glance at each other, then back to a bleary eyed Sof.

"Of course baby. Did you not sleep good?" Her father asked her.

Sophie shook her head. "I heard explosions and stuff."

"Was it nightmares Sophine?" Mrs. Wren asked gently.

Sophie shook her head, while slowly moving to grab her fork. "I just couldn't go to sleep. I'm sorry."

"Don't apologize Sof. You didn't do anything wrong." Sabine smiled at her, taking two glasses and grabbing the pot of caf.

Sophie didn't reply, instead taking a bite of food.

_She does look tired._

"Thank you for not being grouchy." Mrs. Wren smiled at her daughter.

"I'm trying Mommy. I'm just sleepy." Sophie said, mouth partially full.

I sit down and give Mrs. Wren her protein juice thing she likes in the mornings, then set Sophie's juice at her spot.

Sophie gently smiled at me, before continuing to eat.

Sabine silently slips my caf over my head, then sits down, prompting her parents and I to start eating.

"The plan?" Sabine asks her father, after a moment of silence.

"_Mand'alor_ requested Ezra to come down to the business district for a quick meeting." Mr. Wren explains.

"Word must have got out about last night." His wife replies, before taking a bite.

_Last night._

The pancake in my mouth immediately turns to inedible mush, and I fight the urge to spit it out.

"Requested? Why?" Sabine asked,

"He's not a Mandalorian citizen. Even though it sort of sounds like you'd like to become one." Mr. Wren turns to me.

I self-consciously shrug. "I don't know. I'm interested in the language and stuff. I don't know anything really about the culture and the six tenants. I think there's six."

Sabine nodded beside me. "_Resol'nare_."

"You don't have to do any of this Ezra. Just so you know." Mrs. Wren tells me gently.

"We can teach you." Sophie pipes up for the first time.

"We can do that." Mrs. Wren smiles.

I smile at Sophie, then turn back to Mrs. Wren. "I don't know. Does it look bad for Sabine to be with me, a non Mandalorian citizen?"

"No. And if they care, they shouldn't." Sabine replies bluntly.

"In the old times, they would have. Right now, I really can't say." Mrs. Wren tells me.

_If it matters that much, I'll do it._

I love Sabine. Technically, we're married right now. At least that's how Sabine explained it to me.

"Anyway, we're getting off-track. Fenn does want to see you Ezra, as soon as possible."

I nod in understanding, while forcing another bite of pancake down. "I'll go right after this."

Mrs. Wren glances down at my plate, then up at me. "Do you feel okay honey?"

_I haven't eaten much._

"I'm sorry. I was hungry, but…I don't know. It's not going down well." I apologize.

I know that it's an insult to not accept food. It's different with Sabine's family, but still.

_Principle holds._

"It's fine. Don't force feed yourself. We have plenty of food, and I can always whip something up for you later." Mrs. Wren smiles at me as Mr. Wren rubs my shoulder.

Sabine doesn't say anything, and just takes the rest of my food, causing Sophie to giggle.

"What? He doesn't have germs." Sabine smiles at her sister.

Immediately, Mrs. Wren makes a quiet choking sound, and her husband chuckled.

I turn to Mrs. Wren quickly.

_Uh oh._

"Mom? You okay?" Sabine asks.

Mrs. Wren nods, then heavily swallowed.

"You…good joke." Mrs. Wren said, then coughed.

"Daddy?" Sophie turned and asked.

"Go ahead darling. Thank you for waiting." Mr. Wren smiled at Sophie.

Sophie grabbed her plate and trudged to the sink.

I take her plate from her and deposit both in the sink, causing Sof to turn to me and silently hug me.

On a whim, I turn my hug in return into a ride by scooping her up and starting to her room.

"Can I sleep in you guys's room?" Sof asked gently.

_Aww._

"Of course." I tell her

We changed the sheets. We can do that.

Sophie curled up to me as I carry her up the stairs and slip her under the covers.

"I'm just gonna slip into my jacket, then I'll be gone Sof." I say, walking to Sabine's closet.

"Okay…"

I pull on my jacket, complete with pauldron, then walk over and pull the covers tighter to Sof, who looks like she's buried herself in the comforter.

Sophie groaned a reply before I slip out of the room and back downstairs.

"I called us a speeder." Sabine greeted me by the door, pulling some knee high boots on.

"Okay. Thank you." I smile back at her.

_Us?_

I slip my shoes on, then wave to Sabine's parents before walking out the door.

"I hope you don't mind me coming." Sabine said, as we walk to the speeder.

I shake my head, then reply "No, I don't mind."

Sabine gently smiled, then slipped her hands in with mine.

_It got colder._

Sabine gives the driver an address, then we speed off, giving both of us a brisk wind right in our faces.

"I have a quick question." I speak up, after a moment.

"Yeah?" Sabine smiles up at me.

"What does this all…do? Between us, I mean."

Sabine blinked, then scooted onto my lap and grabbed my arm.

"We're married. Mom and Dad, not even _Mand'alor_ can take that away." She smiles at me.

"But do I have to do anything? Name change or something?"

Sabine shook her head. "No. If you don't mind, I'm going to keep my name. All it means is that nothing can separate us now."

"It means a lot more than that." I speak up.

"Well, yeah. But the day to day life doesn't change. The vows aren't a public thing. They're meant for something like that, a spontaneous moment."

"So you didn't plan it?"

Sabine shook her head. "No. I…All I knew is that I needed you at least one more time before you go out and risk yourself again. From there…I just listened to my heart."

I smile at her, then pull her close and kiss her hair. "I'm glad you did."

Silently, Sabine pulls me closer and gives me a brief, gentle kiss as we steadily descend, separating just as we land.

I stand out of the way as Sabine pays the driver, then grabs my hand and pulls me alongside her, into the lobby and let her direct traffic.

She says something to the guard at the desk in Mandalorian, then we take a lift up to the fourth floor.

Where _Mand'alor_ is sitting at a long table, with four armored men.

Sabine poked her head in and gently knocked.

"Are we interrupting?" Sabine asked quietly, causing _Mand'alor_ to look up.

"No, not at all _mand'a_, we were just waiting for you and Ezra. Son." _Mand'alor_ stands and moves to shake my hand.

"Sir." I say.

"Men, I'd like to introduce you to your new Commander." _Mand'alor_ said.

"Commander?" Sabine blurts out, as the four men pop to their feet and salute me.

I smile in embarrassment and motion for them to stop saluting.

Thankfully, they do just that and remove their helmets.

"Now, they're pretty fresh and haven't seen much action, but I'm confident in their abilities." _Mand'alor_ smiles, then looks to the four men.

"So this is actually happening?" Sabine asked _Mand'alor_. "It's never been done before."

"Just because something hasn't been done before doesn't mean you shouldn't do it Mrs. Wren." _Mand'alor_ replied. "Introduce yourself, please."

The closest soldier, with short brown hair along with black and gold armor turned to me and stuck out his hand. "Primus sir. It's an honor to meet you."

"Everyone else calls him Prime sir. I'm Kal." A man with jet black hair said, introducing himself.

"Ordo sir." A man with black hair and a beard said politely.

"Will." A man with sandy blonde hair bowed his head politely.

"And I'm Orir." A more tan man said, with a slight accent.

"It's a pleasure to meet you all. I'm Ezra, and this is my girlfriend, Sabine." I reply, then introduce Sabine.

"_Su cuy'"_ Sabine said reverently.

"Sabine was the one honored at the start of the harvest season for her bravery against the Imperial Army off world." _Mand'alor_ explained.

"I see. Impressive." Prime says quietly.

"Now remember that I told you I wouldn't give you the entire story until Ezra got here?" _Mand'alor_ said with a smirk.

_Oh._

He's showing off.

I can't help but smirk as the four men nod in understanding.

"Well, I did so for a reason. Not all men will want this assignment. Ezra's not a member of any clan."

Everyone quickly looked upset.

"So we're serving an offworlder?" Will asked gruffly, as the temperature in the room plummeted.

_Chilly._

They're not happy about this.

"Yes, but he's not just any offworlder. He came here from a dissident group that is currently trying to overthrow the Empire."

"A Rebellion. I wasn't aware there was one sir." Prime said bluntly.

"There is. And Ezra's proven himself multiple times. Including against the being that cut thru the immigrant sector last night."

_Immigrant Sector._

That must have been where we fought last night.

"Impossible. No…boy can hold off that animal." Prime said dismissively.

_WHAT?!_

"Boy?" I pop off, then try to advance on the man.

Sabine grabs me by the shoulder and says "Watch who you're calling boy."

"He's not a man! With all due respect my _Mand'alor_, why are you giving us this assignment?" Prime asked, as the rest of the men shoot me dark looks.

"Because, Ezra, show him." _Mand'alor_ replied.

_Happily._

I pull my lightsaber off my belt and activate it with a flourish.

All five men immediately looked shocked.

"That's why. I have spotty surveillance camera footage, but what I saw showed me that he can beat that monster." _Mand'alor_ told the group.

"He…didn't defeat him last night." Ordo says quietly, causing Sabine to scowl.

"You've got a big mouth, don't you?" Sabine frowned darkly.

"Just pointing out the obvious." Ordo retorted.

_Mand'alor_ raised his hand and pointed at Ordo, then the others. "I don't want another word out of any of you. I don't care that he's an offworlder, or not a member of our people, or a Jedi. He came to help US. We need help. We are outgunned 4 to 1. In my eyes, he's as good as one of us. And he's your commander."

_Oh._

That's quite nice of him to say.

"Thank you sir." I say sheepishly.

"You're welcome son. But he does bring up a good point. You didn't win. What happened?" _Mand'alor_ asks.

_Everybody just wants to know…_

"I didn't play my game. He tortured me when I got captured, amongst other things. When I saw him, I just got mad." I admit, then hang my head.

"I saw you fight. In that fight, it was all finesse, as opposed to last night, which was all power."

"Exactly." I answer him.

"Don't beat yourself up." Sabine tells me softly.

"Exactly. I have all the confidence in the world that you'll get the best of him next time. You're too smart to make the same mistake twice." _Mand'alor_ says.

"I won't." I answer.

"Good. Now what do you need from me? Or us." He asks me.

_I need to know where he is, as soon as possible. I need the freedom to be able to go get him._

I need freedom.

"I need room to operate. If I find out where he is, I can't have guys go in blindly behind me."

"You'll have that." _Mand'alor_ says strongly. "What else?"

"Information. If he pops up, I need to know as soon as possible. I don't think he's just here for me." I say, going off a hunch I've been turning over since last night.

_He can't just be here for me._

He's probably here to help put this rebellion down.

"I agree. Without you, we really don't have a chance to stop him. He looks enormous." _Mand'alor_ says.

"He is." Sabine speaks up. "About ten feet tall."

"And he hates me because I beat him way back when." I add, causing Sabine to smile.

"You've already beat him?" _Mand'alor_ asks quickly.

"Then how is he alive?" Prime blurts out.

I let out a breath, then say "Imperial science tricks. They told me when I got captured, assuming I'd never get out."

_Only I did._

Because they let me. To run amok because they thought I had turned.

_I might have._

I don't think I have though.

"I'd hate you too." _Mand'alor_ smiled. "You'll get all that."

"Thank you." I return the smile.

"Also, I'll get you all of their comm numbers. You can call on them any time. Just be aware of the time you are calling on them."

"Is this Ezra's personal group? Or they on guard too?" Sabine speaks up.

"Personal group." _Mand'alor_ replied.

"Thank you." I say quietly.

The room suddenly went silent, as Sabine and I look to the five men, who are looking at _Mand'alor_.

"You know what? You two go enjoy a day out. I think we'll hang back here. Take care of some business." _Mand'alor _smiles silkily.

_Oh._

I don't know him all that great, but I know that smile isn't genuine.

I quickly probe with the Force, and confirm that fact.

_He's boiling with rage._

Whoa.

"Okay. Thank you sir." Sabine said, before quickly whisking me out of the room and down the hall.

Keep quiet as Sabine and I descend down the lift.

Meanwhile, the Force suddenly pulses with _Mand'alor_'s anger at my new…battalion.

_Whatever they are._

"That could have gone better." I finally speak up, as we reach the street.

"They're being stupid. Macho men. Too much testosterone. Too much pride. That's the downfall of many a Mandalorian. They'll learn. Or we'll get rid of them." Sabine says darkly.

_Okay._

I nod in agreement, then keep in step with her.

We walk down the street, then make a turn onto a busy street with street vendors selling food and drinks.

"You want something? My treat." Sabine smiled up at me.

I laugh, then smile at her.

"Are you bribing me?"

Sabine shook her head. "Impromptu anniversary lunch."

"Fine…" I say sheepishly.

Sabine lights up, then starts pulling me towards the mass of people.


	69. Trading Punches

Block. Block.

I slide my feet to the right, then casually bring up my lightsaber to block another bolt from the probe Ahsoka or Kanan snuck into my bag.

_I didn't see them do it._

Good thing, or I would have protested. This is one of the originals from the Jedi Temple.

The droid shoots directly at my eyes, and I bring my lightsaber up in time to send it into the padding lined along the back wall.

Slide.

Block. Block. Block.

Quickly, I transfer into a series of quick cuts, then spin back and deflect a bolt directly under the probe droid.

"Beep Beep."

_The programmed round of 200 must be over._

I smile to myself, then turn back and see Sophie sitting in the chair I brought up here, next to a pitcher of water and two cups.

"Hey. When'd this get up here?" I ask her with a smile.

Sophie climbed out of the chair and smiled. "Mommy brought it up in the middle of your round."

"You could have interrupted me." I tell her.

_I wouldn't have minded._

Sophie strongly shook her head. "But…you were moving too fast. You were almost a blur."

Oh.

I smile at her while pouring a glass for her. "I know it sounds crazy, but it's not going that fast to me. I would have been able to stop."

I watch Sophie's eyes widen in disbelief. "Really?"

"Yup." I hand her the cup, then start pouring one for myself.

"Does it like…come in slow motion?" She asks, then slurping her drink.

I shake my head, then spill a little water. "Nope. Oh blast."

Quickly, Sophie scrambles to her father's desk and pulls out a towel, then runs back and tosses it to me.

"Thanks." I smile at her, cleaning it up.

"Can I practice now?"

"Of course you can."

_That's what we originally came up here for._

Sophie hasn't shot today. So we came up here after Sabine and Mr. Wren left for some meeting with _Mand'alor_.

_They said I could go if I wanted to, but there wouldn't be any hard feelings._

I chose to stay here and keep Sophie company.

In front of me, Sophie beamed, then set her cup down and jogged over to the fuse box that control the automatic firing range that Mr. Wren has installed.

"Whirrr…"

The primary target, a big bullseye on the far wall popped up, nice and inviting.

Sophie hustled over to where her bow is and grabbed it with a content smile on her face.

"Now remember the basics. Set your feet." I remind her gently as she sets her feet.

Sophie doesn't reply, instead silently shifting her feet into position, then letting out a breath.

_Sabine and I never taught her that._

Sabine told her to "shoot loose" and not be tense or nervous. Sophie naturally is breathing right on her own.

_She's a natural. _

Hit.

Miss. Up.

…

Miss. Up.

Miss. Up again.

Sophie frowned, then shook her head.

"Feet Sof." I remind her.

_She's drifting._

The momentum of the bow carries her aim up above the target.

"What am I doing wrong?" Sof asks quietly, sounding frustrated.

I get to my feet and walk over to her.

_I haven't told her much when Sabine's around._

She's the expert. So I've kept my mouth shut.

"The bow is kicking back because you're so small. Causing you to miss high."

"Do I aim lower?" Sophie looked up at me.

I shrug. "I think so. I don't know for sure though."

"I'll try."

I smile at Sophie, then walk back to my seat as she reaims.

Hit.

Hit.

_Hah._

Miss. Low.

Nearly hit the ground.

Sophie visibly adjusted her aim, then almost hit the bullseye.

I smile just as she looks back to me.

"I almost hit the bullseye!"

"Try it again." I answer her.

Sophie nods, then refocuses.

Hit. Not a bullseye.

Hit. Nope.

I hear Sophie let out a breath, before shooting again.

_And hits the bullseye._

Immediately, Sophie jumps in the air and screams. "I DID IT!"

I smile at her. "Good job."

Sophie quickly runs over to me and gives me a big hug.

I happily hug her back before I suddenly feel a chill, causing my stomach to churn.

_Uh oh._

I can't help but tense up, then probe out with the Force.

Whoa.

_He's out there. And he wants blood._

I can feel him.

Quickly, I probe in our immediate area.

_Do we have a major problem?_

…

No.

The Force is just giving me a big time warning.

_Something is wrong._

"What?" Sophie asks, letting me go and looking up at me.

"I…felt something bad." I decide on the truth.

"Bad?"

I nod.

"Like what?"

I shrug. "I don't know that Sof."

_Think Ezra._

What could be going on?

_Is he here for another reason, other than to root be out and kill me?_

That would make sense.

There's tons of street fighting going on still. _Mand'alor_ sent over an earpiece for me to wear if I wanted, along with my 'battalion''s comm numbers.

Nobody has seen or heard from Shark Bait that I know of. No trail of people or anything.

_Nothing._

The only thing I know that's going on is that meeting.

_Don't get paranoid Ezra._

I sigh, then shake my head and look up to see Sophie shooting again.

Hit.

Hit.

Miss to the left.

I probe again, and then bite my lip.

_Still there._

I don't want to go all the way down to MandalMotors, just for everything to be fine. I'll look paranoid.

_Insecure._

Hit.

Hit.

_If I'm wrong, I can always go find him._

I won't really know where I'm going, but I'll find my way home like last time if I need to. I'll have my credit stick on me.

_And if I'm right…_

You could fill that room with Mandalorian warriors, and I'd still take Shark Bait. He's practically immovable.

_The only one that can take him is me._

Relax Ezra!

Out of frustration, I get to my feet and start pacing to let out some of my nerves.

_I can't be wrong on this._

I can't lose Sabine. And I can't let Shark Bait trick me into playing his game.

Probing again, I scowl at the warning, still there.

_The chill too._

Hit.

Miss.

_Screw it._

There's worse things I can do than be wrong.

"Sof? C'mere." I speak up, causing Sophie to immediately turn.

"Yeah?" Sof asked, walking over to me.

"C'mon. We're going downstairs."

Suddenly, Sophie looked distressed, tears flying into her eyes and sniffling.

"Are you leaving?" She whined.

_Whoa._

"Sof…it's okay. And I'm thinking about it." I say, then watch as Sophie completely melts down.

Tears starts cascading down her face, and she starts crying, then rushes out of the room.

"MOOOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMMMMMMMMYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!" She screams, quickly disappearing.

_Dammit._

I didn't know this would upset her so much!

On my out of the room, I pull my lightsaber to me before starting after Sophie.

As soon as I reach the top of the stairs, I can hear Sophie crying.

"He's—" Sophie howls, before I hear her mother softly reassure her.

By the time I get down there, Sophie's talking again.

"—felt something then…he said he's gonna leave!"

"If he felt something honey, then he has a duty to go check it out and help people. He isn't just ours." Mrs. Wren reminds her softly, then hugs her.

I approach Sophie from behind, then reach out and rub her back. "It's okay Sophie."

Sophie immediately howls, then squirms away from me. "NO ITS NOT!"

"Hey! Don't yell…Why wouldn't it be okay?" Mrs. Wren asked Sof, then glancing over at me.

"Who's gonna protect us? I'm scared Mommy! Ezra means we'll be safe. If he leaves…" Sophie says, before her mom cuts her off.

"He's not going to be gone long _ad'ika_."

_It sounds like her mind is already made up._

"Sorry." I apologize quietly.

Mrs. Wren looks up, then gives me a sympathetic smile. "I understand. What do you feel?"

"Just a general bad feeling. Problem is, it's never wrong. And the only thing I can think of is that meeting."

Sophie quickly looks even more scared. "NO!"

"Is it specific?" Mrs. Wren asks.

I shake my head. "Not this time, no. But I don't like it at all."

"Go get some juice. You'll feel better." Mrs. Wren tells Sophie, who quickly dashes off.

Mrs. Wren then looks to me. "I can protect Sophie. Don't you worry."

"I figure the worst I can be is wrong. I'd love to be."

_I just have a hunch._

A bad hunch. He's an insane psychopath that loves to kill and cause destruction.

_And there's a meeting of Mandalore's finest tonight._

It's like dangling a piece of meat in front of an Loth-Cat.

"But if you're right, they don't stand a chance." Mrs. Wren says.

I nod.

_She knows._

I don't know much about the Zabrak's she saw, but she knows enough.

The chill around me sets in, causing me to shiver again.

"_Ad'ika_?" Mrs. Wren speaks up, as Sophie has the conservator open and is putting back her Bug Juice.

"Yeah Mommy?"

"Grab a pillow and blanket. We're gonna watch a holofilm in the living room tonight."

Sophie immediately lets out a loud whine.

"Sophine…" Mrs. Wren trails off.

In response, Sophie rushes around the island and right at me.

I quickly hug her, and then notice that she's shaking.

"Please don't go…Pleeeeeaseeeee…" Sophie begs.

"_Soph'ika_…" Mrs. Wren groans.

I nervously swallow, then squeeze her.

"I've got to do this."

Tears drop onto my shoulder as Sophie grabs onto me tighter.

"Pleeeeeeasssseeeee…?"

I shake my head, then force myself to let her go.

"I'm gonna grab my earpiece, then I'll be off." I tell Mrs. Wren then start up the stairs.

_If I wait, Sophie will break my heart._

She's already doing it.

I snatch up my earpiece and put it in, then double check that I've got my credit stick and comm.

_I'm good._

Let's go.

Sophie's waiting for me when I come back down the stairs.

I pull her into a big hug, then walk towards the couch.

"I'm gonna be okay. Your mom's gonna protect you from anything. And I'm gonna make sure your dad and sister are okay. Then I'll be right back." I whisper to her.

"Okay…I love you." She whispers back.

My heart briefly soars before I hug Sof again. "Love you too."

I set her down on the couch, then turn to Mrs. Wren.

"Be safe. Comm if you can." She asks me.

"I will." I nod, before walking out to the backyard.

_Okay._

Let's do this.

I effortlessly vault the fence, then jog out to the street.

_The tower is 35 blocks away. Past the spaceport._

I've never gone out that way. All I have to go on is the quick overview Sabine gave me of the main roads in Keldabe, along with my eyes.

_It's the tallest building in Keldabe. Can't miss it._

I quickly start down the street and into the market, probing every minute or so.

_About the same._

If anything, it's gradually increasing. And that's not good.

Belfora Road.

_This is the road that the spaceport is on._

I should start to get a better grip for things once I get out of here.

Quickly, the Force starts to get choppy and volatile, as I see the crowd of asylum seekers that is waiting outside the primary Durasteel doors to the spaceport, which are closed firmly.

The crowd slowly notices me, and one shout becomes twenty within seconds.

_Keep going. I can't help them now._

I feel like a traitor. People in need of help, trying to escape this fighting, and I have to keep jogging.

My heart starts pounding as, stone-faced with my gaze locked on the MandalMotors spire, I bypass the people and keep going.

_They can't leave._

No ship can land. They are absolutely stuck.

What I don't understand is why expose yourself at the spaceport? Go home, wait until ships can start to land. Then go to the spaceport.

_Maybe their homes were destroyed._

It's possible, we don't know too much about the greater conflict on the planet. I assume _Mand'alor_ knows, but he's not talking.

As I continue to jog, my breath slowly starts to visibly appear. In response, I probe.

_Worse._

I can't help but shiver, and try to concentrate.

_What's his plan?_

"Clomp Clomp Clomp…"

_Stormtroopers._

I jump into the nearest alley, just before a battalion of troops starts down the street.

Something is up.

_I'm calling in my battalion._

If I'm wrong, damn the consequences.

I weave my way deeper into the back alley and comm Prime.

_I just hope I don't get lost._

I can still see the spire.

"Prime."

"Hey. It's Ezra. The guy you met a couple of days ago?" I introduce myself politely.

"Yes sir. I do apologize for how that went. I was out of line."

"It's fine." I brush him off. "I hate to be abrupt, but I need you guys to come to MandalMotors Tower as soon as possible."

Voices in the background quickly begin speaking.

"Alright. Everyone's with me. We'll be there in around 10 minutes."

"Great. There's a few Stormtroopers around, so be cautious."

"What's going on?" Prime asks, causing the voices behind him to go silent.

_Should I tell him?_

Fine.

I bite my lip, then speak up. "I think I've know what the guy with the lightsaber is going to do next."

"What's he going to do?" I hear somebody say in the background.

"Easy. Go after _Mand'alor_. We'll be there immediately." Prime replies bluntly.

I shut the call off on my wrist, then see a fire escape in front of me.

_Great!_

If I get up high, I can see if there's more than one battalion.

I quickly jump and grab onto the Durasteel bars, then jog to the roof.

_Pitch black night._

Perfect for surveliance. And for low temperatures.

I probe, then almost physically recoil.

_He's CLOSE._

Closing my eyes, I try to sift thru the city around me to try and locate him.

_I can cut him off._

…

Nope. Too many people.

I bitterly shake my head, then start jogging along the rooftop.

_Focus._

Don't be mad that I was right. Just keep moving.

_If I'd been like this on Lothal, I would have never gotten the strength up to start fending for myself._

If I get frustrated, I play into what Shark Bait wants.

_He may want me to come to MandalMotors._

I shake my head violently, then block the thought out.

No.

A quick glimpse over the side of the roof gets me a glimpse at another battalion.

_Something is up._

Nervously, I probe again. Then I spin around.

_Shark Bait's Force signature is somewhere behind me now._

MandalMotors is less than a click away.

Huh.

_With all these Stormtroopers, I can't just waltz in._

I'll go around the rear of the building and see if there's a battalion back there.

I continue to jog, and quickly my shadow is swallowed up by the massive façade and imposing structure.

MandalMotors.

Sabine's Force Signature jumps out at me, causing my heart to jump.

_She's okay for now._

Keep going Ezra.

I keep jogging, and another glance down at the street below confirms my suspicions.

_No Stormtroopers._

They're coming at it from that side only.

Weird.

Spotting the entrance for all incoming vehicles, I suddenly notice why.

_Mandalorians._

Around fifteen of them.

Maybe they're _Mand'alor_'s guard.

_But they're outside._

"_Buzz Buzz."_

I jump straight into the air, then see that it's only my comm/

_Whew._

"Hello?" I say, then start down the building's fire escape.

"It's Prime. We're in the far side of the building. We think we have you visual, along with several battalion of heavily armored Stormtroopers."

"I'm getting off the roof. That's my visual." I tell him.

"We have you." Prime immediately replied.

"Great. Who are the other Mandalorians?" I ask.

"The people in charge of protecting this neighborhood. They don't like that we're here, for what it's worth."

_They can save it._

"Too bad for them. I'm going to sneak inside." I say, then finally reach street level again.

"We see you. What's our plan?"

_Plan?_

I don't know!

"This is my first time Prime. I don't know. I'm open to any ideas. This is a joint operation." I tell him, trying to hide my annoyance.

_Calm down._

This is going to go great. Just because you don't know exactly what to do doesn't mean he won't listen.

"Alright. I assume you know _Mand'alor_ is in the basement gathering room. We can tentatively surround the room from the floor above and give you room if you need it."

The Force suddenly lets out a warning jolt.

_I gotta go._

I quickly run inside, then duck into a hallway.

"Flank them. I like it. Sounds good, just be careful." I tell him.

"You too sir."

I smile, then cut off the comm and look around.

The wall has a massive red stripe running down the length of it. "Maintenance" is above it, also in red.

_I need to go down to the basement._

I follow the stairs until there's an opening, then take it.

Ah hah! It opens to the top of the room!

_There are beams spanning the length of the room._

As quietly as possible, I edge out onto one.

"—southern continent is in desperate need of a morale boost." I hear a voice say.

"Has the supply convoy helped any?" Another voice asks.

I glance down and see people sitting around a round table, set deep inside the room.

_Sabine._

She and her father are two seats from _Mand'alor_, facing the door.

"It arrived today."

"Then that should briefly assuage them." Mr. Wren speaks up.

"Baltan. Tell me about how Sundari is? Has the refugee test camp had any success?" _Mand'alor _asks.

"Yes, the supplies donated by the Kalevala mercenaries has allowed them to begin building defenses and repair the remaining damage done to the dome."

"Any word…on what they think of reoccupying the city?"

Mr. Wren visibly fidgets in his seat, before the other man answers.

"No. We don't know."

_Reoccupy?_

I don't understand.

"For now, the contingency is to evacuate to Sundari if the Empire invades Keldabe." _Mand'alor_ proclaims.

"That would seem rather unlikely, seeing as all they've done is blockade and deploy small bands of troops for firefights." The man to _Mand'alor_'s left says.

"Beep Beep."

I tap my comm.

"In position." Prime says quietly.

I nod, then shut my comm off without replying and let out a breath.

_Good._

As quietly as possible, I creep farther down the beam and probe the Force.

_Shark Bait's Force Signature is really close._

Blast

"The Empire is coming. That is without a doubt. However, we cannot draw them out. We have to let them fire upon us first. Then…we will have the leverage to fight for our independence." _Mand'alor_ tells the group.

_Good plan._

Only one problem: I don't think the Empire will care. They don't play fair.

LEFT!

The Force suddenly lets out a warning, and I spin around in time to see the door bulge inward.

Mandalorians appear from nowhere and begin to advance on the door, then suddenly stop.

_Oh no._

One of them is clutching his throat.

"No!" I hear Sabine yell, before the door flied open, revealing Shark Bait, with Stormtroopers behind him on either side.

"Hold your fire!" _Mand'alor_ orders, holding his hand up. "Who are you?"

_What?_

You know who it is!

I scramble to get closer to where Sabine and her father are now standing, as Shark Bait speaks up.

"My name…is the Fifth Brother. And I have come to end your pathetic Rebellion."

_Fifth Brother?_

That's not a name!

"You already don't understand what you're doing. By defeating all of us doesn't end this rebellion. It will only stoke a bigger fire. We are not a people. Mandalorian is an ideal. You cannot defeat that." _Mand'alor_ says darkly.

_Ominously._

He thinks this is his last stand.

I quickly look down, and see that I'm about five feet away from being directly over the table.

_If I drop down, I have to hit it dead center._

I don't know what it's made out of, so I'm assuming it's going to break.

"I know that." Shark Bait spits out. "My Master has already told me all about your warrior ways. About your unbreakable will."

"You haven't listened." A man speaks up suddenly.

Shark Bait simply smiles. "I've broken a Jedi. I'm here for your holo."

_Huh?_

Several Manadlorians take a step back.

_There's a holo connected to the back wall, along with some monitors._

Uh oh.

"Oh I know. All your precious secrets. Your off world contacts. Battle tactics. Reserves. Everything…is on that holocomputer."

_Whoa._

He can't get it.

_If he makes a move, I'm dropping down._

"The first one of you to surrender _Mand'alor_ will live. The rest die." Shark Bait said silkily.

"Never!" Sabine tells him.

_She's already got her helmet on._

Shark Bait simply turns…then smiles. "Speaking of the Jedi. He isn't here. I know. We've been watching for hours."

Sabine's fear jumps out at me, as she goes for her pistols.

_It's okay._

I am here.

"I don't need a Jedi." Sabine speaks up.

"There isn't even a Jedi on the planet!" Another man pipes up.

I let out a breath, then smile.

_Relax._

And play your game.

_I need to time this right._

No casualties, and without letting him get that holo.

"Oh yes. You do." Shark Bait smiles eerily. "You're already dead."

Before anybody else can speak up, I slip off the beam, let myself fall and throw my lightsaber at the group of Stormtroopers closest to Sabine and her father.

Just before I land, I hear my lightsaber make rapid contact.

"Tssch!" "Tssch!" "Tssch!" "Tssch!" "Tssch!"

"THUMP!"

I land heavily, head down and yank on my lightsaber, pulling it back to me.

Immediately, the Force erupts with multiple emotions as Shark Bait flinches, then looks left.

I glance up in time to see five Stormtroopers fall down, dead.

"Jedi!" A Stormtrooper says, just before I feel five more blasters get aimed at my chest.

"Yeah. Jedi." I point to Shark Bait, then joke "I was here. Ask him. Didn't you feel me?"

_C'mon._

Bite. BITE!

Shark Bait turns to me with a scowl fully erupted onto his face.

"Howww…" He growls.

"I just said I was here. Listen. You animal." I goad him with a smile.

_C'mon. You love playing mental games. You and Barriss._

Let's play. It's Dun Möch.

_Reverse, actually._

Shark Bait fixes me with a murderous glare. "You're playing games."

I shake my head. "No. This is very real. I heard everything. You want the holo right?"

Shark Bait lets out a low growl.

"Ezra…" I hear Mr. Wren say.

_I got him._

Now I've just got to play my game with a lightsaber.

"Two can play this game Shark Bait. I can talk all day. Like you did last time. Talk talk talk. You talked too long." I tell him firmly.

He did.

_I woke up._

"No, YOU HAVE!" Shark Bait roars, then jump out at me.

Quickly, I leap up and meet him halfway.

Before he can react, I kick him, then Force Push him back thru the door.

Shark Bait lets out a yell as I fall.

_Wait, the other Stormtroopers._

I land, then turn and see all five of them, aiming directly at me.

"Pwing!" "Pwing!" "Pwing Pwing!"

Shots fly by out of the corner of my eye, and take out all five Stormtroopers.

_Sabine._

"Thanks." I smile, turning to where Shark Bait landed.

C'mon.

Shark Bait scowls, then activates his lightsaber and rushes towards me.

He starts with a powerful diagonal slash.

I smile while blocking it, then spin around him as he slashes at me.

And whiffs.

"Nope!" I taunt him, then jump back towards the circular table.

_I hope they're backed away by now._

If not…then oh well. Their fault.

_I've got a plan._

Shark Bait blindly leaps out at me and begin to telegraph a downward chop.

Block.

I back up once more, and see _Mand'alor_'s green armor to my right.

_Stay out of this._

Slice. Block.

Shark Bait quickly turns my block into a blade lock.

I riposte it and cut at his neck, forcing him to evade and back away.

_Keep going._

I back up once more, then block another slice.

Then my foot bumps up against the holo.

_Now!_

I cut my block short, then jab out at Shark Bait's neck.

Shark Bait dodges, then wheels back around and unleashes a powerful chop directly vertical.

I sidestep the chop, allowing the holo to be cut right down the middle.

_Yes!_

IT WORKED!

The Force suddenly heaves as Shark Bait quickly becomes livid and lets out a roar of fury.

I smile, then step strongly towards _Mand'alor_. "I win this round. You're not getting him either."

Shark Bait looks at me as Sabine brings up a missile on her wrist and levels it with his head.

"This isn't over yet." Shark Bait frowns at me, then makes a sudden movement.

I instinctively react and jump in front of Sabine but Shark Bait ignores me and slices thru two delegates, then makes a break for the door.

Somebody yells in terror, but I ignore it and turn to Sabine.

"Help." I smile helplessly.

_I'm gonna need it now._ _Now I don't know what I'm doing._

Shark Bait is making a break for it.

Sabine nods, then activates her jetpack and flies towards the door.

_Wait._

MY team!

_The battalion!_

"Get out of here! We'll take him!" I tell _Mand'alor_, then hit my comm and try to catch Sabine.

"Any time now!" I yell, then shut it off.

_No distractions._

"BOOM!"

A massive explosion causes me to cover my face, right before Sabine crashes into me.

"You okay?" I ask.

"I HATE THE FORCE!" She angrily yells, scrambling off me.

_He deflected it._

I smile, then leap thru the smoke and see Shark Bait in a full sprint down a long hallway.

Stormtroopers start flooding down a set of stairs just as Shark Bait reaches them.

Shit!

"BOOM BOOM BOOM!"

_WHOA!_

The entire staircase explodes, then is engulfed in smoke.

Sabine and I rush thru in time to see my battalion, in full on black Mandalorian armor begin firing on Shark Bait, who is fleeing up the stairs.

He's trying to get away!

I quickly leap out at him, reactivate my lightsaber and slash at him.

Quickly, Shark Bait recovers and blocks my slash horizontally, then throws his arm out at me.

I duck under it, then guess where he's going to be and cut out at that spot.

Shark Bait deftly spins, just as one of my team steps forward.

In the blink of an eye, I see a flash of red.

Then hear a gasp.

And my heart stops.

_NOOOOOOOOO!_

Time suddenly seems to slow as Shark Bait flings my friend aside, then rushes farther up the stairs.

I don't even try to catch up, as my brain totally shuts down.

NO NO NO NO NO NO!

"Ordo! C'mon! Stay with me!" One of my men, I think Will grabs Ordo's helmet and flings it off.

"MEDIC!" Prime screams.

"Hurry!" Sabine yells, as I find where Shark Bait got him.

"C'mon brother. Stay with us." Kal says frantically.

Ordo lazily looks over at him.

"I'm here…"

_He got him right in the stomach._

I…I moved wrong.

"C'mon man. Hang in there." I say without realizing it.

Ordo's eyes slide over to me.

"Commander…"

_C'mon…_

"Breathe. We've got you." Prime says strongly.

"Yes sir."

Suddenly I get roughly tossed aside by a man in white.

_Medics._

"Cauterized strike!"

"Kidneys! And stomach!"

"We need a medivac now!"

"On its way!"

I look over to Sabine, only to see her hands over her mouth.

_Did I…_

"GET IT HERE NOW!"

I killed a guy.

_On my first mission._

"Code TWO!" One of the medic yells.

"We're gonna lose him if you don't hurry!" Another adds.

_He's not gone yet._

I hear a yell behind me, turn, and then scramble away from the stretcher team.

Numbly, I watch as they get Ordo onto the stretcher, then run out of the room.

Sabine and I follow Prime down a hallway, then out to a landing pad.

_Medivac._

We both stop as my whole team follows Ordo's stretcher onto the medivac, then watch as it takes off.

…

I just stand there for a second in shock.

_I'm such an idiot._

I let Shark Bait spin right into him.

_RIGHT into him…_

Right into him.

(A/N: Surprise! When I planned the new few chapters, I remembered that I won't be able to update all next week due to Finals Week. So it's an old school 3 chapter week!)


	70. Into the Stacks

_Dead._

…

What do you say to the friends of a dead Mandalorian warrior?

_One that my own mistake allowed to die?_

In my mind's eye, I can see the footage that _Mand'alor_ showed Prime, Will, Kal, Orir, Sabine and I.

It looked worse than I thought it would. I spun back and cut at him.

_What I didn't expect, was that as I followed thru, I gave Shark Bait almost an invitation to spin and take out my entire team._

Ordo stepped forward to attack…and got cut.

When the medivac had left for a medcenter, I forced myself to go out and look for Shark Bait. Unfortunately, he and all the Stormtroopers evacuated.

_Leaving me with an empty square, and a dying soldier._

From what _Mand'alor_ said, he didn't really have much of a chance. Shark Bait didn't cut thru him, but he might as well have.

He was gone before I could get to the medcenter.

I don't really remember getting home that night. I assume Sabine did it.

_I just remember lying in bed, staring at the wall next to Sabine's bed._

The past two days I've been researching Mandalore itself. Trying to learn and get better.

_I'm not good enough right now._

Everybody's confidence in me has been shaken. Sabine's parents don't want to say it, but I feel it. Sabine's been trying to keep my spirits up. Sophie's been hugging me liberally.

_But Mand'alor isn't that big a fan of me right now._

I knew it the moment I saw him, when he came to tell Prime and the others that Ordo had passed. His eyes said it all.

_Died._

He died Ezra.

_And it was your fault._

I've faced Shark Bait twice, and lost both times. He beat me when I was captured.

_The first time I fought him here should really count as two losses. He beat me, and he mentally kicked my ass._

I've been trying to keep the self-doubt away, but it's crept in anyway.

_Did I get lucky beating him the first time?_

I don't know. I feel like I played it perfect last time until Shark Bait destroyed the holocomputer that he came to steal.

Then he killed three people. Two of the people that were at the meeting, then Ordo.

_Three people's blood on my hands._

I've just got to get better. I've been trying to keep to myself and concentrate.

_I've learned a lot._

The city that _Mand'alor _was talking about last time?

It's called Sundari. It was the capitol of Mandalore back in the Clone Wars.

_Before the Siege of Mandalore._

Sabine said her mom thought the planet was tearing itself apart, and I'd have to agree. The entire city was abandoned after the Empire came in. Keldabe was reinstituted as the capital of Mandalore, partially due to its proximity to the _beskar_ mines, partially because of the City of Bone.

_Sundari was left to ruin, except for a few thousand pacifists that refused to leave and rejoin a more violent Mandalore._

Now Sundari is nicknamed "The City of Death".

_Doesn't help that their word for graveyard is 'Suind'._

Over dinner Mrs. Wren mentioned improvements to Keldabe to increase the city's ability to fend off invaders.

I looked that up too at the public hololibrary and depository.

_And I got to stay away from everyone._

Apparently there is a series of tunnels that connects all the main roads in the city. And all the main roads are curvy and slanted in various areas to slow down invaders.

_The city is built for guerilla warfare._

"Sir?" A voice calls out, causing me to look up.

Oops.

"Sorry." I quickly apologize, while digging in my jacket for my credit stick.

I hand it over to him, then watch him swipe it.

"You have a good one sir."

"You too, thank you." I thank the man, then climb out of the speeder.

_Focus Ezra._

Jeez. You're here to meet with Prime and the others and try to mend fences.

Our first meeting they had a bad impression. Second time, I call on them and get one of their members killed.

_Hopefully this is the start of a clean slate._

I bought a loaf of bread, as silly as it sounds to bring to them.

_I read that food is rarely turned down, largely due to tradition._

It's not like a peace offering…Well kind of it is.

_I'm here anyway._

No time to second guess.

I knock on the wooden door, then take a step back onto the landing.

A voice calls out, then footsteps come to the door.

Will opens the door, then looks surprised.

"Hi." I say politely. "Mind if I come in."

"Sure…is that freshly baked?" Will asks, stepping aside while eying my bread.

"Yup. It's garlic and _hetikles_." I say, entering the apartment.

"Who is it?" Orir's voice called out.

"_HAAR'CHAK!"_ Prime yells, followed by laughter.

I glance back at Will, who is smirking.

"He and Kal are playing a game over the holo."

_Oh._

"Sounds like it's gotten competitive." I smile.

"Yeah. You can put that in here." Will replies, pointing off to a kitchen.

I follow him inside and set the bread on the polished marble island just before Orir walks into the kitchen.

"Oh. Hello." He says, slightly awkwardly.

"How's it going?" I ask.

Orir shrugs, then looks to the bread and turns back to the room behind him. "Hey! We've got a guest."

"Who?" Kal asks.

"The _Commander_." Orir replies.

_Shoot._

I don't like how he said that.

Prime steps into the room, then extends his hand. "Sir."

"Ezra. This isn't anything formal." I smile while shaking his hand.

"So don't call you sir?" Orir asks.

I shake my head. "No. We're all pretty much equal in my eyes."

Kal steps into the kitchen as Will takes out a cutting board and a massive knife.

"Grab the bantha butter, will you?" Will asks Prime.

"Sure. Equal, you say?" Prime questions me before opening the conservator.

I nod quickly. "Yeah. You all probably have more battle experience than I do. And my record is less than stellar. So I figure that having us all be on level ground is the right thing to do."

Prime closed the conservator door with a snap, then handed Will the bantha butter. "Sounds well enough."

_They're mad at me._

I let the room stay silent before finally speaking up. "You're all upset with me."

Immediately, Will broke eye contact with me, as did Orir. Kal rubbed the back of his neck while Prime took a step back.

"Bold move, being so blunt." Prime said.

"From what I know about Mandalorian society, dancing around issues isn't your thing."

Prime smiled. "You read well."

I shrug. "I'm trying. And I figured I should stop by and set things straight with you guys."

Will nodded, while beginning to slice the bread.

"Most outsiders wouldn't do that." Kal says simply.

_Outsiders._

"Would you mind explaining that to me? I…I'd like to make this work, but if you guys have an eye on me, that can't happen." I say, looking to Prime.

He's their leader.

"It's not so much that you're an outsider. It's that you're a Jedi, and an outsider. Over the course of history our people and the Jedi have not gotten along." Kal speaks up.

"Along with the fact that the Jedi are supposed to be hunted down as traitors to the Empire right now." Prime adds.

"Well, for what it's worth I have no problem with any Mandalorians. My girlfriend is Mandalorian, and I love everything I've seen of Mandalore so far." I tell him.

"And what about the past?" Prime asks.

I shrug. "I don't really think it applies. The old Jedi Order has been destroyed. I was found by a lone Jedi, who has trained me and introduced me to a whole new life. We fight the Empire because they need to be stopped. Here, it's because of the suppression and subjugation of your people. On my home planet, it's the exploitation of the entire planet for its resources. And I'm sure it's like that and worse elsewhere."

"What's your home planet?" Will asks, looking up from the bread.

"Lothal. It's in the Outer Rim."

"Never heard of it." Prime says bluntly.

"I have. Farming world. We just stopped to refuel there."

_That's us._

I smile. "That's something we do have. It's not a farming world anymore. We're mostly a manufacturing planet now."

"Why?" Kal asked.

"I don't know. They also put a pilot training base on the planet since we've got so many different landscapes."

Will finished chopping, then set the cutting board and the bantha butter out for everyone to grab. "Sounds like an exciting place."

I shrug. "What about you guys?"

Prime and Orir reached forward and grabbed some bread.

"We're all from Mandalore." Kal replies, then grabbing a slice of bread for himself.

I let Will grab a slice before getting one myself.

"Yup. Grew up together, trained together…" Will says.

"So you guys are close." I infer, buttering my bread.

Prime nods, but doesn't add anything.

_Blast._

This is still awkward.

"How'd you find this Jedi?" Kal asks me.

"I…I actually stole a crate of supplies from him." I laugh quietly.

"Stole?" Orir looks over at me, looking like he doesn't buy it.

"Yup."

"The better question is why?" Prime adds.

"I was on my own. That's how I got my supplies. I don't know what I did, but he saw something in me. And I've been with them ever since." I tell him.

"It sounds like you're with a larger group though. You can't single-handedly take on the Empire by yourself." Will says.

I smile at him. "We don't. We pick and choose our battles. Help in the shadows. We'll get our chance. That's what everyone keeps telling me."

I take a bite of my bread, then look around and see them all looking impressed.

"So…it's sort of a Rebellion." Prime says quietly.

"I guess. I try not to think of it that way. We just try to help people who can't help themselves." I reply.

"Then why come here? Our planet is full of warriors." Orir asks.

I smile. "My girlfriend's family. I want to make sure they are safe."

"That's noble." Will states.

"Not really. Just doing my job." I reply.

_It's really not all that special._

"So you said you have had some battles?" Prime changes the subject.

I nod. "Not many. The last really big one was the last time I saw the guy with a lightsaber."

_Fifth Brother._

"Do you know anything about him?" Kal asks.

I nod. "I beat him the first time I saw him. Cut both his arms off, then stabbed him in the heart and threw him off a ravine. Then, several months later, I got captured on a mission. To my surprise, there he was. Alive."

"How?" Will asks, as they're all looking at me.

"Apparently he's like a walking science experiment. They played with his genes to make him unkillable. You have to beat him…"

"_Otherwise he will simply grow back, stronger than the last time."_

I stop speaking, and turn over what I just remembered over in my head.

_He is stronger. Smarter, faster, better._

"What?" Orir asks, as Prime leans forward to look at my face.

"I just remembered something." I say quietly.

_He's stronger._

I have to beat him different.

"Which is…?" Will asked, extending his hands in confusion.

"The…his boss. For lack of a better term. He told me that the only way to 'kill' him was with fire. Otherwise he'd come back stronger than before."

The room went silent, and stayed like that for a moment.

"So he is stronger then." Kal says, looking to Prime.

I nod. "Definitely."

I can't believe I forgot that.

_I'm so damn STUPID!_

"Well, good thing you've got us then." Prime speaks up.

I turn to him in shock.

_I've got them?_

"I do?"

Prime nods. "Ordo wouldn't have wanted to go out so…meekly. But he'd be mad at us if we just stopped working with you."

"Plus, if it means we get to take that guy down…" Orir says darkly.

_Oh I'll give you that chance._

"I'm right there with you."

"Form a line." Will joked, causing everyone to laugh.

"I call first." I smile, getting more laughs.

"That's understandable…any idea where he is?" Prime asks me.

I shake my head. "No. Otherwise I'd be there now, trying to get at him."

Kal looks to Prime. "They've got to be hiding him. The Imps."

"Of course. Where else would he hide?" Prime replies.

"Maybe Sundari?" Will asks.

"In the ruins there? No. That'd be a long way to go just to get at him." Prime points to me.

Before I can answer, my comm suddenly goes off, causing me to jump out of my skin.

"Oh geez…" I mutter, as Will shakes his head with a smile. "Hello?"

"Hey."

_Sabine._

"Hi. What's up/" I ask her.

"We're making dinner. Wherever you are, come home." She says bluntly, leaving no room to wiggle.

"Okay…I'm with Prime and the others." I say defensively.

"That's great. Get here. Oh, and we have visitors." Sabine says simply.

_She sounds happy._

"Okay. I'm on my way." I say.

Sabine hangs up without responding.

"She sounded real happy." Will smiles at me, causing the others to laugh quietly.

"Yeah. I've been busy at the library looking up stuff on Mandalore that might help me fight him. Shark Bait, Fifth Brother, whatever his name is."

"You don't know his name?" Kal looks at me.

"No. I nicknamed him Shark Bait, but right before you guys saw him, he was talking at _Mand'alor_ and said that he's the "Fifth Brother."

"Well there's going to need to be a Sixth Brother." Orir growls.

"Oh yeah." Prime smiles. "Get out of here. Call if you find trouble."

I nod. "I will. I don't know when there will be any though."

Prime waved me off. "Just call."

I nod, then walk to the door and slip back outside.

_Shoot._

Sun is going down.

I quickly jog to the landing pad and see that there's one left.

"Spaceport please." I say, hopping in.

He driver doesn't reply, and immediately gets going.

_Great._

That didn't go so badly. Once we found stuff to talk about that went really well.

_I'm just glad they don't hate me._

And they still want to help me. I was almost sure that they'd say go.

_But Prime just went ahead and volunteered._

I'm not turning that down.

I smile to myself, then look at the skyline the remainder of the short ride to the spaceport.

Quickly, I pay the man then jog to where Sabine's place is, and vault the fence.

Sophie quickly turned to me, then sprinted for the glass door.

_Wait…_

I keep my eyes on the two guests in the kitchen helping Sabine and her parents with dinner.

"Hi!" Sophie squeaks, as she pulls open the door.

"Hey." I half hug her. "Is that who I think it is?"

Sof looks up at me and nods happily.

"There he is!"

_Yup._

With a smile on his face, Rex and Echo started towards me.

"How are you here?" I ask, just before Rex clapped me on the shoulder.

"Simple. We're humble farmers, here to distribute supplies to the moon of Concordia." Echo said, voice slightly different.

"Then we smuggled ourselves, and our supplies here." Rex finished explaining, then pushed me towards the kitchen.

"Shoes!" Mrs. Wren reminded me.

"On it." I say, quickly heading that way.

Mr. Wren called out to me. "How'd it go?"

I smile, slipping off my shoes. "It went well. Better than I expected."

"We should maybe have them over sometime." Mrs. Wren says as I walk into the kitchen.

Rex smiles. "I'd like to come. They need my seal of approval."

Sabine, Sof and I laugh before I peek at what Sabine is stirring.

"It's roast _shatual_. You'll like it." She tells me.

"Can I help?"

"Silverware. Oh, and a seat for Echo or Rex." Sabine tells me, looking back to the stove.

"I'll get the seat." Mr. Wren volunteered, then left the room.

Mrs. Wren turned to me. "Where have you been all day?"

"The hololibrary, just like yesterday." I tell her, walking over and opening the silverware drawer.

Sabine shook her head as her father walks back into the room with a collapsible chair.

_HEY!_

"Sorry, I couldn't find a normal chair. You're more than welcome to use that or a rolling one. I can get that too."

"This is fine sir, thank you." Echo replies.

I tear my gaze from Sabine. "I was. Then I went to talk to Prime and the others." I say, slightly angry.

"Which is fine." Mr. Wren says diplomatically.

Sabine looks away from the stove to fix me with a solid glare.

_She thinks I'm avoiding everyone._

Like this me being soft again like after I recovered from the torture.

I bite my lip in frustration and start snatching up silverware for seven.

Sophie quietly walks up and gently smacks my leg.

_She doesn't like it when people fight._

It's her fault.

I grab all the forks and spoons, hand them to Sof, then shrug.

She doesn't reply, but keeps frowning.

"All right. Everything is done. You can serve yourself over here." Mrs. Wren says happily.

Sophie wanders back to me, looking for the sharp knives.

I turn and smile at her. "I've got it. Go get your plate."

Sof lights up, then jumps in front of Rex and makes a beeline for her mother.

I hear Rex quietly laugh as I set the knives at everyone's spots.

When I turn back, Sabine has me fixed in her sights, a frown on her face.

"Stop…hiding. Let us help." She whispers to me.

I frown at her. "Thanks for the confidence."

Sabine's expression barely softened. "I have confidence. But you ran and hid all day. Two days."

"I was learning. Things I couldn't have done here. I needed to know what I learned."

"Like what?"

"Like the underground tunnel system under the city. And how this entire city is built for guerilla warfare."

"So?" Sabine asked.

"So? I need to know that." I reply.

Before Sabine can retort, Sophie wedges herself in between Sabine and I and starts pushing us apart.

"No!"

Sabine casually lowered Sof's arm. "Stop it Sof. We're fine."

Mr. Wren spoke up as he walked to his place. "It's okay _ad'ika_. They can disagree."

Sophie frowned, and Sabine moved to go get food before she could do anything.

_What's her deal?_

I get drinks for everyone and Rex, Echo and Sabine get served, then as Mrs. Wren serves herself I slip in behind her.

Halfway thru making my mashed potato gravy bowl, I hear Rex speak up.

"Thank you for this meal sir. Echo and I sure do appreciate it."

"It's the least we can do. We're glad you came all this way. And it's Carid." Mr. Wren smiled at Echo.

"And Bo." Mrs. Wren smiles.

I smile to myself as I walk to my seat next to Sophie.

Everybody digs in silently for a minute or two, then Mr. Wren looks to Rex and Echo.

"So, what have we missed?" He asks Rex.

"Not much, honestly. The Imperial Senate and the Emperor haven't said anything about what's going on here." Echo tells him.

"Interesting." Mrs. Wren says.

_That is weird._

"That, and the loose blockade makes me think that they believe this won't last long." Rex pipes up.

Sophie pauses, fork halfway in her mouth.

"Huh." Sabine says.

I smile over at Sof, then notice how she's got her plate.

_She's got her potatoes mixed with her vegetables, which tonight is green beans and dust corn._

I've never noticed that before.

Sof smiles back, then bumps into my leg with her foot. "Sorry."

I laugh, then playfully budge her foot back.

_Two can play that game._

Sophie giggled, before her mother gently snapped at her to cut it out.

Oops.

"Really, everything has been revolving around the situation here. Figuring out ways to smuggle supplies here. Plus Rex and I. It's been a complete information blackout." Echo said.

"I imagine that hasn't gone over well." Mrs. Wren smiles.

"Hera has been a bit more bossy than usual." Rex concedes, then smiling at Sophie.

Sophie laughed.

"I imagine so. Like Sabine told Bo and I when she visited for the first time, she is sort of the mother of the crew." Mr. Wren says.

"How's Lux and Ahsoka?" Sophie asks.

Echo and Rex both smiled at Sophie.

"They're doing good. Just busy trying to help you all down here." Echo reassured her.

"Any luck on your end on that?" Mr. Wren asked him.

Echo shook his head. "No. The Imperial outposts and the Star Destroyers are all using the best jamming equipment in the galaxy.

_Blast._

I take a bite of the roast, then smile.

This is good.

_Very tender._

"We have had some breakthroughs in other areas though. The Six, the team that Ezra worked with on Denon gave us the design details on a mystery weapon that the Empire is working on. Only problem is, we don't know what the weapon is. We were hoping that we could bounce some ideas off you." Rex turned to Mr. Wren and said.

"Sure. What are the specs? Can't you reverse engineer it?"

Rex shook his head. "Too big. It's bigger than any weapon we know of. And it doesn't look like they can be broken apart."

"Okay. How big are we talking?"

"All we have are the weapon's tributary shafts. But they're 15 KM long." (A/N: For everybody, that's about 24 miles long. Remind you of anything?)

Mr. Wren's eyes bulged, then he pushed back in his seat.

"What? That's impossible!" Mrs. Wren practically yelled, causing Sophie to jump.

"That's too big to be practical." Mr. Wren shook his head. "Are you sure they cannot be broken apart?"

"We think it may be a supersized version of a weapon used by the Separatists in the Clone Wars. But even that doesn't seem right." Echo shakes his head.

"I…do you have a holo of one of the shafts?" Mr. Wren asked.

"Yes. Multiple."

"I'll plug it into a simulation program I have up in my office…Wow."

Mrs. Wren frowned. "What in the galaxy could possibly be that big?"

"My first answer is the rings around Kuat for the Drive Yards there. But those are made of a different material, and have grown over hundreds of years." Mr. Wren shrugged.

I scoop up the last bite of potato, then grab all my silverware and Sophie's plate.

"Thank you." She smiles up at me.

"You're welcome."

As I set the dishes into the sink, Mr. Wren, Echo and Rex start to float upstairs while continuing to discuss that weapon.

I turn to take Sabine's plate from her, but she brushes by me and sets it into the sink.

I frown at her, then let out a quiet sigh.

"Sabine, if you're mad at him, you're doing a bad job at hiding it." Mrs. Wren said, walking over and depositing her plate into the sink pointedly.

"Like I told him. He's been hiding."

"You'd hide too. A man under his command died for the first time."

"I know. But it's not the first time somebody's ever died. He should be tougher." Sabine frowned.

My mouth opens in shock, and my temper gets the best of me before I can corral it. "_Tougher?" _I growl at her.

_You want me…to be tougher?_

"Sabine Wren! That was HIS man! HIS responsibility. Let him deal with it however he wants to. This isn't about being tough."

I roll my eyes, then grab Sophie's hand and start towards the stairs.

_Tougher._

"I'm a little ashamed of you. Get out of your _shebs_ and start thinking. _Kiyash mirsh solus_." Mrs. Wren said, as we start up the stairs. (A/N: Shebs = Butt &amp; "You, young warrior are an idiot.")

Sophie tensed up and scrambled up the stairs as Mrs. Wren continued chewing out Sabine.

I followed Sof up to her dad's office, and shut the door behind us.

_Whoa._

They're using the whole room pretty much to display the tributary shafts. Which are huge.

Rex turned to Sof and I, holding her bow. "Is this yours?"

Sophie beamed and nodded happily. "Yup!"

"I like it. Looks good. Maybe sometime you could shoot for me."

"Sure!" Sophie piped up, looking thrilled.

_I'm sure Ahsoka told her lots of stories about Rex's heroics in the Clone Wars._

I really haven't seen them truly in action yet.

"I don't know…maybe you are correct." Mr. Wren said, bringing up another holo of a rather small, but laser weapon in the shape of a square.

"It's so big though…" Echo shook his head.

Sophie silently looked up at the weapon.

"By the way. Kid. We…heard about what happened the other night." Rex said gently, putting his hand on my shoulder.

_Blast._

"Yeah." I say quietly.

"And we saw the holo. It…is unfortunate, but understandable." Echo added.

"Kanan and Ahsoka never taught you how to fight with that many other people around you." Rex continued. "It's a talent."

"Talent?" Sophie asked quietly.

"Something you are naturally good at." Echo explained with a smile.

"Thank you." Sophie smiled sheepishly.

Echo returned the smile, then looked back to me.

"Ezra. Unfortunately, this was bound to happen. In war, people die. But you've got to keep moving forward, and not let it drag you down." Rex said simply.

"Better now than when you really get to know the man, and have it hurt worse." Echo said bluntly, causing Mr. Wren to cringe.

"Echo…" Rex said, looking to Mr. Wren.

"It's alright. I'm just not used to how a soldier thinks. Bo and I are very opposite. She's a warrior, I'm a natural pacifist."

Rex nodded in understanding. "Makes sense. That's how the planet largely was while you were growing up."

"Exactly. Bo grew up in an isolated, radicalized group. Which is one reason why she loves having people over. It's the opposite of how she grew up." Mr. Wren explained.

_Huh. Didn't know that._

Doesn't sound fun.

"Don't start doubting yourself though Ezra. Kanan and Ahsoka both told me to reassure you while I was here. You can do this. They, along with all of us have all the confidence in the galaxy in you." Rex smiled at me.

Sophie came over and hugged me.

I bend down to hug her back as Echo smiles and adds "You'll find their weakness."

"The battle you fought beforehand was perfect. He wanted that holo, and you baited him into destroying it himself. You've just got to put it all together." Rex told me.

_All together._

Like that masterpiece Dooku put together against Anakin and Kenobi.

_Masterpiece._

I glance over at Mr. Wren, and see that he's biting his lip.

"Maybe they are configured in a strange shape to increase their power or something…"

The door suddenly burst open to Sabine, fully armored and holding my lightsaber and earpiece.

"Dad, _Mand'alor_ just commed. Mom's got him downstairs." Sabine said, before slapping the speaker. "Okay!"

The holo suddenly changed to the sight of _Mand'alor_ in full armor.

"Carid." He said formally.

"What's going on?" Mr. Wren asked.

"We need Ezra and Sabine down in the historical district. There's reports of a massive influx of Stormtroopers, and some sort of droid wielding staffs."

_Oh no…_

Not those droids. Those are really difficult to take down.

I quietly groan while grabbing my lightsaber from Sabine.

"Okay. They'll be headed that way." Mr. Wren replied, before the holo changed back into the specs for the unknown weapon.

"If that earpiece works, we can help from here." Rex said to me.

"It does. I'll give it to you." Mr. Wren said.

Silently, Sabine and I walk straight downstairs and start putting our shoes on.

I turn back just in time for Sophie to spread her arms for a hug.

On an impulse I pick her up and hold her close. "We're gonna be okay."

Sophie leaned away from me, then smiled. "Good luck."

"Thanks." I smile back.

Sabine quickly kissed Sof's cheek, then yanked open the front door. "The area he mentioned is kind of far."

I slowly shut the door, making sure Sophie's hand doesn't get caught before moving to follow.

"Lead the way. I'm calling the cavalry."

Sabine glanced back. "You sure they're going to answer?"

I nod as I tap the button to comm Prime.

Buzz.

Buzz.

"Hello."

"I'm sorry." I open up.

"Is this about the battle in the Historical District?" He asks.

"Yeah."

"We just got called about it. Headed that way."

"Thanks." I say.

"No problem. See you there."

_Okay then._

I shut it off, then smile at Sabine. "See? Easy."

Sabine shook her head while jogging. "That wasn't even ten words."

"Told you."

Sabine doesn't reply, instead opting to pick up the pace.

_If not for my longer legs, she'd be pulling away from me._

She's trying to anyway.

I try to focus as we run down to where the battle is happening.

_It's going to work out. He's not even here._

This is just a skirmish, from what it sounds like. Plus the droids. Which isn't great, but I know how to kill them.

_I've just got to impale them on their own stupid weapons._

And not give in to the Dark Side like I did last time I saw them.

_But that was very different._

"Five blocks away." Sabine told me.

I nod, then probe with the Force.

_Okay._

Lots of men. But no Shark Bait.

I smile as we keep running until a shout stops us.

"Hey!"

Sabine and I both turn.

_White._

Stormtroopers!

In the blink of an eye, Sabine's fired off two shots, hitting two of them dead in the chests.

I dive into an alley, and duck behind a waste compactor.

_Stupid Stormtroopers._

One of them lets out a shout before Sabine fires off a rocket.

"BOOM!"

"C'mon!" Sabine yelps, grabbing me by the collar and dragging me away from the street.

I quickly scramble behind her as we quickly disappear into the shadows.

"They called for backup. We need to find the main fight." Sabine told me, then peeking out behind a building.

I probe quickly.

"Two blocks I think." I tell her.

"Good enough for me!" Sabine says, taking off at a sprint.

_Oh c'mon Sabine!_

Stop running!

I quickly jog behind her, trying to conserve energy.

_It's a marathon, not a sprint. _

And she's been cooped up all day.

"Hah! You're right!" Sabine laughed before unsheathing her pistols and opening fire while stepping out into the street.

Okay!

_This is more of what I was expecting when I got here._

Rubble everywhere, two sides exchanging fire. None of this inside a building junk.

I pull out my blaster and open fire while following Sabine, hitting one Stormtrooper.

We both end up crouching behind a pile of unearthed duracrete and firing at the Imperial line. To our right, a group of Mandalorians hustle over.

"You know! I didn't mean tonight! I was hoping to stay in!" Prime immediately joked, as they all piled in around us.

"Don't blame me! I didn't know. I'm not a buckethead!" I quip right back, then fire at their line.

"When'd you get a blaster?" Orir asked.

"He's always had one!" Sabine replied before sending another missile that way.

In response, fire quickly rained down on our position.

_Blast it._

"Barriers!" Prime yelled, then pointed off to our right where there are two duracrete barriers that look designed to stop large vehicles from going down the street along with more duracrete.

I bet they're heavy.

_WHOA!_

The Force gave me a large warning just before a large burst of energy flew at our old position, sending debris raining everywhere.

I cover my head while returning fire.

"Thwing!"

_Got him._

"Uhh…what are those?" I hear Will ask.

Sabine looked out just as two droids came into view.

"Oh dang it…" I mutter.

_It IS that model of droid._

"What?" Sabine asked, as I feel everybody turn to me.

"They beat me up when I got captured. They're tough." I say, then turn to Prime. "I need help."

"Cover fire!" he told the others, as I rise up.

When they start to fire, I vault over everyone and land directly in front of the two droids and activate my lightsaber.

The entire Imperial line turned around and froze, and the droids simply made noise.

"Shut up…" I growl before jumping towards them and slicing the first one in the arm.

The other droid stepped towards me and swung horizontally at my neck, giving me time to duck.

I spin on my heels and blast a Stormtrooper in the face, then reactivate my lightsaber and block a vertical blow from the one armed droid.

The Force warns me just before I see a metal streak fly towards me.

Quickly, I nearly bend over backwards and dodge the blow.

"THWING!"

I turn and see the staff stuck in the droid's speaker.

_Ow._

I quickly grab the staff, turn and throw it at the other droid, taking the first droid's head with it. Sparks flew up as the staff impaled the droid.

Ruthlessly, I grab the staff again and impale the other droid, then pick it up one last time and spin over in the direction of the Stormtroopers.

_They're all just looking at me._

"HERE!" I yell and fling the droid impaling staff right at them.

One or two Stormtroopers were smart enough to duck, while the rest got ploughed.

I spin behind a barrier, then fire at one of the remaining Stormtroopers.

"BOOM!"

_Oh shit._

What was that?!

I duck down and cover my face, then peer out and see that the air is filled with smoke and dust.

_What happened?_

Running out towards where the other Stormtrooper is, I pull out my blaster.

"THWING!"

_Got—_

WHOA!

I leap sideways as the Force gives me a moment's warning before the air around me explodes into a cloud of fire.

_AAH!_

Out of fear and instinct, I cover my face and fall to the ground.

"EZRA!" I hear Sabine scream in terror.

"I'm okay!" I yell back, before the ground jumps.

What in the…

_OH NO._

"Oh Karabast…" I mutter to myself, looking up as my heart skips a beat.

_It's a walker._

Right in front of me.

Menacingly, the walker's guns point themselves right at me.

_Uh oh._


	71. Peruse

_(A/N: Y'all really don't like cliffhangers do you?)_

_It's a walker. Four legs like the one on Onderon that blocked the entire road._

"GET BACK!" I yell while scrambling to my feet and running for the nearest cover, a building off to my left.

"BOOM!"

I dive behind the building as more debris rains down on me.

"Ezra! Come in Ezra!" A voice in my ear said.

_Rex!_

I tap my comm and try to stay down. "Hi. Currently pinned by a walker. Can you hold?"

"A what?" Rex immediately asked.

"BOOM!"

I cover my head and let out a shaky breath.

"A walker! Ya know! Four Legs! Huge! Firing on me right—"

"BOOM!"

A chuck of the ferrocrete building exterior flew off and broke apart.

_Blast!_

"Beep Beep"

Really?

I switch channels on my comm.

"Yeah?" I ask sarcastically, inching away from the street.

"Are you okay?" Sabine asks.

"BOOM!"

I brush debris out of my hair, then peek out into the street.

"Yeah, I guess! How do we beat that thing?" I ask, as the air clears.

I get a brief glimpse at the walker as its guns move to find me.

_Uh oh._

I duck back behind the building just before the walker tears into the building, blowing a massive hole into it.

"I don't know! Double back to us! They've got you pinned!" Sabine yelped at me.

_Double back?_

Then it can fire on me and hit her, Prime and the others?

No thanks.

"I've got a better idea. And Rex is on the other line. Be ready." I quickly tell her, getting to my feet.

"What? Ezr—" Sabine begins, before I switch back to Rex.

"Sorry about that. That was Sabine. We're having fun down here." I say, running down the alley.

"BOOM!"

I quickly glance back to see debris fall right where I was hiding.

"Where are you?" Rex immediately asks.

"No clue. Somewhere near where _Mand'alor _said the fun would be." I reply, taking a right and continuing to run.

I hear noise in the background, then Mrs. Wren's voice.

"Carid, where'd he say to go?"

"Alabaster and Canderous. The fighting stretches all the way back to _she'cuir_." Mr. Wren replies.

"Uh, a little translation?" Echo asks.

"That's around seven blocks."

I run further down the alley, then peer around a building.

_A smaller walker._

More legs. Six of em.

There's a guy standing on top, directing the action.

_I can use that walker as a spring board._

Jump onto that one, then onto the big one.

"Rex." I interrupt the chatter behind them.

"Yeah?"

"I need a way to beat this walker in front of me before Sabine and the others get blown away." I tell him.

Sophie squeaks in the background, and my heart sinks.

"Sof, she's gonna be fine. She's smart. But just in case." I try to reassure her.

"You need rockets. Only they can penetrate their tough armor."

"I'll get Carid on the horn." Mrs. Wren says.

"I'm switching back to Sabine." I tell him.

"Alright."

I quickly click over to Sabine while slowly creeping towards the street.

"WHAT?" Sabine yelled at me, just before I hear a massive explosion in the background.

"I'm going to use the smaller walker to spring me to the big one!"

"The AT-AT?" She asks me, as raised voices sound out behind her.

"I guess?"

"It's called an All-Terrain Armored Transport! AT-AT!"

"BOOM!"

"I guess so!" I say, as the six legged walker continues in front of me.

_I'm going to have to go down a block._

I quickly turn around and start doubling back.

"Wait, did you say there's a smaller walker behind the big one?" Sabine suddenly asked.

"Yeah!"

"Oh that's just great!" She growled.

I keep running down the street, then duck into the alley.

_Not here yet._

Wonderful.

"Whatever you do, do it quick, or we're gonna have to retreat!"

"Give me a second!" I ask, peeking out to the street.

_Just a little further…_

I let out a breath and probe with the Force as the six legged walker chugged along behind its bigger brother.

_Shark Bait's around._

He's not close. But I can feel him.

"Ka-CLUNK!"

The sound of the walker suddenly powering down floated to me.

"I think they're stopping." I tell Sabine, just before the man on top of the six legged walker strode to the very top of the platform he's on.

"Rebellious people of Mandalore! Lay down your weapons. We have you completely outgunned." A voice said over a loud speaker.

_What?_

A tiny missile flies by the walker.

"Your efforts to rebel have come to an end. We have more manpower, better weapons, and better tactics. Give up now." The man on top of the walker continued.

They stopped right where I can get at him.

_If I do it right, I can jump right to him._

Quickly, I take a few steps back, then rock my arms back and forth.

I'm gonna need everything I've got.

The street was completely silent.

_Did they give up?_

"NEVER!" I hear Will yell loudly.

_Oh wow that really carried._

"Well then…" The man on the walker said, turning back to his forces.

The Force suddenly heaved, before the man spoke again.

"All Imperial Forces ATTACK!"

"HIT IT!" I hear somebody yell.

_NOW!_

I take off at a run, then leap up at the walker.

Clearing the rails with ease I land three steps from the man, who is holding a loud speaker.

"What are you—?"

Without thinking, I close the gap, activate my lightsaber and cut right thru the man, then spin back and deflect multiple blaster bolts.

"EZRA!" I hear Sabine yell in my ear.

"Hang on!" I say, deflecting bolts right at their shooters as fast as I can.

THWING!

THWING!

I hear the sound of a chain gun begin firing as I turn and look up.

_Oh man._

That's a lot higher now that I'm here.

I take a deep breath, then leap up and grab the top edge of the walker.

Blaster bolts whizz and spark all around me as I crawl onto the behemoth mid-step.

THUD.

The entire thing rocks forward, causing me to stumble.

_I need to bust in._

I duck down, activate my lightsaber and start cutting thru the Durasteel frame.

"We're falling back! Keep going!" Sabine says in my ear, just before I see a flash of white.

"He's somewhere up there!"

"Don't let him cut thru!"

A Stormtrooper starts crawling onto the top of the walker out of nowhere.

I quickly grab him and pitch him off the walker, then walk to where he crawled from.

_DOOR!_

Perfect!

"There he is!" One of the Stormtrooper says, just before I grab the lot of them and fling them out of the walker.

_Sorry!_

I slide inside to see that apparently I've kicked everybody out.

"Trooper 85795456 what is your status? Has the Jedi on top of us been neutralized?"

_Hah!_

I quickly walk thru the walker, surrounded by red lights and screens.

"Trooper 85795456—" I hear the driver say, just before I reach the cockpit.

"Everything is fine!" I say, popping inside.

"What the—" The driver says, as he and one other Imperial jumps up.

I grab them both with the Force, then smash them together, knocking both unconscious.

_Great._

Now how do I stop this thing?

THUD.

Quickly, I look around the room, finally seeing a lever set to the upward position.

I move the lever backwards, and the walker stops entirely.

"YOU DID IT!"

I ignore Sabine and keep looking around.

_Surely there's a way to bring this thing down…_

"Is there a way to bring this thing down?" I ask, looking around.

"Left hand side! There should be an up arrow and a down arrow!" Sabine replies.

Yup!

I quickly slap the down arrow, and the entire walker shakes, then starts clunkily lowering itself.

The entire thing shakes three times, then stops.

_We've got to be close to the ground._

"BOOM!"

I scramble back to the back door and pop out in time to see Stormtroopers advancing towards the six legged walker.

Mandalorians fly out at all sides around me as I activate my lightsaber and begin deflecting blaster bolts.

Suddenly Prime, Will and Kal rush past me.

"I call driver!"

"NO I called it!"

"BOTH OF YOU SHUT UP!" Will yells as they all pile inside.

Sabine pops up to my right and fires off a missile, hitting its mark with ease.

"How'd you know that?" I ask.

"Academy!" Sabine says, turning to me before firing off a shot from her wrist.

"You got a plan for that walker?" I hear Prime ask Sabine. "I need time to turn this thing around!"

_Turn it around?_

"YEAH!" Sabine yells back, then looks to me.

"It doesn't have weapons. It's basically a walking podium. I need you to cover me so I can blow its legs off."

_Oh._

"Got it. I assume you've got the explosives?"

"Is water wet?" Sabine quips to me, then races towards the walker.

_Let's go!_

"Yeah!" I say, chasing after her.

Quickly, the first wave of Stormtroopers aims at me, and I step in front of Sabine, effortlessly entering my preferred blocking motion.

_Little motion._

But I can cover everything.

I block a volley of shots, redirecting them back where they came when I can.

"Got it!" Sabine says, then dashes off to the right.

_Okay._

I keep my form up and sidestep over to Sabine as she's setting the explosives up.

THUD.

_Walker's moving again._

"Front legs!" Sabine said, keeping behind me while peeking over my shoulder.

"Which side?" I ask.

"Don't care!"

I methodically advance, blocking boot after bolt.

Sabine sneaks multiple shots around me, dropping helpless troopers.

_They're prepared to fire, not to be fired at._

Sabine sets up the last two packages, then pulls on my jacket.

"We've got to go!"

"This is gonna get messyyy!" I hear Orir say, massive chain gun in his hand.

I glance back to see the walker has risen back up to its full height.

_But it can't turn back around without taking some of the surrounding building with it._

Including the building I was hiding behind.

Before my eyes, I see the walker make contact with the building, then cut right thru it and continue turning around.

_The back end is tearing up the other building._

"Oops!" I say quietly, cringing.

"They'll forgive us!" Sabine says happily, then presses a button on her wrist.

Four fireballs erupt around the small walker, and immediately the entire thing buckles.

Turning back to the Imperial line, I see them realize something.

_We just completely turned the tables._

"BOOM!"

Stormtroopers go flying into the air as Prime, Will and Kal start moving forward.

"C'mon!" I say, then rush forward past the smoking walker.

"Ezra! Come in!"

"Hi!" I say, as I see Stormtroopers turning and running at full speed away from us.

_They were coming up the hill._

Now they're going down it.

"What in the name of Glee Ansom is going on down there? _Mand'alor _just commed and said something about you jumping onto the walker?" Rex asked.

"Yeah, we stole it!" I smile, causing Sabine to laugh.

"YOU WHAT?!" I hear Echo, Mrs. Wren and Rex all yell as Sophie let out a cheer.

"Prime, one of the guys in my battalion is driving it now."

"They're not going to take that well Ezra." Echo reminds me.

"I know. But we're moving forward."

"We're organizing things on this end, but they probably have more of those walkers."

The sound of metal wailing causes me to turn, before the smaller walker buckles under the weight of the bigger walker.

_He just stepped right on it._

"Well, we'll deal with that when we get there." I say, then cut the comm and turn to Sabine.

"I felt Shark Bait."

"What?" Sabine asks quickly. "How far away?"

"A ways off. But he's around." I say, then turn to Orir. "Be careful."

"I will. But if I get a chance, I'm taking a shot." He smiles darkly.

"Please do!" I smile back, then turn to where Stormtroopers are fleeing in droves.

Some are trying to fire on the walker.

_They're getting blasted._

Others are running for their lives.

And we're easily advancing.

Turning back around, I see a swarm on Mandalorians rushing forward, trying to capitalize on this opportunity.

I step aside and try not to get trampled as the stampede towards the Imperial position continues.

After a minute or so, Sabine turns to me. "Something's not right. It shouldn't be this easy."

I nod while trying to shake off the uneasy feeling that has been growing inside me.

"Prime. Do you guys see anything weird? This seems too easy." I ask him.

"It's Will, and we're right there with ya!"

"BOOM!"

"Maybe they didn't expect one of their AT-AT's to get stolen." Will finished.

I bite my lip as our AT-AT continues to fire on the fleeing Stormtroopers.

"Do you feel anything?" Sabine asked me.

I quickly probe while shaking my head. "No. He's closer, but not like imminent."

Sabine nodded then pulled me aside and took off her helmet, revealing a smile and hair plastered to her head. "Ahh. Much better."

It's warmer than it has been. Not warm like before, but it's not chilly.

"Climate control messing up?" I ask her as Sabine moves her hair off to one side.

"Yeah. I need to look at it when we get back home. But what I'm worried about is what they've got planned."

"The Empire?"

Sabine nodded before the door to the business in front of us opened up.

"Here. You two look beat." A woman smiles, walking out and extending two drinks to us.

_Cool._

"Oh. Thank you very much. Uhm…" I say politely, taking the drinks as Sabine quickly digs in her pockets.

"No no dear. You don't need to pay me. Just win alright?" She smiles at Sabine and I.

Sabine smiles sheepishly. "We're trying, and we are right now. But we're trying to figure out what the Empire has up their sleeves."

"You can beat it." The woman smiled reassuringly, before ducking back inside.

Sabine and I silently look back to our drinks.

"Looks good." She says simply.

"I've had this before." I tell her.

_It's what I bought at the store when I needed to find out how to get home._

"How?" Sabine asked skeptically.

"The first night of all this madness, when I fought Shark Bait the first time. I didn't know how to get home. So I walked into a store, bought a drink like this, then asked how to get to the spaceport."

Sabine didn't immediately reply, giving me a funny look. "You didn't know where you were?"

I shake my head. "I'm trying to figure all that out on the fly."

Instead of replying, Sabine opened her drink and started to drain it entirely.

I look around at the unfolding madness.

_The AT-AT is almost a full click away now._

"Your turn." Sabine says, nudging my drink.

I smile at her, then follow her lead and chug the entire energy drink in one gulp.

Sabine takes the bottle from me and tosses it into a bin beside us. "Not trapped…"

Booby trapped. Mined.

"Yeah. They'd have to plan ahead for that." I add.

"What are they doing…" Sabine sighed, putting her hand in her hair.

We both silently watch the AT-AT advance, trying to think.

_I can't think of anything._

Unless they've got rockets on the ready. And I don't think they—

Two streaks of red energy flew out, directly towards our AT-AT.

_LOOK OUT!_

"BOOM!"

Numbly, I turn to Sabine, who has her helmet in her hand and her mouth open.

"Uh, a little help!" Will comes in over the comm.

Sabine slaps her helmet back on and we both take off at a sprint.

"What was that?"

"Another AT-A—"

"BOOM!"

The AT-AT rocked on its feet as our advance has halted abruptly.

_They were waiting on us to get in range._

Blast!

"Working on it!" I quickly relay to him, then switch over to Rex.

"Hello." Rex said.

"Got another one."

"Another one?" Sophie whined.

"_Mand'alor_ just sent men down towards your area." Mrs. Wren said.

"I'm going to have to steal another one aren't I?" I ask him, causing Sabine to turn and look at me while running full speed.

"For now, until I hear otherwise I guess so." Rex says, sounding unsure.

_Fine then._

At least I know there's a door this time.

Without another word, I flip back to Prime's channel as Sabine and I approach the front lines.

"BOOM!"

Our AT-AT rocked again, before sending a blast aimed at the walker's front legs.

"BOOM!"

Debris flew everywhere, but the walker didn't move.

I let out a frustrated growl as I survey the scene.

_How am I going to get high enough to jump onto the_—

"Ezra!" Sabine yelps, causing me to blink and see two staff wielding droids in front of me.

_Oh not now…_

I activate my lightsaber and prepare to take a step back.

The droids act simultaneously, slicing down at me.

I block both staffs at the single overlapping strike point, then shove both away and squeeze thru the brief gap.

_Pick one, c'mon._

The droid on the left stepped forward, as the droid on the right moved towards Sabine.

_Oh not like that…_

I slice down at the droid, who blocks me, then pivots the staff and cuts at me.

I duck, causing the droid to whiff.

Spinning at the droid knees, I pop up behind it and bisect the droid, then turn back to Sabine.

"YAH!" Sabine yelled, preventing the droid from swinging at her by planting her forearm on the staff, then grabbing the blade.

The droid was unfazed, grabbed Sabine by her helmet and lifted her off the ground.

Uh oh.

I jump towards the droid, who kicks me soundly in the chest and sends me flying into the ferrocrete.

_OWW!_

Sabine let out a scream before the droid throws her on the ground violently so hard she bounces.

Cringing, I scramble to my feet as Sabine kicks out at the droid, hitting it squarely in the leg.

"AHHHH!" Sabine screams terribly.

_NO!_

I jump up and decapitate the droid, then reverse grip and cut the droid in half.

The droid made a quiet, groaning noise as its pieces fell apart.

"Uhhh…" Sabine groaned loudly, propping herself onto her elbows.

"You okay?" I ask her, moving to pull her to her feet.

"I didn't…actually think they'd be made out of straight Durasteel…owww..." Sabine said gingerly while limping to her feet. "Remind me to say sorry for not calling you tougher. Ow."

I smile, then look back to see—

_Uh oh._

"What?" Sabine asked, as Prime, Will and Kal all rappelled down out of the AT-AT.

"BOOM!"

The walker teetered, then fell forward heavily, causing the entire block to jump as it fell.

A man suddenly rushes into the alley as a cloud of dust covers everyone.

I briefly raise my hand to cover my face, before looking to see who it is.

"_Mand'alor_!" Sabine gasps, still holding onto me for support.

"What's wrong? Are you okay?" He ignored Sabine and asked.

"We bumped into a few of those droids. Sabine tried getting out of a tight spot and kicked a droid in the leg—" I explain, before she cuts me off.

"—But I didn't know those things were solid Durasteel. I don't want to sound like a_ birik_ but…" Sabine said. (A/N: _birik_ = Baby)

"No, don't worry. Go home. We've got speeders waiting in the rear."

I briefly stop and look to see that the new front line is right by the felled AT-AT. "I can't go. Who else is going to stop that thing?" I ask, pointing at the new AT-AT.

"BOOM!"

_Mand'alor_ shook his head. "Already taken care of." He said, before tapping his comm. "Whenever you are all in position."

I look over to Sabine as a voice says "Three. Two. One"

Suddenly streaks of light fly out of the building surrounding the other AT-AT.

"BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!"

_Rockets!_

"We've got this. You two go, you've done more than enough. I'll send a medic to your house to make sure you're okay. Do you think it's broken?" _Mand'alor_ asked Sabine.

Sabine shrugged. "I don't know. But I can't really put much weight on it."

Behind _Mand'alor, _the AT-AT started smoking ominously, but is still standing.

_Mand'alor_ shook his head. "I'll have him take some bacta patches. We do need you in action. But for tonight, go."

Sabine briefly turned to me, then looked back to _Mand'alor_. "Ezra said the guy with the lightsaber is somewhere around here. Kind of close."

_Mand'alor_ didn't look back. "If he's around, we'll be waiting for him. And we'll call. Go."

Sabine groaned before I grab her and we slowly make our way to a waiting speeder.

After giving the driver the address, I tap my comm.

"Rex."

"Yeah? Where are you two? What's your status?" Echo asked.

"Coming home. Sabine hurt herself in a skirmish with some droids." I say, causing Sabine to set her head on my shoulder.

Mrs. Wren cuts in to soothe Sophie as Echo speaks up. "Is it bad?"

"No, but she can't put much pressure on her leg."

"How are you getting here?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"_Mand'alor_ said that we should use a speeder. We're on our way now."

"But is that safe?" Rex asked.

I shrug. "Either way, we're on our way."

"Comm when you get here." Rex said.

"Got it." I say, before Rex cut the comm.

Sabine simply groaned and lightly banged her head on my shoulder. "I'm an idiot."

"No you're not. I should have warned you." I say.

_I should have._

Why didn't I? I've faced them before. I know how much it hurts to get hit by them.

"It's both our fault. And comm Rex. We're here." Sabine says shortly.

I tap my comm as the speeder lowers itself outside the gates.

By the time I've got Sabine out of the speeder her father is already talking to the driver, and Rex is maneuvering himself to grab Sabine on the other side so she doesn't have to try to walk.

"Let's do this the easy way…" He said simply, lifting Sabine up while Sophie hovered near me.

"Move Sophine." Mr. Wren barked, as Rex and I start carrying Sabine inside.

"I don't like you guys doing this. I can walk…" Sabine grumbled angrily as we cross the threshold to her house.

"This way you can't hurt yourself worse." Rex replies simply and calmly.

"Her mother's set up a seat in the sitting room." Echo popped up in front of us, pointing the way.

Rex and I both carry a grumbling Sabine all the way into the seat, which is slightly raised.

Without a word, her mother starts popping off Sabine' armor, then rolls up her plant leg.

Ooh.

_That doesn't look good._

Sabine lets out an annoyed groan as her mother starts working on a flexible ice pack.

"My guess is a nondisplaced fracture." Echo says, crouching down to look more closely at Sabine's leg.

Sophie lets out a quiet whine, and I look back to see her holding onto her father's leg and looking scared.

"She's gonna be fine." I smile at her.

Sof briefly looks at me, but quickly turns back to Sabine.

_That didn't work._

"What exactly happened?" Her mother asked me.

"Well, two droids carrying staffs popped up from nowhere—"

"—The alley beside us." Sabine cut me off.

"Shush." Her mother told her, then looked back to me.

"I separated the two droids. I faced them when I was captured, and I can't really beat them both at the same time."

"So you separated them." Rex nodded.

"Right. Only one turned to Sabine. I cut mine down, but not fast enough for the other droid to throw Sabine down on her back. In response, Sabine kicked it, only for it to backfire." I finish.

"I'm the idiot here. I kicked it."

"How were you supposed to know?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"Ezra could have told her." Echo says calmly, looking back to me.

Immediately I feel the whole room look at me.

"I've tried not to pry about that stuff. It was bad enough for him." Sabine frowns at Echo.

"So it was just droids?" Rex said.

"This was, yeah. There were Stormtroopers, but we drove them back without too much trouble." I nod.

"And nothing from that house of assassins. That's good."

I immediately freeze up, and Sabine does the same.

_Oh crap._

She never said anything.

Mrs. Wren let out a short laugh. "You two…_Mand'alor_ told us."

"We're not mad." Mr. Wren said to Sabine, who is looking up at him very nervously.

"I…" Sabine croaked out, before shaking her head.

"You did the best you could have. He told us so we could protect ourselves and Sophie." Mrs. Wren reassured Sabine.

"Huh?" Sof asked, looking lost.

"I'll explain it in just a bit _Soph'ika_." Mr. Wren smiled at his daughter.

"And if that's the worst thing you do at your age, you're way ahead of where I was." Mrs. Wren joked. "I was basically a terrorist."

Sophie immediately looked lost, as her father smiled. "You thought you were doing good for Mandalore."

"What you two need to get out of this, is that there's always a conversation in the background, keeping everyone in the know." Rex said to Sabine and I.

"Commander Tano, Kanan, Hera, Lux, everyone in the know. They're informed up to the day."

_Huh?_

"Surely not now." I say.

Rex smiled. "There are ways of sneaking information past a blockade kid. Especially when you're looking at two of the three clones that invented most of the Imperial Codes back during the War."

"Ohhh…" Sabine said.

"You know what he and Ahsoka said anyway really. Keep your head up. Don't stop fighting. Don't let one man keep you down. Oh, and meditate." Echo smiled.

The entire room laughed, and I hang my head.

_They always want me to meditate._

"I guess so…" I joke, before a knock on the door cuts me off.

"That must be the medic…" Mr. Wren says, as Sof darts to me.

I smile at her, and she gingerly smiles back, before looking at Sabine.

_She's worried._

It'll be okay.


	72. Turn The Page

(A/N: Happy Force Awakens Day everyone! No spoilers! Hope you enjoy the chapter!)

"zzzggfhhh…"

I smile to myself and glace back to my datapad.

_I haven't looked at this stuff really since Polis Massa._

The other 6 lightsaber forms: Shi-Cho, Soresu, Ataru, Shien/Djem So, Niman and Vaapaad/Juyo.

"zzzggfhhh…"

My eyes quickly glance over to the couch, where Sabine and Sophie are passed out under a blanket on the couch with the holo on in the background.

_Things are quiet right now. Mr. Wren's at MandalMotors, Mrs. Wren is in his office working on something I assume._

The holo is currently displaying a graphic about the suspected Imperial numbers here on Mandalore. Which is a big victory itself.

A couple of days ago, a strike team infiltrated the complex where the Empire was routing all blocked communications for Keldabe and a significant chunk of the entire planet and blew the place up. Communications started flooding in from around the galaxy.

Mandalorians on Onderon wanting to help. Imperial Moffs with scare tactics, describing scenarios that would turn Mandalore into a hellscape like some planet called Taris.

_That's been fun reading._

Also, Lux commed Mr. Wren last night.

Of course I was out patrolling the streets for Shark Bait. The Force has been really tight since the battle down in the Historical District.

I think that was sort of a tidal shift. There's been fighting between Stormtroopers and Mandalorians in broad daylight, heavy weapons, neighborhoods ablaze…

_I'm trying to get a handle on it, but I haven't been able to so far._

Sabine and I went to the market this morning to pick up some groceries, and there was an extremely heavy Stormtrooper presence, but nothing ever happened. Sabine's mom said that there's an unspoken agreement going on right now: _If you leave the market alone, we'll leave the spaceport alone._

"zzzggfhhh…hggghghghhhh…"

As I turn to look, Sophie wiggles around, pulling more of the blanket to her, exposing Sabine's feet and newly acquired leg boot.

The medic said she'd be okay in a day or two, but just in case put her on a high calcium diet, gave her a walking cast and told her to stay off her feet.

I'm just trying to find my footing in this constant fighting. Multiple groups have stepped forward to keep the populace of Keldabe and Mandalore informed about what is really happening, but it's not been the most accurate reporting.

Right now the general consensus is that there's the fight for the planet, between the Imperial and Mandalorians. Then there's a power struggle between two "unidentified" individuals wielding lightsabers fighting for control of the Imperial side. Out of the five "networks" that have risen up, four of them have settled on that.

The other one, which I suspect has _Mand'alor_ somewhere behind it, is advising people to stay back if you see either "individual", and that their motives are unknown at this time. Basically, that I'm not the enemy.

Rex and Echo left the day after that fight, and have been in and out ever since. I don't know what they're doing.

_Knowing them, they're working behind the scenes, then will casually mention this to me the next time I see Shark Bait._

I didn't get mad at the time, but now that I've had some time to think, what he and Echo said about there "always" being a conversation in the background really makes me mad.

They still don't trust us.

_Instead they're still talking while we are off doing other stuff, making sure we don't go off the reservation._

"Ezra."

I look up from my datapad, which I wasn't focused on at all to see Mrs. Wren on the stairs, looking at me. "C'mere."

_Okay._

Quietly, I slide out of my chair and follow her up to her husband's office on the third floor, shutting the door behind me.

"When'd they fall asleep?" She asked with a smile, extending a glass of water to me.

I take it, then shrug. "I don't know. I was reading."

"Reading what?"

"Lightsaber stuff. I…had an idea about something." I say sheepishly.

_If he's stronger, I can't use my same old tactics. I have to do something else._

My instincts to be more physical now help, but that's only if he gets too close. I need something while we're fighting. Anything.

Mrs. Wren nodded silently, then smiled. "Don't worry so much about it. We all know you're going to beat him."

"Thanks." I smile back, not knowing what else to do.

"No problem. And besides, I was wanting to pull you aside soon anyway."

I look over to her and smile. "Uh huh?"

_What does she want to talk to me about?_

"Don't worry." Mrs. Wren smiled at me. "It's not bad. I just wanted to talk to you about everything you're doing here."

"What do you mean?"

"Well, there's a saying in _Mando'a, Aliit ori'shya tal'din_. Life is family. Carid said he mentioned that to you when you first got here."

I nod silently, and wait for her to continue.

"It's core to Mandalorian life. Carid and I have been thinking a bit since it's nearing the end of the year, and we're both very thankful that you and Sabine found each other, and that Sabine wanted to come home, and bring you with her."

"Me too." I smile.

"Things wouldn't be as happy or relaxed as much as they are now, for sure. But we'd find a way to make it work." Mrs. Wren says simply, then goes red.

"What I'm trying to say, and doing a rather poor job of it, is that Carid and I want you to know that we're always here for you Ezra. You've done a lot for us and asked for nothing in return."

"You've done a lot for me too. You didn't ask too many questions when I first came, accepted me with an open mind. I really appreciate it." I say, trying to be gracious.

Mrs. Wren smiled, "Carid and I consider you family, but we think that the time is right, we believe, for you to…make your relationship permanent."

_Marriage._

I stop, then look down at my glass nervously.

"You obviously don't have to do it, you and Sabine know your relationship better than anyone, but we just thought the timing was right." Mrs. Wren smiled warmly, as a green button on the holo lit up.

"Permission." I croak out lamely, then clear my throat.

Mrs. Wren laughed. "Kind of. If you want to think of it like that."

Nervously, I sip my water before Sabine's mom taps the green button.

The holo flickered to life, revealing Hera, Kanan, Ahsoka, Lux and Zeb.

"Hey." I say, unable to hide a smile.

_It's good to see them._

"Hey Ezra." Ahsoka smiled, as Lux gave me his customary two fingered wave.

"How are you holding up?" Kanan asked me.

I shrug. "I'm hanging in there."

"How's Sabine?" Hera asked Mrs. Wren.

"She's doing well. Walking around a little more now. She should be ready to go in a day or two."

I smile nervously, then sip my water.

"So she's not in much pain?" Ahsoka asked Mrs. Wren.

Mrs. Wren shook her head. "She hasn't said anything. So I have to say no. I don't know of anything."

Hera glanced over at me. "Ezra?"

"I don't think she's hurting. She hasn't said anything to me either."

"Where's she now?" Zeb asked.

"Downstairs taking a nap." I smile, causing Kanan and Hera to smirk.

"Good. She's always running around." Lux said cheerfully.

Ahsoka looked back to Mrs. Wren. "How are things there?"

"Well, I'm sure you've heard. It's turned into a guerilla war."

Kanan spoke up, frowning "Street to street?"

Mrs. Wren nodded. "It doesn't stop. A few shots here, down the block they return the favor. All pointless."

"I imagine Carid and the others have some sort of plan." Lux said.

"Yes. Right now we're trying to lock down the air so we can bring in more supplies."

Hera nodded. "Is that where Rex and Echo are right now?"

"No. They're down in Sundari trying to fortify that city. If things get too bad here, that is the evacuation zone." Mrs. Wren said.

Ahsoka's eyebrows snapped down. "I thought your plan was to go to your house in the mountains."

_House in the mountains?_

I turn to her as Mrs. Wren nods. "That's our plan. But the Sundari plan is for the evacuees."

"When'd you get a place in the mountains?" Kanan asked.

"We've had it for years. It used to be Carid's father's place. He left it to us. We usually go up a few times a year, but haven't made it up there yet." Mrs. Wren says, as I sip my water again.

_Could that be the place I was at in that vision I had?_

The Wren's house in the mountains? It would make sense that Sof and Sabine would be there.

"Ezra." I hear somebody say, and I look up.

"Yeah? Sorry." I smile.

"Tell us about the Inquisitor you've faced." Ahsoka asked calmly.

I shrug, then put my water down. "He's better. Just like Vader told me. When I was captured Vader told me how to kill him, or he'd come back "stronger than before"."

Hera looked over to Kanan, who nodded.

"The first time you faced him, on Onderon, you said that you mostly used your speed to your advantage. How about this time?"

"He's faster. Stronger. Smarter. That's what messed me up in our first fight. He made me play his game. Last time I was able to trick him into destroying the holo he came for, but he won that fight too."

Ahsoka quickly shook her head. "No. That footage got smuggled to us. We watched it. It's a draw. Take out the part on the stairs, and you won decisively."

"Wait, how'd that get smuggled out?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"Rex and Echo snuck it into a dummy file when they commed us to say they got to Mandalore safely."

_Huh._

"The things they think of…" Mrs. Wren says, as the door behind Mrs. Wren and I opened to reveal Sophie.

"Well look who it is…" Ahsoka smiles, causing Mrs. Wren to turn and smile.

Sof looked up at the holo, still bleary eyed, then rubbed her eyes. "Is this real?"

I laugh along with everyone else before Hera speaks up. "Yup."

"Is Sabine still asleep?" I smile down at Sophie, causing her to come over.

"Yeah. She kicked me again."

Everyone burst into laughter again, causing Sophie to nervously look up at me and smile.

"Sorry _ad'ika_. I'm sure she didn't mean it." Mrs. Wren smiled at her.

"I didn't mean to interrupt." Sophie replied, looking up at the holo.

Kanan smiled, then shook his head. "It's okay. We were almost done."

"Ezra. The easiest way to counter the Inquisitor without doing anything too radical is to obscure your style." Ahsoka said, smiling at the end.

"Try incorporating different guards, the starting positions of each form." Kanan said.

Ahsoka added "Use your surroundings too. He's not going to fight fair, so throw that garbage compactor off to the left in his face."

Sophie giggled, causing her mom and Ahsoka to smile.

"What do you think about all this Sophie? Have you been scared?" Lux asked her.

Sophie opened her mouth, then stopped. Finally she shook her head, looking away from Lux.

"Hey. Sof. It's okay to be scared." Ahsoka crouched down, then smiled at her.

I reach down and rub her back as Sof pipes up "I…just don't want Ezra or Sabine get hurt."

"They won't. They're smart Sophie. Your sister probably didn't want to come home when she got hurt, did she?"

Sophie smiled, then shook her head

_Huh?_

I probe with the Force, only to be greeted with the same feeling.

"—but they did come home. They're smart." Lux smiled at Sof.

"You know Bo, when I was growing up, I felt a lot like Sophie. I have a solution, but it's going to sound crazy." Hera said to Mrs. Wren.

Mrs. Wren frowned, then asked "How crazy?"

"Take Sophie down near the front lines. Let her see Sabine and Ezra in action a little bit. It calmed my nerves, maybe it'll help her."

"So completely crazy." Kanan said.

"It helped me!" Hera replied defensively. "I don't know, what am I supposed to do? Have a possible solution and not say anything?"

"Maybe." Zeb mused, causing Hera to whip around and face him.

Silently, I probe again.

_It's like a call._

"You're feeling something." Kanan says, causing me to look at him.

"I'm trying to figure it out." I say, as Sophie grabs onto me.

"Please don't go."

I smile down at her, then bite my lip.

"How'd you know that?" Mrs. Wren asked.

"Ezra has a tell when he feels something in the Force." Kanan says.

"Kanan has one too. He starts playing with something small in his hands." Hera smiles.

"Ezra's tell is that he bites his lip and looks down and away. I don't think he does it consciously." Ahsoka tells Mrs. Wren.

I drag my eyes up to get eye contact with Kanan, and he smirks in response.

"If you feel something, go."

"Noooo!" Sophie says to Kanan, then grabs onto my shirt.

I smile down at Sof, then gently make her let go of my shirt.

"Sophie, it's not a bad thing. But this is sort of how the Force works. You get subtle hints, and it's our job to go follow them and find out what is going on." Kanan explains to her.

"I…I don't even know what the Force is!" Sophie says.

Ahsoka smiled. "The Force is what gives Ezra his powers. The Force is in everyone. Even you."

Sophie's eyes widened. "Really? Me?"

Kanan gently smiled as Hera glanced over at him.

"Yup." Ahsoka continued. "It's a little like an energy field. Think of it like that."

"Okay."

"Ezra. Go." Kanan said simply.

I nod, then turn to Mrs. Wren. "You don't have to keep dinner. I'll heat it up."

Mrs. Wren smiles as Sophie drifted towards the door. "Okay. Comm when you start back this way and I'll warm it up for you."

"Thanks." I smile, then turn and see Sophie opening the door.

I hop thru it, then let Sophie lead me down the stairs.

"Hey." I say, as she drifts off towards the door.

Sophie turns back, then walks over. "Huh?"

I crouch down and smile. "Protect her. Okay?" I say, pointing over to where Sabine is still sleeping.

"But…" Sophie starts, before I gently cover her mouth.

"You can do it." I reassure her.

Sophie just looks over at me, then hugs me.

"Okay. I'll try."

"Comm me if you need me. Okay?" I hug her back.

Sophie nodded, then walked over and jumped into my seat while turning the holo to some cartoons.

I smile, then slip out the door.

_Sun's setting._

Slipping into the alley, I reach out with the Force.

_Okay._

It's out deeper into the city. I don't think I've ever been out that way before.

I set off at a jog, and let my mind focus on whatever it wants.

_I don't need to worry about what I'm going to._

It doesn't feel bad, or good. It's neutral.

_Guards._

The opening stances. The datapad had stuff on that. I like Kanan's idea on that.

_Now that he's faced me, I bet that Vader's fed him information about how to beat my style._

It's going to be up to me in order to adapt.

_This is sort of in my style anyway._

Precision, redirection, blade control and hiding my true intentions.

If I telegraph what I'm doing every time, my style is pointless.

_I've been telegraphing my style with the salute and open stance to begin._

Kanan keeps his feet perpendicular, with his blade directly vertical close to his chest. Ahsoka…

_I can't really copy that. I'll have to see if there's another way to do it._

I feel like Ahsoka is her own entity. She may be the only one to fight the way she does.

Probing again, I continue down the side streets.

_It also can't hurt to use some general battle tactics._

Way back when, when I first started, I remember Kanan telling me to always fight for the high ground. Make my opponent fight up at me.

"_It's a much harder and more tiring fight that way. It will increase the likelihood for mistakes."_

Little stuff. Stuff I don't think about.

_Stuff I may need to start thinking about._

I probe again, then stop.

_I'm close._

Walking out into the street, I turn around and try to fin my bearings.

_Lacur._

Don't know where that is.

Behind me, I feel a rush of emotion, and spin on my heels in time to see the front door to the building directly behind me fly open, revealing…

_A familiar looking woman._

"Sorry." I apologize quietly.

The woman doesn't answer, instead opting to keep look at me. "You. Onderon."

_Huh?_

"Ex…cuse me?" I say nervously.

What's she talking about?

The woman suddenly jumps forward, smiling nervously.

_She looks familiar. But I don't know from where._

"You saved my son. The bomb on Onderon."

OH!

_I rushed into that restaurant and grabbed that little boy in the high chair._

Mom was crying. I didn't really see her face.

She grabs onto my arm, then smiles. "Please. Come in. We're about to have dinner."

"You don't have to do that ma'am." I say, before a man pokes his head outside, along with a tiny kid with a pacifier in his mouth.

_It is him._

I smile over at him, but he stared back.

"Honey?" The woman's husband asked.

"Dav. It's him. It's the boy who saved _Iyita_."


	73. To The Judges

"Zip!" goes Sophie's jacket, causing her Mom to stand as Sophie adjusted her little hat.

_There's a battle in a neighborhood around MandalMotors._

We're all going out there to show Sophie that it's not so scary.

"Now, if we get separated by debris or something. What do you do?" Mrs. Wren asks Sophie.

"I run away from anybody firing a blaster. I find somebody wearing armor and say that my Mommy is a warrior, my daddy works at MandalMotors, I know _Mand'alor_ and that I want to go home." Sophie says emphatically.

Mr. Wren smiles and I give Sof a thumbs up, causing her to smile.

"And you have your flare." Mrs. Wren said, as I hear Sabine's footsteps coming down the stairs.

Sophie nodded. "I use it if I can't find anybody right away."

_Apparently that's a common 'SOS' signal, and will get people's attention right away._

"Very good _Soph'ika_. What does Ezra do if he sees a droid with a staff?" Mr. Wren asks her.

Sophie briefly freezes, then looks at me. "Uhh…he tells us to go away, then goes and fights them?"

Mr. Wren glanced to his wife, who shrugged. "That's the gist of it."

"And you listen to whatever anybody says. No buts." Sabine says, walking in.

_She's armed to the teeth._

She finished fixing her suit a day or so ago, and performed a full diagnostic on all her equipment today.

_I think she just finished._

"You'll be fine. We won't let this get out of control." I try to reassure Sophie, as her sister turns to look at me.

Mrs. Wren gave everyone a brief look over. "Okay. I think we're ready."

I reach over and grab the door for everyone, then shut and lock it behind me.

When I turn back, everybody is still clustered up on the porch.

"Okay Sophie sweetheart, let's go." Mrs. Wren said, before stepping forward to lead the way.

Sabine slides back to me and laces her hand in with mine.

I briefly look over, only to see Sabine's blank, inexpressive helmet looking straight ahead.

_(Flashback)_

I close the door behind me as Sabine lifts her shift off, revealing her tank top underneath. She freezes at the sound of the door and peers at me. "Hey. What's with you and Mom? Did she talk to you or something?"

_Blast._

I knew she noticed.

"Did you talk to her about us getting married?" I ask her.

Sabine immediately shakes her head. "No no. I haven't said a word. I don't know how they'd react, and even so, I'd talk to you first. Why? Did she say something stupid?"

"No." I shake my head. "But she pulled me upstairs when you and Sof were napping and basically said that she and your father think I should ask to marry you."

Sabine took a step back, looking apprehensive. "Seriously?"

I nod in response. "Yeah."

She looked down in thought, then back to me. "Really?"

I nod again.

Sabine sighed, then rubbed her face. "Sorry. Was it embarrassing?"

"No. Just out of the blue and a little awkward."

Letting out a groan, she flung her shirt aside. "I'm sorry."

I smile. "It's okay. I just wanted to ask. It's okay if you talked to them, but I didn't know how to play it."

"So how'd you play it?" She fired back.

"Awkwardly." I reply.

She immediately giggled, then beamed. "I assumed that."

I shoot her a smirk, then slip off my socks. "Thaaaanks."

Sabine laughed again, then we both fell into our bedtime routines.

After a minute or so of silence, I turn back to her. "Do you seriously want to have a ceremony or anything?"

Sabine spun back to me, then nodded. "Yeah. But not now. It'd just be a target. The only reason Ahsoka got married and all those people got together is because it's Ahsoka. She almost founded the entire thing. She and Senator Organa took Amidala's vision and began acting on it."

"But eventually." I say hesitantly.

Sabine smiled softly, then walked over and wrapped her arms around me. "I love you. That's never going to change. But let's let this simmer. We can have a big party when we beat the Empire. Okay?"

"Okay."

_(End Flashback)_

"—okay. I'll tell him. Bye." Sabine says, then turning to me. "Rex and Echo are in position. Looks like a normal fight right now. But he wants you to talk to your guys just in case."

_Okay._

I nod, then tap Prime's button on my comm.

Mr. Wren briefly glanced back at me, Sophie on his shoulders as I wait for Prime to pick up.

"_Su cuy'gar._" He grumbled.

"Hey, it's me."

"Sir. We're about to head to MandalMotors. Looks like a skirmish over there. Unless you need us." He says.

I nod, then reply "We're headed there too. I…hate to do this, but I want you to basically come over and keep an eye on something."

"You sound like you're breaking up with me." He jokes, causing somebody in the background to laugh loudly.

I shake my head. "It's my girlfriend's family. We're taking her little sister out to see the fighting so she's not scared. I'd like you to be around if a droid with a staff or a walker pops up."

"I gotcha. No, absolutely. Why bring her all the way out here though?"

"Seems calm, for the most part."

"Ahh…" Prime said, sounding like he understands. "Okay. Let us know when you get there and we'll be there."

"Thanks." I say.

"No problem." Prime replies effortlessly. "Glad we finally get to meet the family."

Click.

_Blast._

I click off my earpiece, then turn to Sabine. "We're good."

Sabine nodded as her mother spoke up. "Good. It'll be nice to meet them."

"That's what he said basically." I laugh, getting Mr. Wren and Sophie to laugh as well.

_Sophie seems loose._

That's good.

Silently, I probe out, only to find no imminent danger.

_Also good. We're closing in on the tower._

I glance around, making sure the coast is clear before I try to recall what I did all day.

_Lightsaber forms._

My plan the next time I see Shark Bait or a droid, is that I start off with Djem So, form V. It's similar to my style, Makashi in that it's specifically for lightsaber combat, and also emphasizes precision and accuracy with a lightsaber blade.

But unlike Makashi, it's more power oriented and aggressive.

I decided to look at another form, the polar opposite or Djem So so that I can give an opponent a strange alternate look. Sorensu.

_Kanan's form._

It might come in handy against an opponent that doesn't know me nearly as well as Shark Bait does. But it might give me a brief opening to cut a fight short.

I looked at moves, the ideals of each forms, and the starting positions. I definitely could use some more time with it, but for now, this will have to do.

Sophie climbing off her father's shoulders brings me back to reality.

_We're close._

I let out a breath, then lock in and reach out with the Force.

Not bad. There's a battle up ahead, but judging by how the fights here on Mandalore have been, this definitely would be the easiest.

Sabine and I flank around her parents and Sophie to take the lead, edging into the alley then down towards the street.

_Okay._

I slide out, then wave for everyone to follow.

We're about a half block away from the fight. It's a skirmish really.

_Not much going on._

"Okay Sophie. You see that, don't you?" Sabine says, looking back to her sister.

Sophie nodded attentively, biting her lower lip anxiously.

I reach out and rub her shoulder to try and relax her as Sabine says "That's what we're here about. It's pretty calm, but that's okay."

"Each side is being strategic here _Soph'ika_. Every soldier's positioning is for a purpose." Mrs. Wren explained.

"Like a game of dejarik?" Sophie asked, as the two sides in front of us exchange fire.

My eyes are drawn up into the building parallel to the fighting.

_There are people up there. I feel them._

And they aren't running.

"Kind of _ad'ika_. But remember, this isn't a game. People can get hurt." Mr. Wren says gently.

"I know Daddy."

"Sof." I say quietly, crouching.

"Yeah?"

I wave for her to come over, then point to where I feel the concentration of people. "See there. There's people in there."

Sabine turned to look at me. "Wait really?"

I nod. "I think…they've got rockets. And that they're going to shoot down."

_Mand'alor basically hit the reset button after our run-in with the AT-AT's._

Two streaks fly out from where the people are hidden, then debris flies everywhere as the Force Signatures of the people start rushing away.

The spot where the rockets came from is immediately peppered with blaster bolts, and the Imperial line starts shifting over to start an assault on that building.

"That was awesome!" Sophie beamed, as I stand back up.

I shrug.

"He saw and felt it as it was developing. Good job Ezra." Mrs. Wren says, sounding serious.

"Thanks." I say, then am distracted by my comm going off.

"Hey, It's Prime. We've got a small fight in a building over here. We'll be right over. Will got a visual on you guys." Prime says, as I probe out.

_Oh no._

I turn to my left and look back, only to find darkness.

"Make it fast." I snap, probing again, hoping not to find an inferno.

_Nope._

KARABAST! That's worse!

_If he knows how to hide himself from being detected by me…_

Kenobi did it, I'm sure Vader can do it.

_Oh crap._

I shut off my comm and turn to Sabine.

"What?" Mrs. Wren asked.

I strongly shake my head. "Time for you guys to fall back. I…felt Shark Bait. But now I've lost him."

"Then that means he's not that close. We're okay." Sabine replies, as Sophie looks scared.

"No." I shake my head. "I felt him, then when I tried again right after, he's not there. He's hiding from me. I only know one person who can do that, and he's on our side."

Sabine simply looked at me, as Mrs. Wren tilted her head. "Nobody like the Zabrak's as far as you know?"

"I have my suspicions, but I can't really go off those right now."

Mr. Wren nodded grimly. "C'mon. We're leaving."

"Good luck." Mrs. Wren said to me.

Sabine didn't move, torn between me and her sister.

_No, let's make this easy._

"Hey. I'll be here when they get home. Come for me then and yell at me. Okay?" I say, grabbing her arm gently.

I feel Sabine's eyes lock onto me before she reluctantly starts towards her family. "Be safe."

Smiling, I jokingly salute her. "Always."

I turn to the building beside me, swing my arms then jump and grab onto a metal staircase and pull myself onto it.

_This will take me to the top of the building._

No matter where he is, I'll have a better chance of getting to him before he hurts somebody up here.

I probe again, then jump to the rooftop in front of me.

_Nothing._

Letting out a breath, I walk to the edge of the building, then probe again.

…

_Don't get frustrated._

Maybe I misread the situation. Then I scared Sophie and screwed this entire thing up.

_I just had to go and run my mouth._

"BANG!"

I spin around and reach out, quickly finding about seven or eight terrified people with a battalion of Stormtroopers advancing on them.

An arrest maybe?

_Is it worth it for me to go down there?_

I walk over to where a door is open, with raised voices floating out into the street.

Can't tell what they're saying though.

Probing again, I jump down and land softly, then turn to the apartment, only for the door to snap shut.

_Hey now._

That's rude.

I turn around, then—

"EZRA! EZRA! COME IN! _HAAR'CHAK_!" Sabne yells, sounding frantic.

I jump out of my skin, then hit my comm. "What? What? Are you hurt?" I ask quickly.

"No! We…I went to engage some Stormtroopers to get the away from Mom, Dad and Sof. They can't find Sophie!" Sabine said, sounding more scared than I've ever heard before.

_WHAT!?_

"WHAT!? Sabine…where are they?" I hiss, quickly looking around me.

Where is she?!

_How'd she even get lost?_

"I don't know! I just blew up five _haran shirk_-ing Stormtroopers!" She bit at me. (A/N: _haran-shirk_ is = hell bound)

Instinctively, I close my eyes and reach out for Sophie's Force signature.

_A ball of warmth. Not hot, just warm._

Got it.

"I found her. Going right now!" I tell Sabine.

"GET HER! KARABAST!" I hear Sabine yell maniacally as I take off at a sprint down the alley.

_I think she's four blocks away, but way deep into these alleys._

Running as fast as I can, I close on Sophie's Force Signature—

"WHIZZ!"

A streak of red light flies straight into the air three alleys ahead of me, just before two Stormtroopers move to run down that alley.

I grab them with the Force on the run, throw them into a building and take off.

"Where are your parents! Are they fighting?" I hear a voice say, as two other Stormtroopers stand menacingly over a small figure.

I barely hear a reply before the man raises his voice.

"I SAID ARE THEY FIGHTING?! I WILL HAVE THEM HURT YOU IF YOU DON'T TELL ME!"

Red descends on my vision as I jump forward, land, shove the other two Stormtroopers right into the permacrete brick walls on either side, then hook my elbow around the third's neck and point my blaster at his head.

"Do NOT YELL AT HER! YOU UNDERSTAND ME?!" I yell at him, livid.

_YOU YELLED AT SOPHIE!_

"I—"

"Shut up!" I say, before grabbing the man's chest and head, then pulling them in opposite directions like Rex taught me.

The Stormtrooper falls heavily, causing Sophie to look up at me, completely terrified.

_She lost her hat._ _It's right behind her._

"My name's Sophie Wren…" She mumbled, looking right at me.

"Sof…baby…" I crouch down, grabbing her hat. "It's me. You're safe."

Sophie lets out a strangled cry before falling into my arms and starting to cry.

"It's okay…" I say, holding her close. "It's okay. It's okay."

_We've got to get going._

Everybody around here saw that flare go up.

Instinctively, I pick her up and begin walking. "It's okay. We're moving so nobody else comes…" I tell her.

Sophie continues to cry, but tries silencing herself with my jacket by burying her face into it.

I hurry deeper into the alley, then set her down and just hold her. "Sophie, it's okay. I'm here. Nobody on this planet is going to hurt you."

Sophie sniffled, then finally looked up at me. "Thank you."

"No problem. What…where'd you lose your parents?" I ask.

Tears immediately fly into Sophie's eyes. "You're gonna be mad…" She whines, face scrunching up.

"No no no Sof. I don't care. I just want to know what happened before I comm your sister to come get you." I say, trying to reassure her.

Sophie blinked, then wiped her nose. "I…I went to go throw away a tissue. When I turned back, everybody was gone. Then I saw an explosion and ran away…" She sobbed, tears flying down her face.

I quickly pull her into another hug. "That's fine Sophie. It was an accident. Accidents happen."

"I didn't do it on purpose!" Sophie cries, holding onto me tightly.

"I know _Soph'ika_. I know." I say, trying to keep her calm.

"Is that guy back there going to come after us?" Sophie asks, looking scared.

I shake my head strongly. "No Sof. He's not. He won't yell at you anymore."

"You knocked him out right?" She asks, eyes shining.

I nod, then lie. "Yeah."

"You…wouldn't lie to me? Would you?"

_Karabast!_

"No." I shake my head strongly. "Sof, I'm always honest with you baby. Always. Promise. He's going to get up, but we're going to be long gone."

Sophie nods attentively, but grabs onto my wrist.

I let out a breath before saying "Sof. We're going home now okay. If we bump into anyone, stay behind me. Don't run, it'll be okay. Just stay behind me."

"Okay!" Sophie says raptly.

"Hey!" A voice says, causing me to turn and Sophie to peek out behind me.

Two Mandalorians take one strong step towards us, then stop abruptly.

_Behi—_

"Hiss…"

"Thump. Thump."

I pivot, keeping Sophie in front of me while standing and grabbing my lightsaber.

_No need to probe now._

Shark Bait walks out from behind the two Mandalorians he just butchered, then looks at Sophie and I. "The young one is scared."

I breathe thru my nose, then activate my lightsaber pointedly.

_Not one more step._

"GO AWAY!" Sophie yells at the top of her lungs.

Shark Bait smiles menacingly. "No."

Well, guess I can't comm Sabine.

_How am I going to do this?_

I let out a breath, then stop thinking.

_Focus._

"You want a fight? I'm right here." I say strongly, slipping into the Djem So guard.

On me. Not her.

_Focus on me._

Shark Bait let out one laugh. "Oh. So now you decide to change your style completely. Foolish of you. Jedi."

Before I can reply, Shark Bait lets out a roar and rushes at me.

I let out a breath and change to Sorensu.

_Kanan would be very happy right now._

Block.

Quickly, I hit him with a push, causing him to stagger back.

_I've got to be careful about Sof._

Can't retreat at full speed because I'd trample her. I'm going to have to be careful.

I briefly look back at Sof and see that she's giving me a lot of space.

"Just like that Sof!" I say, before Shark Bait strikes down at me.

I block it again, only for Shark Bait to throw his weight behind his blade, forcing me to grab my lightsaber with my other hand.

Gritting my teeth, I give Shark Bait a push, then back away quickly while checking for Sophie.

_She's following my lead._

I glance back and see Shark Bait advancing on me again.

Quickly, I stab at him, forcing him to stop and block me, then back out the alley.

"Ezra!" Sophie says, and I turn to see that I'm about to back into a wall.

_But there's another alley just to the left, where Sof is._

I spin into the alley, around some garbage containers then smile at Sof. "Thanks."

She beams at me just as Shark Bait starts towards me again.

I wave my hand, and all three garbage containers fly heavily right into Shark Bait.

Sophie cheered as Shark Bait let out a growl, then threw the Durasteel containers aside and chopped down at me.

I take a firm step back and block him horizontally, then do a half spin and slice at him.

Block.

Shark Bait shoves me away, then chops down at me again.

Block. Riposte. Miss.

I slide farther into the alley, briefly locating Sophie before looking back to Shark Bait and smiling.

_I'm winning._

Eventually I'm going to bump into someone, and I'll be able to fully engage Shark Bait. For now, this is more than fine.

_He's not even close._

On a whim, I take a strong step forward and swing at Shark Bait, forcing him to be on the defensive and take a step back while blocking me.

In response, he tries shoving me away.

I barely budge, moving just a little to the left.

Chop.

Block.

I take another strong step forward and slice at Shark Bait, then before he can block turn and back down the—

WHOA!

My feet slide out from under me, sending me crashing to the ground and my lightsaber clatters out of my hand.

_Uh oh._

Shark Bait's eyes light up and he crouches down and rushes me.

_His lightsaber!_

He's exposed it!

As soon as he gets close enough, I kick at his hand, sending his lightsaber flying as well.

Shark Bait let out a noise, and tries to change course and chase down Sof.

Instinctively, I wrap my legs around his back leg and force him to the ground, then climb on top of him and sucker punch him.

"AHHH!" I yell in pain, as my hand crunches against his skull.

_What is his head made of? Durasteel?!_

Shark Bait quickly jabs me in the ribs, trying to force the air from my lungs.

I quickly scramble off him and try to move towards Sophie, only to slip and nearly fall again.

Looking back, I see nothing but Shark Bait.

_Flying at me._

Shark Bait takes me into the air with him, then smashes me into something metal before landing on top of me.

I flash out a kick to his ribs, which bounces off him.

_Great._

Shark Bait ignores my kick, instead punching me right in the face.

Sophie screams behind me, as I quickly block his next punch with my forearm, then catch him in the neck with an elbow.

I hear Shark Bait barely gasp before a pink blur climbs on top of Shark Bait and starts pulling on his…

"AAAHHHH!" He yells in pain.

_Is that his hat or his—_

SOPHIE!

I open my mouth to say "NO!", but am stopped by Sophie, gritting her teeth and pulling as hard as she can on Shark Bait's head as he is trying to reach back and grab her.

_But he can't reach!_

I quickly opt to grab his arm, as a thought jumps into my head.

_Is that his weakness? Did Sophie find it?_

In a flash, Shark Bait brings his head forward, then quickly back, hitting Sophie square in the face with a dull sound and causing her to fly off him.

"SOPHIE!" I yell, then grab Shark Bait with the Force and throw him as hard as I can off me, then scramble to where Sophie landed.

_She must have hit the wall._

"Sof, are you okay? Talk to me." I say in a rush, as Sophie slowly starts to get up somehow.

Sophie winced, then looked up at me. "I'm okay. Are you alright?"

I smile. "You're tough."

"I don't cry."

Our conversation is cut short by Shark Bait charging me blindly.

Quickly, I push him just as he reaches me, sending him flying by, until he runs straight into a air conditioner unit and falls over.

I turn back and inspect Sof.

_She looks fine._

How does she look fine? She got headbutted by Shark Bait!

Shark Bait lets out a loud groan, causing me to look back to him.

"We can beat him Ezra." Sophie says confidently, as Shark Bait gets to his feet.

"No Sof, you need to back u—"

A streak of fire comes flying in, and I jump to protect Sophie as debris flies everywhere.

"WHOOSH!"

"WHAM!"

_WHAT WAS THAT?!_

Dust hung in the air, then a familiar voice spoke up. "Get the hell away from my sister."

_Sabine!_

Sophie and I both rush forward towards her, and I see that she sent Shark Bait thru the permacrete brick wall and into some person's kitchen.

I hear Sophie yell and Sabine pulls her into a hug, then looks to me.

"I got a full alleyway's head of steam. What in the seven suns happened?" She asked me, as Shark Bait isn't moving and is lying face down between the two parts of what used to be a kitchen table.

_Did she kill him?_

A full alleyway's head of steam, plus her jetpack, and that's like a speeder crash at full speed.

"Are you okay? You hit him hard." I say to Sabine.

Sabine ignores me and looks to her sister.

"It was an accident. One wrong thing, then another, then Stormtroopers." I say, looking around for my lightsaber.

"Okay. C'mon. Let's move away from him." Sabine said to Sophie.

"Ezra needs his lightsaber!" Sophie pipes up.

Sabine whips back to face me. "You lost it?"

"I slipped, then kicked his out of the way."

"And they kept fighting!" Sophie piped up.

Sabine shakes her head, just before a figure emerges from the rubble of the kitchen.

"Oh, you have GOT to be kidding me…" Sabine mutters, as Shark Bait eyes her angrily.

_This guy just doesn't die. You can hit him at full speed with a jetpack, and he just gets back up!_

Silently, Shark Bait motions with his hand, calling his lightsaber to his hand.

"Ezra!" Sabine called out before firing off two shots at Shark Bait.

I grab Sophie's hand and pull her away from Shark Bait.

Shark Bait deflects both shots, then runs towards Sabine.

Sabine doesn't flinch, instead responding by firing a missile right into the ground, sending debris everywhere and hitting her jetpack, flying back to Sophie and I.

"ANY TIME NOW!" Sabine yells, as she lets off two shots from her wrist.

I quickly look away from the action and into the brick and debris around us.

_Where is it?_

"Ezra!" I hear Sophie say, causing me to whip around just as she tosses it to me.

I snatch it out of the air, spin on my heels and slash violently at Shark Bait.

He quickly blocks it, but takes a step back.

Good.

Slice. Block.

I sidestep a chop from Shark Bait, then jab at his arm and cut a hole in his outfit's sleeve.

_Blast!_

Shark Bair roars, then elbows me in the face.

I stumble back just in time to watch Shark Bait attempt to bite me. Quickly, I swing an elbow into his face and force him off me.

"Didn't Vader tell you not to play with your food?" I taunt him, just before two red bolts fly past my ear towards Shark Bait, forcing him to retreat and block them.

Shark Bait lets out a frustrated growl, then pushes me.

I try to stop myself, then feel my feet hit something soft.

_Oh blast!_

I fall straight into the mud, and look up in time to see Shark Bait's eyes gleam.

Sabine jumps over me, barely raises her arms before strongly lowering them, causing sharp blades to pop out.

"SHING!"

_The blades!_

Oh boy!

"YAHH!" I hear Sabine yell, just before throwing her elbow out at Shark Bait.

Shark Bait blocks her with his forearm, then winces.

_Ooh!_

Sophie gasps in delight as Sabine ruthlessly slams her other arm right into Shark Bait's face.

The air is filled with an anguished yell by Shark Bait, and I quickly get to my feet.

NOW!

I barely can take a step forward before Shark Bait scoops Sabine up, hits her in the chest, then throws her down onto her jetpack, which sparks before popping off Sabine's back and—

_Uh oh…_

That's gonna blow!

"SOPHIEEE!" I yell frantically, turn back and running towards her.

Sophie reaches for me, and I scoop her up and jump just as the alley is engulfed by Sabine's jetpack exploding.

I quickly fall, barrel roll, then look to Sophie.

"You okay?"

Sophie doesn't reply, popping her head up to look for her sister.

"Sophie!" I hear two voices say, causing me to turn.

_Her parents!_

And Prime and the others!

_Mand'alor!_

Mr. and Mrs. Wren dive onto Sophie, hugging her and pulling me into the hug as well.

I extract myself from their arms, leaving Sophie as Prime turns to where the explosion just was and realizes what's going on.

Without hesitation, he and the others all let out a yell and charge Shark Bait, who looks up just in time to get flattened by Prime.

Sabine quickly scrambles away as Prime, Will, Orir, Kal and _Mand'alor_ all start wrestling Shark Bait to the ground.

I hop into a crouch, as the six of them all fight madly for control.

They all scramble on the ground long enough for Sabine to reach us, and for the Wren's to help her to her feet.

"He…they—" Sabine gasps just as Shark Bait is completely covered.

_Got him._

"RAHHHH!" Shark Bait screams at the top of his lungs, jumping to his feet and sending everyone flying off in different directions. "NONE OF YOU CAN STOP ME!"

_Something's up with him._

He wants me too badly right now.

Mrs. Wren raises her wrist to fire on Shark Bait, while _Mand'alor_ , Kal and Orir are still down.

Will and Prime are staggering to their feet.

_Wait. Maybe Vader contacted him and said he had to get me tonight._

That's why he's so determined to fight this whole block in order to get to me.

_If he doesn't he's going to die._

I defiantly step forward, activate my lightsaber and let my Makashi training take over.

"Did Vader promise to kill you if you didn't get me tonight?" I call out.

_Talk._

Come on. I need to get you away from everyone.

Shark Bait suddenly freezes, looking at me in shock. "How do you KNOW THAT?!"

I hear Sabine gasp and I smile. "I didn't. But now I do."

Shark Bait's expression immediately becomes furious.

"Lucky guess." I shrug.

_I need fire._

This has to end now. I've done too damn much just to let him get away again.

I jump out at him, elbow him in the face before he can activate his lightsaber then back down the alley, away from everyone.

Shark Bait immediately turns and pursues me, chopping at me.

Block.

I slice at him, while retreating at full speed.

_C'mon c'mon c'mon!_

Block. Chop.

I jump back, and his chop whiffs, hitting the ground harmlessly.

Shark Bait immediately engages me again with a vertical blow that I block with one hand while flinging another garbage container at him.

The container connects with him perfectly, slamming him into the edge of the building.

_We're out in the open._

I quickly look around, and my eyes zoom to a burning building.

THERE!

_Fire!_ _Across this little park!_

I immediately take off into the park, vaulting benches and dodging people as I make a break for the building.

When I glance back, I see Shark Bait trying to chase me down, with Sabine in a distant third.

_Nobody is behind her._

Finally, I get across the street to the burning building and slide to a stop.

Stupid mud.

Shark Bait stops heavily and gasping for air. Sabine responds by firing a missile at him.

With a flick of his hand, the missile goes flying into the building.

"BOOM!"

"You want me so bad?" I ask Shark Bait with a smile, while reactivating my lightsaber. "Come get me!"

Shark Bait lunges at me as I turn and sprint into the building.

"EZRA! ARE YOU INSANE!" I hear Sabine yell just before Shark Bait activates his own lightsaber and furiously slashes at me.

I block the move, step back and shove him off me.

_Wow it's hot._

I gasp out a breath before cutting at Shark Bait, who easily blocks it and steps strongly before me and responds by vertically chopping at me.

Flicking my blade up to block him, I grab my hilt with my other hand and leverage my weight against him, turning his chop into a saber lock.

_Let's drag this bad boy out in here, why not?_

I see his eyes dart around him, before I break the saber lock and turn down a hallway.

This has GOT to be having some sort of effect on him.

Shark Bait doggedly starts after me, but arrives a step later than I was expecting, causing my spur of the moment slash to find burning wood. He responds by elbowing me in the face, causing me to stumble backwards.

_WOW!_

It is so HOT!

I bring my lightsaber in close and let Shark Bait come to me, then easily block his slice at my neck and riposte into a downward blow of my own at his shoulder.

Whiff.

Quickly, I scramble away as Shark Bait swings wildly with his arm, trying to get me away as my mind goes crazy.

_He's slowing down!_

I seize the moment and purposely get into a saber lock him again. Shark Bait tries to push me back. But he can't.

Quickly, I punch him in the throat with my offhand and retreat.

_What?_

The ground's not on fire!

In shock, I keep backing up and realize that I'm out of the building.

KARABAST!

The moment Shark Bait appears in the exit, a streak flies towards him, then explodes.

_Sabine!_

Shark Bait shields himself briefly, then ignores Sabine's distraction fire and rushes at me and slices at my neck. I duck under the blow and back up farther onto this…wide alley. Shark Bait stabs at me, and I sidestep it, turning it into a jab towards his ribs.

Whiff.

In response, Shark Bait attempts to cleave me in half. I quickly block it, but he turns it into a blade lock.

_Oh blast._

He's got his strength back!

I quickly scramble away, then set up in Sorensu and let out a breath.

_Okay._

Okay.

Sabine doesn't let the moment pass before firing on Shark Bait with another missile. He sends it into the ground, and permacrete flies everywhere.

I jump forward and slice at him as he moves towards me.

_Oh!_

Quickly, I change course, grab my lightsaber backwards and jab at where his neck should be.

"TICK!"

My lightsaber nicks his hat thing before Shark Bait yells and slices at me, forcing me to retreat.

_BLAST!_

I HAD HIM!

Shark Bait continues forward, chopping at my head violently before I block it and push him away.

Before I can take another full step, Shark Bait is on me again, and chops at me again. Barely blocking it, I scramble away.

_I need the high ground!_

He's not going to stop until I'm dead, and Sabine can't really help. I've got to get some kind of advantage, or run him back thru that fire!

_That isn't going to happen._

He'll stop that if I try.

I rapidly turn and jump onto a balcony about eight feet off the ground, the look back.

Shark Bait comes to a halt, and Sabine lines up a shot behind him.

"You cannot hide from me! This is the end! Don't try to run." Shark Bait scowls.

"I'm not running!"

Shark Bait crouches down—

_Surely he isn't stupid enough…_

This balcony can barely hold us both! It's tiny!

—and jumps over me—

I spin, and slice at where he's about to—

"Thwick" "Thwick" "Thwick"

I hear something metal clatter around me, then see Shark Bait fly past me.

I cover my head blindly, then I hear him and look up.

"AAAAAAHHHHHHHHHH!"

The air rushes from my lungs as I see Shark Bait's arm, hand and lightsaber here on the balcony with me.

_But he's not here._

"AAAHHHH!"

Nervously, I peek over the edge of the balcony and—

OH.

Sabine pops into view as I look down at what remains of Shark Bait.

His body. And his left arm.

_That's it._

I glance around and spot his legs off to the side.

Oh man.

_I…_

I guess I better go down there.

I grab his lightsaber, then hop down to where Sabine is looking down at him.

"AAAARRRGGGHHHHH!" Shark Bait said, clearly in a lot of pain.

Sabine took her helmet off and glanced at me with a horrified expression.

_I…_

I didn't mean to butcher him. That's what this is.

_Three really bad cuts. Not even straight._

"Keep her back!" Sabine yells behind me.

I turn as Sophie's voice immediately protests, but a figure starts pushing her back as her mom, _Mand'alor _and Prime all walk up.

"Whoa." Mrs. Wren said quietly.

I nervously swallow and wince. "Yeah."

_I must have bit my tongue at some point._

"I didn't think that this was your style." _Mand'alor_ says to me darkly.

"I like it. Nice work." Prime says, taking his helmet off and scowling, then brutally kicking Shark Bait full in the face.

"AAAARRRGGHHHHH…" He groans.

Prime scowls, then spits "That's for my friend you murdered. Fish looking bastard."

Shark Bait groaned and looked to me. Then his eyes…violently changed, to a hideous, pus like yellow.

_Whoa._

Sabine cringes and takes a step back from him

"I HATE YOU!" He screams at me.

I shake my head, stomach churning and turn to _Mand'alor_. "I need fire."

"Vader won't stand for this!" Shark Bait ground out. "When I don't check in…"

Prime ruthlessly kicked him in the face again, causing his nose to burst open and black blood to spill out.

As _Mand'alor_ comms somebody and asks for a flamethrower, I let out a breath as my stomach turns.

_This is ugly._

Last time was a lot easier.

"This wasn't as bad last time." Sabine said to her mother. "Ezra pushed him into a ravine."

Mrs. Wren kept her expressionless helmet on. "We're not doing that this time."

Shark Bait violently coughed up blood, then looked up at me. "THIS ISN'T OVER! I'M GOING TO COME BACK! I'M GOING TO KILL THEM ALL WHILE YOU WATCH!"

"No, you're not." Rex says calmly, walking up and carrying something metal with a nozzle at the end.

"Hey." Sabine smiles.

Rex smiles back, then looks down at Shark Bait. "Hi. This him?"

"Yup." I say quietly, as Shark Bait scowls at Rex.

"You're right Ezra. He does look like a fish." Rex smiles at Shark Bait.

"SHUT IT OLD MAN! OR YOU'LL DIE FIRST!"

"Oh I'm not afraid to die. Got over that a long time ago." Rex says, as Echo walks up beside him.

"Good work Ezra. Brutal, but efficient." He says, sounding calculating.

Shark Bait lets out another growl, then I look to Mrs. Wren and Sabine. "I don't know what'll happen."

"Well we'll just have to find out together." Prime says quietly.

_Okay._

I let out a breath, point the nozzle at Shark Bait and hit the button on the side.

Fire flies out of the flamethrower, licking the sides of it, and immediately Shark Bait starts screaming terribly.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

"GAAAAHAAHAHAHHAHHHHHH!"

"AAAAAAHHHHH!""

We all take a step back as Shark Bait is quickly consumed by the flames. In response, Shark bait curls up in pain while crying out.

"AAAAAHHHHH!"

_Oh man._

This…This is awful.

"AaaaaaHHHhhhh!"

Finally, Shark Bait stops moving but the flames keep going, completely toasting him. Breathlessly, I look to Sabine.

She's raised her hands to her mouth, and is biting her nails.

"The crew and I will watch him until he burns out." Prime speaks up.

"Comm me when he's out. We're not going to just bury him." _Mand'alor_ says strongly.

"Yessir." Prime replies.

Rex simply looks at me, and cringes slightly. "You need to go home. You're a mess."

I look down at myself and see that both my shirt and pants are torn open, I've got mud all over me and I've got black…stuff coating my clothes.

Then I blink, and it feels like I'm very sunburnt.

_Ow. Ow. Ow._

I groan quietly, then let Sabine start leading me down the alley.

Home.


	74. Medal Mettle

(A/N: Merry Christmas to you all. Thank you so very, very much for reading this story from April until now. I hope you enjoy my Christmas gift. –James)

"Knock Knock."

Mrs. Wren immediately turns to me. "Ezra honey, that's probably them."

I smile, set my knife down and start towards the front door, then open it, revealing Prime, Will, Kal and Orir all wearing collared shirts.

"Hey, come on in." I smile, then hold the door open for them.

Prime smiles, then stepped aside. "Thanks. Nice place you've got here."

"Not mine." I laugh, then turn to see Sabine's father turn off the stairs and start toward Prime.

"There you all are. Good, good. Any trouble getting here?" He asked the four of them.

They all immediately shook their heads, before Kal spoke up. "No sir, none at all."

Mr. Wren smiled. "Good. Well I'm Carid Wren. And you are?" He asked, turning to Prime.

"Prime sir, it's a pleasure."

Mr. Wren smiled and nodded while shaking his hand. "Pleasure's all mine."

He then turned to Will.

"Name's Will Mr. Wren. Thank you for inviting us."

"Happy to do it son."

Next, Kal stepped forward. "Kal sir."

"Kal, Carid Wren."

Finally, Orir stepped forward and spoke softly. "Thank you for having us sir."

"Glad to do it, it's the least we can do after the ordeal a few nights ago..." Sabine's father replied, before glancing behind me. "Bo? You busy?"

"This is the most important part unless you want me to overcook it!" His wife replied, sounding aggravated.

Mr. Wren turned to me and rolled his and while shaking his head before raising his voice. "No, that's alright! Sabine!"

"Right here." Sabine says quietly, smiling right behind me.

I jump out of my skin and turn.

_When'd she get there?_

"And right here…is my pride and my joy. My daughters, Sabine and Sophine."

Sabine smiles and waves to all of them. "She prefers to be called Sophie."

Mr. Wren nods. "She does. I like to think she'll come around to it eventually."

Everyone laughs, then I look down to see Sophie hiding behind my leg shyly.

"Say hi." I say with a smile.

"Hi." Sophie says, briefly peering out before dashing back to the kitchen.

Sabine looks to me and laughs. "I gotta go. Potatoes aren't done yet."

"Alright _ad'ika_. If you'll slip your shoes off, then follow me I'll go ahead and show you the rest of the house…" Mr. Wren says, before everybody hastily complies and follows him upstairs.

I walk back to the kitchen, where my cucumber that I had grabbed just before Prime and the others knocked on the door is lying on the cutting board and grab my knife.

"You're shy?" I tease Sophie, who is de-stringing the celery for the salad.

_I didn't know that._

Sophie silently turns and gives me a dirty look, then makes a "Humph" noise.

I roll my eyes, then peel the top half of my cucumber.

Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick. Flick.

Flipping the cucumber to the other side, I brush off the blade of my knife with my middle finger, getting Sophie to cringe beside me, de-stringing a bunch of celery.

"I'm okay." I smile at her.

Sophie frowns. "Don't use your finger. Use the water."

"I'm fine." I remind her.

Sophie doesn't reply, instead shaking her head.

"You didn't introduce yourself Sophie?" Her mother asks, tending to the gigantic pot of stew.

_Same stew they cooked the day I met them._

The day Sabine came home.

"They're big…" Sophie replies.

Sabine glances at her sister while reaching for something in the cabinet. "Sof, remember that they dove on Shark Bait to protect you. You're fine. Relax silly."

"It's different though." Sophie replies, as footsteps signal that the upstairs tour is done.

"And this is the living room. Couches, holo, probably on some cartoon Sophie likes…" Sabine's father jokes, getting Prime, Kal, Will and Orir to laugh.

Sophie goes red in embarrassment, and I quietly laugh to myself.

"Oh, for the laughs…" Mr. Wren says, grabbing the remote as Sabine quickly darts to me to get a glimpse.

The holo hums to life, and brightly colored cartoons pop up, causing everybody but Sophie to laugh.

Mr. Wren turns and smiles at Sof, who is bright red. "I'm teasing darling."

Sophie briefly looks down, before looking back to her dad. "I know."

Prime and the others smile, before Will walks over, smiling. "Hi Sophie. I'm Will."

"Hi." Sophie says simply, looking up at him.

"Whatcha doing?" Will smiles, as Mr. Wren leads the rest of them towards the kitchen.

"This, obviously is the kitchen. My wonderful wife is over there and…that's pretty much it. Feel free to have a seat if you'd like." He says, before moving to help his wife.

"I'm destringing the celery." Sophie replies, as Prime walks over, wearing a smirk on his face.

Mr. Wren takes over the stew, as his wife walks over to Sophie. "Focus, little one."

Sophie immediately starts de-stringing more celery as Mrs. Wren starts introducing herself to Prime and everyone.

I turn and finish the cucumber with a flourish, then start lining up everything so I can cut it all.

"Ezra, can you grab the big white bowl for these potatoes? This bowl is going to be too small." Sabine says to me.

Silently, I turn and open the cabinet.

"Actually, it's right above Sof."

Sophie ducks her head as I open the cabinet and float the bowl into my hands, then hand it to Sabine.

"Thanks." She smiles at me, before turning back to her task.

"So there's more than just battle stuff you do with your abilities." Orir says quietly.

"Yup!" Sabine smiles. "It's really handy in a pinch. Or if he's being clumsy."

Kal, Will and Orir all laugh.

"What? You don't think he's clumsy?" Sabine asked, pointing towards me with a spoon covered in potatoes.

"No, he's a Jedi. The balance, agility strength all that has to be top notch for him to do what he does!" Prime replies.

Mrs. Wren immediately refuted him. "You haven't spent enough time with him then. He's got some clumsy in him."

Sophie laughed, then pushed her now de-stringed celery towards me. "Done."

"Thank you." I smile.

Mrs. Wren turned to look at Sof, then turned to Prime and the others, who have settled in at the table. "Do any of you not like tomato?"

"No, tomato is fine. For the salad?" Will asked, as everybody else shook their head.

Mrs. Wren silently nodded, then pointed for Sophie. "Grab that tomato and core it."

"Okay!" Sophie beamed.

Sabine's eyebrows snap down in front of me as I chop the celery, yellow pepper and cucumber.

"Would you all like a drink beforehand?" Mr. Wren asked while floating over to Sophie, who is walking towards the drawer with the knives.

Will, Orir and Kal all looked to each other, then Kal spoke up. "No, we're good right now."

I glance back to Sophie as she and her father walk back to her spot and she hops back onto her ledge.

"Slow and steady." Her father says as Sophie eases the knife into the tomato around the stem, then slowly starts turning the tomato.

The sound of the stew quietly bubbling suddenly becomes the only sound in the room as Sophie keeps turning the tomato.

"Breathe." Her dad reminds her.

Sophie exhales, then powers thru coring the tomato and beams at her dad.

"Good job. Ezra can take it from here." He smiles, then nods in my direction.

"No he can't, he'll butcher it. I got it." Sabine darts in, snatching the tomato from Sophie.

_Yeah…_

"Sabine." Mrs. Wren snaps at Sabine.

"No, I've tried on the _Ghost_ a few times. I mangle tomatoes." I tell her, then her husband shrugs.

"Sophie, how old are you?" Prime asks her.

Sof turns and replies "Five."

"Really?" Orir says.

"Would have guessed eight." Kal adds.

Sophie softly smiles. "Thank you."

"I've always told her and her sister when she was younger, big kids get to do big things. Like shoot blasters and use knives and have responsibilities." Mr. Wren rubs the top of Sophie's head as Sabine cuts the tomato. "I'm lucky to have kids that like doing big things."

"If they have an interest." Mrs. Wren adds. "No use in doing things you don't want to do when you're young."

Prime nods. "Makes sense. Plus they get experience doing stuff and you don't end up like me barely knowing how to boil water."

Sophie giggles, and her father smiles. "That's an added bonus. Both the girls have wanted to help cook and are good at it."

"I'm serious." Prime smiles at Sof. "I didn't know anything. I still burn and destroy stuff."

"I know the pain there son. That's why I married a cook." Mr. Wren smiled before turning and glancing at his wife.

Mrs. Wren slightly frowned. "Only because cooking was "women's work"."

"It's not. My dad's a better cook than my mum is." Orir says.

Mr. Wren nods while grating carrots while Sophie watches. "It's about ability. We've tried to be as hands off with the kids and let them find out who they are here. Asking questions, all that."

_That has to help Sof's nature._

I'm surprised she hasn't asked a question yet.

"Big kids do big things. I like that. I'm gonna steal that one." Will smiles.

Mr. Wren replied "Have it. Not mine though. I borrowed it from a friend of mine's father."

The door suddenly opened, and I glance back.

"It's me. Hold your fire." I hear _Mand'alor_ say jokingly, before Sophie hops off her stool and sprints out of the kitchen past her mother.

Prime, Kal, Orir and Will all hop to their feet and move towards the door.

"Hi!" I hear Sophie say.

"Hi! How are you?" _Mand'alor_ replied before walking into the room carrying Sophie.

"I'm good! I cut a tomato!"

"Nice!" _Mand'alor_ smiled at her before setting her down.

"_Haat, Ijaa, Haa'it._" Prime said quietly, as he and the others all bow their head.

_Mand'alor_ raised his hand, then waved them down. "Thank you. No need to be so formal tonight though."

Sophie started to slip past her mom and back to her spot, then was stopped by her mother's foot, causing Sof to look up at her Mom, who isn't looking at her. "What?"

"What's rule number one in the kitchen." Her mom asked simply.

Sabine cringed silently as Sophie paused, then answered "Don't run…"

_Oh. Ouch._

"And what am I cooking?"

"Hot stew. Which would hurt and burn me." Sophie says, sounding sad.

"_Cin ka'ra._" Mrs. Wren told Sof, who then toddled right back to her spot. (A/N: It's the closest thing to "All is forgiven" that I could make. Yes, make. Not everything is online, so I have to improvise.)

_Mand'alor_ turned to Mrs. Wren and smiled. "Sorry Bo."

"Oh no, not your fault." She answered.

Mr. Wren walked over and shook his hand. "Glad you could make it. Just mentioned your dad."

_Mand'alor_ smiled. "Oh, what about?"

"Big kids, big things."

"Ahh." _Mand'alor_ said. "That is 'ol Pops. By the way. Brought you this, figured you two could use a little compensation for all of this."

_Mand'alor_ handed Mr. Wren a big bottle full of a brown liquid.

"Fenn…" Mr. Wren frowned.

_Mand'alor_ smiled. "Sorry. I got it a couple of weeks ago. Check the age date."

"Wait, is that…?" Mrs. Wren questioned, glancing back.

"_Narcolethe_…really?" Mr. Wren's head snapped to _Mand'alor_.

"What?" His wife asked, as _Mand'alor_ nodded.

Mr. Wren turned to his wife and smiled. "They put this in a cask the day we met Bo."

Mrs. Wren immediately smiled at _Mand'alor_. "You knew."

"Of course I knew! I was there!" _Mand'alor_ replied emphatically. "His dumbass shouldn't have walked into the restricted area at work!"

Sabine, Sof and I, along with Prime and company all look to Mr. Wren, who quickly goes red.

"We've been over this. I didn't know it was that restricted. I'd been down there many times working on engine numbers."

Sabine spoke up. "Wait, what happened?"

"Your father barged in on a private conversation in a place he definitely shouldn't have been. The only reason he didn't get in trouble, is because of me." _Mand'alor_ smiled at Mr. Wren.

Sophie turned to me, clearly confused as Orir laughed. "That's not a bad story."

"Smart people. Can't trust them." _Mand'alor_ joked sarcastically, getting the room to laugh.

I grab the salad spinner with the Force, and add my stuff to it plus the carrots.

"Can I spin it?" Sof asked.

"Of course you can." I tell her, handing it to her.

_Mand'alor_ asked "Can I help? I don't want to get in the way here."

"No no, you're fine." Mrs. Wren said as her husband pulled out some cloth napkins for everyone.

"We're pretty much done now." Sabine added, adding spices to the potatoes.

Will turned to _Mand'alor_ and asked "Sounds like you two have known each other a while."

"Years. Grew up together. Trained together until he decided to go to Alderaan during the Clone Wars. Came back, he started a family and working down at Mandal, while I became _Mand'alor_ and the rest is history." _Mand'alor _smiled, then clapped Sabine's father on the shoulder. "This is my guy right here."

"Whirr…"

Prime smiled. "So a little like all of us."

"Exactly." _Mand'alor_ replied. "You never know how long friendships can last or what they can get you."

"Whirr…"

"_Soph'ika_, when you're done with that salad, set the table please." Mrs. Wren said, as she started grabbing bowls.

Her father started helped her get a jump by starting to set out forks and spoons.

_Wait, I'm supposed to getting drinks._

I hop forward and turn to everyone at the table. "What would everybody like to drink?"

"Water's fine." Will shrugged, while Prime, Kal and Orir all nodded.

"We have water, milk, juice, beer, wine, all sorts of drinks." Mr. Wren tells them.

_Mand'alor_ turned to me and said "I'll have wine."

Prime turned to Mr. Wren and said "No, water's fine. Thank you though."

"Figured I should give you the options." He shrugged in response.

Mrs. Wren then spoke up. "I usually serve this with rice. But I've got potatoes if you want it. Fenn."

_Mand'alor_ smirks. "Much appreciated."

"You all can come and start serving yourselves." Sabine said, walking to the table with her potatoes. Sophie dodges everyone while taking her salad to the table and I fill glasses.

_I know what Sabine, Sof and her parents want._

Same thing every time. Water, Milk and Wine.

"_Vor entye _Ezra." Mrs. Wren says when I set the last glass down as Will settles in next to Sophie's spot.

_Crap. Vor is thanks I think._

Nervously, I turn to Sabine. "That's thank you right?"

Orir laughed over by the stove as Sabine smiles and nods.

Mrs. Wren slips by me, sitting next to her husband. "I've got to test you a little. And those lessons are still on the table."

"You're learning _Mando'a_?" Prime asked.

Self-consciously I shrug, as _Mand'alor_ eyes me with a curious expression. "Trying. Learning a little bit here and there by listening to it constantly."

_Mand'alor_ sets his food down at Sabine's Mom's normal spot opposite Mr. Wren, next to Sophie. "There's a cadence to it. Once you pick that up, you'll start picking it up very quickly."

Sophie's head turns to her mother. "What's a cadence?"

"Like tone of voice when you speak." She smiles at Sof.

Her father adds. "It's like how you sound one way normally, another when you're mad, another when you're sad."

"Oh! Okay. Thanks Mommy."

Prime sits next to her and smiles, leaving Sabine, Kal and I without food.

_And Kal's getting his food now._

"Go." I gently prod Sabine, who silently leads the way to the stove.

"This looks great Mrs. Wren. Thank you very much." Will said as Sabine fixed her stew, then dumped a ton of pepper onto it.

_Sabine…_

Why would you spice something that your mom let simmer literally all day?

"Hold on now guys. They like everyone to wait." _Mand'alor_ says, causing Sabine and I to turn and see Orir and Prime mid bite, looking guilty.

"Sorry." Orir said, setting his spoon down.

I set my bowl to the side and quickly dole out my potatoes, corn and salad, then slip next to Sabine. "Okay. Now we're good."

Immediately everyone digs in, and the next minute or two is filled with the sounds of everybody eating, shifting between plates and dishes and the clinking of cups.

"Delicious dear. Thank you." Mr. Wren smiles at his wife.

_Mand'alor_ adds "Yes, thank you. Divine."

I nod, then glance around.

_This side of the table is Will, Sabine, me and her mother._

The other side is Sophie, Prime, Kal and Orir with _Mand'alor_ and Mr. Wren at the ends.

Mr. Wren breaks the silent by looking down the table and asking "So Fenn, what now?"

_Mand'alor_ laughed, then wiped his mouth. "Well, for starters Imperial activity has dramatically decreased. They've gone to ground."

"he killed their monster." Kal says quietly.

"Exactly. We've got something that they can't beat without outside help."

_Vader._

"That guy, the one the guy mentioned before he became a crisp. Vader."

Sabine silently nods.

Prime asks "Who is that guy? I've never heard of this guy before."

"He's like him, but a lot stronger." I say. "Encased in a suit for reasons unknown. Sabine and I bumped into him once on a supply trip."

"And?" Will asked.

"I got shot, our…Jedi Master got his shoulder armor ruined, Ezra nearly got broken in half, and that's not to tell you what it did mentally to all of us." Sabine explained.

_We needed the days off when we got to Onderon._

"And he survived Ahsoka dropping that walker on him." I remind her.

"And when Ezra got captured, he saw him too if I understand right." Mrs. Wren adds, looking to me as her husband is eying Sabine warily.

"You said smugglers shot you."

Oh.

_Uh oh._

Sabine blinked rapidly, then set her napkin down and swallowed. "That's not what happened. But that was right after I got back. What was I supposed to say? A gigantic guy in all black that carries a lightsaber deflected my perfect shots directly at me so fast I couldn't duck out of the way?"

"That accurately?" Orir asked, looking shocked.

"Yeah. And it was effortless, like how Ezra does it. But Ezra's not that accurate with it. I shot, and he redirected the shots so that they hit my chestplate and helmet, which almost knocked me out."

_Mand'alor_ said "Given the circumstances, I understand the lie. Especially if you just got home."

"First full day." Sabine said defensively.

"The question is if he is coming." I speak up.

_That's all I really care about._

If so…I'm screwed. I think I have to run.

_Mand'alor_ shrugged. "Maybe. Boba's told me just a little about him, and he doesn't sound very fun."

Sabine turned to me. "What will you do if he comes?"

I shrug helplessly. "I don't know. I could have this entire room and I feel like we didn't have enough firepower. Part of me thinks the right play is for me to leave."

"No!" Sophie frowned pointedly, causing everyone to turn.

"He's not going to leave." Her father reassures her.

"But I can't stop him." I tell him.

_I can't. This is Anakin Skywalker we're talking about._

I don't care that he's going by a different name. It's the same person.

"I feel like we'll know if he's coming." _Mand'alor_ said.

_I hope so._

"But the plan right now?" Mr. Wren got us back on track, looking to _Mand'alor_.

"Right now, we're drawing up a invasion on the City of Bone." He said, causing everyone to turn.

Prime set his spoon down in shock. "You're kidding."

"Going for the knockout." Will says.

_Mand'alor_ nods. "We want them off the planet. Only way we do that, is with them off the planet."

"Better question is how? There's 20,000 troops there. It's a massive complex." Mrs. Wren said beside me.

_Mand'alor_ simply raised his hand and pointed at me. "Him."

"He can't take on 20,000!" Sabine protested.

_Mand'alor_ quickly shook his head. "No. You're looking at it wrong. Think of the gravity he's got built up. If he pops up say out front of the City of Bone, they're going to send EVERYONE."

_Gravity. Huh._

"Leaving multiple weak spots." Prime says.

Orir smirked. "And air strikes."

"We've got bombers now." Mr. Wren smiled.

_Mand'alor_ nodded. "Now, this is all speculation. This isn't final. The final plan is being drawn up as we speak."

"Fenn, you should be there!" Mr. Wren immediately told him.

"No, my place is here. I'm letting the military minds work right now."

Sophie looks to _Mand'alor_. "Is that where Rex and Echo are?"

_Mand'alor_ nodded. "Yup."

"I wish they were here." Sophie frowned.

Prime turned to Will, Kal and Orir. "The older soldiers that were with them? Clones. From the War. They're with them."

Will's eyebrows rose up as Kal looked to me. "How'd you find those guys?"

"They found us."

Prime suddenly coughed loudly, then extending his hand. "Sorry. If…it's possible, I'd like to see this group. I'm interested."

_Whoa._

Sabine looks to me as my mind is totally blank. "Oh."

"There's clearance and stuff. Good thing you mentioned that now son. I can get on the horn and see what they can do, or if they are interested."

Orir looks disgusted. "Interested? We're Mandalorian warriors!"

"It's like a background check. They have to do it. It's a real, actual Rebellion, not some half baked thing. They want the entire armory. Entire Empire gone." _Mand'alor_ spoke up. "That's one reason I forgave Sabine immediately. She explained what she joined and what they're fighting for." He paused, letting that sink in before saying "It's big."

"They can't just let anyone in. It's a fine balance." Mrs. Wren says.

Orir shrugged, and Prime nodded.

"Getting back to the Vader thing, I don't think it will be him." Sabine said, then turned to me. "I don't think it'll be him. I think it'll be the other Inquisitor we met on Onderon."

_Oh._

I told her a little about Barriss.

_She didn't want to know too much. What I was telling her was too much._

"There's another one?" Prime asked, sounding incredulous.

_Mand'alor_ groaned. "I never asked, because I didn't want to know."

"Know what?" Will asked.

"How many of those guys there actually are."_ Mand'alor _answered, running his fingers thru his hair.

"We don't know. There was one before them, and Kanan killed him. Now there's Vader, and the other one now that Shark Bait is gone."

"Hoo Ha ha." Sophie says randomly, causing he room to burst into laughter.

Sophie beamed.

"Very clever little one. You know what else was clever?"_ Mand'alor _asked her.

"What?" Sof asked.

"What you did to save him." _Mand'alor_ pointed to me.

_Oh yeah._

The holo of the fight. Cameras got all of it. _Mand'alor_ sent it here after watching it. It looked a lot worse than it actually was fighting in it. The part that got everyone though…was Sophie jumping on Shark Bait and pulling his head.

"What?" Prime asked.

_Mand'alor_ smiled. "I've got the holo on me. You need to watch it. The way Ezra fought is incredible. Fight's brutal. But the most amazing part was after Ezra slipped and fell."

"It basically became a street fight." Mrs. Wren said.

_She said the same thing right after it happened._

"Yes. Vicious. But…let's call him Shark Bait, had Ezra pinned and had just punched Ezra." _Mand'alor_ said, before pausing.

Sophie nervously looked down as her parents smiled proudly.

"Sophie here ran towards Shark Bait, climbed on his back and started pulling on his helmet."

Kal poked his head out. "Why? Weren't you scared?"

"I…" Sof squeaked out. "Ezra just got hit. And I thought "I gotta go help!" So I ran over and tried getting his attention."

"I think you found a weak spot _ad'ika_. He was in pain."_ Mand'alor _said.

"I agree." I speak up. "He didn't like it at all."

"So Sophie is pulling on Shark Bait's head thing. I don't know, it doesn't matter. He can't grab Sophie. So he headbutt's her. Hard. She went flying." _Mand'alor_ said, causing Will and the others to cringe.

"She did?" Orir asked, glancing at Sophie.

_Mand'alor_ smiled. "Yup. Ezra threw Shark Bait away and rushed over, only for Sophie to get on her feet by herself. And look ready to fight."

"_We can beat him."_

We. Me and Her.

_Together._

"That, Miss Sophie, was one of the bravest things I've ever seen." _Mand'alor _said. "To run towards danger, towards somebody that was trying to hurt you, and to go help Ezra when, whether he wants to admit it or not, needed your help—"

Everybody laughed, including me.

_I didn't really have a plan._

I think I could have gotten him off me, but that's beside the point.

"That…is what it means to be a Mandalorian. And so I bestow upon you, the Medal of _Ba'jur_." _Mand'alor_ said simply, pulling out a golden metal and putting it into Sophie's hands, then closing her hands around it.

_WHAT?!_

I freeze, and Sabine silently looks to me with a shocked expression.

"Fenn?" Mr. Wren says quietly.

_Mand'alor_ ignored him. "It's yours. I know you know what _Ba'jur_ means."

"Courage." Sophie quietly answered him.

Numbly, I look around and see that everyone is looking at _Mand'alor_ and Sophie in stunned silence.

"Exactly."

Sophie blinked, turned to her parents, then back to _Mand'alor_. "It's really mine?"

_Mand'alor_ smiled. "Yup. Got your name on it and everything."

Sof flipped the medal over, then let out a squeal. "My name!"

The silence was shattered by everyone laughing.

"Go put it in your room." _Mand'alor _said.

"Okay!" Sof said, then raced off.

Sabine, Prime, Will, the others and I all turn and watch Sophie run to her room.

"Fenn. You didn't have to do that." Mr. Wren said, looking mollified.

"I wanted to." _Mand'alor_ responded boldly.

"I've never heard of that medal though." Mrs. Wren said quietly.

_Mand'alor_ smiled. "It was given out centuries ago, but fell out of favor when the _resol'nare_ was reemphasized. The Medal is real, and it's hers. She earned it." He said emphatically.

"Courage." Will says quietly, almost to himself.

_Mand'alor_ turned to him. "Think about it. She's probably scared to death. That monster is _dying_ to get a chunk out of Ezra. And she had the presence of mind to jump in and distract him long enough to prolong the fight. And I agree with Ezra, that was his weakness, and he didn't know. I daresay that fight ends different if she doesn't intervene."

I open my mouth to retort, but _Mand'alor_ points at me without looking. "Silence."

Sabine lets out a laugh and I snap my mouth shut.

_Okay then._

"Bo, Carid, I don't know what you've done with those two, but they're both special. Sabine obviously. But Sophie could be a game changer. Especially if she gets good with that bow."

Sophie raced back into the room. "Bow?"

"Are you practicing?" _Mand'alor_ asked.

"Every day! Like I'm supposed to!"

Prime smiled and moved to give Sof a high five.

_Mand'alor_ smirked at Mr. Wren. "See? I'm not wrong."

Sophie looked from _Mand'alor_ to her parents, who both look shocked.

_Sophie._

A game changer?


	75. Gin and Smoke and Lies

"Hummmm…Hmmm…Hummmbummmhummm…" Sabine hummed as she painted.

Next to her, Sophie is working out a math problem.

_I'm waiting to hear from Rex that the fight has started._

Then I can call my guys and get down there.

And maybe end this fight.

"Bum Bum Bummm…Humm…"

I turn over the lightsaber in my hands and inspect the engravings.

_I didn't notice Shark Bait's lightsaber had them._

It's not the Inquisitor's lightsaber. It's his.

"Baaa…Bummm…"

"Sabine." Sophie says quietly.

Sabine looks up and smiles. "Yeah?"

"You're distracting me."

Quickly, Sabine looks embarrassed. "Oh. Sorry."

"It's okay." Sophie smiles. "But I'm trying to figure out this problem."

"I understand." Sabine replies, before turning to me.

I smile at her, then look back to the lightsaber.

Each blade is on an axis. They're doubled up when you only have one blade ready, but only one when fully deployed, which allows it to rotate.

_That freaked Sophie out when I figured out how to spin it._

She screamed and ran away. Her mother said that it was terrifying, that they make a deadly weapon even worse.

Mr. Wren didn't seem surprised actually.

Quietly, Sabine scooted over to me and smiled. "Hi."

"Hey." I whisper back.

"Any luck?"

I shake my head. "I don't really want to mess with it until Kanan and Ahsoka can look at it."

Sabine nods, then laid her head down on my shoulder and closed her eyes.

Sophie wrote something down, then turns and cringes. "Noooo…"

"What?" Sabine asked, eyes popping open.

"Don't get all mushy. I like that you guys don't do that like other people do."

Sabine smirked, slipped her arms around my neck and kissed me.

Sophie squealed and turned away, as I calmly kiss Sabine back briefly, before she breaks it off. "See? The planet didn't explode."

I turn and see Sophie peeking at us thru raised arms. "Don't do thattt…"

"Don't whine." Sabine pointed at her.

"I'm not whining!"

My comm suddenly goes off loud enough to silence them both and cause them to turn to me.

"Hello." I say.

"Ezra, anytime you can come down we can begin phase two." Rex said.

I smile as Sabine gets to her feet and grabs her helmet. "We're on our way."

"C'mon silly. Time to go." Sabine said to her sister.

She's going to MandalMotors and dropping Sof off with her Dad. As that's going on, I'll go to the City of Bone and pick a fight with the entire Imperial battalion here on Mandalore.

_I'll have my guys with me, but that will not be fun._

Sabine and a ton of other warriors are going to rush the City of Bone from all other sides, and hopefully taking it.

Airstrikes will be called in as needed by me or several other soldiers using lasers to point out targets.

"Calling speeders." Sabine said, as Sophie set her datapad onto Sabine's bed.

I smile in thanks. "Thank you."

"You're welcome."

Sophie leads us downstairs as Sabine shuts all the lights off behind us.

_Her Mom is going to be in one of the groups assaulting the base when I open it up._

Letting out a breath, I shrug my shoulders and readjust my jacket.

Same jacket as always, thankfully. I had to get new shoes, pants, everything but the jacket. Sabine said she'd make me a new one, with the pauldron, but I wanted to try getting all the black, caked on junk that was on it.

Sabine's Dad took it to a place he sends his meeting suits to, and it came back PERFECT.

A little stiff, but perfect. I was afraid I wouldn't get it back.

At the foot of the stairs, I turn and make sure nothing is out of place, causing the hilt of my lightsaber to glint in the dim light.

_Everything looks good._

"Beep Beep."

"Speeders are here." Sabine called out, causing Sophie to pop out of her room, still pulling on her little hat.

"I'm ready! Don't go!" She yelled frantically.

Sabine, behind me replied. "We're behind you goof. And never."

Sophie looked back and smiled. "Thank you."

Sabine briefly looked concerned before saying "No problem."

Snagging the door, I let Sabine and Sophie out then lock up behind me. When I turn back, Sophie is eyeing me with her arms out.

I smile, then bend down and hug her. "Be safe. And don't worry about me. I'll be fine."

Sophie frowned, then squeezed me tighter. "What does Kanan say to you before you go fight?"

_Huh?_

"What do you mean?"

Sophie answers "Before you go do something important. Does he say something?"

Yeah.

"Yeah. He says "May the Force be with You." I explain.

Sophie lets go of me, then smiles. "May all the Force be with you."

Sabine and I chuckle, then I smile at Sof. "Thank you Sof."

"Go get in the speeder." Sabine tells her softly.

Sophie frowns, but obeys, crawling into the waiting speeder, leaving Sabine with a wary look.

"I'm gonna be fine." I tell her.

Holding her helmet, she bit her lip. "They're going to throw everything at you."

"They can do that. The guys and I will find a way to beat it." I reply confidently.

"Any staff wielding droids, every Stormtrooper, probably a bunch of experimental tech…I don't know."

I give her a smile, trying to reassure her. "I know you know more about what they've got than anyone. But I'm gonna be fine."

Sabine bit down on her lip more, turning it white before coming and hugging me.

"I don't care if everybody else doesn't make it. We can regroup. But we can't lose you. Don't be afraid to retreat."

I frown. "Then it'll really be a civil war."

"It already is. Maybe not like Mom says the Siege of Mandalore was, but this is a civil war."

"Isn't it just a war? Us versus the Empire?"

Sabine shrugged tiredly. "Maybe. I guess. There are some of our people in those buckets. That's my point. But…" Her voice shakes.

Quickly, I peck her cheek. "If you can, I'd love to see you first."

Sabine cracks a smile. "Look for the missiles first. I don't think I'll be able to be delicate."

I shrug, then see Sophie looking at us in the back of the cab.

"Go." I say. "You be safe too. Don't get thrown again please."

Sabine thinly smiled, then kissed me. "Love you."

"Love you too."

The sound of another speeder approaching causes her to finally turn and hop into her own speeder, which takes off and clears the way for my speeder.

Sophie waves to me, looking sad as I climb into mine.

"17th and Macy Ave. please." I tell the driver.

He balks, before saying "Sir, I'm afraid that'll be extra to get me down there."

_Karabast._

"That's fine." I lie, then the driver starts off.

17th and Macy is seven blocks away from the City of Bone. _Mand'alor_ told me to land far away and meet up with Prime, Will, Kal and Orir.

_And this guys is charging me just to get that close._

It's not even close.

I shake my head, then close my eyes and block everything out.

_I need to play this pretty by the book. Lots of deflecting and protecting everyone._

I'm the guy on point for the entire operation. Prime, Kal, Orir and Will are all sharing second in command in case I find a grenade or something.

I feel the Force shift towards me, not so subtly and smile.

_Well, somebody is on my side at least._

I don't really care. Padmé, a dead Jedi, that guy with Brown hair on Naboo I saw. I appreciate it.

Letting my nervousness out, I feel tens of Force Signatures fly past as the speeder zooms towards "too close".

_It's getting easier. I'm not having to try as hard._

My Pull on Sophie's book last night caused it to zoom into my hand, when I meant to float it to her.

The speeder suddenly dips, and I open my eyes. Off in the distance, are bleached white mythosaur bones, along with a cluster of building built with local stone, and turned almost black with some paint/glue stuff.

_I guess they took out all the rides of the old theme park._

When the speeder lands, I hop out and hand the driver my credit stick.

As he swipes it, I see four men in Mandalorian armor slowly approach, trying not to look suspicious.

"Have a nice night sir."

I smile at the driver. "You too."

He takes off, and the normal message pops up on my comm, asking what I'd like to tip.

Without looking, I motion for everybody to follow me back into the alley.

When it's dark enough for me, I turn back and see Prime and everyone pop off their helmets.

"Sir." Will smirks at me.

I smile back. "How are you guys tonight?"

"Full of that awesome stew." Orir smirks.

I smile. "Good. She sent home a boatload of leftovers."

"We didn't get to make a dent in it. And we all had some."

"Thank her again, will you? It's delicious." Prime asks me.

I reply "I will. Did you guys see anything?"

"I see what they're doing." Kal said. "There's fresh-faced kids up there right now. I don't like it, but somebody has got to be the bait for you to come be the hero."

"The bait for the bait." Prime shrugged.

_Ouch._

"Is it bad up there yet?" I ask, bracing for the worst.

Will thankfully shook his head. "No, not bad. The Imps overreacted at first and threw a ton of men at them at first. They fought it off real good, and the Imps called off a couple of battalions."

"I like 'em. Glad we're coming for them." Orir smiled, looking proud.

I turn to my comm, meaning to comm Rex and instead see the stupid tip screen.

That guy doesn't deserve anything.

_He didn't help, and charged extra._

"Extra" was my tip.

I blow past the screen, then contact Rex.

"Hey kid. You down there?"

_What?_

"You don't see us?" I ask.

"No." Rex replied. "Are you in a sidestreet?"

"Yeah."

"Then how are we supposed to see you?" He asked derisively.

I frown. "Sorry. Headed that way." Then cut my comm off.

_I love Rex, but I don't need that in my ear right now._

"Let's go. Springing out right near them won't scare them I take it." I say to Prime.

Prime points to Kal, who immediately gets onto his comm.

"Boys, we're headed that way. Coming from the North, no warning. Don't flinch. This is planned."

A voice responds, but the sounds of blaster fire drowns out anything he says.

Prime takes the lead, quickly getting us as close as possible before peering out.

"PHEW!"

We all duck down as a shot hits the permacrete behind us.

"Sniper!" Will growls.

"Sniper." Kal says into his comm.

_Okay. Let's go._

I take a step forward, then see that everyone seems to be waiting for something. "Well?"

"We've got to wait out that sniper." Kal tells me.

I frown at him. "Every second we wait, is time lost. It's getting handled."

Kal looks to Prime, who shrugs. "Okay."

Without another word, I duck and run to where a group of Mandalorians are huddled behind an anti-tank barrier.

"Hey boys!" I call out, as Prime, Will, Kal and Orir all scatter to their own spots.

One Mandalorian turns briefly. "Sir?"

"This ain't the Jedi." One of them says.

"He isn't one of us!" Another says.

_Idiots._

Flippantly, I pop up from behind the barrier and shoot at the Imperial line, almost a click away.

"WHOOSH!"

A scream rings out, then red bolts fly out at me, forcing me to duck back down.

"He doesn't shoot like an Imp!"

What?

"They can't shoot!" I tell them, then look to Prime and give him a thumbs up.

_Are we good?_

Prime gives me a thumbs up, then throws a grenade, causing Imperials to scatter.

As one, the warriors next to me all rise and open fire on the fleeing Imperials.

"BOOM!"

Screams ring out, followed by the dull sound of blaster hitting metal.

"Thud."

"NO!" Somebody yells.

_That's one._

My eyes quickly well up, and I blink quickly.

Can't cry.

_No._

This whole mission depends on me. My discretion.

_My lightsaber signals all the other squadrons to start expecting a drawback of troops in their positons, to me._

"Boys, lucky for you, I am the Jedi!" I call out, then fire on another Stormtrooper.

"AAUGH!"

_Ooh._

Right in the head.

"What do you mean you're the Jedi?!" One of them asks.

"HOW ABOUT YOU JUST LISTEN?!" Kal yells suddenly, taking the place of the fallen warrior.

"When I say 'Fall Back', you FALL BACK! Okay?" I tell them all.

"That's an ORDER!" Kal adds.

_All the stuff that can help us, will take time._

The faster I get this going, the longer they'll have. The bombers, Sabine and her mom, everyone.

I pop up, fire off another shot then spin and activate my lightsaber and deflect a blaster bolt perfectly back towards its target.

It hits its source directly in the face, as the entire line freezes up.

"FALL BACK!" I yell, just as the Force gives me a huge warning.

_Here it comes._

In the blink of an eye, blaster shots in every direction fly at me. I turn my hilt and grab on with both hands and deflect as many as I can.

But some slip thru and hit my guys behind me.

_Forward._

They can't hit me, if I'm among them.

Quickly, before they can get off another volley of blasts, I jump right into the middle of the Imperial line and cut thru the Stormtroopers on either side of me.

"GO GO GO!" I hear in my ear, then ignore the rest of the noise.

_Distractions. Pick a side._

I block it out, then turn to my left and deflect three shots aimed right for my chest into the ground. Using my momentum, I then bounce on the balls of my feet, spin and fell two of the three Stormtroopers in the area.

The last one moves to run, then stumbled before I grab him and impale him on my lightsaber, then drop him off me.

"Thud."

"WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH!"

_That's the Imperial sirens._

They know we're here.

"You've got company! Droids!" I hear Echo say in my ear.

"Droids!" I yell, then point at Prime.

Prime pointed back "We've got a plan!"

_Okay then._

"WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH!"

I quickly probe out, and feel a bunch of people rushing towards us on either side.

"SIDES!" I call it out, pointing where I feel them. Several of the warriors take up positions on either side of me before multiple droids pop out, running at full speed.

_Four of them._

"Shinies!" Kal yells.

I let out a breath, reactivate my lightsaber then leap out at them.

Before any of the droids can react, I stab one right thru the middle, then strongly wave him and another away with a Force Push before blocking a vertical blow from the other droids.

I spin back and slip between them, then alter my blade slightly to catch the other droid's wild swing at my head.

"WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH!"

"AAAUGH!" I hear somebody scream as I jab at the droid directly in front of me.

_Miss._

I hope that's not anybody I know.

Block.

I quickly riposte and slice half the droid's head off, then throw it at the other droid.

Before I can turn away, Prime jumps on top of both of them and fires a bolt of electricity, causing both to ominously smoke.

_Wait._

That other droid—

"PRIME!" I yell, hoping he'll—

"Uhh." I hear him say dully, before rolling away.

I jump forward to protect him, and smack the droid in the face with my open palm, then spin and use my momentum to yank his staff right out of its hand.

The droid turns and makes a move to punch me, but not before I impale it.

LEFT!

I slide to my right, dropping the droid—

"BOOM!"

_Airstrike!_

Quickly, I look around and see that we're stuck on the right. Imps have numbers and have dug in, pinning Kal, Will and several others down.

_The bone._

They're right under the first bone of the ribcage. That can't be light.

Instinctively, I grab onto it with the Force and pull yank. Immediately it cracks, then falls.

"WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH!"

Several of the Stormtroopers yell before the bone falls, sending dirt everywhere.

"WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH!"

I spin back, meaning to see how Prime and Orir are—

"WHAM!"

The world immediately disappears briefly, and I stumble back before I blink and hear a yell simultaneously.

Prime rears back and uppercuts a Stormtrooper, clearly knocking him out.

Quickly, someone behind me helps me to my feet, and I turn and see it's one of the kids.

"Thanks." I smile, before looking around.

_This is uncontrolled madness._

Individuals firefights, guerilla tactics.

_Three Stormtroopers._

"Sorry man!" I yell, before throwing him right at them

"AAUUGH!" One of them yells as their comrade hits them near the waist and knocks them down, allowing several others to jump up and shoot them.

_Can't turn back._

Gotta press forward.

"Anybody stuck?" I turn to Prime and ask.

Prime shakes his head.

_Great._

"Awesome. We've got to keep moving forward." I tell him.

"BOOM!"

Seeing a flash, I look away from Prime and look up and to the right, where it hit.

Well that's not clear.

"Aye aye!" Prime jokes, then takes off.

"Be careful!" I tell him, then take off under another rib bo—

"BBZZZZZZZTTTTTT!"

"AAAAAHHHHHHHH!" I yell in pain as I get hit on both sides with electricity.

_TRAPPED!_

I grit my teeth and quickly look for the—

"CRSSHHH!"

Suddenly the electricity stops, and I fall heavily, barely catching myself. Immediately, two guys are on me.

"You okay sir?"

I let out a breath thru my nose and get to my feet.

_That wasn't bad. Kallus wouldn't be pleased._

The shock of it and the initial burst was the worst of it.

"Wooommp womp womp."

"Womp womp wompp."

"Shinies!"

I reactivate my lightsaber and try to locate them.

_Right. Coming right at me._

I leap out at them, accidentally land on the first before I move to jab it in the chest.

Then I'm slammed onto the ground, my arm goes numb, and my lightsaber clatters out of my hand.

"Womp!" The first droid says at a higher pitch than normal, then puts its foot on me.

"WOOSH!"

A streak comes from behind and my droid flies off me.

I turn and extend my left arm to Pull my lightsaber to me.

_No!_

I quickly break it off and watch Prime scoop it up, activate it and cut a droid in half in one smooth move.

"YEAHHH!" I yell, then run to him. "Nice!"

"_Haran!_" he yelled, pushing my lightsaber into my chest then fired off a quick shot behind us.

I weave back and extend my arm while locating all the droids.

_Some guy with a backpack took care of that first one._

Prime got the second.

"AMBUSH!"

What?!

I whip around in time to see Prime fighting a burly Stormtrooper in hand to hand combat, while Stormtroopers rush in.

_NO!_

Jumping forward, I start blocking blaster bolts as fast as I can.

"TING!"

"AAUGH!"

Finally, I manage to redirect one back at its target, causing him to fall.

Two replace him.

_Uh oh._

"PRIME!" I yell.

He, in turns yells "ORIR!"

"WHIIIIIIRRRR CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK CLUNK!"

Blue bolts fly by almost faster than I can spot them, and the number of Stormtroopers start decreasing.

Feeling eyes leave me to go towards Orir, I leap that way and start chopping Stormtroopers.

"WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH!"

I cut some poor guy's arms off, then spin and throw him, plus a lone speeder bike towards more Stormtroopers.

"AAUUGHHH!"

_Breathe._

I take a deep breath, slip back and try to get a hold of things.

_There's Prime and Kal. Orir's still firing the chain gun._

Will…

My eyes suddeny dart to the skeleton, where several warriors are—

"STOP!" I yell, as the Force gives me a warning.

_Too late._

"GUUUSSSSSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHH"

WHAT THE—

_Black stuff is pouring out of the_—

"AAAHHH!" I hear someone yell.

"GET BACK!" I yell, then run as the thick, black liquid rapidly advances on us.

Running back as fast as I can, I look back in time to see one guy's back foot get covered, then his momentum stops abruptly.

Yanking on him, I turn and keep going before he flies past me.

"How in the—" He yells, wheeling back around just before—

"SPLAAAASSSHHH"

The black wave stops abruptly, hitting some sort of invisible barrier and sloshing around.

_What?_

Blankly, I watch as the black liquid sloshes back and forth between two ribs of the skeleton. Someone make a sick sound as a Stormtrooper floats into sight before overtaken by another black wave.

I turn and see that it's one of the young kids.

"Doesn't discriminate." I hear kal says brusquely.

"Kid!" Echo or Rex says in my ear.

I slpa my comm and reply "Yeah?"

"You're doing great! The Imperials seem to have all sorts of traps, as you see."

"The wave?" I ask.

"Looked like tar, but yeah!"

The guy I saved turned to me and said "It adhered to me to second it touched me. Like grapheme or something."

"It adhered to some people that I yanked out." I tell him.

"Ezra. You shouldn't be getting another big wave of men. You're doing great. But we need you inside that complex. It all connects. Take rights when you can. It's a race to find the Moff."

_Moff._

"No captain or Admiral?" I ask, then point everyone to the left and the door.

"Ezra, you're not understanding. If we get the Moff, then they all stop fighting. Sabine and everyone else is headed that way. We think we know where he is."

"Which would be?" I ask, following Prime and Will.

"Third floor in a conference room."

_Okay._

"Got it." I reply shortly. "Headed there."

Cutting off the comm, I turn to Prime. "It's now a race to the Moff apparently. Main building, they think he's on the third floor in a conference room." I relay to him, Kal, Orir, Will and everyone else.

"Great. Take lefts whenever we can and I bet we can't miss it." He replies.

Will takes charge "No blind entrances. 'Nades in every door."

Kal and someone else jump to the door, and Orir primes a grenade.

"CLEAR!" Kal bites, yanking open the door. Orir tosses in the grenade before the door gets slammed.

I probe in the split second.

"WOOMPH!"

"Two!" I say as we all rush in.

On either side bolts whiz past me, finding their marks. We continue on, whipping around the corner and spotting a lone Stormtrooper in the hall, looking at us.

"WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH!"

"He—AAUGHH!"

"Down!" I hear somebody say, before laughter breaks out.

_What's so funny._

I don't turn back, instead pressing forward and probing.

"SCRACK!"

_OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!_

My head whips right into the corner of the wall, and I feel my face cave before I fall blindly.

Chaos breaks out as I curl up and cover my head, feeling blood pour out of my nose.

_That's a droid._

I barely, barely saw it before it cracked my skull.

"BZZT!" "THUMP."

The ground shakes with the sound of the droid falling to the floor. "Ughhh…" I groan loudly, and uncover my head.

"You okay Ezra?" I hear Will ask.

"Ezra?"

"He has a name?" Someone asks.

"I barely sough it." I slur out.

_Whoa. Mouth didn't work right._

Saw.

"Look at me. Kid. Ezra. Look at me." Kal says quickly, grabbing me by the shoulders.

I obey without thought, and Will looks me in the eyes thru his helmet as somebody runs a cloth over my mouth and nose.

It comes away dark red.

"Nose is definitely busted." Someone says.

Will nods in front of me. "He's good. Give him a minute."

_Good._

I shrug his hands off my shoulders, then bend down and let the world spin for a moment.

"Drip. Drip."

I corral my anger and take a breath.

_I'm TIRED OF THIS!_

My entire body throbs, and I feel something warm trickling in my hair.

_Ignore it._

"I've had enough of this shit." I snap. "I've got another gear, that I don't like going to. We're cutting a path. Enough is enough."

Prime looks at me. "Why don't you like going to it?"

"Jedi use the Force. There's two sides. I…know some powers of the dark. They're just that. Powers. But I don't like going there." I quickly explain.

"Then don't Ezra!" Orir says.

I look back to him and scowl. "No! I'll keep it under control. But it may not look like it."

"Ezra…"

I ignore Will and start off down the hall, then take a left, revealing a desk.

_And three Stormtroopers waiting for an ambush behind the wall._

Without further thought, I grab the desk and throw it thru the wall, taking the Stormtroopers with it.

"What the—"

"_adenn a'den aruetyc_." I hear Will say quietly. (A/N: Angry, ruthless foreigner.)

I block it out, walk past the caved in wall and continue forward, taking another right.

_Four._

"Four!" I say, just as shots begin flying.

Everyone else ducks behind cover as I reactivate my lightsaber, deflect several shots, then focus the pain in my head down to my left hand.

Lightning shoot out, and the Stormtrooper lets out a terrible scream, before I throw him, and their cover up into another wall.

"WAAAAOOOOH! WAAAAOOOOH!" Red and White lights bounce off the walls as the siren continues its death wail.

In a groove, I turn, bust open a door and am greeted by the sight of a massive atrium.

_With Stormtroopers rushing everywhere._

Third floor.

"Hey!" Orir calls out, pointing to a stairwell off to the left.

I smile. "Great idea."

Letting them take the lead, I probe out.

_Whoa._

I think I've got them.

Massive bunching of people up on the third floor.

"When you can, duck left." I say to Prime ahead of me. "I've got them."

"Surprise?" He asks in reply.

Will seamlessly replies. "Surround."

I can't help but smile. "Exactly."

"No conference room has just one entrance." One of the other warriors says.

_Great point._

Orir darkly laughs quietly as we slide out into a hall on the third floor.

"NO I SAID—"

"You're not in control!" Somebody yells.

"Shut off the alarm!" Someone else orders.

"Men! Hold your ground!" A male voice that sounds vaguely authoritative overrides them.

_Door._

I leap forward, plant my foot right above the doorknob and put all I can behind it.

The door flies off its hinges, and I barely see flashes of white.

I grab them all, throw them all into each other and the far wall, then activate my lightsaber and march up to a man in an Imperial uniform.

Behind me, Prime, Will, Kal, Orir and the others enter.

Quickly, I point my lightsaber right between the man's eyes. "Drop the weapon. Surrender. Or I'll find the Admiral." I bite at him.

I feel the man's fear just before a small blaster pistol falls from his hands and onto the floor. "I surrender."

"Shut off the alarm." Prime bites. "Call your men off."

The Moff attempts to step away from me, but I grab him by the shoulder and pull him to me. "Oh no you don't. We're going together." I say darkly, then walk past several Mandalorians in orange, green and blue armor before reaching a bank of holoterminals.

Obediently, the Moff cuts off the aram.

"WAAAAOOOooohh…"

He pauses just before pressing a big red button.

_Really?_

I sigh, then bring my lightsaber just a little closer to his neck. "Deal's a deal."

The Moff loudly gulped, then hit the comm and spoke with a shaky voice. "Meee—Men…Lay down your blasters."

When he lets go of the button, I deactivate my lightsaber. "Great. Now we can get a negotiator in here, like _Mand'alor_."

"I'm already here." _Mand'alor_ says, causing me to turn and see him.

_And Sabine. And her mom._

I didn't see them.

Behind them, Will and Orir, along with one of the other warriors take of their helmets and wipe their brows.

"Are there any more traps?" _Mand'alor_ asked.

The Moff spoke up. "Only activated by motion."

"Deactivate them." Mrs. Wren snapped.

"I can't! They're motion activated."

_Mand'alor_ made an annoyed move, then frowned. "Fine. Let's go down to the ground and deactivate them. You first."

The Moff starts out the room, multiple blasters pointed at him.

I move to follow, only for Prime, Sabine and her mom to stop me.

"No Ezra." Sabine said softly

"_Ad'ika_, you're a mess. You need to get your head fixed." Mrs. Wren added.

I shake my head, then brush Sabine aside. "I'm fine." I take one step before I get my arm yanked and spun.

Sabine snapped. "Look at yourself!"

I blink, and see myself in the mirror.

Face half covered in blood. Cuts on my face. Nose bent to the side.

_Ow._

"I know all this Sabine. Let me go." I say bluntly.

Don't stop me.

_I was here for all of this._

"Ezra…it'll take half an hour. Please." Sabine begs me.

I sigh, then hang my head as some of the adrenaline flows away, allowing my body to throb.

_I'm in the zone._

I need to keep going. This isn't over.

Will walks in front of my, then smiles. "We've got everything for a minute. You need to stop sir."

"Don't call me sir Will." I snap. "C'mon."

_I told all of them, informality._

"Right now, after seeing you take out half of this base by yourself, you're sir. Go get stitched up." He replies, before turning to Mrs. Wren. "Please get a concussion test run on him."

I'm fine.

"Okay." Mrs. Wren nods, grabbing me by the shoulder.

_Fine._

I comply, and let her start leading me out of the room.

"We're done Ezra. Fighting's over." Sabine said, sounding…pleased.

"We won."


	76. Phantom Menace

(A/N: Sorry about the lack of updates the past two days. My brother is in town for the holiday, and I took Friday off, not expecting to have trouble Sunday night with this chapter. But, low and behold…trouble. Hope you enjoy the chapter. –James)

_(Flashback)_

"Thump. Thump."

Growling to myself, I rub the side of my head where the medic slapped this stupid cloth bandage on my head. He wanted me to stay still and not exert myself, but I'm not doing that.

_I need to be moving around so that I can help with this negotiation._

"BANG!"

I poke my head out of the nearest doorway to see Stormtroopers and Mandalorians in armor turned and looking off in the distance.

Must still be deactivating traps.

_Whoa._

I look to my right, and see more white on the ground, along with Stormtroopers and Mandalorians sifting thru things.

A sob causes my heart to skip, then a Stormtrooper runs to his friend. His fallen friend.

Two Mandalorians take shaky steps toward the Stormtrooper, then stop as he falls to his knees and loses it.

"NO!"

I close my eyes as my ears fill up with the Stormtrooper crying.

_They're people too._

…

I usually forget that. White is bad. White is the enemy.

_Back in the conference room, I saw just a flash of white, then swept them all aside. I probably should have swept Sabine, her mom and Mand'alor aside also. And those Stormtroopers didn't get up. Best case scenario I knock them out._

Tentatively, a couple of Mandalorians move to comfort the Stormtrooper on his knees.

I let my eyes sweep over the courtyard that once was private, but now has a gaping hole in one of the walls. Along with hundreds of Stormtroopers. Tens of Mandalorians.

_Dead._

When I reach out with the Force, I'm battered with the emptiness of everything around me.

_I see them, but they aren't there._

Numbly, I step around the corpses and weave my way thru the courtyard and towards where I entered.

_Most of the Mythosaur skeleton collapsed._

It's like a sea of white.

…

_Was this really worth it?_

Thousands dead. Just here. There's no telling how many have died. All anyone wants here is peace and freedom.

_There isn't a better way?_

Finally, I can't take it anymore, put my head in my hands and take a deep breath.

Too much.

_Nothing is worth this much death._

_(End Flashback)_

_Calm._

Feeling Sabine and her family on either side of me, I look around at the scene in front of me.

_Mand'alor got a hold of Sabine's father and told us all to come to this "Update Meeting" that he's having to update all the heads of Mandalore's Houses about how the talks are going._

The last five days have been very quiet. One or two skirmishes, both broken up by joint security patrols. More Mandalorians have been arrested than Imperials.

One of the first things that happened was that hundreds of Imperial citizens that claimed not to be Mandalorian and wanted off the planet. _Mand'alor_ obliged that request, allowing at least 100 ships to land at the spaceport, pick up people and their belongings and leave.

Sabine and I went down to the market two days ago, armed to the teeth, expecting something to happen because she wore her armor out.

_But nothing happened. We got two baskets full of groceries, had them inspected by security, then we went home._

Now we're here. I just hope we get some sort of answer.

_This can't go on forever._

Mrs. Wren silently hands me a datapad, and to my left, Sophie peeks over.

I activate it, then hand it to her and look around.

_Our speeder arrived at MandalMotors about ten minutes ago. We were shown where to go, and told it would be starting soon._

Any minute now.

Quickly, I glance at Sophie in time for her to stick the datapad in my chest and pop to her feet along with everyone else around me. I scramble to do the same.

_Oops. _

That's embarrassing.

I hold the datapad down where Sophie can see it as text begins popping up on the screen as _Mand'alor_ takes off his helmet and begins to speak.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, children of Mandalore please have a seat."

We all sit, and I prop the datapad up on my knee.

"I come to you all…after the minimum darkness time for all of our fallen friends, brothers and sisters. Admittedly, I have not had much time to sit down and reflect on the terrible loss our planet has suffered this past fortnight, but as I prepared, the magnitude of this moment almost overwhelmed me.

This is almost certainly, the most important moment of my honored time…as _Mand'alor_."

"The cause for my lack of acceptable mourning, is that I have been negotiating with the Regional Governor, MacGregor along with the Grand Moff Tarkin, the Empire's second in command."

_Tarkin. BLAST!_

I wish I'd known that. I could have prepared him a little bit.

"The negotiations have been proceeding cordially, and the Empire has shown a willingness to give ground and not dig in on everything. We have discussed many things: This system's independence, this planet's place in this system, leadership of this planet, trade, borders, our brothers and sisters that are currently fighting on Onderon, the humanitarian crisis and of course, compensation for damages and loss of life."

_Mand'alor_ paused to drink out of a cup, then continued. "Unfortunately, these negotiations are far, far from over. Some things I will not back down on, such as this planet's full, complete and recognized independence. Other things, like the sovereignty of this entire system, may need to be sacrificed in order for the lives lost, the credits spent, and the blood, sweat and tears shed to be worth it.

I do not have illusions that this compromise will be to everyone's liking. The few hours I have had to rest have been racked with worry about the little things that I must do in order to make this work. In the end, this will not be a physical document. The peace will have to be earned, day by day."

"At this time, all I ask for, humbly, is for you to continue to go about your lives. Buy Mandalorian, for when we achieve our independence, it is unlikely that the Empire will view us kindly in the galactic market. Do not go out looking to cause trouble. Things are tense enough as it is, and the beginnings of an Imperial, Mandalorian trust is starting to form."

"These negotiations will not be completed within a mere few days. But weeks, perhaps a month. Whatever the amount of time it takes, if it brings about a long lasting peace for us, then I will do it."

_Mand'alor_ nodded, then suddenly looked to his right. There's somebody in red armor standing right there.

_He looked surprised. That's weird._

"And now, I give the floor to Rook Kast. Thank you."

The hall burst into applause, as Mrs. Wren turns to her husband, then groans quietly.

"What?" I ask her.

Mrs. Wren leans over and whispers in my ear "Rook was with me in Death Watch. She's a piece of work. I don't like th—"

"Brothers and sisters, thank you. And thank you to _Mand'alor_ for this platform. I know, that as of right now, my place is one of shame. I have blood on my hands and sorrow in my heart. As many, if all do not know, my name…is Rook Kast. Formerly of House _Kasta'Glac_ and of Death Watch_._ My House no longer speaks of me following the Siege of Mandalore, due to me being on the wrong side.

I acknowledge I was on the wrong side."

"But today, I attempt to redeem myself. Whether or not I do, is both up the people of Mandalore, _Mand'alore_ himself, and the gods."

To my left, Sabine leaned over Sophie and I to tap her mother's foot. "Mom. Why's she talking?"

Mrs. Wren shrugged, then turned back to Kast.

"The matter I came to speak to you today is that of a foreign warrior, on this planet. Rumored, but not true. I speak to the rumor of a Jedi here on our home planet of Mandalore.

Supposedly, someone on this planet, likely in this audience met this Jedi and convinced him to fight a fight that is not his. For us. For people that should be fighting this fight.

It is NOT his fight. If there is a Jedi here, he should be shot on sight—"

_WHOA._

"—rung up for all to see that Mandalore does not need foreign freedom fighters to fight her battles. We can do that ourselves.

We have done that ourselves many time s over many millennia."

I simply lean back onto the bench and cross my arms.

_Okay. Keep spouting this crap._

"To my knowledge, there is no Jedi here on Mandalore. The rumor is a false one, spread by one that seeks to destroy us from the inside out. The Jedi of old were weak. Those old enough to remember the horrors of the Clone Wars must remember how they were inadequate to stem the tide of bloodshed and death. The galaxy had passed them by. When the Empire ended their reign of unacceptable weakness and fragility, it was one of the few unquestionably "good" things they have done."

"In the future, when you hear of this Jedi, I beseech you this: That you state boldly, with all the pride of Mandalorians across this great galaxy, that what they say is a LIE!"

"A LIE! Perpetuated by one who seeks our deaths, and the destruction of our way of life. To accept this jedi a anything more than a figment of their imagination is to undermine everything our ancestors have fought for. The Jedi once brought us to the doorstep of our own destruction, and were assisted by flawed leaders such as Duchess Satine of the New Mandalorians—"

Immediately _Mand'alor_ hops to his feet and advances on Kast.

_She just went too far._

"—as such one example of—"

The microphone quickly cut out as _Mand'alor_ started to drag her away from the podium. Kast replies by starting to yell at _Mand'alor._

"Uh oh. Ezra…" I hear Sabine mutter to me as the room starts talking quietly.

Prime, followed by Will, Ordo and Kal has marched up to Kast and is laying into her.

_Great._

And there's Rex and Echo.

I was wondering where they were in all of this.

"Mommy?" Sophie says quietly, poking her head around me to look at her mother.

Mrs. Wren quickly pacifies her. "It's okay Sophie. She's wrong."

_What do I do here?_

Part of me feels like I should go up there. Prove she's wrong.

_And to back up my guys._

I start to rise, only for Sabine and Sophie both to grab my arm.

"No Ezra! That's not a good idea. There's ways to prove her wrong! Not like this. There's procedures…"

_Procedures?_

I shake my head, ignoring the disgusted feeling in my stomach and slip out of the row then start walking towards the front.

As I walk up, I notice that most people aren't looking at me. They're too absorbed in the fierce argument up front.

_Here goes._

Nervously, I step onto the small stage and start toward Kast, _Mand'alor_ and Prime.

"—that's bullshit! That Jedi has fought here almost from the start! For us! For our freedom! And now you come up here and defame everything he did and put a goddamn bullseye on him! It's bullshit!" Prime fumes, barking at Kast.

_She's not that big. Smaller than Sabine._

_Mand'alor_'s eyes snap to me, and quickly his expression changes and he takes a slight step to the side. Beside him, Prime finally sees me and nods. "Sir."

Kast spins around, briefly looks at me then turns back to Prime. "How dare you formally address a non-Mandalorian. Especially in these times! He isn't wearing armor!"

My anger spikes, and I can't hold back a retort. "If you're going to insult me, do it to my face please."

Kast turns back around. "Excuse me. I don't give a fuck really. You're an outsider. A _aruetii_. The worst kind. Get off the stage." (A/N: Outsider or traitor)

"He actually is their commanding officer." _Mand'alor_ evenly tells Kast.

_Hotheaded woman._

Kast turns back to _Mand'alor._ "You gave a _aruetii_ control over a battalion on our own soil? That's a crime worthy of your removal!"

"No it isn't Rook. Stand down." _Mand'alor_ says flatly, leaving no room to wiggle.

Kast shook her helmet. "No. I spoke the truth."

Rex shook his head. "No you didn't."

"Work it out. What sort of qualification would an outsider have to reach in order to even get inside this room? Let alone be given control over a battalion of our own men? You don't think I know the amount of tradition I'm stepping on, or how much trust is at take?" _Mand'alor_ asked her coldly.

Kast froze, then turned around slowly.

_!_

I quickly grab my lightsaber, block a streak of dark light, then spin and point my lightsaber at her head.

The room gasped, and people sprung to their feet.

_What the hell was that?_

I look down and see a rectangular hilt, with a black blade coming from it.

"ROOK! Where'd you get that?" _Mand'alor_ demanded.

"I got it from my boss in the Shadow Collective."

_Shadow Collective._

Prime frowned. "The Shadow Collective disbanded. Was so by the Empire. Nice try."

"No they weren't." Rex and I both say at the same time.

Whoever is in charge, knows I exist. Knows Kanan exists. Probably Ahsoka.

_The roots go back to the Clone Wars._

And they want me dead.

_Mand'alor_ frowned at me as Kal, Will and Ordo all are pointing blasters at Kast. "Stand down. He came to help. Don't do this to yourself."

"You knew. _or'dinii osik Mand'alor_." (A/N: Cowardly, shitty Mand'alor)

Prime's eyebrows rose into his hair. "Excuse you?"

Kast didn't reply. "You and me Jedi. _Be'vad'uso_."

"Mandalorian Honor duel." _Mand'alor_ quickly translates. "Impossible to turn down without perishing."

"Well then. Okay." I say sarcastically, still pointing my lightsaber at the her head.

_I could stab her and be done with it right now._

But I can't.

"When I win, Jedi filth, you have to leave the system and never come back. Never set foot on Mandalorian soil again."

_Okay._

I shrug. "And if I win?"

"You won't." Kast bit at me, before letting out a loud yell and violently swiping at my head.

With a flick of my wrist, I block the blow then spin out and survey the scene.

_Mand'alor, Prime and the others are feverishly backing up, waving people back as well._

"AAAHHH!" She yells, then chops down at me.

_Nope. Let's see how strong she is._

Block.

I lean back, letting her believe that she's pushing me back, then take one strong step forward and push her blade off mine.

Kast lets out a wild yell as she stumbled back and falls onto her butt before scowling at me. "Funny, Jedi."

Funny?

_Battle's already over really. I can win with power, speed and precision._

I ignore her comment as she gets back to her feet and fires a blast from her wrist.

_Sink!_

Playing the sink, I crouch down and send it right back at her, forcing her to dive away.

"_duraniir_ _dar'jetii…_" (A/N: Contemptible Dark Jedi)

_Okay. I think I know how I want to beat her. Like Dooku worked his way into what he wanted and how I baited Shark Bait._

She's blind to her surroundings. I can work her up towards me, then end it and the podium about ten feet from us now.

Kast took a strong step forward and sliced at me. I let our blades briefly touch, before pivoting back and to my left. When I turn around she's already halfway thru slicing down at me.

I tap her slice away and spin back to the left again.

_One more. C'mon._

Gotcha.

Block.

Without further thought, I wheel around to my right, elbow raised and pop her in the helmet with my forearm.

"CRACK!"

Kast screamed before I lightly cut on her left side. In a panic, she waves at it, barely getting her blade on it.

_Right._

I spin on my heels and slice at her waist on the right side, giving her time to block it while backing up.

_Good. Left._

I wave my blade in a circle, disguising my intention to switch hands, then throw my left hand out in a flash.

Kast's eyes flash over, then widen when she sees I've switched hands, and hurriedly blocks my power blow at her left shoulder.

In a rhythm, I shove her back, then repeat my move with the hand flick, but reverse it and keep it in my hand. But she doesn't bite on my fake, instead staying home for a blow from her left.

Spinning right, I clock her in the head with my elbow, bat her lightsaber aside then kick her right at the podium.

Kast lets out a scream before flying thru the podium, as her lightsaber flies out of her hands and her helmet bounces off her head, revealing a woman with a strong jaw and dark hair.

Quickly, I jog over, pull her lightsaber to me and plant my foot into her chest as she's lying where the podium was.

"You're beaten." I growl, leveling both lightsabers at her throat.

_Handily. Easily._

Wasn't even worth actually trying. Glad I got the thinking practice though.

_Mand'alor_ quickly rushes forward, sticking his hand out to stop me from killing Kast. "No no. Don't She's beat. You don't have to do that Ezra."

"I'm not." I reply simply, then extend the other lightsaber to him while extinguishing my own.

_He actually thinks I'm going to kill her._

Prime, Rex, Echo all step forward before_ Mand'alori _takes it and speaks. "Get him back there while I talk to them. Now, so I can prevent this from becoming a total disaster."

Whoa.

"C'mon." Rex frowns, taking me by the shoulder and marching me back to a back room as _Mand'alor_ begins to speak.

"Why's he so mad?" I ask Rex.

Rex shrugged before Echo spoke up. "Probably doesn't like how you took charge so fast."

"Why didn't you stay back Ezra?" Rex asked as we walk into a conference room.

A young woman in all white with her hail coiled up pop out of a chair. "Commanders, Ezra." She smiled at me.

_Leia._

"Senator." I say blankly, in shock. "How are you here?"

Rex smiled before she replied "Technically, this is a diplomatic mission. To ensure that these peace talks are going on peacefully on and in good faith by both sides."

"Buuuuttt…" Echo added.

Leia laughed. "I really came to see you and the Wren family. You've done your job here. It's time to come back. Plus, there's some urgent stuff we need you specifically for."

_Me specifically?_

"What about Kanan?" I reply.

"This isn't a Jedi thing." Leia shook her head. "It's a you thing."

A Me thing?

_What?_

I turn back to Rex and see that his expression is grim.

"What?" I demand.

"We can't say yet." Echo said quietly. "It's not done yet. Mission's ongoing."

"What mission?" I ask.

_Is it Darcy and all them?_

Hera, Zeb, Chop and Kanan?

A speaker suddenly came to life. "Get out here. Bring Ezra." _Mand'alor_ ordered.

"Okay, okay. Don't order me around." Leia snapped to the speaker.

_No reply._

Rex gently guided me back towards the stage.

"What happened?" Leia asked.

Echo smirked. "Ezra got into a fight with somebody from the Shadow Collective."

"WHAT?!"

"With a lightsaber." I say defensively, as we walk out onto the stage.

_Holy…_

The hall's empty. Sabine, Sophie and their parents are all standing with _Mand'alor_, Prime, Will, Kal and Ordo.

Sophie smiled when she saw me, as her sister' quickly looked worried.

"Senator… I didn't know you were here." Mrs. Wren says silkily.

Rook Kast scowls at me, standing beside _Mand'alor._

_Mand'alor _got right to the point. "Ezra…I thought you were smarter than this. Impulsive. Foolish. Good fight, but a real Jedi would know when NOT to fight." He snaps at me.

"She insulted me and every Jedi! Threatened to have me killed if I was spotted!" I quickly reply defensively.

_Mand'alor_ took a strong step forward. "You're not seeing the bigger point. If you'd just stayed back, I'd have been able to reveal the Princess correctly. Now Carid, I'm sorry. You and your family need to go to your mountain home. I'll arrange for a ship to take you where you all need to go. But due to Ezra's rash decision, I can't guarantee that somebody won't do something stupid."

_Karabast._

He's really mad.

Mr. Wren nodded. "Okay."

_Mand'alor_ shook his head. "Gah! I…I thought you were better Ezra. I really did."

"See? Jedi! I'm right!" Kast snaps.

Quickly, Prime steps up behind her and frowns. "Excuse me?"

Kast didn't flinch. "Impulsive, unwise, Jedi. Not a warrior."

"You take that back or you're about to spit some blood." Will spat at her.

_Mand'alor_ strongly stepped forward. "Enough! All of you. Prime, this is Senator Organa. You'll be accompanying her to where she and Ezra's family will be going."

Prime nodded, even expression. "Alright." He said, before stepping forward and shaking Leia's hand.

"Senator Leia Organa, of the Alderaan System."

"It's an honor to meet royalty, ma'am." Prime smiles.

Mrs. Wren steps forward and takes off her helmet. "Rook, this is your fault."

"You're harboring a traitor! An _aruetii_ Bo-Katan. You're better than that!" Kast bites back at her.

"You don't understand what you're talking about. What's this Shadow Collective _osik_? That's what it is!" (A/N: osik= shit)

Kast grins maniacally. "Remember how that Zabrak just disappeared? How we found his brother's body?"

"What's that got to do with anything?" _Mand'alor_ steps between them as Mrs. Wren goes slightly white.

Kast turned to her, then _Mand'alor_. "That's why. Fight never really has ended. My exalted, benevolent _Mand'alor_."

Mrs. Wren shook her head. "How'd you get the Darksaber? That was Pre Vizla's! That monster took it!"

"That monster gave it…to me. To fight him. One less Jedi he has to waste his time on. He has bigger things to do."

_No…_

Numbly, I look to Sabine and see her jaw is open. Sophie looks terrified.

Will stepped forward and put a blaster to her head. "Where. So we can kill him and end this madness."

Kast didn't even acknowledge him, or the blaster, instead leering at Mrs. Wren.

"He knows about me?" I ask quietly.

_The Zabrak that killed Mrs. Wren's sister…is alive. _

"Yes. His eyes are everywhere."

Out of nowhere, the pressure in my head spikes in my ears, and I scrunch my face up.

"Ezra?" I hear somebody say, just before I reach out—

Horns burst in from out of nowhere, playing a darkly ominous tune.

The air vanishes from my lungs just before I feel an invisible hand grab ahold of me and begin pushing me down.

_NO!_

I don't register what everyone's saying around me, as I stagger forward and step in front of Sophie.

NO.

The invisible hand finally gets me on one knee, only for Sophie to step up and try to push me up.

_Get back!_

Before I can even attempt to move her out of the way, she's snatched back as the music escalates.

Then I hear it. (A/N: Youtube. Darth Vader – The Suit – Episode III. 3:50 mark. That's the music. When he really is pissed, it's not the Imperial March that plays…)

The hand continues pressing down, straining my neck.

_Fine. But I need to breathe._

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

I bow my head, take a deep breath and feel the heavy footsteps as they approach.

Clomp Clomp Clomp Clomp Clomp.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"Rise." Vader says simply, and the pressure all around me vanishes.

I pause for a brief moment, then stand up fully and frown slightly at Vader.

_I did not kneel willingly._

And he should know that.

"Rook Kast. You've managed to do something I didn't know was possible." Vader said, sounding angry.

_Surprise on that one._

Kast paused. "I'm afraid I don't know who you are."

"My name is Darth Vader. Today, you have managed to anger Bridger into completely destroying you with a lightsaber."

"He—" Kast spoke, before Vader overrode her.

"You humiliated yourself and gave up all of your secrets. The Shadow Collective is in the process of being destroyed on this planet as we speak. I have seen to it myself."

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

_Sabine's friend said the Empire knew about the Shadow Collective._

Thought they were a joke basically.

"Your master…will die at my hand. Your feeble organization has been destroyed."

Kast moved to speak, but was cut off as Vader grabbed Kast by the throat and lifted her up, causing her to gag lightly.

"My lord…GAHHH!"

"SILENT! Your purpose is complete…" Vader ground out, as Kast's whines became louder and louder while she fought to free herself.

_Wait._

I stumble in front of Sophie just in time before Kast goes silent and her head slumps to the side.

Vader doesn't look to me before silently tossing her aside, then pointed for two Stormtroopers behind him to retrieve her.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

_What now?_

Vader glanced at Sabine, then her parents, then _Mand'alor_, Prime, Will, Orir, Kal, Senator Organa, Rex and Echo. "Senator Organa. I wasn't aware of your presense here on the planet."

"I don't need your authorization Darth. I'm here on a diplomatic mission to ensure that the ongoing negotiations between the Empire and _Mand'alor_ are peaceful and in good faith." Leia replies strongly.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

Vader's tone turned condescending "Then why do you have two _clone_ bodyguards."

Rex frowns, then steps forward fearlessly. "Sir, we're not bodyguards. My name's Rex. 501st Clone Battalion in the Clone Wars."

My heart skips a beat as I realize what's happening.

_He hasn't seen Anakin since the Clone Wars._

Suddenly, Vader turned and looked at me.

_BLAST!_

Hurriedly, I block out my mind and prepare for a mental assault.

…

Vader calmly looks at me, then turns back to Rex. "Ahh yes. Captain Rex. Fought with General Skywalker and Commander Tano. I remember. Would this be Kenobi's Commander Cody?" he asked silkily.

_Huh?_

Echo spoke up. "No sir. Name's Echo. Fought beside Rex for many years."

"Yes, yes. I know who you are Echo." Vader said dismissively, before looking back to Senator Organa. "Senator, I'm not quite sure I believe you're telling me the truth."

Leia frowned. "I have no incentive to lie. And your reputation proceeds you."

"I'm sure it does." Vader replies coldly.

_Mand'alor_ spoke up "What's your purpose here Darth Vader?"

"You will address me as Lord Vader or 'My Lord'. Nothing else, Fenn Shysta."

_Mand'alor_ takes a step back as everybody's faces explode with shock.

_He knows his name._

"How do you know his name?" Mr. Wren asked.

Vader turned to look at him, then stood over him "Unlike Kast and her band of criminals my eyes truly are everywhere."

_He towers over him._

We're about the same height.

"My purpose here is almost complete." Vader said simply, looking back to _Mand'alor_. "I have a message for you."

"From who?" _Mand'alor_ asks.

"My master."

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"This little Rebellion you and your people have staged is over, _Mand'alor_. The negotiations will go on as promised with you, your advisors and your potentially traitorous Senators and clones. But know this: If you do not declare this act and Mandalorian uprising, and nothing more, not an act of Rebellion, then I will come in and wipe this planet from the face of the _galaxy._" Vader said coldly.

The room is silent for a moment, then _Mand'alor_ swallows nervously. "Alright. I…I'll do that."

"Also, your bounty hunter. Boba Fett. He will be contracted out to me now, for a period."

_Boba Fett?_

_Mand'alor_ nodded simply, then Vader turned to the rest of us.

"Good. Now I will speak with the Jedi before I depart."

_Mand'alor_, Rex, Prime, Echo and Sabine all step forward.

Vader cuts them all off. "Alone."

Everyone backs down, except for Sabine, who doesn't move. "No."

Vader smoothly turned to Sabine, with Sophie right beside her. "Would you like to get a new set of armor?"

"If I need to." Sabine replies.

"No harm will come to him. Step aside."

Sabine hesitated, then pulled her and Sophie out of the way.

Then Vader beckoned for me to follow him. "Come."

I smile reassuringly at Sabine before I start walking.

_I'll be okay. I think. I just have to stay calm and keep my mind locked down._

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

Vader allows me to step in front of him before slipping into step beside me. His Stormtroopers close up behind us.

We walk out of the hall in silence, then Vader waves for the Stormtroopers to fall back.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"Ezra…Bridger."

"Lord Vader." I say, trying to sound calm. "Long time, no see."

"Indeed. What is your purpose here?" Vader asks, voice calm.

Okay.

I nod, then answer. "My girlfriend and her family sir. When we heard that fighting had broken out here, we came to protect them."

"Quite noble of you, young one."

I shake my head vigorously. "Not noble. Just my job."

"I am sure you are aware of the Jedi's…opinion on attachments?" Vader asks delicately.

_He's got a point he wants to make._

"Yes. But I'm not a Jedi." I say.

"Are you now?" Vader asks.

_What?_

I shake my head. "I…Lord Vader, I'm sure nothing went on during my capture that you didn't know about."

Vader nods. "That is correct."

"You knew I used the Dark Side of the Force. I'm no Jedi. I learned a lot during that time, not just about pain. There's shades to the Force. It's not just the dark side and the light."

Vader breaks off eye contact and continues walking. "That is very perceptive of you."

"Besides, the Jedi are dead. Their way is over. And for good reason."

Let's play that card. It's not totally wrong.

Vader simply looked back to me, then paused. "You speak of the group. That's a matter of semantics."

"Semantics?" I blurt out, then turn to him.

_Out of all people, he's going to lecture me on SEMANTICS?!_

Silently, Vader takes my lightsaber off my belt and inspects it.

Out of reflex, I stick my hand out for his lightsaber.

_It's how you do things._

I gave you mine, now unless I'm supposed to just be unarmed, then you give me yours.

Vader stopped, then looked at my hand. "Oh. You…want my lightsaber."

"It's only fair." I reply.

Vader unclipped his lightsaber, then extended it to me, handle first.

_Whoa._

I take it, and turn it over in my hands.

_Same handgrip._

We have the same one. His lightsaber is much heavier.

_And I think it's basically a double of his first lightsaber, the one with the blade guard._

"Your skills have advanced." Vader says quietly, inspecting my lightsaber. "Is it still a blaster?"

I nod.

"Where? Show me." Vader asks, extending my lightsaber back to me.

"Just pull the trigger. It's a blaster right now." I tell him.

Without another word, Vader raises my blaster and fires it into the marble hall we're walking down.

"PHEW!"

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"Most impressive, young Bridger."

I smile to myself. "Thank you. Means a lot."

_Another compliment._

…

"Your thoughts betrayed you." Vader speaks quietly.

Oh boy.

_Here we go._

"Yes. They did." I admit.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"You know."

I nod, then hang my head. "Yes. I know."

"If you wish to keep your thoughts to yourself, I advise that you commit yourself to it constantly. Always keep your guard up, not just around enemies. You never truly know who your enemies are." Vader tells me.

_Makes sense._

"Alright." I nod.

"The key I learned in my time…was that constant vigilance was the answer. You must always be prepared to fight. Think. The datapad I planted for you told you as much, along with the natural progression of your style as a Jedi. What would do the most damage to your enemies? Do they have a breathing apparatus? Weak leg? Go for the lungs or the leg."

I open my mouth to retort, but Vader slaps my hands down. "No! Listen to me! Don't just go for the lungs. Go for a lung. Be precise. Be _SPECIFIC_. Go for the larynx. Connections. Arm?"

"Shoulder." I blurt out.

"Leg?"

"Hip."

Vader nods. "You understand."

I nod in reply. "Yes."

_He's giving me tips._

"Don't undersell yourself Ezra Bridger. You are smart and wise beyond your years. You have a…great student of mine teaching you. Along with Captain Rex. For him to allow you to wear that pauldron in front of him says a lot about you."

Self-consciously, I look down at the pauldron.

_He knows what that means._

He's still inside there.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"You know the scope of the situation. And you are smart enough not to press the issue." Vader adds.

"I'll just die that way. No point." I say.

Vader nods. "Precisely. Now you know what I know. The Jedi moved to overthrow the Senate."

_I…_

Hesitantly, I nod.

"The footage. My master believes it didn't escape that planet. I'm not naïve enough to agree. Ahsoka knew where to look."

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"Where is Kenobi?" Vader demands.

I shake my head. "I don't know. I met him once."

"WHERE."

_Trump card._

"At Ahsoka's wedding."

Vader whips around and grabs my shoulder strongly. "WHAT?"

I smile. "She got married. Right after I got out."

"To?"

_Blast…_

Lux Bontiri. But I can't tell him that.

Vader's head…cocks to the side slightly. "Pretty Boy Bontiri? Snips…"

_Snips?!_

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

I let out a quiet breath, then redouble my efforts.

"Constant vigilance, young Bridger."

I nod in understanding. "I understand."

We both walk outside, revealing a massive Star Destroyer in the sky, along with a Imperial Shuttle on the landing pad.

"Is that the _Executor?_" I ask Vader.

Has to be. It's MASSIVE.

Vader nods beside me. "Your time on Denon served some good. Miss Ridley taught you well."

Darcy too?!

"She was a big loss. One we will recuperate."

I turn and shake my head. "They defected. Not without a fight."

"There's a conflict coming Ezra."

I close my eyes, and probe with the Force.

_Black Hole._

And truth.

"I know." I say.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"Join me. Join me Ezra. I will ensure your girlfriend's family is safe. We can overthrow my Master, find your parents and bring peace to the Galaxy." Vader told me.

_Wait._

"You want me?" I ask in shock.

ME? I'm a kid from Lothal!

Vader nods. "You are a boy no longer. You are a man. A Jedi. When you wield a lightsaber, act like it. You have the power few in this galaxy have. You think like a Sith. Together, we can do _anything._"

'_Do itttt…'_

No.

I shake my head.

'_The only way to achieve peace…is to join him. The most powerful Force user of all time.'_

"No." I say quietly. "I'm on my path. You chose yours."

_And now I die._

"Paths can be changed. In a moment's notice. Mine changed for the better. Yours can as well."

I shake my head strongly. "No! You…you were a Jedi first! All can be forgiven! Come back to us! There's good in you! It's there, we wouldn't be talking if there wasn't." I tell him, looking up at him.

Vader doesn't reply, instead peering down at me.

"I must obey my Master. You don't understand the _POWER_ of the Dark Side."

I frown and look away from him. "You might have been the strongest Jedi. Ever. And you bow to an unknown Master. You are better than that."

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"It is, too late for me now." Vader says quietly. "There is a conflict coming. If you will not join me…your girlfriend's safety is not ensured."

"I know that. But she can take care of herself." I reply.

Vader stepped forward. "No. Get them away. Do not get involved. I do not wish to destroy you. Leave. Leave the Jedi ways behind you. If you do that, then I can spare you in the conflict to come."

I bite my lip. "I can't do that. They wouldn't come willingly. And they wouldn't accept that I just threw everything away for them."

"And how are you so sure of that?" Vader asks quietly.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"They love me." I tell him.

Vader shook his head. "Love."

_Why'd he shake his head?_

"You knew love. Amidala. Naboo."

Vader turned back to me. "Do not…speak of that name."

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"But it's the truth."

"Some things are better left unsaid." Vader answers calmly.

…

"What happened? Why'd you do it?" I ask, unable to hold back any longer.

Vader looks to me. "You'd never understand, young Bridger. Even if you tried. But Obi-Wan betrayed me. The Jedi…betrayed the Republic. My Master did what was needed in order to have peace."

_Peace._

"Peace." I repeat, skeptically.

"That, you don't understand."

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"Make me understand. Explain it!" I tell him.

_Make me understand!_

"This is where we part, Ezra Bridger. We have been watched ever since we stepped out here." Vader tells me, then points up.

_To Sabine, Mand'alor, Prime and her parents._

There are warriors on either side of the building, watching us.

"I won't repeat anything you told me." I say truthfully.

Vader nods. "Good. Now tell me one thing."

"O…kay." I hesitate.

"What did Obi-Wan tell Ahsoka after she got married?"

_Oh._

I hang my head, and I feel my heart break.

Before I raise my head, I take a breath. "He told her that he was very proud of her. And that you were proud of her. Not just that day, but every day."

Vader simply stared, and the wind on the platform whistles by.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"I am. Tell her that."

"I will." I reply.

"Clunk Clunk."

_Huh?_

"How cute." I hear a gravelly voice say behind me.

I whip around and grab my lightsaber before my heart leaps into my throat as I hear Mrs. Wren scream at the top of her lungs. Vader doesn't look away.

_From the Zabrak._

"You. You're alive. Just as Kast said." Vader growls out, activating his lightsaber.

"Who are you?" I demand.

_Answer me._

"I am Maul! Darth…Maul. The worthy apprentice to _YOUR_ Master." Maul snarls at Vader.

Vader speaks up. "I heard every word Kast said. It was all lies. Your feeble Shadow Collective has been defeated."

"But you won't defeat me!" Maul screams, then leaps back.

"WHOOSH!"

A speeder flies by at top speed in time for Maul to grab it, and zoom off.

"WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRR… WHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIRRRRRRRRRRR…"

I spin and look up.

_That's an alarm._

That's bad.

Warriors immediately started pursuing, and Vader grabs me by the shoulder.

"Come with me!"

"What?" I ask.

Vader simply grabs a speeder, pulls it to him effortlessly and sets it down. "Get in. We're going after him."

"We?" I ask, obeying his order.

Vader simply hops in the driver's seat, throwing the driver aside and hits the gas. My body lurches as we speed off in pursuit.


	77. One Two Three

"Pwing!" "Pew Pew!"

Bolts hit a engine, which burts into flames.

"BOOM!"

The speeder lurches, and I grab the armrest for dear life.

_Vader drives like a MANIAC!_

"ZZZZZZOOOOOOMMMM!"

I whip my arm back to see a speeder waving wildly in the air before crashing into a building.

"WHOOSH!"

Turning back to the front, I see Maul's speeder, which he's now crawled inside of and taken control of take a sudden dive down to street level. Without hesitation, Vader follows while picking up more speed.

I hear Vader hit his comm, then an unfamiliar voice spoke. "Lord Vader. The Shadow Collective has fallen back. We noticed your position has changed. Shall we send the 501st and TIEs to pursue?"

"Yes Captain. Be advised that I am not alone. The person I am traveling with is not to be fired upon." Vader answers.

"If I may be so bold, why is that my Lord?"

The Force suddenly tenses up before Vader answers "You do not wish to be so bold Admiral. Do not question my motives. Maul is retreating with the bulk of his forces to Sundari. I advise you to bring the forces there as well."

"I apologize my Lord. Admiral Quilhuff out."

Click.

_He's treated me nicer than that guy._

"Your mind, young Bridger."

DANG IT!

"Sorry." I quickly apologize.

Vader makes a disapproving sound. "When I say constant vigilance, I mean it. I encourage you to think. It is one thing that makes you special. I didn't learn to think until after I became a Sith. But be mindful of anyone who may have ill intent."

I nod. "Yes, sir."

"You know of Maul." Vader immediately replies.

I nod. "My girlfriend's mom was Satine's sister."

Vader briefly paused, and the speeder slowed slightly. "Obi Wan once spoke of her. A member of the Death Watch. He spoke of the heartbreak she hid while saving his life."

"She's never really talked about it. I haven't pushed her."

"Good. Again, you are wise beyond your years. Sometimes it is better to let them deal with an issue themselves. Let them beat themselves."

"Beep Beep."

_Oh crap, that's Sabine comming me._

I mutter "Excuse me. Gotta take this." Before slapping my comm.

Vader calmly looks over at me as I say "Hey. You're on speaker. With Lord Vader."

"I KNOW THAT! HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND?!" She screeches.

I wince, then reply "Calm down! That's not going to help!"

"Ezra! He's going to kill you!"

"No he's not Sabine!" I say confidently. "He wants me to come help face this Maul guy.

"Stay away from that guy! Please! Mom's having a heart attack over here she's so worried about you!"

"Sabine, I'm gonna be fine!" I smile.

Sabine scoffed, then I hear _Mand'alor_ in the background yell something. "Where are you all at? Prime, Will, the others and I are coming to get you."

"No!" Vader suddenly proclaims. "Stay out of this Mandalorian!"

I hear multiple gasps in the background, then a split second pause. "That's not my name! I'm sure you know it! Don't try to order me around! And that's no way in hell I'm just going to blindly trust you! We're coming!"

"Miss Wren, you have no idea what you are about to face. This is a beast. No mere abomination like the monster I dispatched to take care of your boyfriend."

"Ezra whupped him and he'll beat this guy too! We're coming now." Sabine said acidically.

I cringe, then say "Don't fire on him Sabine! That'll just—"

"Click."

_She just hung up on me._

"DAMMIT!" I yell, then swat the front of the speeder.

"Be calm. Your anger will only hinder you in this fight. If you are to contribute at all, you need to be calm and remain so for the duration of the fight."

_Okay._

I close my eyes quickly, and take a deep breath.

"ZOOOMMM!"

"Very good." Vader compliments me. "Now, as I said, Darth Maul is not like the Fifth Brother. He is, was, my Master's first apprentice."

"What happened?"

"Kenobi beat him on Naboo after Maul slayed his Master, my first master, Qui-Gonn Jinn."

_Naboo?_

"Naboo?" I ask.

"Yes."

_Was that the guy I saw in the hanger? He kind of looked like a Jedi._

And he was like Padmé on Polis Massa.

"How is he alive?" I question. "Or do you know?"

Vader shakes his head., while slowing down. "No. I know, but only from experience. His hate for Kenobi kept him alive, as he thirsted for revenge. When he resurfaced during the Clone Wars, that was all he really wanted. To kill Kenobi."

_The way he says Kenobi…_

"Kenobi. Can you not say his full name? You two both hate him."

"I HAVE AN ACTUAL, REAL REASON! HE BROUGHT MY OWN WIFE TO KILL ME!"

WHAT!?

I open my mouth to reply, then hastily be quiet.

_Bad idea. Bad, bad idea._

"Maul is a beast. A monster. A fighting machine. He lay dormant for many years after the Clone Wars. Why, I do not know. My master told me that he was dead. I have actually never fought him. It was too 'dangerous' for Ahsoka and I to take him on. Preposterous."

_Jeez._

"They didn't trust you at all." I shake my head.

Vader continues slowing down. "Do you start to see a picture form in your head?"

"Yeah." I answer. "Losing the Order wasn't all bad. Like how a forest fire brings about new growth."

Vader looks to me, mask not giving away anything. "Awful poetic, for a Lothal thief."

"School was okay. When I went." I shrug.

_His Master didn't tell him the truth. Maybe this…_

Are the Sith really bad enough to actually have this be a plan? Rogue apprentice to fight his new apprentice after his assassin tries to kill me?

_Stupid Rook Kast. She had no idea how big a pawn she was._

"I heard and saw everything in that hall, young Bridger. If you fight now like you did then, you will be fine. Do you know how to track a double bladed lightsaber? If not, be honest."

"No, I know." I pipe up. "Keep track of the hilt. The blades cannot go anywhere without it."

Vader nods. "Good. Now fight normal. You and Maul should be similar in that speed is your first play. Protect yourself. I cannot babysit you, nor should I have to."

"You won't have to."

"This is unlike anyone you've ever faced Ezra. Only I am better."

_Yeah, that didn't go very well._

"I was much worse then." I tell him.

Vader nodded again. "I know. I have watched each of your fights with the Fifth Brother."

_He has?!_

"You have?" I turn and question him.

"Imperial Intelligence is extremely adept at pulling security footage without being detected. I contacted them here on Mandalore before you jumped out of your ship to come here."

I turn to look at him in shock. "You're stalking me."

"Monitoring. You are of great interest to me, young Bridger. Your skills are great. With minor tweaks, you will be a force to be reckoned with."

_He complimented me again._

"You keep complimenting me." I say boldly. "Why?"

"I mean it." Vader answers. "You…we could have been good friends during the Clone Wars. Even a Sith likes to be happy."

"You're human." I tell him.

"Yes. You were right to stand up to Rook Kast earlier. I think highly of you because of your mind, more than your might. At your age, every Jedi was a blinded Gundark. But you think like no other I have ever seen before. Which fascinates me. The presence of mind to rise up against lies, like Rook Kast is undeniable. In the end, I am just a man. Have you ever heard of the mental strategy Dun Möch?"

I nod. "Yes."

"I imagined so. It is primarily a Sith technique actually, used to undermine and overwhelm a foe. Makes them beat themselves mentally. I use it, and Maul will use it, specifically against you. Be prepared."

_Alright then._

Like how Shark Bait goaded me and baited me in our first fight here.

"Why are you slowing down?" I ask, as I see a dark speck off in the distance.

Vader took one hand off the controls and pointed at Maul's speeder. "You cannot see it due to the speed, but he is dealing with Mandalorians in jetpacks constantly, along with ground fire from Imperial Stormtroopers. He is going to that bubble in the background, the city of Sundari."

I speak up. "The old Mandalorian capital."

"Precisely."

"BOOM!"

A whiff of flame bursts up, then Vader guns the engines.

_That must have been Maul's engines._

"Use the Force Ezra. At all times. It is the ultimate advantage."

Obediently, I nod.

_I can't believe this._

Vader kind of…likes me. Tolerates me. A lot more than most Imperials I've seen. And he's teaching me stuff and advising me.

_Unbelievable._

In front of us, Maul's clearly limping his speeder along as the speck becomes a clear dome, looming closer and closer.

I let out a breath, then notice a white speck float by.

_Snow?_

Suddenly a chilling wind smacks into us, and snows starts floating all around us. Vader doesn't show any signs off feeling it, instead continuing to gun for Maul.

His engine can't be that hurt if he's still fleeing us. It's not blowing up his speeder.

_Whoa._

The dome has a huge hole in it, which is being repaired. It's not done. There's still a large gash, but there's scaffolding all around it.

"Rule number one: Never leave a formerly occupied place. It creates a power vacuum for scum like Maul to flourish." Vader suddenly tells me. "This is where he's been hiding, most likely."

_Again, makes sense. All the gangs on Lothal occupied the old, rich neighborhoods once the people died or moved._

Maul's speeder enters the massive chasm in the dome, then immediately takes a dive. Vader responds by speeding up and going up for a brief moment, then diving back down.

_Towards the fire inside the dome._

Hastily and roughly, Vader then parks the speeder and gets out.

I get out and look around.

_There's fighting here too. Snow's getting in thru the massive hole._

The Force ripples beside me as I suddenly feel Vader's Force Signature light up.

Ignoring the Mandalorians and Stormtroopers off to the side, I probe and find a icy fireball of…

Whoa.

_Hate. Anger. Enmity._

I turn to find Vader, and see that he's found Maul.

_Maroon skin. Black tattoos all over him. Horns sticking out of his head. Ripped out of his mind._

Guy's a monster. Looks like some sort of devil.

"There is no hope for you now, Maul." Vader ground out, lightsaber in his hand.

Maul sneers, hand also on a silver lightsaber. "The only one with no hope is you, _Lord Vader_. You are desperate enough to have resorted to bringing a mere child with you.

"That mere child is more accomplished in the Force than you ever have been Maul. You were a tool, a beast used for another's benefit. Nothing more." Vader retorts.

"Fear. Fear attracts the fearful, the strong. The weak, the innocent, the corrupt. Fear. It is my ally, and it controls you." Maul responded. "You are a disgraced Jedi, Skywalker. No matter how hard you and _your master_ try to erase the past, you carry it with you. I see it now, on your shoulders. You are a shadow of your former self, reduced to a cybernetic shell in order to keep you alive. You are WEAK! And today, you fall."

_How does he know about Vader being Anakin?_

Vader doesn't reply, instead igniting his lightsaber.

"Yet you hid here for years. And you taunt him. Look at your own legs! They're machines! You're as much machine as you are…whatever you are!" I spit at him.

"SILENCE!" Maul howls, then leaping up, landing between us and lashing out at me with one of his lightsaber blades.

I block the blow while taking out my lightsaber, then immediately flip the hilt in my hand and raise it above my head.

_He can't know I'm Makashi right now. I need to disguise it._

I'm the worst fighter here. Two Sith and me.

"You wish to fight me, boy?" Maul said, looking down at me. "You bring about your own destruction."

Breathe.

I let out a breath, then calm my mind.

_Let's go._

I leap out at him and slash at his neck. Maul blocks with a flick of the wrist, then rockets off a punch.

Ducking down, I dodge it before Maul spins away on his heel and directs his attention to Vader.

_That's a Makashi move._

Vader takes a half step to Maul and strikes down at him with one hand. Maul blocks it, also with one hand, before quickly grabbing it with the other hand.

Too strong.

Before Vader can do anything else, Maul lashes down at his ankles.

Block. Push.

Maul takes one step back before Vader sends a blow in Maul's direction. Maul inverts his blades, blocking it vertically.

_That lightsaber is so thin._

Maybe if I can cut it in half…

Vader moves to attack again, but Maul spins again, leaving Vader aiming at air. Before Maul can capitalize on it though, Vader resets the action by turning and facing Maul.

"You're a step slow. I didn't realize all those cybernetics hindered you so much. Maybe you should try mine." Maul taunts him, patting his leg before twirling his double-bladed lightsaber and striking at Vader.

Block. Block. Cut. Block. Slash.

_JUMP?!_

Vader can jump?!

_It was a little jump, but he did it! Like a hop!_

I hear Maul's blade skip on Vader's and my heart jumps.

_What am I doing just standing here?!_

Quickly, I leap towards Maul and slash down at him.

_Blast!_

I missed him like Obi-Wan missed Dooku on Obi Diah. Badly.

Maul turns it into a horizontal jab. I block it, then shove his blade away into a salute.

I've still got to play my game.

"How noble of you, boy."

I frown at him. "I have a name."

"I don't care!" Maul says before leaping over me and between Vader, then slashing at both of us.

I vault backwards, then—.

"POW!"

I smash into the ice cold ground, then look up and see a Stormtrooper.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" I scream at him.

"Jedi!" The Stormtrooper blindly says, raising his blaster.

I leap to my feet, then slash his blaster in half and spin to cut him in half.

"AUUGH!"

_Idiot._

Looking around, I see that Mandalorians, Stormtroopers and Mandalorians in red armor are all fighting each other. Then I spin and find Maul darting around Vader like a snake.

Vader strikes, Maul blocks and moves.

_To tire him?_

Spontaneously Maul flashes a kick out at Vader, who catches it and heaves Maul away.

Hold on.

_I think I know that style. Teräs Käsi._

Rex and Echo taught it to Sabine. She was telling me about it way back when, before Denon. In case she ever had to fight a Force Sensitive. It's a way to combat it.

_Maul's a Sith. Why's he using that?_

As I watch, Maul Force Pushes Vader, and he falls onto his back. Instinctively, I leap forward to give him time to get up.

Block. I try to riposte, but am stopped by Maul's fist sailing past my face. He growled in anger, and I duck and spin away from him, cutting off my lightsaber.

_Blast!_

"PING!"

Maul's leg immediately wobbles, and he retreats rapidly. "What?"

"PHEW! PHEW PHEW!" I fire rapidly, trying to drive Maul back.

_Didn't know about this did ya!_

Hah!

Finally Maul gets his blade on one of my shots, aimed at his head and sends it back in my direction, only for somebody behind me to redirect it way wide.

I barely turn before Vader is stride for stride with me. Together, we march toward Maul who bares blackened teeth and ignites both blades while reaching for a speeder to the left.

Instinctively, I grab the same speeder, and it stops dead while starting to vibrate.

_NO!_

It's mine!

I yank on it harder, only for Maul to release it and find it careening toward me.

_Oh sh—_

"WOMP!"

The speeder and I fly thru the air until we both hit a permacrete wall hard.

_OW._

Clever Maul. I'll give you that.

Slowly, I get to my feet and see Vader and Maul, still dueling.

Chop. Block. Spin. Kick. Whiff.

_I can get a good shot off and try to take out his knees._

They're exposed.

"PHEW!"

My blaster bolt zooms toward Maul, who deflects it away at the last second into a debris pile.

Leaping to my feet, I grab some of the debris and fling it at Maul. Maul simply waves his hand and it disappears.

Vader continues forging ahead, giving Maul chop after chop.

_Maul keeps evading. Vader is going to win this fight, but he needs Maul to stay in one place._

Ooh!

I sprint around Vader and Maul as fast as I can, then dig in as Vader keep driving Maul back slowly.

Two steps.

_One…_

Before Maul can sense it, I flash a cut out at him, but can't get anything on it.

Then Maul blows my mind by blocking it and spinning behind me.

_HOW?_

"WOMP!"

Vader simply bodily discards me to the side, then continues pursuing Maul.

_Blast._

I'm not having much of an impact.

Getting back to my feet, I start seeing Maul's Mandalorians set up positions.

_They want Vader. _

I grab the first one I see and throw him across the street, then shoot one down the block.

"AUGHHH!"

"PHEW!"

I spin and deflect the bolt fired at my back into the ground, then pull him past me, towards the other two that I've collected and light up my lightsaber.

"Shadow Collective?" I ask, advancing on them.

"We aren't talking Jed—AUUUGH!" One says, pointing at me briefly.

Then I relieved him of his forearm. Doesn't need it.

I slice thru the other two, then turn back and see Maul starting to—

_Okay…_

He's mixing in some Shien and I think a little Juyo into it. Footwork is impeccable. And he's huge.

_I don't really belong in this fight unless I'm at the top of my game._

Without me, it's a draw. And Maul's going to just spin right around me again unless I don't back down.

"_Don't back down. Unless you have a strategy."_

Wait.

_Leverage._

"GSSSHHH!"

Maul lets out a roar and attempts to punch Vader, who ducks around it and slashes at Maul's ankles. Maul leaps to avoid it.

By the time Maul's on the ground he's already moving to block where I'm slashing, and responds by locking me up and trying to push me off my spot.

I lean into my blade, and try not to give ground. But Maul simply moves me, leaving my feet skidding on the ground.

_Nope!_

Deactivating my lightsaber, Maul's momentum carries him right past me.

"PHEW!"

Sparks fly up as I hit him right where his legs and torso connect.

_Blast!_

I spring forward as Maul collects himself and slice down at him. Maul ripostes, but doesn't advance, instead choosing to have room.

Makashi.

_I need to take away his space._

Feeling Vader breathing down my neck, I glance around and see that there is a dead end way down the road.

I follow Maul down the road, and try to get as close as possible.

Slice. Block.

Spinning, I reverse grip and go for his arm.

Whiff.

Maul counters by rearing back and getting everything on a punch that I see coming and spin away—

"POP!"

A painful sound comes from Vader, and I turn and see him holding his mouthpiece with one hand.

_Did he break it?_

Maul attempts to capitalize on his fortune, but I slide in front of Vader and lunge out at him.

"YAH!" I yell, throwing a powerful chop at Maul. Maul is caught in the middle with his arms half extended and feebly blocks it.

Instinctively, I pivot and throw my arm at Maul's head, leading with the armor plate on my arm.

Maul ducks, then lets out a yell as multiple horns snap off.

"GRRRR…"

With a bloodthirsty look, Maul throws himself at me and I scramble away, deflecting blows on both sides.

Left. Right. Right. Left.

_You are NOT working me like this!_

I spin on my toes, anticipating Maul to be on my other side. Only to see red lightsaber going right at my chest.

NO!

In a panic, I Force Push Maul's hand while diving away.

"SIIIZZZ…"

I fall to the ground and quickly get away from Maul and see that he cut right under my arm.

_Close ca_—

"ACK!" I gasp and clutch at my throat.

_NO!_

Maul sneers at me, then blocks Vader's downward strike and continues choking me while lifting me into the air. Closing my eyes, I dig deep, grab the memory of the fight at the City of Bone and how I converted pain into lightning.

Then I throw everything at him.

"BZZTTT!"

Maul lets out a roar, then marches forward while still choking me.

_Uh oh. It's over._

My mind goes blank as the world starts fading out at the edges of my vision.

_this is it…_

Then the pressure on my throat disappears, and Maul flies away. I collapse and gasp for air, not caring how loud I am.

I…

Blinking, I try to locate Vader.

_Must have been him that saved me._

My initial sweep of the area fails to find him, and I duck my head and just breathe. I'm no good in a fight if I'm out of air. After a few more gulps of air, I stagger to my feet and see Vader in a blade lock.

_Okay._

Okay…I can't just stop. Even if that's what I feel I should do.

I let out a breath, then start back towards Maul and Vader as my legs shake slightly.

_Got to keep going._

As I arrive, Maul spins away from Vader and lashes at me. I throw my blade out and deflect it, then try to bisect his hand. Miss. Vader immediately responds by striking down at Maul. Maul anticipated the blow and a piece of debris flies in to take the strike. I answer by nailing Maul in the face with a kick.

He staggers back, then slices at my legs, forcing me to vault over him and land gracefully. Maul doesn't look back, instead whipping more debris at Vader, who waves it aside.

Strike. Block. Cut.

Maul tries ducking under me, but I dive down, stop him bodily, grab onto the emitter end of both lightsabers and hold on tight.

"Get OFF!" Maul screams, trying to wave me off. I cling to the lightsaber until Maul tilts it vertically, raising me up. Glancing down, I let go and fly away.

"CRASH!"

Pain immediately erupts in my ribcage, and all the air in my lungs disappears again.

Vader slices down at Maul one handed, then after Maul deflects and spins, catches him in a Force Choke.

_FINISH HIM!_

I let out a hopeful gasp and crawl forward before—

Vader lets out a wheeze and I freeze up.

_No…_

His lungs. That's Vader's biggest weak spot.

"CHUNG!"

Sparks fly, Vader falls down and Maul's left leg flies off at the knee.

I turn and look, only to see Sabine.

NO!

Maul reaches out, and I crawl forward desperately before Sabine is grabbed by Maul. Behind her, Prime wraps himself around her waist to hold her down. Will grabbed Prime, Kal grabs Prime, Orir gets him.

A mechanical rasp is cut off by Maul roaring and pulling harder on Sabine. I stumble to my feet, activate my lightsaber and desperately jab at the middle of Maul's chest.

"GAHHHHHHHhhhhhh…"

Sabine screams and falls while Maul clutches at his chest, then falls.

My momentum carries me past Maul, and I fall near where Vader is on all fours.

_Did…_

Did I get him?

"Hssssshhhiiiiisssss…"

"Beep Beep Bop Beep."

_GET UP!_

I force myself to my elbows and see that Maul's half turned to where I was, with a burninghole in him. Off to the side Sabine's lost her helmet, with everyone else collapsed behind her.

"Gusssshhh…whirrr…"

_Whoa._

That didn't sound good.

I turn and see Vader pressing a button on his chest plate.

"Do we…" I start asking, but get cut off.

"I'm fine." Vader says brusquely, then looks up and sees Maul. "Did he impale himself?"

I shake my head. "I got him. Barely."

The sound of the wind whistling by fills the air for a moment.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

Heavily, Vader gets to his feet and looks in Sabine's direction.

_Ow._

Without asking, I'm suddenly pulled ot my feet by Vader. "Your girlfriend. Was that the shot?"

"Yes." Sabine says in front of us, causing me to turn and the world to spin.

Whooooaaa…

Sabine steps forward and grabs me. "I gotcha."

Closing my eyes and leaning on her, I take a gentle breath.

"You okay?"

"No." I reply bluntly. "I can't really breathe."

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

Sabine looks down and lets out a loud hiss. "Yeah…ribs don't cave in like that."

_Karabast._

I groan and look away from Sabine to the alley where Prime and everyone has their weapons pointed at Vader.

"No!" I call out, then wave for them to lower their weapons.

_He hasn't harmed me. I'm not going to harm him._

Today we're on the same side. His enemy was my enemy. Which makes him my friend.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"That was brave of you to step up Miss Wren." Vader breathes.

Sabine looks up at Vader and swallows nervously. "Thank you."

Vader shook his head lightly. "I won't harm you or your team if you don't harm me. I wasn't the one that harmed Mr. Bridger."

"I saw him fly into the garbage container." Sabine answers bluntly, then looking down. "Sorry. I…don't really know what to say."

Vader pauses, then looks to me. "You told her."

_Damn it._

"She was going to pry it out of me. Girls, you know?" I appeal to him, not really caring how he takes it.

I don't think he's going to kill me now.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

"I do know. But tell nobody else. No one."

Sabine speaks up. "We won't."

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

Vader takes a step to walk away when Sabine steps forward. "Thank you. For not hurting him."

…

"You are welcome. Listen to Ezra and stay out of this conflict. I do not wish to destroy you." Vader says, looking back at us.

I take a deep breath, then grit my teeth, stand up and extend my hand to Vader. "Thank you."

_For everything._

Vader looks down at my hand, up at me, then shakes my hand. "Be well."

I nod, and Vader turns and walks away without another word, only stopping to press his comm.

Sabine and I watch him go in silence before Prime and the others cautiously approach.

"What was that?" Prime asked Sabine and I.

I shrug tiredly. "Let him go. It's too hard to explain."

Prime and Will look to each other, then back to me. "But—"

"Get the speeder please." Sabine asks them quietly. "I'm pretty sure Ezra has three busted ribs."

Both Prime and Will immediately shut up and dash off, leaving just us. I simply put most of my weight on Sabine and groan in pain.

_This really hurts._

"You'll be okay. One breath at a time. Just listen to my voice." Sabine tells me softly, then pushes my hair out of my eyes.

I smile. "Thanks you. Great shot."

Sabine laughed. "Thanks. It actually was luck. I didn't mean to take his knee off."

"Lucky." I breathe, laugh then am consumed by my side erupting in pain. "Owwww…"

"Shh. Speeder will be here soon. Then I can comm everyone and say you're okay."

I nod. "Okay."


	78. Darken The Door

_(Flashback)_

"Clink."

I tap the faucet and rub soap into my palms as the water starts warming up out of the faucet. Beside me, Mrs. Wren briefly glances at me before looking out to the backyard where Sabine, Sophie and their father are walking down to an orchard where Sophie can have shooting practice.

Cutting the water off, I pull a towel to me and dry my hands while also looking up at the snow capped mountains nearby.

_At least they look close._

"You okay?" I hear Mrs. Wren ask.

I look over, and see her looking at me with a concerned expression I nod then answer "Yeah."

Her expression doesn't change. "Are you and Sabine having some trouble? It's okay. If you are, that is. It's normal. You can talk to me." She tells me, then goes slightly pink.

I laugh nervously. "Yeah. You okay?"

Mrs. Wren shook her head. "I suck at this. It always comes out so awkward. I'm trying and screw it up."

"Story of my life." I smile. "I'm always doing that."

"But really, are you guys okay? Carid woke up and walked upstairs to check on you guys and saw you sleeping in your old room."

_Oh._

"Sophie's been coming up late at night and crawling into bed with Sabine. I was just scooting over, but I fell out of bed, so I've just moved to my room until Sof is okay."

Mrs. Wren frowns. "Has she said anything?"

"Don't know. I wake up and she's just there curled up with Sabine."

She smiles. "Never you?"

I shake my head.

_Nope._

"Oh. Well I don't think Carid checked her room. Should we talk to her? You shouldn't be kicked out of bed like that."

"No, it's fine. I'm not mad. If it helps her sleep, then that's fine." I smile.

Mrs. Wren shrugged, then looks away. "Then what is it? You've clearly got something on your mind."

I pause, then grab the potatoes I'm supposed to be scrubbing. "I'm going to sound a little crazy."

"Okay. I can keep it quiet." She tells me.

_Okay._

"How much do you know about the Force?"

"Nothing really. The things I see you do, saw Kenobi do is mind blowing to me. I almost can't believe what I'm seeing. It's a little strange that you're a normal human person other than that."

I laugh. "Normal. Never thought I'd be called that."

Mrs. Wren's expression turns to confusion. "Why?"

"Did Sabine tell you guys what I was before I met her and Kanan?"

"No."

"I was a pickpocket. My parents disappeared, and after that I had to learn how to survive. So I got really, really good at pickpocketing. That's all I was really. Angry, upset and a thief. And now look at me. Normal." I smile.

_Normal._

Mrs. Wren laughed once. "A normal person. I couldn't have noticed the difference. Does that drive you a little?

I shake my head. "No, not really. It's not like a redemption thing. But I was never this strong on Lothal. If I ever go back, it may be different."

"Okay. I think I accidentally got you sidetracked." Mrs. Wren replies, pulling down a container of seasoning.

"Yeah, sorry. I…I've had visions before. See stuff. And it's come true, but not exactly how I remember it." I say, then turn and see her looking at me, eyebrows snapped down.

"Visions."

I nod.

"What do you mean not as you remember them?" She asks emphatically.

I take a deep breath, then say "I had one that I had a lead on my parents. Turns out, it was an Imperial trap. But everything I saw happened."

"There was a difference in how they occurred then."

I nod. "Sorry. Said that wrong."

"No, you didn't. I just clarified it for me. Go on." She insisted.

I run my hand thru my hair, then say "When I was putting my lightsaber together, I had a really long vision. I was here. Over by the sliding door."

"Do you remember what happened?"

I nod.

_Looked at my note last night._

"I was standing by the window, looking up at the mountain, lightsaber in my hand. Sof walked in, noticeably older but not too old with a big bow on her shoulder. Then Sabine came in and said how a weapon was destroyed, and that you guys were coming for some sort of ceremony."

Mrs. Wren just stares at me, seasoning hovering over the hunk of lambu meat. "What? Forward in time?"

_She believes me._

"You buy it?" I ask hopefully.

She nods quickly. "I don't doubt it. What details do you know?"

"I made notes, and I remember it pretty good. Hold on, let me…" I say, then pull on my datapad in the living room.

She sets down the seasoning and comes to look at the datapad as I fire it up. I pull up my note, causing her to grab for the datapad.

As she reads the datapad, I self consciously scrub three potatoes before I feel Mrs. Wren turn back to me.

"Who have you told about this?"

"Nobody. You're the first one." I answer.

Mrs. Wren shakes her head. "Tell Sabine. Tonight. She's gonna get mad at you probably for not saying anything. Let's run thru this."

_Alright._

I nod for her to go ahead, and she speaks up. "_Soph'ika._ How much older would you say?"

"Two, three years. She wasn't big. Maybe eight? That's my gut feeling."

Mrs. Wren nods. "Her birthday is approaching soon. Maybe two years. Did you know about the bow before it happened?"

"Yes." I reply. "It blew my mind. I still can't believe it."

"It's proof in your corner. Okay. Alderaan? Explosion?"

"Sabine said it had been destroyed somehow, by that Death Star thing in a massive explosion, killing Senator Organa."

Mrs. Wren's expression darkened. "I feel like he should know that. The mountains are here, this is the place you saw…What's Yavin IV?"

I shrug. "I don't know. No idea."

"I'll ask Carid. I haven't heard of it either."

_I don't know anything except that I'm here when all this happens._

Mrs. Wren sighs, then set the datapad aside and looks over to me. "The burden of the future is always heavy."

"Huh?" I ask in confusion.

Mrs. Wren smiles. "Old Mandalorian proverb. The future is always uncertain, but the lesson is that you can't let it weigh you down. You can't live waiting for it to happen. You have to go get it, or it will get you."

"That's not half bad." I smile. "Keep your eyes forward sort of thing."

"Precisely." She replies, before coming over and hugging me tightly.

"We love you Ezra. All of us. I'm glad you wanted to talk about it. Now we can move forward, and maybe do something about it later."

_Hah._

I smile and hug her back. "Thanks Mrs. Wren."

Immediately Mrs. Wren frowns. "Ezra. I'm Bo. C'mon. I'm gonna be your mother-in-law. Might as well start now."

I open my mouth to respond, but can't find any words.

Bo interjects "I'll tell Sophie to give you and Sabine your space. You two need some time together. I know what it's like at that age and always having the threat of being barged in on."

I feel myself go bright red, then briefly glance over at her, back to seasoning the lambu.

"I'm right. You know it. Just do not make me a grandmother yet. Keep her on that birth control and you two can do whatever you want. If you don't I'll come kick your ass."

_WHAT!?_

Numbly I turn to her, mouth agape. "I…"

"No. Just say 'Alright Bo. I'll do that.' Then we can move on." She smirks at me.

"Alright, I'll do that." I tell her robotically.

Mrs. Wren frowns and tilts her head to the side.

_Fine…_

"Bo." I say.

"Good. Bo and Carid."

"That felt weird to say." I tell her.

She smiles. "It'll become normal."

The sliding glass door opens, and Sophie runs into the kitchen.

"Shoes!" Mrs. Wren frowns at her daughter.

"Aww! You guys haven't done anything!" Sof frowns pointedly, then dashing back to the door.

Carid says "You guys have been talking too much."

Bo shrugs, then smiles sheepishly. "Sorry."

Sabine rolls her eyes as she walks to the sink, then uses her hips to shove me out of the way so she can wash her hands.

"Hey!" I say indignantly, before Sophie giggled behind her sister.

_(End flashback)_

"Hang on, we're going to come out of hyperspace." Sabine told us, then looking to her father.

He nodded, then Sabine pulled back a lever.

The old Clone Wars medical frigate suddenly appears in front, of us, as Sophie claps beside me.

"Very well done _ad'ika_." Her father compliments her.

Sabine smiles before the speaker sounds out. "We have you on our scanners. Please transmit your security code and cargo aboard."

"Code Tyderium FN-2187 with cargo of five humans along with luggage hailing from the Mandalore system." Sabine said confidently, then looked back to me.

"Checking code." The unknown speaker said before shutting off.

"Did that sound okay?" Sabine asked me.

"Sounded fine." I shrug.

"Great!" Sophie beamed at her.

"Please proceed to docking bay 8009 directly ahead." The speaker said.

"Thank you." Sabine replied, then gently accelerated us towards the hanger.

_Time to find out what's going on for Leia to get Mand'alor to get us a ship and on our way here so fast._

I fought Maul with Vader two days ago. We spent one night at Sabine's parents mountain home.

_It's gorgeous, but we were barely there._

I turn away from the sight of Safe Zone and walk to the cargo hold and smile.

_The Wingsuits._

I'm just glad we remembered to pack them.

"Thunk."

"YAAAAAYYYY!" Sophie cheered.

"You excited?" Bo asked Sof.

"Yeah!" She replied. "We get to see everyone!"

"We actually have business here _ad'ika_." Mr. Wren reminds her gently, before I hear the sound of footsteps towards the air lock.

"HSSSHHHH…"

I walk to the airlock in time for it to open, revealing a line of soldiers, which immediately snap to a salute.

Behind them, Hera, Zeb, Chopper, Leia, Prime, Darcy, Lana, Brie, Katiey and Aiden are all standing.

Leia motioned for everyone to stop saluting before Hera jumps forward and wraps Sabine up in a big hug.

"It's so good to see youuuu…" I hear Hera say to Sabine as Prime steps forward to shake my hand.

"Sir."

I smile and shake his hand. "Hey. You settling in?"

Prime nods. "Yeah. People are still feeling me out, but it's going well. Your master doesn't quite know what to make of me."

"Wooooomp womp womp." Chopper says.

I smile and tap his dome. "Hey Chop. Zeb."

"Good to see ya kid."

Sabine smiles and asks "What's your official designation again?"

Zeb frowns, but is somehow still smiling. "General."

I turn back to see Sophie's eyes almost falling out of her head.

"Oh yeah! Sof, c'mere." Sabine smiles.

Sophie trudges forward, then Sabine points to Zeb. "That's Zeb."

"Really?"

Zeb lets out a wide smile and crouches down for Sophie. "Hey Sophie. Nice to finally meet you."

"Haven't you met her before?" I ask Zeb.

"Nope. I talked to her once over the comm, but never got to meet her." Zeb replies, before extending his hand to Mr. Wren. "Garazeb Orrelious at your service sir."

In front of me, Hera beams and moves to hug me. Quickly I hug her and smile happily.

"We're all so proud of you. Good job Ezra." Hera whispers, then squeezes me.

"Thanks." I answer.

_Proud of me._

I can't stop smiling as Zeb introduces himself to Mrs. Wren before Leia says hello.

"Ezra." Hera cuts in, breaking off my train of thought. "Darcy and the others all need to speak with you."

"Oh." I say, then look to Darcy. "Hey."

Darcy doesn't step forward, but smiles. "Hey. We…need your help."

"With…?" I ask, before Darcy begins walking into Safe Zone.

Darcy sighed, then handed me a datapad. "The mission Leia mentioned to you on Mandalore? That's us. We uh…got a break."

"Okay."

"We kidnapped one of their top engineers. Broke into a top secret facility and got out with her." Brie tells me

"What?!" I spin to look at her.

"Yup." Lana smiled proudly.

"But she won't talk. At all." Darcy brought my attention back up to her. "Datapad's got everything we know on it, but she's been in solitary confinement for the past week, waiting for you."

"Why me?" I ask.

"Look at the datapad." Darcy says grimly.

I hold my gaze with her before reluctantly opening the datapad.

_What could…_

"Whoa." I mutter.

No way.

"Yeah." Darcy tells me.

_Impossible._

Sabine buts in. "What is it?"

"Interrogation room is just up here." Darcy points out. "They chose that dock so you guys could have a straight shot. She's sitting in there waiting for you."

I look back to see Sabine look lost, along with her parents looking concerned.

"Is it something we should worry about?" Mr. Wren asked her.

Darcy bit her lip. "Maybe."

We all take a left, revealing two doors at the end of the hall.

I probe out, and—

_That Force Signature._

"It's two sided glass." Katiey tells me, pointing at the doors. "We're right there, recording the whole thing if you need us."

Sabine buts in "What is going on? Talk to me!"

I look back to her looking upset.

"You'll see." Hera answers her, looking upset.

_Yeah._

She's upset.

_Blast it._

The others all file into the door on the left, and I get a glimpse of General Sato, Kanan, Lux and Ahsoka all looking thru the glass at the prisoner.

"Slam!"

_How am I going to do this?_

I look back down to the datapad and look over the information on the first page again.

_I can't believe this._

"Sound Wave Technician at the suspected Operation Remnant research outpost."

"Employed for over five years at the site."

Five. Years.

I set my jaw, then open the door and step inside.

A woman with slightly sagging skin, rather pale, sunken eyes and frizzy hair glanced up at me.

_She's chained to the table and floor._

I close the door behind me, datapad in my left hand.

The room is filled with completely empty silence.

_It's that annoying silence that you swear you can hear your own blood swirling in._

…

"So they lock me up for days on end, then bring me here, chain me to the floor only for a boy to come in to talk to me?" The woman spits out. "I would have hoped you traitors have better interrogators. I'm not telling you a thing boy."

_Boy._

I roll my eyes and let out a breath.

Everyone's emotions are roiling right thru that wall, to me.

_Not helping._

I'm almost shaking as it is.

"Well? You gonna talk?" She asks me.

"Are you?" I ask right back.

She shook her head. "No."

_Figures._

I nod, then open the datapad back up. "Okay. We'll do it this way then. Name's Mira Bridger. Originally from the Lothal system before going to work at this outpost in the Aboriginia System. Is that correct?" I ask her, butchering the pronunciation of 'Lothal'.

I pronounced it "Law-thole". It's actually "Low-Thal".

She looks down and away. "Maybe. Your people have already asked me all this background stuff."

"Technician. Worked on sound waves?"

"Your damn people broke into our lab while I was working. You already know this." She bites at me bitterly.

I raise my hands defensively. "I just want to make sure we have everything straight ma'am."

"Get a new interrogator! Before I break this kid!" She yells at the wall.

"You won't break me." I tell her.

_Already did that._

"What can you use sound waves for on crystals?" I question her. She doesn't reply, instead glaring up at me.

I shrug my shoulders at her while trying to wear a blank expression. "I can go on."

"Go on. Boy. I'm not going to say a damn word."

_Whoa._

Sophie's losing it in there.

Subtly, I reach out and try to calm Sophie down. Give her some confidence.

_I'm okay._

"This your first interrogation?" She asks me, causing me to look back to her.

"Excuse me?" I ask her.

"You've got some quirks kid. Need more time in whatever program they trained you in. You need to go back. Nervous ticks, shaky hands. Go home."

I frown at her. "No. We're talking."

In response, she laughed. "Hah! No we're not. Talking is a two way street."

"Come down the street. You won't have to go back to that lonely cell." I offer.

I'm glad Echo and Rex gave me some basics on interrogation.

_Never a formal class, but we didn't know I'd ever be in this spot._

This is somebody else's job. I'm only here because…

_It's her._

"I actually like that cell. Can I go back?" She asks me.

I shake my head strongly in response. "Not until you give me some answers."

…

I flip thru a few pages, and settle on a phrase. "Project Hammertong?"

Her eyes snap down. "You got some files."

I shrug.

_I don't know._

I reach out to Sof and calm her again, then do the same for the whole room.

None of them like this.

_I feel it. It just rolls out of that room in waves._

Every time I talk.

"Bridger. Unique last name. Is it a Lothalian name?" I ask, butchering the name again.

_Just BUTCHERING it._

"No." She answers.

"Okay. Because there's someone on a different base named Ezra Bridger. Any relation."

I feel her heart leap before she growls at me.

"No. Never heard of him."

"That's a lie." I spin back to frown at her. "I feel it."

"Feel." She says.

"What's the relation?" I pressure her.

She frowns darkly at me. "I told you, I know no person of that name."

"Stop lying to me." I order her.

"No. You said feel. You're a Jedi!" She exclaims.

In a split second, she goes from relaxed to making a grab towards my lightsaber. Instinctively, I swat her hand down hard onto the table.

"CRACK!"

"AHHH! My wrist! You asshole!" She cringes, bringing her arms back in and holding her wrist gingerly.

"Talk! C'mon. Make this easy on yourself. We don't want to keep asking you questions like this Miss Bridger." I tell her.

She rubs her wrist while looking at me murderously. "No. I want to go back to my cell."

"Can't do that Ma'am." I tell her.

"Then I won't tell you a thing!"

_Fine._

I sigh, then walk over to where I feel Sabine and put my hand up where her hand might be.

I need her strength right now.

_This is awful._

I close my eyes and let my hand shake for a brief moment, then call out "Don't make me ask the harder questions."

"You don't have any harder questions. BRING IN ANOTHER ONE! I BROKE HIM!" She yells towards the wall.

Quickly, I push off the wall and scowl at her. "You said you were going to the market. Where'd you actually go?"

Her face went from defiantly angry, to completely lost. "Excuse me?"

"Answer the question!" I yell at her.

_ANSWER IT!_

"I…have no idea what you are talking about." She tells me.

"That's a lie." I spit.

"Is not!"

I breathe thru my nose, and an idea pops into my head.

"Mira Bridger. That's your name. Miss Mira…Bridger." I say quietly, looking at her and putting both hands on the table separating us.

"Yes. You have that on file."

"I never gave you my name. How rude of me." I tell her.

She rolls her eyes. "Spare me. I'd rather not."

"Mira Bridger. Ezra Bridger." I say quietly.

She freezes up, looking to the far wall.

"Nice to see you again Mom." I say quietly.

_Mom._

Slowly, her eyes make their way back to me, and she nervously looks at me.

…

"Ezzy?"

I bite my tongue as tears try to fly into my eyes. "Where's Dad?"

…

"Ezra, they're lying to you—" Mom says quickly, tone softening.

I push the desk away in disgust, then start to pace the room. "No! Don't talk to me like that! You didn't want to answer the easy questions, so we're asking the hard ones!"

"Ezzy. Baby. Honey—" Mom says desperately, unbearably softly.

"DON'T! Call. Me. Ezzy." I order her.

_Ezzy is a seven year old._

Waiting for his parents to come home.

Immediately she stops, eyes shining. "Ezra. Listen to—"

"Where is Dad?" I ask Mom again.

She freezes up. "He's…not here."

"Oh! Didn't know that." I say, bitterly sarcastic.

"You don't understand Ezra. They're lying to you my son."

_My son._

"No they're not." I tell her.

They're not lying to me.

_YOU ARE!_

"Ezra Osirus Bridger. You need to listen to me, my son."

I shake my head strongly. "No. I don't need to."

"I—"

"You and Dad. Said you were going to the market. Left me a note. "Honey, Daddy and I are off to the market to buy groceries. We won't be long. See you when we get back. Love, Mom and Dad." I say, recalling the note from memory as it floats up in my mind's eye.

_Still got it._

"What happened? Let's start there." I say, then turn away from her pointedly.

…

"I…work on crystals. It's a superweapon Ezra. I use the sound waves to align the crystals."

_Oh._

I turn back and scowl at her. "That's not what I asked Mom."

"I'm telling you what I do!" She says in a panic, voice rising rapidly.

"I DON'T CARE! YOU DIDN'T ANSWER BEFORE. ANSWER NOW! WHAT HAPPENED? WHERE DID YOU AND DAD GO?" I scream at my mother, rushing up to the table and slamming into it in fury.

My mother jumps in fright and nearly falls backwards out of her chair. In the end, she looks at me, clearly afraid.

_Tell me._

"BANG!"

I spin back to see the door fly open, and see Darcy and Sabine storm in.

"TELL HIM!" Sabine howls, tear tracks trailing down her cheeks.

"Now!" Darcy says, raising a blaster to Mom's head.

Mom frantically backs away from the blaster, looking absolutely terrified.

"SHING!"

I whip back to see Sabine with one of her menacing blades out. "Tell us. Tell him!" She barks, pointing to me.

"I…"

"Mom. Meet my friend Darcy." I say quietly.

"Hello—" Mom begins, but I cut her off.

"And my girlfriend Sabine."

Mom's eyes nearly pop out of her head, and she turns to Sabine.

"Tell him." Sabine grounds out, looking ready to kill.

"G…G….Girlfriend? Ezra, you're only 16…"

"17!" Sabine howls at Mom.

I turn back. "I'm seventeen Mom. Get with the program. Where is her guard?!" I call out.

Soldiers pop out from the hall behind all of us and walk in.

"I—" Mom starts.

Cutting her off again, I wave my hand, and all of her chains shatter.

"CHING CHING CHING CHINGGGG!"

"THUD."

Darcy freezes up, still holding her blaster at Mom, who's fallen to the floor.

One of the soldiers roughly drags Mom to her feet and slaps a pair of handcuffs on her.

"Wait! I…I'll talk."

"Do it then!" Darcy told her.

Mom nodded in my direction. "Only to him. Privately."

"No!" I pop off, spinning back to face her causing Mom's eyes bulge in fright.

In rhythm, I unclip my lightsaber, activate it and point it right between her eyes. "No! You're not saying a _WORD_ to me right now. You said you didn't want to talk. Then you won't talk. She's going back to her solitary confinement cell. All she's going to get is food for a week. At least. No visitors of any kind outside of a medical emergency. Maybe then you can talk." I order.

I feel all the soldiers behind me hesitate. "Sir—"

I spin back and scowl at them. "I'm a Commander! That's an order! You're going to follow it, or you'll be punished. Harshly. Do I make myself _clear_?" I ask them.

"Yes sir." One of them says.

I turn back to Mom and step forward to tower over her.

_She's tiny._

Mom's a small person now.

"We'll talk. Oh, we'll talk. But when I want to. Only then. Miss Bridger." I scowl at her.

Mom weakly nodded, tears in her eyes.

"Ezzy—"

"Mom. I've waited for 10 years to hear what happened. I can wait longer."

I hear the air come out of my Mom before I speak up again.

"Take her away." I order, then wave her away dismissively.

The sound of Mom being dragged away by soldiers fills my ears as I sit at the table and put my head in my hands.

_Mom…_


	79. Closing Ranks

"Swishhhh…"

Sophie sat up in front of me and smiled. "Hi."

"Hey darling." Mr. Wren smiled at Sophie.

Sabine looked up from the holo to her parents. "Did we miss something?"

"No." Her mother shook her head. "Your father and I just want to talk to Ezra for a minute."

"With us here?" Sabine questioned, sounding nervous.

Her father shook his head.

"But Daddy…" Sophie piped up, followed by her mother crouching down and putting her hand on Sof's shoulder.

"Go get yourself some juice. You've been working on those problems I assume?"

Sophie nodded. "I'm not done yet though."

"That's okay. Off you go." She smiled, then gently shoved Sophie towards the door.

Sophie, took a few steps then watched along with me as Sabine gets up and walks towards her sister. "We'll be back."

_Hah._

"Sounds like a plan." Mr. Wren smiled.

"Swishhhh…"

The room suddenly filled up with silence, before I sit up farther and smile at Sabine's parents. "Hi."

Mr. Wren's expression quickly changed from calm to concerned. "We're fine. It's been a few days…so Bo and I wanted to come see if you're okay."

Oh.

I smile at both of them, and it's returned instantly. "Thanks."

Bo smiled again. "Everyone's wanted to give you your space, but everyone wanted to make sure you're okay."

"Are you, actually okay?" Mr. Wren asked me.

I nod. "Yeah. I'm okay."

"We're on your side. But Carid's parents never separated, and I never really knew mine."

Mr. Wren added "We don't exactly know what to…do."

"Nobody else does either." Bo added.

_Oh._

"Sorry." I smile. "I…kinda overreacted the other day. Went overboard."

Yeah. Sending Mom into a week of solitary confinement after yelling at her probably wasn't the best move.

Suddenly, both of Sabine's parents almost leap at me. "No! That's not what we mean son. It's better than holding it in."

"Absolutely. You've been on your own for a long time. There wasn't a way for that meeting to go well." Bo added.

"She…kind of deserved it." Mr. Wren says, looking sheepish.

"But still." I shake my head before looking back up. "I could have done it better. How's Hera?"

_I know she'd take this the hardest._

I've seen her a few times, and she's hugged me every time. She and Sophie have both given me extra hugs.

Mr. Wren smiled at me. "She's alright. Like bo said, everyone wants to do the right thing. But we don't know what that is."

Nervously, I let out a laugh. "That would make things tougher, wouldn't it?"

Both of Sabine's parents laugh, before smiling at me. Then Bo speaks up.

"Honey…what hurts?" She asked, reaching out and grabbing my hand. "You can talk to us. We're not going to say anything to anyone."

"If something's bugging you…" Mr. Wren says, trailing off.

"You can tell us."

Feeling my face quickly go red, I look down at the floor. "No, really I'm okay. I just freaked out. And…she's been gone for so long."

_She doesn't fit._

I've got two Mom's. Hera and Mrs. Wren. Kanan and Mr. Wren are my Dad when I need it or feel the need to step in.

Plus I can take care of myself. I…don't need her anymore.

"You were a little kid. Now you're almost grown up." Mr. Wren tells me, sounding pleased.

"Almost." Bo stresses, causing me to laugh.

"I…" I start, then stop myself.

"Ezra." Mr. Wren jumps in. "Talk to us."

I bite my lip, then look to the floor. "I don't need her. I've got you guys. I've got Kanan and Hera. Ahsoka and Lux. Rex and Echo. She doesn't…fit in with how things are now. It's like I've moved on. But she's my Mom."

Looking back up, I see both of them eyeing me softly.

"You did move on Ezra. You had to, otherwise you wouldn't be here right now." Mr. Wren said.

Bo piped up "It's strength. And maybe you wouldn't have it if your parents had stayed around. The important question, at least to me

"She doesn't fit. I don't want to lose you guys or Kanan and Hera—

"You're not." Mr. Wren jumped in.

Mrs. Wren promptly blew her cheeks out and rolled her eyes. "Sorry."

I laugh, then smile. "But really. Like am I crazy? I'm old enough that I can take care of myself. Her job is pretty much done. Whatever happened, happened."

Mr. Wren winced. "Not quite. At least with Bo and I with Sabine. We try to give advice when needed, and make things as relaxed as possible for her, and you."

"I've got you all for that too." I reply.

Both of them look slightly mollified, then turn to each other. Finally Bo adds "That's the burden she'll have to bear."

I smile at both of them. "Thanks for coming to talk to me."

"No problem." Mr. Wren smiled, then clapped me on the shoulder.

"What's everyone up to?" I change subjects.

Bo bit her lip before replying "Well, Ahsoka and Kanan are looking at your fights. They probably want to talk to you."

I stand, then watch as Sabine's parents follow suit, and lead me out of the room. "Do you guys have a plan right now?"

Mr. Wren shook his head. "No. Fenn's still negotiating, there's still a danger for us in Keldabe. So we're kind of taking a vacation."

"Oh…Sorry about that."

Bo frowned. "I don't really think it's your fault. Maybe your shouldn't have gone up there. But to expect you to just take what Rook was saying is unreasonable."

"In your opinion." Mr. Wren adds. "Fenn had a point. Any person in that room could trace Ezra back to us from where he was sitting. And now we're targets."

I bite my lip and glance at the floor. "I didn't think of that."

_I didn't._ _I was in the moment._

It may end up being a big mistake.

Mrs. Wren frowned. "It's a different conversation, but Ezra's 16. He's not an adult, and he's human. Just because he's a Jedidoesn't mean he's more mature than his age or is better than anyone else."

"I'm just making an argument from the other side of the myrnock." Mr. Wren said unabashedly.

His wife simply frowned at him. "Maybe Fenn should have checked to see what Rook was going to say. Ex-Death Watch member that's one of the few unrepentant ones."

_Yikes. _

She sounds annoyed.

"Let's not argue in front of the kids." Mr. Wren shook his head, then seamlessly turned to reveal Sophie, Sabine and Hera walking towards us.

"Where are you two headed?" Their mom asked with a smile.

Hera shrugged. "They were walking around before I found them."

I glance over to Sabine in time for her expression to settle on confusion. "Who are you guys looking for?"

Bo's eyebrows snapped down strongly. "Going to talk to Kanan and Ahsoka. They've been wanting to talk to him about his fights."

"Ooh. I'll come with you guys." Sabine smiled, stepping forward.

Sophie turned the other way. "Okay. I'll go this way."

_What?_

I turn in time to see Sophie walking away from all of us.

…

_Sof?_

Sabine glances over at me, looking worried. "Sof!"

I don't think she has to go.

Sophie doesn't turn back, instead walking away.

"Is she…mad?" Hera asks her parents.

Bo shrugs. "Annoyed probably. She likes being included. The way Sabine said it, sounded like she wasn't invited."

"I didn't mean it like that!" Sabine quickly injects.

Her father shrugs. "Let her go. She can entertain herself. And she knows where we all are."

A moment passes before Hera turns and asks "Oh. I've been meaning to ask. You said earlier that you want Sophie to learn how to operate a starship?"

Mr. Wren nods. "Yeah. If she can do it here that'd be great. Sabine learned at the Academy, and we'd like Sof to be able to fly too."

Hera smiles widely. "I'd love to take her out in the Phantom."

"She'll like that." I say confidently.

_I can almost hear her saying "WHEEEE!" now!_

"Where are Kanan and Ahsoka anyway?" Sabine queries.

Hera silently points to a door off to the right.

"Okay. If you see Sof…tell her I didn't mean it like that. I feel bad." Sabine asks her parents.

Her father shrugs. "You know how she is. She's not going to listen to us on this. That's on you."

Immediately, Hera giggles. "I _love_ her attitude. It's…endearing."

"It's actually kind of funny." Bo smirks. "She's perfect when she first meets you, then when she trusts you, she does ratchet up the sass."

_She's funny._

"Yeah. She was almost too good the first time I went to their house. Second time though, I met with the attitude. I like it though." I smile.

"Was she like that?" Hera points to Sabine.

Mr. Wren smiled quickly. "Worse."

Sabine rocked her head back and gave her father a vicious eyeroll. "Oh yeah. Whatever."

I quickly laugh, then Sabine starts pulling me towards the door.

_Oh._

"Bye!" I wave to everyone, as Sabine pulls me towards the door.

Sabine giggled, then spun me around. "Okay. C'mon now master Jedi sir. Focus."

I stop just before the automatic door activator can activate and take a deep breath. "Focus."

This time Sabine snorts out a laugh then pulls me thru the door, causing Ahsoka and Kanan, who are looking at Shark Bait and I duke it out.

_I think that's the third fight._

"Oh no. You're dragging him." Ahsoka smiles while crossing her arms. Kanan simply glances at us.

Sabine smiled. "Mom and Dad said you wanted to talk to him? I brought him. Plus I have a few questions too."

"Okay." Kanan nodded.

Ahsoka added "I think I know what it is."

Sabine immediately jumps into it. "On those fights. How exactly do you guys think I should help? I…I have instincts, but they move so fast that I'm afraid to do anything."

Ahsoka looked to Kanan, who smirked. "Yup. I was right."

"Fight normal. The worst thing you probably can do is fight somebody else's fight. The Force will warn him to whatever you're doing, especially if it's close." Kanan told her, looking serious.

Sabine bit her lip. "Even in tight quarters?"

"Especially in tight quarters. That's when it matters most." Ahsoka smiles at her.

I nod, then look back to Kanan, only to see and sharp frown.

_He's mad at me._

"What'd I do?" I ask.

Kanan shook his head, causing Ahsoka to turn and pipe up "Talk it out."

"The Vader talk. Speech. All that. Just…DEFEND doing that!" Kanan spun back to me, looking a little deranged while grabbing his head in disbelief.

Sabine took a step back in surprise.

"What?" I ask.

Kanan spasmed in outrage. "You…walked and talked and _fought_ with the most dangerous man IN THE GALAXY like it was just another day. You should have died! What were you thinking?!"

"I…first off, he wanted to talk to me." I begin, before Kanan jumps back in.

"Why?" He questioned.

"He asked why I was there. I told him to protect my girlfriend's family."

Kanan cringed. "You shouldn't have even _said that_! Now they…blast! Do they know you said that?" he gestured out to the hallway.

I shake my head, then Ahsoka calmly adds "He probably already did his background research. If he was going to hurt them, he probably would have beforehand."

"That's not better!" Kanan fumes.

"He actually was helpful. Gave me some tips."

Ahsoka and Sabine almost do simultaneous double takes, but Kanan is the first to speak. "Why didn't you tell her? I…If you guys are going to do this, you've got to be open and talk."

I blink, and Sabine's jabbed her finger in Kanan's chest. "HEY! Don't tell us how to date. We talk, but not about this. We were more discussing the red _demon_ he fought that killed my Aunt before I could ever meet her!"

Kanan's eyes bulge, and he takes a step back before Ahsoka smiles and defuses the situation. "He means well."

"He's one to talk! Marry Hera!" Sabine bites at him.

_What?_

I turn to her before Kanan bites back "What makes you think I don't want to?"

"Then do it!" Sabine rolls her eyes.

"It's never that simple." Ahsoka tells Sabine gently, then looks back to me. "What did Vader tell you? Did it seem like he had an ulterior motive?"

I strongly shake my head. "No, not at all. It was kind of strange. He told me to be mindful of my thoughts, and in order to protect them I need to always keep them locked down and protect myself."

Ahsoka glances at Kanan, who shrugs. "He's not wrong."

"And?" Ahsoka probed again.

"The main thing he told me to do, was…to be extremely precise in what I do and how I fight. Don't aim for a general area. Go for areas with the highest effectiveness. Like if you want to take out a leg—"

"You cut off a leg." Sabine cuts me off.

I shake my head. "No, the hip."

"Ohhhh…" Ahsoka says. "Leg goes dead, no real harm done. Smart."

Kanan shook his head, then pulled a jug of water to him and grabbed a cup. "Okay. Even if that was Vader being nice, Ezra gave him a free look at how he fights. You basically laid it all out for him. He now knows how to beat you."

_Well…I guess._

"He probably knew how to before." I reply, then shrug.

Ahsoka bites her lower lip. "You don't think Imperial Intelligence pulled these fights too?" She asked, gesturing to the holo.

"I thought all this kind of footage was encrypted." Kanan replied.

"It is. But still."

Kanan shook his head. "I hope not. Then it'll be really bad."

"Wouldn't he know how Ezra beat that Inquisitor then?" Sabine asked.

Kanan quietly nodded. "Yes. I…Let's talk about the fights. I don't even want to think about that possibility."

Ahsoka bites her lips as Kanan turns back to the holo.

"Okay. Ezra, we've looked at every fight pretty in depth except for the last two at the Imperial installation and the Vader fight. But how about we go in order, you start by telling us what you remember, what stood out to you, all that. Then Kanan and I will jump in with our notes."

Kanan woodenly turns back, revealing a datapad. "Notes."

I can't help but laugh along with Sabine.

"Okay. First fight. Ezra, go."

_Blast._

I hate this fight.

I shake my head before starting. "I got mad. I saw him, all the memories of what happened while I was captured, what he did to me came back, and I just tried taking his head off. I didn't play my game until he talked too much."

"Talked too much?" Ahsoka's eyes dropped down.

"He…" I stop.

_How do I describe this?_

He told me that I used to be so much better, and commented on my style. Then I woke up.

"I…he kept taunting me and taunting me, then basically said what you guys thought on Dxun. The datapad and all that was a plan. They thought I would turn on my own. He commented how much better I used to be, then insulted my style."

Kanan jumps in. "And that jolted you out of your anger."

I nod. "Exactly."

Ahsoka quickly started doing stuff on the holo, pulling up a video with a still of me with my back turned to Shark Bait, with Sabine's family and Atin clearly in view.

_Huh._

I've never watched this fight. Just the other two.

Ahsoka quickly dragged it to the very end, where I'm leaping for the fire escape. "Okay, this is what I want to touch on. You deciding to jump away and go to the roof was exactly the move to make once you realized what he was doing. Fight another day."

"On the fight, there isn't much to say. You probably know without really thinking about it, but you telegraphed where you were going, and not playing your game. But you used your head to realize his plan and get out of this. Fight's a draw." Kanan tells me, sounding pleased.

I spin back in disbelief. "What? A draw? I lost! He dominated me! Physically and mentally!"

_What?!_

Ahsoka barely shook her head. "That's the short term view. In the long term…?"

"He woke him up." Sabine jumps in.

"Exactly. Which negates his entire fight. His best outcome would have been a one fight victory. Likely ending with Ezra being taken back off planet, where he probably doesn't have a choice in turning."

_Oh._

Yeah. Lats time was bad. If they get another shot at me…yikes.

"Okay. I see your point." I shrug my shoulders.

Ahsoka smiled before bringing up the next fight.

I feel Sabine's eyes on me before it clicks in my head.

_Oh._

"I really don't want to harp on this one." I say quietly, then glance up and see myself standing on the table.

Everyone is silent for a moment, then Sabine slips her arm around me and gently squeezes me. I smile, then look up to see Kanan and Ahsoka eying me gently.

"We won't linger long. We know it's tough losing your first guys. It's personal." Ahsoka half smiles.

"I can't say it gets better, more that you kind of get used to it." Kanan adds.

I hear Sabine lightly growl in displeasure. "That's not better."

Ahsoka looked to the holo and said "It's really not much here either. You played it great until the holo was destroyed."

"Timing on jumping down was great. Your strategy to get him to destroy the holo was great. But after that, it's like you didn't have a plan."

I nod. "I didn't. That's why I turned to Sabine."

"And I didn't help." Sabine adds, looking upset.

"Hold your ground, first off." Ahsoka begins. "he's lost his objective. Play into his fury. Blind him to anything else but you. You spun, opening up two people, and he took it."

_Yeah._

I look at the floor as Kanan says "It's all about crowd control here. And Sabine, you were wondering about how to help. This would have been a good spot. Play traffic cop. Direct people, clear out, make things as easy as possible for him."

Sabine nods raptly. "I didn't even know he was there. He just fell dramatically. The whole thing was a blur."

Ahsoka smirks. "It was theatrical. All eyes on Ezra."

I nervously laugh as Kanan smiles and shakes his head. "Enough on that. On to the third fight. The good fight."

"It turned out okay. Kind of scary in the moment." Sabine says.

I turn to her. "Kind of? I was terrified until your parents tackled me!"

Kanan laughs, and I look back to Ahsoka scrolling thru footage of the fight.

"Go Ezra." She turns to me.

_Okay._

"All instincts. I didn't really think until after everyone got there. And I was scared the entire time."

Kanan smiles. "And mud."

_Oh gosh._

I laugh, then put my head in my hands. "I faceplanted twice!"

"Twice!" Ahsoka smiled.

"And recovered, to his credit." Kanan adds, looking pleased. "It's pretty much the opposite of the first fight. You controlled it, despite him making most of the advances. And you didn't plow into Sophie. You used your surroundings masterfully."

Ahsoka frowned. "The training we had her watch really seemed to come in handy. She couldn't get far enough from you, because she's smart enough to know that you could move back rapidly and bowl her over." She scrolled on the holo before stopping and adding "Look at this."

She tapped play, and the video began rolling.

_Sophie's almost eight feet away_.

I step forward, block him, then step back right into a big mud puddle and fall right into Bait charges. I kick his lightsaber away, then force him to the ground.

_That looks worse than I remember it._

I barely got him down. But it looks like I slammed him into the ground. Then nearly break my hand on his skull. He kicks me, then I roll off and try to move back to defend Sophie.

Then I fall again.

_Ooh._

Beside me, Sabine cringes as Shark Bait crushes my face with a punch. I respond by blocking another punch and jabbing my elbow into his neck. Then the pink blur flies in and grab Shark Bait.

Ahsoka pauses it, and I look to her, looking upset and Kanan looking slightly sick.

"This could have ended so badly so many ways. Crazy stupid. Just absolutely crazy." Ahsoka said quietly, shaking her head.

Kanan replied "She did get lucky with the head. I think that was a weak spot nobody thought of."

"She's just a kid. A tiny kid. Look at her compared to him! She's not the size of his arm!" Ahsoka snapped, sounding frustrated. "She doesn't know what she did. It could have been disaster."

Sabine meekly says "At least it didn't."

"What gets me is how confidently she gets back up. What'd she say to you?" Kanan asks.

I laugh. "She said "We can do this Ezra."

Ahsoka's frown gets even deeper. "She didn't understand."

"I know. I was telling her that she had to back up like she was before Sabine came in."

Ahsoka gestured to Sabine. "You did change everything. I'm amazed he got back up. You hit him like a freight ship."

"I don't know. I didn't think about it before, and after my shoulder was just sore for a day." Sabine shrugged.

Kanan smiled. "Good thing. But when he got back up, you ditched the alternate look and went all Makashi."

I nod.

"The other looks didn't do all that much." Ahsoka says, causing Kanan to nod.

"That's something we can teach you. Give you something to work with so they're not just novelties." Kanan adds.

Ahsoka nodded, before advancing the film. "Fire's great. Used your one known weakness against him. Didn't do much, but the thought is really good. The end."

Sabine smiled beside me before Kanan nodded. "Now do you see why we want you to be careful jumping?"

"He jumped?" Sabine jumps in.

I nod. "Now yeah. I didn't think of that at the time. I just remember realizing that there was a tiny space for him to land, then took that away. What happened…wasn't what I was expecting." I admit.

"What were you expecting? Bisection of the legs. Got an arm for good measure. Fight over. You're done." Ahsoka shrugged, almost dismissively.

Kanan glanced at me. "The awareness to take that away is what won the fight. The moment you spun on your heel, it was over. He was already dead."

Beside me, Sabine smiles, looking proud.

"I think that's enough of this for now. We can talk about the other two fights when we've looked at them more." Ahsoka speaks up, turning off the holo. "Do you want to gather everyone up and go eat?"

_Sure._

I smile and turn to Sabine, who nods.

"I'll go get Sof." I offer. Immediately Sabine cringes.

"What?" Kanan asks, sounding concerned.

Sabine sighs, then answers "I accidentally snapped at her earlier. She rushed off right before we came here."

"She can't be too mad. You're Sabine." Ahsoka smiles. "You've moved the galaxy for her. Don't think she doesn't know that."

Kanan smiles, but Sabine doesn't seem too moved. "I'll go get Mom and Dad. Meet you at our tables?"

Ahsoka nods, and Kanan says "Sounds like a plan."

Without another word, Sabine leads me out, and I probe out to find Sof.

_Down below a level._

I think at the shooting range.

"I think she's at the shooting range." I speak up.

She nods, turning to me. "Okay. I'll meet you out front too?"

"Sure." I smile. "Thanks for backing me up in there."

Sabine returns the smile. "You're welcome. See you soon."

I wave goodbye, then slip down a set of stairs before popping out a level below. Power walking, I reach the entry to the shooting range.

The door opens to the sight of Brie and Sophie both looking down, with weapons in their hands.

"Three…" Darcy counted down. "Two…OneGO!"

Sof and Brie immediately spin around. Brie starts firing on separate targets, while Sophie pulls back her bow.

"C'MON SOPHIE!" Lana yells loudly.

"THWING!" "BZZT!"

"DING DING DING!"

Katiey and Darcy immediately turn to each other. "Tie?" Darcy asked.

Katiey shrugged. "I don't know."

"Oh hey Ezra." Mira says softly.

All the girls whip around to me, then Sophie drops her bow and sprints to me.

"Hi! We've been playing a game!" She pipes up, sounding ecstatic before launching herself into a hug.

I hug her tightly before glancing at Darcy. "A game huh?"

"Yeah!" Sophie smiled widely. "I was walking back to Mommy and Daddy's room, when I saw Darcy. I know you know them, so they can't be all bad. They invited me down here, and we started playing a game."

_What?!_

I glance to Darcy, completely speechless.

"It's been cool. She's a ball of fun." Darcy smiles at me.

"You didn't have to…" I mumble then shake my head. "That's nice of you. Thanks."

Mira, Lana, Brie and Katiey all smile at me before Lana adds "No problem."

"They've been teaching me some easy tricks to help me!" Sof beams at me.

_Tricks?_

"Shortcuts?" I ask tentatively.

That's not good.

"Not so much tricks, as pointers to help her. Make things simpler." Darcy clarifies.

"Like don't think. Just trust yourself." Mira says.

"Have. Fun." Lana smiles at Sophie.

"And don't get frustrated." Sophie pipes up.

Katiey smiles. "Don't let it get to you and affect the next shot. When you let it go, it's gone."

Sophie nods obediently, before I look back to Darcy.

"It's late. I assume you're here to get dinner?" Darcy asks abruptly, getting to her feet.

I nod. "Yeah."

"We'll follow. But not impose. Not our thing." Mira says hastily.

_Yeah…_

That would be kind of awkward right now. Lot of moving parts. Prime's been accepted a lot easier than Darcy and everyone.

Sophie grabs onto my hand before I lead everyone out and towards the lift.

"So busy man. You've been busy. Sparking rebellions. Doing okay?" Katoey asks me.

I can't stop myself from rolling my eyes.

_Last time I saw her, she was ridiculing my Jedi skills._

"Yeah, fine, fine. Just busy putting a bow on anything."

Mira adds. "Sorry about…your mom, by the way. We'll explain the whole story later."

"Yeah." Darcy jumps in. "We insisted that you get first crack at her. Which…now feels dumb."

I shake my head. "No, not dumb. You got her?" I ask.

Darcy nods violently. "Yup."

"Any idea what you're going to do?" Lana asks, as Katiey eyes me.

"She's staying where she is for the week. After the week, then I'll decide. Anything other than that is personal. Sorry Katiey."

A flash of hurt flies across her face before she blushes and looks away.

"You've been busy though. I met your friend Prime. Nice guy. He said you've got a battalion of guys." Darcy says.

"Said that he's getting them all vetted to come here." Brie speaks up.

Darcy's expression turns serious as we all pile into the lift. "All these people loyal to you, the leaders of the Rebellion are going to start having thoughts about you as a threat."

_What?_

That's ridiculous.

"No…" I shake my head. "I'm not a threat."

Darcy frowns. "Doesn't matter. They're going to see you as one."

"I'm not a threat Darcy. Sorry I've got a battalion of guys that I wok well with and like."

She scowled. "Don't get snippy with me Ezra. I'm just warning you."

"And you've got us." Lana adds, causing me to whip around.

"I do?"

In unison, all the girls nod.

_Wow._

"Thanks." I say quietly, then see Sophie smile widely.

Darcy sighed. "We'll talk about all this later Ezra. It's too much for a quick walk to get food."

"Food." Brie smiled greedily, causing Sophie to loudly giggle.

"Okay. I'm around." I tell Darcy. "Just pull me aside or comm me."

"I will." Darcy nodded, then crouched down and smiled at Sophie. "Now don't you be a stranger. Come back and train with us. You had fun right?"

Sophie feverishly nodded. "Yeah!"

Darcy smiled happily. "Good."

"See ya Ezra." Brie smiled at me.

"Good seeing you." Mira side hugged me before slipping past me into the caf.

I smile, then let my eyes sweep the room, trying to find everyone.

"It's complicated, isn't it." Sophie asks quietly.

I glance down, to see Sof looking up at me with a blank expression.

"Yeah, it is." I shrug.

"Okay."

(A/N: My apologies for not posting Friday. Classes started back up last Monday, and a group of children at work thought I'd have fun dealing with strep. I know many of you want me to post more often, but due to time restrictions, I can't post more than twice a week most weeks. When I have the chance to post more, I will. Hope you enjoy the new chapter.)


	80. Routine Work

Probing before I turn the corner, I feel nothing then whip around it tightly and start down the long corridor.

_Lunch should be any time now. And I'm tired of running._

Doing your cardio and actually having to try is a lot different than chasing down Stormtroopers or Inquisitors. It's not hard, it's just…dull. Leaving my mind to just wander.

_And of course it's strayed back to Mom._

Her week in solitary ended two days ago, and is in a normal room with a guard now. I don't know what she's been doing since then. Or if she's allowed to do anything. I'm pretty sure everyone is waiting for me to talk to her before anybody else goes to interrogate her.

_They don't have to, but it's nice._

Sabine and I were talking last night, and she's really worried about what exactly she was doing on Operation Remnant, Project Hammertong, whatever it actually is. She aligns crystals using sound waves on a superweapon.

It sounds like she was working willingly, and using some of the stuff she used to use broadcasting against the Empire on top of it.

_Darcy might know more._

I commed her early this morning, and I'm going to talk to them all at their place later tonight. Set the record straight on what exactly happened, and what they know.

_Oh. Am I done already?_

I stop at the sight of the wall directly ahead, with the massive red line bisecting it.

_Guess I am._

Spinning on my heels, I turn and start back towards the lifts.

_Time to recharge._

Before Rex, Echo and Mrs. Wren get ahold of me. They watched all my fights and have some ideas to help me out. When I saw Mrs. Wren last night she told me what she'd be doing.

_Apparently I'm exposing myself, which is why the air keeps getting knocked out of me. She's going to fix that._

She made it sound pretty easy. Probably a small fix like keeping my elbows closer to my chest or lowering my center of gravity. Hopefully they can teach me some easier ways to win a straight up fight.

"Ding!"

The lift opens up in front of me and I slide inside, then hit 'L'.

While the lift floats upward, I close my eyes and reach out to figure out who all is eating.

_I don't really want to eat alone._

Kanan and Hera are sitting near the back wall with Sabine and her family. Sweet.

I smile as the lift opens on the ground level, then slide thru the open door and slide back to the kitchen.

"Ezra!" One of the cooks calls out.

Another turns and smiles. "What can we get you?"

"Can I get the Quor'sav-fried steak you guys made a few nights ago?" I ask, then smile.

The cook in front of me nods. "Drowned in gravy?"

I laugh, then nod. "With potatoes and some vegetable. Don't really care which ones."

"Bean, carrot and dust corn mix sound okay?"

I nod, then the chef turns to put it in. Reflexively, I grab a red glass and move to pour myself some blue milk.

_Hopefully Sof got the same so I don't look silly._

Flipping off the dispenser, I grab my glass and turn back thru the door to find everyone in the back, talking happily.

_With a spot beside Sabine waiting for me._

They knew.

I shake my head as I walk over, then set my glass down beside Sabine. "Thanks for saving me a spot."

Sabine turned silently to smile as Kanan nodded across from me. "No problem. We all figured you'd want to sit there."

"Ezra!" I hear Sophie say, before her mother turns to her.

"Not now darling, he just sat down…"

Sof completely ignored her parents and raced around the end of the table and hustled to me.

I spin and smile at her. "Hey. How are you?" I ask.

"I'm good! I made you this." Sophie said, holding out a orange and purple bracelet.

_Oh._

She somehow weaved it. Pretty simple really, orange and purple…something alternating on each side.

"Thanks Sof. How do I put it on?" I smile at her.

Sof stepped forward and let out a small smile while looking down at my left wrist. "Like this…"

I keep my arm still as Sof ties the bracelet onto my wrist, then looks back up. "Too tight?"

"No." I shake my head, then spot my food being set under the lamps outside the kitchen.

"Ezra!"

"Excuse me Sof…" I say, then step around her and grab my food.

_Looks delicious._

When I get back to my seat, Sophie's sitting back down next to her parents.

"How'd cardio go?" Hera asked me.

I shrug before joking "A lot harder than when I'm chasing down somebody."

Everyone let out a laugh, then Sabine slipped her hand into mine and squeezed gently.

"You're not thinking about it. Just acting on instinct." Ahsoka said.

Kanan smirked. "You can grumble all you want. It's come in handy. Have you ever gotten tired during a fight?"

_Once._

I cringe. "Only during the first fight on Mandalore. That wasn't my fight though."

"You were using all your energy in bursts. That doesn't really count." Ahsoka smiled, then took a bite of her sandwich.

Beside her, Lux smiled. "Is that the Quor'sav-fried steak?"

I nod. "I asked for extra gravy."

_I like their gravy. Even though they never give you enough with the potatoes._

"Wooomp womp." I hear Chop off to my left, then turn and see him holding a full glass of blue milk for Sophie.

Sophie lights up, then gently takes the glass from Chopper. "Thank you Choppy."

_Choppy?_

"Woot."

I turn to Sabine as she shrugs, then turn back to my food and dig in.

"Did any of you see today's report?" Rex asks, down at the end of the table next to Echo.

Kanan and Hera shake their heads, then Ahsoka said "I haven't gotten to it yet."

"What's it say?" Lux asked.

Rex shrugged. "Nothing too big. Normal reports, but there is one strange thing. One of our regular supply runs got ambushed, but fought them off and captured the crew."

"Captured?" Mrs. Wren asked. "Is that normal procedure?"

Rex nods. "We try not to leave a trail of bodies behind us in space.

Beside me, Sabine cringes slightly.

"Did any of the crew talk?" Ahsoka questioned Rex.

"Yes. Said they're part of a gang called Kanjiklub."

Kanan quickly looked befuddled. "One more time?"

"Kanjiklub." Echo repeated.

"Sounds like a cereal." Sabine mutters quietly, before taking a bite of her salad.

_That's weird. Wonder why she's eating a salad?_

"I don't think I'd like Kanjiklub." Lux shrugged, caused Sophie to loudly giggle.

Mrs. Wren quickly turned to frown at Lux, as her husband tries to shush Sof.

"Sorry. Joke was right there. You can't expect me to just not take it." Lux smiled.

Hera turned to Rex. "Did they damage anything?"

"Spaced a crate of fruit." Rex shrugged.

Kanan nodded. "Not too bad."

"Kanan!" Hera frowned at him, then whacked him on the arm. "Be a good example."

"For who?" A unfamiliar figure asked, off to the right.

I turn and see that it's a Twi'lek, like Hera, but with red skin.

Hera's eyes widened, and she freezes.

"Can we help you?" Kanan asks the stranger, looking annoyed.

The man smiles. "You must be Kanan. Cham Syndulla, at your service."

_Cham WHAT?!_

Sabine, Rex, Echo and Ahsoka all pop to their feet as Hera is looking at the man in disbelief.

"You told me you didn't want anything to do with a rebellion." Hera says quietly.

The man smiled down at Hera. "Times have changed. I was wrong, my little Hera."

_Little Hera?_

Hera shakily gets to her feet, then hugs the red skinned Twi'lek.

Everyone watches in silence before Hera lets go and turns back to us. "Everyone…this is my father."

Ahsoka stepped forward with a smile. "Mr. Syndulla. Did we finally wear you down?"

Mr. Syndulla laughed. "No Ahsoka, I just realized I was wrong."

"You two know each other?" Kanan asked, looking absolutely lost.

"Yup." Ahsoka nodded. "Every potential lead I have I've used to help the Rebellion. Cham was one of my first ones, although he turned me down many times."

"Ryloth, right?" Rex asked.

Hera nodded.

"Clones?" Cham asked his daughter.

"Just a few, father. Many of them don't trust us, or our stated cause."

Mr. Syndulla stepped forward and shook Rex's hand. "Pleasure to meet you."

"It's an honor sir."

"That's Echo, beside him is Sabine and her boyfriend Ezra." Hrera smiled, then spun and pointed to Sabine's parents. "That's Sabine's parents, Bo and Carid Wren with their daughter Sophie. And over by Ahsoka is her husband, Lux Bonteri."

Mr. Syndulla nodded, then sat down beside Hera. "Thank you for the introductions. A man named Prime escorted me here. He said he was part of a battalion led by a Ezra Bridger. I admit I wasn't expecting a mere boy."

_Hey!_

"He's no mere 'boy'." Sabine frowns, as I occupy myself by taking a bite out of my potato bowl.

_Boy…_

"He's a Jedi Cham. Training to become a Master." Ahsoka jumps in and explains.

"Hmm." Mr. Syndulla says, then glances at me. "He does look like a disciplined boy."

Mrs. Wren leaned forward to speak to Hera's father. "Why do you think Ezra would be a problem?"

"Teenage boys are." Mr. Syndulla answered as Sophie pushed away her cleaned plate.

Instinctively, I pop to my feet, reach over and grab Sophie's plate, then walk back to the kitchen and put it on the dish conveyor belt.

On my way back to my seat, I see that Sof has moved to sit on my seat.

"Hey." I jokingly frown, standing in front of my seat.

Sophie hops right off my chair, waits for me to sit down, then tackles me into a big hug.

_Aww._

I close my eyes and hug her tight.

_Whoa._

The force heaves as my eyes snap open and I look up.

Mom.

_Looking right at Sof and I._

Quickly, several—

_Darcy._

Darcy, Lana, Brie and Mira have all stood up and are staring at Mom.

"Uhhh…" I hear Mr. Syndulla ask.

"It's nothing." I smile, as Sophie tries turning around.

"Mmmph…Ezra…" Sophie tires escaping my grip.

I wave for Darcy and the others to sit, as Mom meekly sit down in her orange outfit with her tray of food.

_Looks kind of sad actually._

Looks older than she did before.

Finally I let Sophie go, and she turns around, spots Mom and freezes up.

"Uhhh…"

"It's okay." Sabine reassures her. "Go sit down."

Sophie responded with a frown, then scrunched her face and stuck her tongue in the general direction of Mom, then ran back to her seat.

"Sophine Wren." Her mother scolded her.

"But Mommy she's mean!" Sophie bargains.

"It's still rude darling." I hear Mr. Wren tell Sof, as I scowl at Mom.

_She's avoiding my eye._

Oh well.

(10 hours later)

"Swish…"

_Blast it I'm late…_

I stride right up to Darcy's door and knock twice. "Knock Knock."

"It's open!" I hear Katiey call out.

I open the door and slip inside, revealing all the girls centered around a pile of cards.

"I'm sorry. Didn't know it was this late. Practice ran way long." I apologize quickly.

Darcy smiles at me. "It's okay. Did it go okay?"

I shrug. "Kind of. Kanan's mad because I didn't meditate enough while I was with Sabine's parents."

Lana, Brie and Mira all look lost. "Mediatate?" Katiey questions me.

"I…"I start, then sigh. "It helps a Jedi get centered in the Force. It's good for me. I just get busy and don't do it."

"Lazy?" Brie looks surprised.

I shake my head. "No. It's not that. I just don't do it. I help with dinner, then just go to bed. I just don't do it. I don't think of it, I guess is the real problem."

_Kanan said that's my biggest flaw right now._

Darcy nodded in what looks like understanding. "Slacker."

I turn and frown at her, getting a smile out of her.

"What's up?" Lana smiles.

"Didn't you want to talk about how we captured your Mom?" Katiey asks me.

I nod. "yeah. I was thinking today, and I wanted to talk to you guys before I go and talk to her."

"You haven't talked to her?" Brie asks, looking shocked.

I shake my head.

"You didn't make her stay that whole week by herself did you?" Darcy asks, looking dumbstruck.

"No, I did."

"Ezra!" Mira exclaims. "She's your MOM!"

"So? She was working for the Empire!" Mira retorts.

"And she apparently abandoned him." Brie said.

Darcy frowns. "We don't know that."

I shrug. "I think they got taken. I want to know how you found her. That matters."

All the girls sit up a little straighter, then Lana leans forward. "You take it boss."

Darcy frowns at Lana, then sighs. "Okay. So we nearly got captured on Coruscant trying to dig into what exactly Operation Remnant is. All we got was a base on a planet named Bonaden in the Aboriginia System. We waited a few weeks for the heat to die down, then raided the base and captured their leading scientist, who we figured would be helpful for the Rebellion and went back to Dxun. Little did we know…"

"She was named Mira Bridger." Mira scowls.

_She doesn't like sharing the name._

"When we figured that out, we decided as a group to wait for you. Nobody liked that, but after figuring out that she was in fact your mom, your Masters and Senator Organa thought that would be the best move."

"What was she talking about when she was talking about interrogators? It sounded like she talked to multiple of them."

Brie spoke up. "It took multiple people to even get her name out of her. The one moment we thought she coud crack was when you Master, the guy said 'Lothal'. She didn't like that."

Darcy nodded, eyebrows raised. "At all."

I shrug, more to myself than anything.

"And you have no idea what she was doing."

"No." Lana shook her head. "We broke into their lab as they were working. Marched right back to her office, took her, loaded her up and left. Just looked like another experimental tech lab to me."

"Nothing weird at all. Tons of holos, that's it." Katiey adds.

"Something to do with crystals." I say.

Darcy nods. "Yeah. Your mom said that. She used sound waves or something?"

"That can't be it." Lana shakes her head.

"No." I cut her off. "Mom and Dad used to be pros at sneaking Anti-Imperial broadcasts past the local communications officers back home."

The room goes silent briefly, then Mira says "So she knows what she's doing."

"What, I don't know though." I shrug.

_No clue._

"A superweapon with crystals." Darcy says quietly.

"Oh what WAS IT…" Katiey snapped, then spun to their holo and started typing rapidly.

"Idea?" Brie asked, as we all look to the holo.

Darcy smirked. "One of your brain explosions would be great right now…"

"Hold on…it's an old Republic weapon. But I can't remember the name…" Katiey muttered, searching the holo as fast as she can.

Files fly past her eyes, before she stops and lets out a yell. "AH HAH!"

SP-HA. Self Propelled Heavy Artillary.

"Maybe a massive version of this?" Katiey looked back to us and asked.

Darcy flashes her customary scowl. "Why? We don't have any capitol ships. You don't need one of those things half the size of a Star Destroyer. There's no point."

"What about the Tarkin Doctrine?" Brie asks Darcy.

"What about it?"

I break off Darcy. "Tarkin Doctrine?"

"Speech by the _lovely_ Gran Moff." Darcy rolls her eyes.

"I know. Met him during my capture. He's a joy. What's the deal about this Doctrine?"

"Long story short" Brie butts in "It's about the wielding of power and having the force, and being willing to USE that force when necessary."

Darcy frowns. "It's how they justified expanding the military in this 'time of peace'."

_Hah! Peace Time._

"So you think this…Operation Remnant could be some like laser gun thing that is being used to enforce Tarkin's Doctrine?" Katiey asks Brie.

Brie shrugs. "I'm going off the top of my head here."

"Better than anything else anyone else's got." Darcy says caustically.

I smile. "I'm going to get you guys in a meeting with everyone. Throw this out there. I like it."

_I think they're onto something._

It kind of makes sense.

"That'd be nice. Know what's actually going on." Mira smiles.

"And somebody can see Prime…" Lana teases Darcy, who swats her hand.

_Oh._

Darcy smiles at me. "That's kind of all we got. Not much."

Actually, it's a lot.


	81. A New Hope

"Swish…"

"Pat Pat Pat Pat Pat Pat Pat."

2.

"Beep!"

2.

"Beep!

3.

"Beep!"

1.

"Beep!"

11.

"Beep Beep! Click…"

"Swish…"

I walk into Mom's room, where she's lounging on the bed, reading a datapad—

"AAAH!" She screams, then scrambles into a sitting position.

I quickly raise my hands into a non threatening position "Whoa Mom. It's okay. Not gonna hurt you or anything."

"I know. You just scared me. I didn't hear you coming." Mom explains, brushing her hair behind her ear.

_I didn't know she was allowed a datapad._

I smile calmly, then pull her datapad into my hand and spin it so I can see what she's reading.

"The Essential Atlas: A Beginner's Guide to Astrocartography."

"What's Astrocartography?" I ask, trying to keep my voice calm while pulling the lone chair at her desk to me.

I hand the datapad back as she answers "It's the process in which a star's coordinates are found, and adjusted so that astrogational charts and hyperspace lanes can be considered completely accurate."

_Oh._

"What makes you pick up Astrogation?" I ask.

Mom shrugs. "Just something to read in here. I'm not let out much."

I nod again, then let out a breath. "Are you comfortable?"

Mom raptly nods, then bites her cheek and slows down. "Yes. I'm not uncomfortable."

_But she's not 'comfortable'._

I frown at her slightly, then drop it. "Mom…if you talk this time, maybe I can help out a bit. I don't know what, maybe a better room, better schedule, little more freedom but—"

Mom cuts me off. "I know Ezra. Thank you."

"I can't make any promises, but I'll tr—"

Again, she cuts me off. "Ezz—ra. I appreciate the thought and intent behind it. Thank you."

I smile, then let my eyes fall to the floor. "I'm sorry about yelling at you. I shouldn't have done that."

"You don't have to apologize Ezra. I dese—"

This time, I cut her off. "No Mom. It wasn't fair to you. I'm sure you were just as surprised to see me as I was to see you."

"Yeah. I…" She said, then sounded choked up. "I'll do everything I can to treat you like an adult and with respect."

I smile nervously, then grab my water bottle and sip from it.

_This is weird._

I am an adult now, and the last time she saw me I couldn't take care of myself.

"Well, if you don't mind me asking…what happened? What really happened Mom?"

Mom immediately sat up straighter, and set the datapad to the side. "Well, how much do you remember honey?"

"Eh." I shrug my shoulders. "Not much. Just that you and Dad fought a little bit and were sending forbidden communications out criticizing the Empire."

Mom winced. "You remember us arguing?"

"Yeah." I answer.

"Ephraim and I always tried to shelter you from that, my son. I'm sorry."

I look at her helplessly, then smile to show support.

Then Mom continued. "Well, the planetary governor, Ryder Azadi had always supported your father and I in secret. He smuggled some incriminating facts to us on multiple occasions for us to broadcast. Until about two weeks before…we saw you last." She choked out. "He was 'recalled' back to Imperial City, or Coruscant. The Imperial Capitol. Do you know anything about Coruscant?"

"No." I tell her. "I know of it, but nothing about it. It's supposed to be just one big city."

Mom nodded. "Yes, that's the place. So Governor Azadi was recalled. One of the reasons your father and I were arguing, was whether or not to lay low for a bit. Sometimes it was over details, but immediately before that was probably what you remember."

"Okay."

Mom swallowed, then continued. "We…left home, and went to the market to get groceries. Just like we said. At the market, a full battalion of Stormtroopers surrounded us and arrested us. No stated reason. And off we went."

"Do you know why? Something you had just broadcast?" I ask.

Mom shook her head. "No. We had just started a project to try and start making contacts to figure out why the Empire had come to Lothal out of nowhere. When you were born, they weren't on the planet. But when you were about three, they came."

"Any luck?"

Mom shakes her head."We'd just been contacted by a rumored rebellious figure. Someone by the name of "Kingpin". Just a audio transmission, and that mission. To look into why the Empire had come to Lothal."

_Kingpin._

Could that be Ahsoka? It would make a little sense. Different name than "Fulcrum", but you can't go around using the same alias all the time.

"Kingpin huh?"

Mom nodded. "Do you know who it is?"

I shake my head. "I know somebody who may know though." I lie.

"They may be dead Ezra." Mom says gently.

"We'll see." I answer.

_I don't think so._

Mom nervously clears her throat, then takes a sip out of a plain white mug on her dresser. "Well, moving on, uhm…both your father and I were both very worried about you. We knew the risks, but we both believed that we'd covered our tracks well enough to avoid detection. Obviously, we were wrong. At this point, we had to place our faith in some of our friends to take care of you, like they'd promised."

_Friends._

They did NOTHING.

"—were both taken to an unknown Imperial facility where they…" Mom paused, then took a shaky breath. "They…tortured us. Asked us about everything we knew. They…have terrible droids and interrogators Ezra. You have no ide—"

"I do." I cut her off. "I got tortured after a mission went bad. I know. I'm sorry." I say gently, then smile at her.

_I know how bad it is._

Mom quickly goes pale. "They…did?"

I nod. "It was nobody's fault. Our pickup team was put in a really bad spot. But I made it out. I'm fine. Go on, please." I ask, gently again.

"Okay. Uhm…well your father and I both ended up talking after what I think was a week. It was a long time, I know that. They tortured us back to back. I heard his screams, then they came and made him listen to my screams. Once they'd gotten everything they wanted out of us, we were shipped to a slave colony. Later, we'd find out that the planet was Colla IV."

"Never heard of it." I admit.

"Nothing to it." Mom says dismissively. Just another planet the Empire strip mines until it's dead, then will leave."

I frown, then sip my water. "Sounds like them."

Mom nods, then shrugs and continues. "This is where I lost track of time. Your father and I were allowed to stay together there and mine some. Other times we worked on the droids that helped run the place. It was awful."

_Sounds like it._

I try to give her a supportive look before she continues. "One day, I don't know when about a third of the droid workforce went berserk. Some tried killing prisoners, others just deactivated. I tried doing a mass reprogram over the wireless system they were connected to."

"And it worked?" I ask.

_It had to work. Mom's good at this kind of thing._

Mom nodded. "The Moff promoted me, and I stopped doing hard labor. But your father was given more time in the mines. I pleaded and begged the Moff to give him an easier assignment, but he didn't listen."

Control.

_The Moff knew he had Mom after that._

"More time passed, then one day a officer came…in and…" Mom said, voice lowering as tears start to slide to her face.

I pull the lone box of tissues off her desk and hand a few to her, then let her pull herself together.

"he said…your father's heart had given out—"

_No…_

My stomach immediately drops as Mom continues "—and that he'd passed while I was at work…I asked to see him before they buried him, but they said he'd already been cremated."

"Mom…"

_That's awful._

Mom sniffled loudly, then waved me off. "No honey, let me finish. Otherwise I don't know if I'll be able to."

"Okay." I quickly reply, then wait for her to continue.

Mom wiped her eyes for a moment, then continued without looking up. "I sort of just fell into a daze. The world lost its meaning. I met Ephraim when I was younger than you are. I'd only been without him 13 years of my whole life. You'll…understand one day Ezra. I pray to any gods that you understand, because it's a wonderful feeling. But it's also terrible."

I nod, then sip my water.

"I just went along with my life, aimlessly working. No purpose, no drive, anything. Until one day I was moved to another world, where I was given more freedom on a new project. What you and your…group called "Operation Remnant"."

"The Imperials don't call it that?" I ask her.

Mom shakes her head. "It's Project Hammertong to most of us. Some others know it as 'Remnant', but only to non-essential personnel."

_Non-essential personnel._

Like Brie on Denon.

"I worked there for…I guess about two years or so. I don't really know. But I got to use sound waves again. It kind of woke me up a bit. I had a reason to get up. I knew what it's for, but I got to manipulate crystals from our home planet and use sound waves. It was more joy than I'd had in years."

I smile. "It's the little things."

_It is. Like Sophie's bubbly attitude, Sabine's scowl when she's painting or Hera and Kanan putting together a plan for our next raid._

Mom lit up. "It really is. They make a difference." Then her face fell. "I did enjoy my work though. Last progress report I got is that we're on schedule to be done in about a year, although that's most likely delayed now. I was the only one skilled enough to align the crystals correctly so they don't tear the weapon apart."

"Weapon?" I ask, as my mind starts racing.

_Massive laser gun. Like Rex and Echo said on Mandalore._

Mom nodded. "Yes. But your friends came and took me. Brought me here. I waited forever, but now I know why. They wanted you to see me first."

"They thought they were doing the right thing. They meant well." I reply diplomatically.

"I…I thought of you every day Ezra. Every day. I thought you were 16. I must have lost a year at some point, probably after Ephraim passed."

I wave her off. "It's okay Mom. No big deal."

Mom's head snapped up. "It is! I'm your mother Ezra! I missed years and years of your life! You've had more time on your own than with me or your father! You…" She trailed off.

"What?" I ask.

Mom kept her eyes locked on the floor as she answered "Your girlfriend. I think her parents came and saw me."

"Oh." I spit out.

"They motherfucked me. Said I abandoned you. Which…just isn't true my Ezra. I SWEAR it isn't true."

I shake my head and try to clear what Mom said at the start out of my head. "Sorry. That's out of line."

Somehow, Mom smiles. "I know it is. They just care about you a lot. They didn't say it, but I could tell. Told me how you and the little girl…I don't know her name. How you and her are so close. She apparently adores you. Her mother said that they think you two should get married."

I smile. "Well…"

_We already are._

Mom's head pop up at the speed of light. "WHAT?!"

"Yeah." I sheepishly smile. "She was afraid I'd get killed in a battle. And it's simple in her culture."

"What culture?" Mom questions.

_Wait._

I catch myself before I reply. "Let me call her down here."

Terror flies across her face. "Ezra—"

I ignore her and hit my comm before waiting for Sabine to reply.

"Hey." She quickly answers, sounding pleased.

"Hey. What are you up to?"

"Nothing really. Just dropped Sof off back with Mom and Dad. Where are you?"

"I'm down at Level D4. Would you mind going and getting a couple of drinks, then come down here?"

…

Mom nervously bit her lip as I glance up at her.

"Sabine?"

"Yeah. I'll come down there. You want your usual?" She asked perkily.

I smile. "Yes please."

"What does your mom want?"

I glance to Mom, only to see her looking very uncomfortable.

"I don't know…tea?" She asks me, looking unsure of herself.

"I remember pepper tea." I tell her.

"I think they have that Ezra." Sabine jumps in.

"Sure." Mom answers quietly. "Please."

"I'll be down there in a minute." Sabine replies, then the comm shuts off.

"She'll be right down." I say, then smile at Mom.

Mom fidgets, then tugs at her gray shirt. "So…you're a Jedi."

I smile. "Training to become one."

"No, my son. You're a Jedi. Given how they were almost all wiped out, you're a Jedi." Mom replies flippantly.

"What makes you say that?"

Mom lowered her eyes back to the floor. "Your father and I were debating on whether to go into hiding or not. You…Children aren't supposed to be able to walk without assistance at eight months. Talking at a year and a half perfectly. Athletic beyond your years. Coordinated more than any child double your age. We knew you were special. But we knew nobody we could trust. Then we were taken."

_Huh._

"So I was special."

Mom smirked. "Yes. Because you're my only son. But you were extremely gifted. People noticed. That's why they said they would watch over you if we disappeared. Which clearly, they did if you got here."

I can't stop myself from giving Mom a frown. "That's not what happened."

"Huh?"

"Nobody helped me Mom. Nobody. You and Dad got taken, and I was at home for days and days. I ate all the food, waiting for you to come home. Then one day, I realized you weren't coming home." I say, looking at my shoes.

_She's really not going to like that._

Mom lets out a loud sniffle, and I extend the tissue box without looking. In seconds, Mom is sobbing into her hands.

"Why…I told them…to WATCH YOU!" She yelled angrily, before sobbing once more.

I open my mouth to reply, but nothing comes.

"I…HOW?! HOW!"

"You were but a CHILD! Supposed to be going to school and making friends! As opposed to…" Mom said, before sobbing again.

…

"How'd you survive? How are you not in an group home? How are you not in the Imperial Navy?!" Mom asked me, sounding incredulous.

_Blast it._

She's not going to like this either.

"I…got really good at pickpocketing. Slipping into places. Stuff like that."

Mom freezes up, then glances up at me. "A Loth-Rat…"

I shrug my shoulders sheepishly. "It got me until I met everyone here Mom. It kind of worked."

"When'd you stop going to school?"

"Thirteen. I was missing out on the busiest times at the markets. And I was hungry."

Mom replied by burying her head in her hands. "By the Gods…I am a failure as a mother."

"It's not your fault Mom! That's not at least." I smile at her.

Mom shook her head. "Then how are you here? If none of the people your father and I trusted to keep you safe did, how did you find a Rebellion?"

"Oh." I laugh. "I, uhh, kinda stole some supplies from a Jedi."

Mom's eyes bulge. "YOU WHAT?!"

"Swisshhh…"

"Yeah, he's pretty stupid. Isn't he." Sabine replies sarcastically as I turn to face her.

_She's in full armor._

Mom doesn't reply, instead looking at the floor.

"I was just telling her how I met you guys." I explain to Sabine as she sets a tray of drinks down onto Mom's dresser.

Sabine laughed. "I figured that out when she was yelling 'YOU WHAT'? Stealing from a jedi usually does that."

I roll my eyes. "Haha."

_She's enjoying this._

Sabine simply takes her helmet off, revealing a smirk, then sets her helmet down with a loud "THUNK."

"Nice to meet you Mrs. Bridger."

Mom doesn't look up. "You've already met me. You don't have to be so formal."

Sabine's face falls. "Well, I figured I'd actually introduce myself this time. I'm Sabine. Ezra's—"

"Wife." Mom cuts her off. "You're Mandalorian. I should have guessed."

"Did I miss something?" Sabine turns to me.

I shake my head. "No. I explained the marriage thing, but didn't do it right."

Sabine shook her head. "Well, at least that's not important or anything."

Mom snorts out a laugh, and finally smiles.

"Can that clear the air please?" Sabine asks Mom.

Mom shrugged. "It can."

_She's nervous. I think._

I hop to my feet and grab Sabine and I's drinks. "Here. Thank you."

Sabine smiled, then grabbed my chair. "You're welcome."

Then I grab Mom's drink and extend it to her.

"Thank you. I appreciate it." Mom said, before sipping it lightly.

Sabine adds "I brought some sugar and stuff too. I didn't know if you liked it straight or not."

"Thank you." Mom replied, before standing and grabbing one packet of sugar.

_She's at least six inches shorter than me._

"I didn't mean to kill the conversation." Sabine looked to me. "What were you guys talking about?"

Mom quickly shot a glare Sabine's way, causing her to backtrack. "If that's okay, that is."

"Not much. Just explaining how we both got here." I reply, then smile at Mom.

"Anything on Operation Remnant?" Sabine asks.

I shake my head, while my Mom nods.

_What?_

"I'm confused." Sabine says bluntly, as I glance at Mom.

"I started it, but didn't get into it too much. I worked on Project Hammertong, or as you know it, Operation Remnant."

Sabine nodded once. "Do you know what either of those means?"

"It's part of a much larger project. The part I was in charge of was the aligning crystals in a very specific way." Mom explained.

Sabine doesn't look fazed. "Like a weapon?"

In respone, Mom nodded.

"I know this is important." I cut in, causing both Sabine and my Mom to turn and look at me. "Sabine and I went undercover to an Imperial outpost to try and learn more. We hacked a holo with a bunch of data on it. It's a decree straight from the Emperor every Empire day—"

"And we've been working on this for months, but all we find is another layer of secerts. Nothing concrete." Sabine explains. "We really need to know whatever you know Mrs. Bridger.

Mom nods, then swallows a lump in her throat. "It's…They call it the Death Star."

_Death Star._

My vision…

"The…what?" Sabine asked, looking totally lost.

"It's called the Death Star. The plan is for it to be a massive space station with the capability of potentially destroying a entire planet."

The Force suddenly tugs for my attention, and chills run down my spine.

"Is that even possible?" I ask.

Mom turns to me and nods. "It could be. The Empire prefers massive Kyber crystals that have to be aligned very specifically. Why, I don't know. But they're inherently unstable."

"And these crystals are very powerful?" Sabine asks Mom.

Mom nods again. "Very. I don't know any specifics, but from how much I know, there are many tributary shafts that vent heat from sixteen primary shafts, in the shape of an array."

Sabine's eyebrows nsap down. "Like a laser blaster in space?"

Mom shrugged. "I don't know. I have some details and a vague idea. I know there's supposed to be a lot more to it. Dry docks for full sized Star Destroyers, barracks for half a million Stormtroopers…"

"We're going to need you to say all this where it can be recorded." Sabine says gently.

Mom bites her lip. "That's understandable. But…I have to be kept safe. I don't want to go back to the Empire now. And if they discover that I've talked about it…" Mom says, then starts completely breaking down and sobbing.

"Mom…" I say quietly, as Sabine nervously looks to me.

"I don't have anything left! I lost my husband, my son, years of my life…don't let them take my life too…" Mom sobbed.

Instinctively, I sit next to her on her bed and pull her into a hug. Within seconds she's sobbing on my shoulder.

"Don't let them get me…Please…"

"They won't Mom. Promise." I tell her.

_I won't._

"I'll look into getting you some stuff okay? A real room, something of your own." I smile at my Mom, as she's crying into my shoulder.

Sabine sadly looks at me, then back to Mom.

"I don't have any credits to pay for it! And I'm a prisoner!"

"That's okay!" Sabine jumps in, surprising both Mom and I. "This is a new start. If you help us with this weapon, it's a new beginning Mrs. Bridger. The people that captured you were once Imperial themselves before they defected. It's possible to do things if you join us."

Mom wiped her eyes. "I…I'd appreciate that. Are you going to have me guarded again by…the Mandalorian soldier? I don't know his name."

"You're being guarded?" I ask.

_Prime._

"Yes." Mom answers. "Most every night. Same guy every time. I'm taken out to wash up and he's just there, sitting by my door."

Huh.

"We'll look into it. I don't know if that's an official thing or not." Sabine smiles at Mom.

"Do you want it to stop?" I ask Mom.

"Yeah!" She says vehemently. "I'm not some psycho crazy like everybody thinks! I just sit in here and read almost all the time! The floor's locked down anyway! I can't get out!"

I try to give Mom a reassuring look while reaching out. "We'll look into it."

_He's here._

Right outside.

"It's been nice meeting you." I hear Sabine say, as I look to the door.

"You too." I hear Mom reply softly.

Quickly, I hug Mom around the shoulder, then get to my feet. "I'll be back soon. Promise."

Mom looks down, but smiles widely. "Okay. Sounds great."

I squeeze her knee before standing up and waving the door open with one hand, revealing Prime, sitting on thr floor, rifle beside him with a datapad in his hand. "Get up."

Prime jumps out of his skin as Sabine slides right behind me. "Whoa. Scared me sir."

"Swishhh…"

I frown at Prime. "Why are you here?"

"I'm watching her." Prime answers without a beat.

"Well you're scaring her." I reply.

Behind me, Sabine is holding her helmet. "You don't need to be here Prime."

Prime frowns at her. "I don't quite think that's your call. It's his Mom."

Sabine instantly starts fluffing up in anger, and takes one step towards Prime. "Leave. She just talked to us. She'll be talking to everyone soon."

"About what?" Prime asked.

Sabine brushed past Prime without a second glance. "The Empire's newest superweapon."

Prime's eyes widened. "What?"

"We've been working on this for months. For forever." I explain, the move to follow Sabine.

Operation Remnant.

_Death Star._

Sabine and I are both silent until we reach our room. Once inside, Sabine simply turns to me and buries me in her arms. "Ezra…I'm so sorry."

"Me too." I answer quietly.


	82. In The Mud

_Breathe Ezra. It's no big deal._

I can fight trained Sith Assassins, hundreds if not thousands of Stormtroopers, those staff wielding droids and Darth Vader. I never get nervous.

_But now, when I'm walking down to the sparring room, with everyone here to watch me face off with Kanan my heart starts pounding and my hands get sweaty._

Focus.

I shake my head and wipe my hands on my pants, then try to focus myself in the Force while walking.

_Sophie started bouncing on the balls of her feet when Ahsoka mentioned it at breakfast._

The door swishes open, revealing Kanan, Hera, Lux and Ahsoka talking on the far wall. Sabine, her parents and sister, along with Rex, Prime and Echo are all off to the side, sitting on crates and talking.

Kanan's eyebrows snap down, and he turns to fully face me. "You're nervous."

"Trying not to be. I shouldn't." I say as I start towards the water dispenser.

"Did you feel his tension? I didn't." I hear Ahsoka ask Kanan while I have my back turned.

I turn around in time to see Kanan scowl deeply. "No. That both pleases me but makes me just a little antsy."

_Vader said be mindful of my thoughts and emotions. I'm trying to do just that, and it's apparently working._

"It's good, I guess." Ahsoka says, also looks unconvinced.

"My mind can't be read like a book now." I shrug as I walk to join them, then sip my water.

Kanan glances at me. "Well yeah. That's the goal. But you don't have to close off here."

"I'm practicing." I defend myself.

_He doesn't like it._

"Is this part of what Vader said to you?" Ahsoka asks without skipping a beat, causing Hera to snap turn to him and Lux to choke on his drink.

I nod. "Constant vigilance."

"It's Sith philosophy. Trusting none but yourself." Ahsoka says quietly.

Kanan replies "I don't like it."

Ahsoka smiles. "It's not an immediate negative. Maybe Ezra's just a little more private with his thoughts than you are?"

"We're surrounded by friends here. There's no threat!" Kanan shakes his head once more.

"We can teach but we can't make people do what they don't want to." Ahsoka replies.

Kanan immediately retorts. "It could be a subtle way of Vader working his way into Ezra's head. Constantly protect your mind, breed mistrust and secrets between him and us. Just seems like a slippery slope to me."

"It is one." Ahsoka replied.

"I'm not going to turn. I just thought it was a decent point." I tell Kanan, feeling slightly embarrassed.

Ahsoka turned to me. "It is a good point. But the reason Kanan's so antsy about it—"

"—is that you're picking up more and more dark side tactics and tendencies."

I frown, then an idea pops into my head. "You saw the City of Bone battle."

Kanan's expression doesn't change as his eyes shift back to me. "And your point is, Ezra? I watch every fight of yours to try and help you get better."

"I'm not going to throw lightning at you guys. You know that right?" I tell him.

Kanan smirks, then turns to Ahsoka.

_I can't tell if that's sarcastic or not._

"Go say hello to everyone over there. Then you two can duel your frustrations out." Ahsoka smiled while pointing over towards Sabine and the others.

_Okay._

I turn back and start towards everyone, causing Sophie to light up as everyone else notices as sits a little straighter.

"Hey." I smile at Sabine as she grabs a big water jug and takes my cup out of my hand.

"Kanan doesn't look thrilled with you." She replies.

I shrug. "He and Ahsoka finally took a good look at how I fought at the City of Bone."

Immediately, Prime cringes, causing Sabine to look over. "What happened? I just remember you being bloodied up and was running a little hot."

"I used a bit of what Barriss taught me when I was captured." I explain.

Prime immediately jumps in "We told him not to go there."

"Then why'd you do it?" Sabine frowned at me.

"I was tired of it! The droid had just blindsided me, and I'd had enough." I explain, as Rex and Echo cautiously look on.

"Must have gotten a little more violent." Rex says, voice even.

Prime barely restrains a eye roll. "He sent a battalion of Stormtroopers and a heavy desk thru a wall. And made it look easy."

Sophie barely jumped back, while her parents look taken aback. "Must have really gotten to you." Mrs. Wren says.

"I'd had enough. And somebody told me it was a race to the Moff." I nod, then shoot a glare at Rex.

_I didn't want to go so fast, but hey. Orders._

"Maybe saying it was a race was the wrong way to put it." Rex says sheepishly.

"First to the Moff won." Echo replies. "He still lost. Sabine won."

Sabine simply looks back to me and smirks, forcing Sophie to laugh. "C'mon Sof, hop on up. Things can get a little crazy."

"I've seen one of these before." Sophie tells her sister, sounding a little angry.

"This one will be a little different." Rex gently says to her, causing Sophie to turn and look.

"How?" She asks.

Both Rex and Echo smile at her. "You'll see."

_I imagine they want to push me. See where my instincts and abilities are at._

I set my cup aside while simultaneously unclipping my lightsaber and pulling it into my offhand and let it sink into my palm before turning and seeing Ahsoka and Kanan going over something while Lux and Hera walk towards us.

"Have fun." Hera smirked at me, before Lux gave me his customary two fingered wave.

Great.

_We're off to a flying start._

Silently, Ahsoka breaks away from Kanan, who quickly assembles his lightsaber.

"All right. The crates are all clear. You can throw them. No low kicks or punches. And keep everything clear over here." Ahsoka called out to us, pointing towards where everyone is sitting.

I nod in understanding, then Kanan replies "Got it."

Ahsoka then turns her back on us and—

_WHOA!_

I barrel roll away from Kanan, who leaped at me like he got shot out of a cannon, then reactivate my lightsaber and turn it horizontal in time to absorb a downward cleave from Kanan.

Okay. He's being super aggressive.

Anticipating his next move, I spin back on my heels and set up in a Sorensu stance.

"That's not going to help you Ezra. I know how to beat that." Kanan smirks, then cuts down at me. I block it, then lightly push back, causing to grit his teeth and lean into our blade lock.

Quickly, I break the lock by slamming the open palm of my offhand into my hilt, causing Kanan's hands to recoil and smack him directly into the mouth with a loud "POP!"

Kanan takes a staggering step back, and I spin into a quick slice at his waist, which quickly gets blocked. I respond with a riposte that misses.

_BACK!_

I wheel around at top speed and spot a yellow bolt aimed right at me and block it. Sabine barely can yelp before sending herself into the air to avoid it. Sophie tumbles off the back of her crate in a panic trying to get away and protect herself..

"EZRA!" I hear Ahsoka yell.

Kanan swings down at me, and I block before locating Ahsoka and reply "Instinct! And I was careful!" while pointing in the general direction of Sabine and Sophie.

"WHAM!"

Kanan's elbow solidly colliding with my head causes me to step back, then let out a wild chop to clear space.

_Crap! I'm going to hear about that later._

I shake my head, then take the fight to Kanan with a slice. He blocks it and spins away.

Out of the corner of my eye I see a flash, then leap away from two pinpoint blastershots.

_Headed towards my ankles._

In one motion, I roll to my knees, gently grab Sabine from her perch on top of the crates above her parents and force her to the ground. "STOP!"

Within a breath, Kanan's already advancing to attack.

_I did this to Maul and_—

Keeping my arms tight to my body, I let Kanan's blade hit mine, then dig in and push back.

_Maul got jammed up. Might have been the best thing I did that whole fight._

Kanan doesn't move an inch, then smiles at me. "Can't out strength me."

"Oh yes I can!" I reply, then sweep my legs out at him so that I can get to my feet. By the time Kanan's regained his footing, I'm on my feet and chopping directly downward.

_I'm always in the gym! If I can keep up with Shark Bait and Maul I can keep up with Kanan!_

"KRRRSSSHHH!"

Both Kanan and I grit our teeth and try to push the other off our spots for a moment before I hear a shout off to my left.

_Fine, I'll break it!_

I let my body relax and turn around in time to see Prime with a massive rifle in his hands.

A massive bolt rockets towards me with a "KUSH!" sound.

_Not fast enough._

I redirect the bolt right at Prime, who lets out a yell before the rifle gets violently taken out of his hands by the reflected bolt.

Spinning back, I see Kanan quickly backing up.

_Why is he—_

Uh oh.

I turn back just as Sabine is flying at me, legs extended for a kick.

She yells "YAH!" just as she makes contact between my ribs and stomach.

OW!

_Okay, if you want to fight on the ground…_

I grit my teeth, grab onto Sabine and prevent her escaping. Immediately she starts squirming like a gundark to try and get away.

"No you don't…" I growl out, moving to try and pin her.

"WHACK!"

Everybody in the room gasps as I fall off Sabine in shock, jaw throbbing.

_She just punched me!_

Full on punched.

Sabine doesn't hesitate and climbs on top of me and starts trying to pin me.

_BLAST!_

Letting out a growl, she slams her knee into my chest and starts pushing down, forcing me to cough.

"Sabine!" I hear somebody call out.

Then Kanan says "This part comes later, Sabine! Get off him!"

Sabine and I both freeze up, her straddling my stomach.

_He did not just say that…_

At the same time Sabine goes for her blaster, and I grab Kanan and fling him out of frustration, sending him flying into the crates on the other side of the room.

"OOF!"

Sabine's face suddenly lights up in a smile, and she randomly grabs my face and plants a big kiss on my cheek.

"Huh?" I blurt out in confusion.

Sabine beamed. "I'm done fighting you."

"Wha_—_"

"I'm not!" A familiar voice says, before I'm slammed into the ground again.

_DARCY._

OH COME ON!

I shove Darcy away, and attempt to get up, only for Lana and Mira to double team me and slam me to the ground.

"Get OFF!" I yell in frustration, then pitch myself forward, sending Mira tumbling off me.

Lana replies by completely wrapping herself around me. We both starts rolling around, with her trying to pin me, as I try to get her off and not hurt her.

_MOVE!_

In a split second, I force both of us to roll away right before the spot we were both in gets peppered with shots from above.

"LANA!" I yell as I use all my momentum to pitch her off me.

Determinedly she clings on, letting hers nails rake the side of my face before her hands find my hair. On my other side, Darcy wraps me up and together they body slam me to the ground.

OWWW! That's my wrist.

_That doesn't feel good._

I let out a yell before somebody off to the side whistles. "Okay, I think we're done."

Lana falls off me, while Darcy collapses onto me, both breathing hard. I roll off to the side and grab my wrist gingerly.

_I think I'm okay._

"We're done?" I turn and ask Ahsoka.

"Yup." She nods.

"That wasn't a lightsaber duel. That was a street fight!" I say heatedly, turning to Kanan.

Kanan smiles. "That was the point."

"That was the plan?" I question him, then look back to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka nods as Kanan replies "You never know when things are going to change in an instant Ezra."

_I know that…_

I get to my feet, then pull Darcy and Lana to their feet as well just so I have something to do.

If I grumble, they're going to be mad at me.

Quickly, Sabine appears at my side and starts wrapping an ice pack around my wrist. "I think you tried hyperextending it again."

"I didn't try." I joke, cracking a smile. "I just tried to catch myself."

"Well there's your problem." Echo says, causing me to see that everyone else is starting to approach.

"What did you all think?" Kanan asked, looking as Sabine's parents and Rex.

Mrs. Wren spoke first "I kept thinking he was going to go to his lightsaber. But I don't know if you're allowed to do that here."

"It is." Ahsoka answers. "They're set to stun right now. A touch just makes it numb, and you're supposed to play dead."

Immediately, everyone laughs, topped by Brie hopping off the crates, tilting her head to the side and sticking out her tongue.

"I thought Ezra did alright. My complaint was that he didn't use his blaster. That's on stun right now too." Rex said.

The realization hits me, and I groan. "I didn't even think of that."

"Would have gotten him room." Sabine shrugged, before smiling up at me.

"And now I can say I've been pushed by a Jedi." Darcy smiled. "That hurt."

Kanan frowned jokingly. "You think that hurt! He threw me!"

"You deserved that though." Hera chides him, before Sophie silently comes and pushes Kanan's leg.

Kanan plays along, taking a unsteady step. "Easy Sof." He replies, getting her to giggle.

"Good job though Ezra. The only way you could have failed, I guess, is if you would have tapped into the Dark Side and used lightning or something." Ahsoka explains.

"Maliciously." Kanan adds.

"I was never near that." I frown. "I just didn't want to throw anybody too hard."

"You didn't." Sabine pipes up beside me.

"He was taking something off." Prime says. "I've seen 100%, and that definitely wasn't it."

Ahsoka nods "Which is good. Knowing your situation is rule number one."

"There are rules?" Sophie pipes up.

Ahsoka quickly shakes her head. "No, not actual rules. There are things to keep in mind though."

"Like how many people are you facing? What are they good at? How far away are they? Et cetera." Rex explains to her.

Sophie looks back blankly while nodding. "Okay."

"We're done right?" Sabine asks Kanan.

Kanan nods. "Yeah, for tonight."

"Get some rest." Hera adds, getting some laughs.

"Yeah, no late night wandering." Kanan quips as I turn to the door.

I spin back around and frown "I was getting food! You saw me!"

"I know Ezra, I'm teasing." Kanan smiles.

I turn back and start to the door as Sabine bids everyone goodnight, then follows me.

_Ow._

"You took a beating." She immediately says, as the door swishes shut behind us.

I nod. "Yeah. Ow."

"Lana scratched your face. Near your scar." Sabine tells me, before wiping it with the pad of her thumb.

I shrug. "Didn't notice. They pulled my hair too."

"Girls don't fight fair. I'm telling you." Sabine laughs as the door behind us opens up and I run my hands thru my hair.

_What the…_

I slow my steps and bring my hand down with a clump of loose hairs coming with it.

Sophie squeaks behind me, and Sabine cringes.

"I don't have a bald spot, do I?" I look back to see Sabine's parents and Prime.

Prime shakes his head. "No."

_Good._

"They pulled his hair?" Sophie asked Sabine.

"And scratched him." Sabine answers without skipping a beat.

Sophie squeals before her mother adds "You kicked him pretty good darling."

I shrug. "Yeah, but that was natural. The pulling of the hair and the crawling on top of me wasn't natural."

"I was afraid you were going to actually hurt each other." Mr. Wren says.

Sabine shakes her head before Sophie exclaims "And you PUNCHED HIM!"

"He wore it!" Sabine says defensively.

"Nobody was expecting that. Everybody was shocked." Mrs. Wren said.

"A little back and forth, yeah. But not punches." Prime smiles.

Mr. Wren suddenly smirks. "Well, whatever you did Ezra, you're cleared now."

I can't help but laugh along with everyone else before Sabine smiles "He didn't do anything…" as we reach the lift.

Sabine hits our level, and we descend before Sophie pipes up "What does et cetera mean Mommy?"

"It means, like that. For example, take chores. You take out the trash, clean the kitchen, et cetera." Mrs. Wren explained.

"Oh, so like other stuff too? Like cleaning my room, that kind of thing?" Sophie replied.

"Exactly _ad'ika_." Her father answered as the lift opens and everybody follows us out.

Sabine takes a brief look back, before biting her lip and asking "What's up? You guys never follow us this far."

"Well…" Mrs. Wren stalls, before looking to her husband.

Mr. Wren grimaces, then looks to Sabine and I as she gets the door unlocked. "Well, your mother, Prime and I were going to go back to Mandalore and vote in the election to determine the new Prime Minister."

"Oh." Sabine says, as Sophie hops onto our bed, looking confused.

"We were also going to bring the rest of your team back Ezra." Mrs. Wren adds, stopping in the doorway.

"Yeah, I've been wondering about that." I admit, setting my lightsaber down across the room on the desk.

Prime shakes his head before saying "The application has been "Pending" for over a week. I think somebody high up has a problem."

Sabine groans before plopping down next to her sister. "For what though?"

Prime shrugs, before Sophie quietly pipes up "What about me?"

"What do you mean?" her mother asks.

"Am I not going back home? Can I not go?" Sophie asked, sounding very sad.

Her father smiles in the doorway. "Of course you can come. Or you can stay. It's up to you."

I turn and look back to Sophie, who looks surprised, then put both hands on her cheeks for a moment.

"I'll stay here with Sabine and Ezra." She smiles happily, causing both of her parents to smile.

"That's what we thought you'd say." Her mother smiled.

Sophie smiled back before saying "That way I can learn to fly more and shoot and stuff. It'll be fun!"

I laugh, then smile as Sabine hugs Sof briefly.

"C'mon Sophie. Time to go to bed though." Her dad said gently.

Sophie frowned, then hopped off the bed and waved to Sabine and I. "Night."

Her sister waved back as I say "Night Sof."

Then she, her parents and Prime all silently walk out, shutting the door behind them.

After a moment, Sabine turns to me. "So."

"So." I joke, getting her to laugh, then turn somber.

"I…I was thinking of getting a ring made."

_Huh?_

"A ring?" I ask. "Why? I thought we agreed to keep things quiet."

Sabine frowned, then wrapped her arms around me. "Yeah, but some of the soldiers around here don't know that and think I'm available."

Oh.

"Do I need to go talk to somebody?" I smile at her, hiding my bubbling temper.

_They'll talk to my lightsaber if they try to make a move on Sabine._

"No." Sabine shook her head. "From their point of view, it does look like I'm not seeing anyone."

"So you want a ring to make it not look like that." I finish for her.

Sabine smiles. "Yeah. But it's gotta be sort of minimalist so it can fit under my gloves and stuff."

"Always gotta be ready for a fight." I laugh.

Sabine smiles back. "Sorry you fell in love with a traditionalist."

Sarcastically I snap my fingers. "Blast. I was hoping you'd be a rebel."

"I am a Rebel to the galaxy, but a traditionalist to my people and to you." She purred quietly. "I was hoping we could pick something out together."

_Together._

"Sure. I think I'll like that."

She smiled again. "It's not like jewelry shopping normally is."

"Do I have to get anything?" I ask.

She shakes her head in response. "Not if you don't want to. I already know who you are, and I know you won't look for another girl."

I smile, then kiss her hair. "Never."

"By the way…if Sophie's staying with us the next few nights, I'm going to need you to be my boyfriend tonight."

"Oh." I say, unable to hold back my surprise.

_We've kept it kind of quiet the past few days. A lot of time just sleeping and in each other's presence._

"I know. I'm being different." Sabine purrs again, then nips at my jaw.

"Are you no longer worried about the walls?"

They seem kind of thin.

Sabine got up on her tiptoes. "I can be quiet. I don't like to be, but I can be." She taunted me, then bit my ear. "I can't wait till we get back to our place on Dxun."

I laugh, then hang my head. "Yeah."

"So?" She questioned me, looking up with a glint in her eyes.

I smile, then shake my head. "Get the lights."

"Yes!"


	83. Love Pledge and The Arena

_Ugh._

I'm awake.

Eyes closed, I feel Sabine curled up, head on my chest and legs slipped between mine.

_I think she's asleep._

Hazily I sweep my foot around the end of the bed, expecting to hit something small and warm.

_Where is she?_

…

Grudgingly, I turn over and open my eyes and try to spot Sophie.

_Oh._

There's a short brunette sitting on the floor, looking at something.

_Probably cartoons on her datapad._

Suddenly I feel Sabine pull me closer to her, then her head shifts slightly.

"You awake?" She barely whispers.

I simply nod, then roll back over in time to see her open her eyes.

"It's too early."

"Yeah." I smile.

Sabine slowly blinked, then felt around with her foot like I did. "Where's Sof?"

I nod my head to the side of the bed, causing Sabine to lift her head up.

Quickly, there's movement down below my eye level, then Sophie's head pops up, with a wide smile. "You guys are awake!"

"Barely." Sabine grumbled, setting her head back on my chest.

Undeterred by her sister, Sophie climbed onto the bed and smiled at both of us. "Hi. Good morning!"

I smile as Sabine waves at Sof, then closes her eyes and asks "How early is it?"

"Not too early." Sophie replied with a smile.

I roll my eyes at Sabine then ask Sof "Did you sleep okay?"

"Yup." Sophie immediately replied, too awake. "I've been up for almost an hour!"

"Too long sunshine." Sabine grumbled, then smiled without looking at her sister.

Sophie looks up to me in confusion. "Am I too peppy? I'm trying not to be. Mommy always tells me to be quieter in the mornings.

I shrug, and Sabine shrugs, then opens her eyes again. "Maybe turn it down half a notch."

"Oh. Sorry." Sophie said meekly, then turned away and grabbed her white earphones.

_Sabine…_

I grab her earphones away from Sof with the Force, then levitate them away from her ear, causing her to grab for them and miss before she sees what I'm doing.

"Ezraaaa…" Sof giggled, then grabbed for her earphones.

I ignore her, instead playing keep away. Beside me, Sabine smiled and rolled onto my chest.

Finally she catches it, then lets out a triumphant "Hah!" along with a wide smile.

"You got it…ow." I cringe, pushing up on the mattress to sit up.

_That hurt._

"Ow?" Sabine said in confusion, hair tousled after being deposited onto her pillows.

Gingerly, I reach over and grab my bicep. "Yeah, ow. That hurt."

"You're sore?" Sabine asked, sounding like she's lost.

Sophie tilted her head to the side before saying "I though Ezra didn't get sore."

"I don't." I joke.

_I do, but it rarely, if ever happens._

Sabine shook her head. "No, he does, but I've only seen it once."

That day sucked. It hurt just to move all day.

"Yeah, that wasn't a fun OWWW!" I say while swinging my legs to the side of the bed.

_GEEZ!_

My calves! And the backs of my knees!

Sophie quickly cringed while Sabine sat up. "You okay?"

"No." I shake my head. "I'm sore. I must be getting old."

WOMP!

My head smacks into the mattress just before Sophie loudly laughs.

"Don't you dare say anything about getting old mister! I'm older than you, and if you're old we've got a problem!" Sabine says while swinging her legs over me and trying to smother me with the pillow she just hit me with.

"Hey! Sab—MMPH!"

Sophie loudly giggled as Sabine shoves the pillow into my face.

After a moment of struggle, I finally get enough leverage to flip the script and whip Sabine down into the mattress, then pretend to smother her.

"Hah!" I smile, as Sophie rolls around on the floor laughing. "Who's laughing now!"

Sabine replies by grabbing the pillow and chunking it across the room. "Not you!"

I laugh, while Sophie is still laughing her head off on the floor.

"Shush Sof! I'm trying to perform a murder right now!" Sabine beamed before rolling me into the conforter and tangling my legs up, before grabbing one of the pillows and smashing it into my face.

_Sabine!_

I know part of her is only doing it because Sophie's enjoying it so much.

"HEHEHEHAHAHAH!"

"Oh quit _squirming_…" Sabine mutters.

"Stop! I surrender I surrender!" I say into the pillow, which comes out only as "MMPH MMM HMMM!"

Sabine lifts the pillow off me and asks "What?"

"You win." I gasp.

"Good." Sabine smiles, then tosses that pillow back to her side of the bed and kisses me gently.

I smile, then push her away.

_Sof hates it._

Begrudgingly, Sabine rolls off me and gets up, leaving me lying in bed.

I don't want to get up.

_It was painful last time, and it'll be painful again._

Sophie poked her head up as Sabine starts digging around for some pants. "C'mon Ezra! Get up so we can go have breakfast!"

I groan, then turn to Sof. "But it's going to hurt me."

"No it won't." Sophie smiled innocently.

_Fine._

I do have to get up, I guess. Can't lay in bed all day.

Gritting my teeth, I sit up and swing my legs to the side all at once in order to just get it over with.

_OWWWWW!_

Sophie immediately pops to her feet and gets out of my way as I inch out of bed to grab a shirt.

"You're hunched over." Sabine states the obvious as I hobble around.

I wince as I tell her "It's mostly my calves. But the back of my knees and biceps are killing me."

Sabine shrugs sympathetically. "Well, you have been taking a beating the last few days."

_Yeah._

Got thrown thru some crates by Ahsoka and Kanan at top speed when I wasn't looking because "you never know when a Sith is around".

_That was two days ago._

Yesterday, Rex and Echo talked Sabine, Darcy and the girls into fighting me six on one. Which, let me tell you, was a treat.

_AND I had to exercise afterward!_

I know those box jumps is what killed my calves.

Finally I find a blue shirt that isn't super wrinkled, Force Pull it to me and slip it on before following Sabine and Sophie out the door.

"C'mon!" Sophie dragged me along.

_Oww!_

"Easy Sof." Sabine says behind me as I cringe again.

I might be going to the medical wing today.

Undeterred, Sophie pulls me and my creaky legs along to the kitchen, but not before I see Kanan and Hera sitting in their normal spot in the back.

"Hey there! What can we get you all?" The head cook asks cheerfully.

Sophie tentatively steps forward and asks "Can I have…some panna cakes with strawberries?"

"Yes you may! What about for you two?"

Sabine shrugs. "Eggs and toast please."

"Omelet please." I add.

"Please!" Sophie pipes up with a smile.

The chef smiles back "We'll get that all started."

"Thank you." I tell him as Sophie darts out of the kitchen to get her drink.

Sabine sighs and rolls her eyes before we move to follow her.

"—know that your mom and dad aren't here right now, but you can't go running around everywhere. Where are Ezra and Sabine?" Lux asks Sophie gently as Ahsoka fills up two cups of caf.

"We're right here." Sabine answers him. "And slow down."

Sophie doesn't look up from the floor. "Sorry."

"It's okay. Just tone it down a little." Ahsoka says gently while handing Lux his cup back.

Bouncing right back, Sophie leads Ahsoka and Lux back to where Kanan and Hera are situated while Sabine grabs herself a caf and I grab some orange juice.

_Not in the mood for caf today._

Before I can even sit down, Hera's already giving me a wary look. "You're really not moving well."

"Yeah…" I sit down gently. "It's been a bad morning."

"Maybe a trip to the medical wing would help." Ahsoka says.

I shrug before Sabine says "Would that even help though?"

"Help what?" Echo asks curiously.

Sophie immediately spins around and says "Ezra's really sore."

I nod and admit "Yeah, it's been a painful morning."

Rex smiled while Echo looks a little embarrassed. "Well then yeah, the medical wing. Take out some of that lactic acid and let you move around a bit better."

"They can do that?" Sabine asks skeptically, sounding surprised.

Rex nods before Echo answers "They can't do it often, because it does do some good things for your body. But there's no point in Ezra going about the day and wincing at every move."

"Might as well give him some pain relief." Ahsoka shrugs, before our food starts appearing under the hot lamps.

I get to my feet and immediately regret it before forcing myself to keep moving towards the food.

_It will help._

It has to.

By the time I reach the front, grab the food and turn back around, Sabine's on my heels and ready to take her food from me.

"Thaaaank you." She says, taking her eggs and Sophie's panna cakes as Chopper slides out of the kitchen with an empty cup.

I grab my omelet as he wheels around me and fills up a cup of juice, then starts off towards where we're all situated. Before I sit back down, he taps Sophie's shoulder gently and extends the cup to her.

"She's already got one Chopper." Kanan says gently.

Sophie took the cup anyway, then beamed at Chopper. "Thank you Choppy."

"Womp Womp." Chop replied, before wheeling away to Hera and Kanan's side of the table.

As I sit down, Hera and Kanan exchange glances, then Hera says "Sof, you're gonna steal him from me."

"Huh? No I'm not!" Sophie looked up from her panna cakes.

Kanan smiled at her. "Not literally Sophie."

"But he never gets me a drink, and I put him together." Hera replied.

Sophie's eyes bulge slightly as Sabine quietly lets out a laugh beside me.

Lux peers down the table and asks "Never?"

"Never." Hera shakes her head.

In response, Chopper extended both his arms, shook them and said "BAHHH!" then wheeled off, leaving us to watch.

Sophie looked back to us with a sad expression. "I don't want to steal him. Sorry."

"Don't say sorry." Hera said strongly. "He just likes you."

Immediately, Sof smiles, then digs back into her food.

I take advantage of the moment to take a bite of my omelet, then look down the table.

Ahsoka, Rex, Lux and Echo are all looking at their own respective datapads.

_Huh._

"Look at this. They shut down the Tingel Arm." Rex gently prods Ahsoka, who leans over, toast in her mouth.

Ahsoka inhales the rest of the toast, then frowns. "Sounds big to me."

"Don't they usually do that in the core?" Lux asked.

Ahsoka shrugs. "Only because planets are a fingernail apart from each other." She replied, holdng her fingers minutely apart.

"We don't want to start seeing signs of this Death Star thing wherever we look. Have to focus on solid evidence." Echo says strongly.

Sabine leaned over to look down the table. "We're having a meeting about all that right?"

Ahsoka looked back to Sabine and nodded. "Once everyone gets back we're going to have that meeting."

"Uhm, I have a question." Sophie pipes up quietly, setting her fork down.

Kanan copies her movement and smiles. "What's up?"

"How many Jedi are there?"

_Oh._

I cringe, then set my fork beside my plate and look over as everyone else peers down the table at Sophie as Kanan's eyebrows are raised, before he nervously glances at Hera.

"Well…you see, that's a difficult question to answer." Kanan completely cops out, squirming in his seat.

"And a long one." Ahsoka adds.

Sophie glances down at Ahsoka before looking back to Kanan. "That's okay. How many?"

Kanan looks down, then sets his napkin off to the side. "Four."

Sophie makes a strange move with her neck, then loudly says "FOUR?!"

"Sof!" Sabine snaps at her as Sophie starts rambling.

"—hought there were thousands of Jedi…but you, Ezra, Ahsoka…" She trails off.

Kanan smiles gently at Sof. "There's another one, but he's doing something on his own. We don't know what it is, but that's okay."

Sophie pauses, then peers down at Ahsoka. "There's really only four Jedi? In the whole galaxy?"

Ahsoka smiles gently and nods. "It's a big place, but we'll come back. Don't you worry."

"I thought there were thousands of Jedi. Millions!" Sophie proclaimed, extending her arms.

Kanan shook his head. "There were a lot more, but there aren't now."

"What happened?" Sophie asks.

To my surprise, Rex speaks up. "Well, there was the Clone Wars. We lost a lot of good Jedi then. Over time, they lost so much they couldn't get more. When the war ended, there were only about 15. Some more joined the Empire, and others lost their way. Ezra's the first new Jedi we've had in a long time."

_That's…actually not a bad explanation._

"But if there's only four Jedi in the whole galaxy why does the Empire not like them? Four people can't hurt them." Sophie asks.

Ahsoka smiles. "Yes we can Sof. But they really shouldn't be afraid of us. They're paranoid. You know what that means?"

Sophie nodded. "They're kinda crazy about something?"

"Exactly." Lux smiles.

Sophie doesn't reply, instead digging back into her panna cakes. Beside me, Sabine gently loops her hand in with mine and squeezes.

_Ahsoka, Kanan and me._

And Master Kenobi. Who's taking care of Luke somewhere.

_That's it._

That's kinda scary when you really think about it.

(Hours Later)

I frown to myself as the nurse continues prodding at me. "I can go home. I'm going to be fine."

"We're not supposed to release patients unattended. You need someone to supervise you." The nurse flatly replies while messing with the machine by my bed.

_One undiagnosed fracture in my back and fluid in my lungs and I become a prisoner to the med bay._

I just came in because I was sore.

"Then let me call my girlfriend."

The nurse still doesn't look up. "Nope. She'll have to come here. As I said, you can't leave unattended and unsupervised."

"I'll supervise him." I hear Sabine crack wisely, then look up to see her and Sophie walking up to my station.

"Ezra!" Sophie beamed, then tackled me into a hug.

The nurse cringed. "Easy! He has a hairline fracture on the C2 vertebrae!"

"It's a little girl. She's not going to hurt me anymore than I already am." I brush the nurse off.

Sabine's eyes lingered on the nurse for a brief moment before saying "How do I get him discharged?"

"You just take him, I can do the rest." The nurse answered.

In response, Sabine motioned for me to get up. "C'mon. We're going home."

Sophie simply beamed happily as I get up and start towards the door. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome! I'll be sending your x-rays and other tests to your masters."

_Great. They'll love that._

"Thank you. Have a good night." I say politely, before slipping out the door.

The moment the door shuts behind us, Sabine shook her head. "Talk about by the book."

I snort out a laugh, then smile down at Sophie, who is looking up at me. "Yeah. I can't call, but I can't leave either."

"Yeah, we heard some of that. Doesn't make sense." Sabine smirked. "Kind of like you're a hostage."

"Are you okay?" Sophie asked. "What did she mean by a hair fracture?"

_Hah._

I smile, then shake my head. "Hairline fracture. I need to ice my back after the next few sessions basically. Maybe some rest. Nothing too big."

"Don't worry. We'll take care of him." Sabine reassures Sophie, who turns to Sabine before looking back to me with a concerned look on her face.

"What'd you do while I was in there all day Sof?" I smile and try to take Sof's mind off of me.

_I'm fine._

"I had fun. I uhh…what'd I do?" Sophie turned to Sabine.

"You played on the sim all day." Sabine beamed at her.

"The sim?" I ask.

_They let her on the sim?_

Sophie lit up. "Yeah! I had a lot of fun! I got to play as Ahsoka!"

"Yeah." I smile. "You can play as Ahsoka."

"She didn't quite play it right. She only used Ahsoka and not Skywalker or Kenobi." Sabine explains to me as we walk down the hall, headed towards the lifts.

"Why not? Skywalker was Ahsoka's master!" I ask Sof.

"He was okay I guess. That Kenobi guy sucks."

_SUCKS?!_

"Sucks?" I blurt out incredulously.

He does not suck!

"Yeah!" Sophie replies heatedly. "He isn't good at attacking! All he is good at is defense, and defense doesn't win!"

What?

I glance at Sabine in time to see her shake her head before saying "You can't always be all out attack though."

"Yeah you can! You and Ezra didn't defend when you guys were fighting Shark Bait!"

"That's because we were defending _you_." I explain.

Sophie quickly fluffed up. "No you didn't! How! Give me one explanation! One time!"

"Okay." Sabine interjected. "When he got back up, and Ezra was looking for his lightsaber I fired two missiles right into the ground. As a barrier to hold him back. Isn't that defense."

Sophie bit her lip. "I didn't see that."

"But it happened." Sabine countered.

"I was trying to help Ezra find his lightsaber! That's offense!" Sophie replies defensively.

I hear Ahsoka laugh off to the side, before she walks out. "Always the offensive, huh Sof?"

Sophie leaped onto Ahsoka and hugged her. "I played as you on the sim!"

"I know. I heard from Kanan and Darcy that you did really well." Ahsoka smiled at her.

_Kanan and Darcy?_

"Yeah!" Sophie lit up. "Can you change Master Kenobi so that he can be a little more offensive?"

"Why do you want that?" Ahsoka asked.

"Because he sucks right now." Sophie replies without hesitating.

Ahsoka frowned. "He does not suck. Sophie Wren!"

"What?"

Ahsoka started to say something, then cut herself off and laughed. "You're silly. You headed off to bed?"

"I think so. It's kinda late." Sophie answered.

Ahsoka smiled. "Well off you go. I need to talk to Ezra for a little bit."

_Oh._

Okay.

I smile at Sabine, who is looking confused but gently ushered Sophie to the lift. "Night Sof!"

Sophie waved back, and Sabine smiled before the lift door shut.

"Follow me Ezra. I've been meaning to pull you aside and talk to you. But nobody's had the time." Ahsoka explains as she starts down the hall.

I nod in understanding and walk with her, waiting for her to continue.

After a moment, we slip into a different lift and start heading up. "By the way, Leia would like for you to comm her on her personal channel. She said you had it."

"Okay. I've got it. What does she want to talk to me about?" I ask Ahsoka as the lift continues upward.

Ahsoka frowned slightly before saying "There's…a growing weariness between you and the General Council about your growing power base."

"Power base?" I blurt out. "I don't have a power base!"

Ahsoka smiled. "Yes, Ezra you do. Darcy and all her friends? Prime and his Mandalorian battalion?"

"I don't want to do anything Ahsoka. You know that. They joined _ME_." I tell her earnestly.

"I know." Ahsoka said soothingly. "But there's some behind the scenes stuff that you don't know about. Like how the Council and High Command both don't like how many Mandalorians are getting involved in the Rebellion."

"How's that a problem?" I ask.

Ahsoka frowned. "There's a lot of lingering bitterness and misconceptions, on both sides dating back to the end of the Clone Wars. Both the Council and Command see you dating Sabine, adding Prime and that battalion, asking for them to join after convincing an elite Imperial Black Ops team to defect and are a little taken aback by all of it."

"Is Leia on the High Council?" I ask, frowning.

"She is, along with her father." Ahsoka answered, leading us out of the lift.

"Well…" I say quietly.

Ahsoka smiled. "Yeah, I know. Also, there's been some whisperings about what to do about the Death Star."

"Okay. We still haven't had that meeting." I add.

"Exactly. So I'm asking you to keep this little bit quiet."

"Alright." I tell her, while trying to hide my smile.

Ahsoka glanced over to me, then smirked. "We have limited intelligence from your Denon trip. Basically everything you and Sabine saw flash by on that holo, along with the little amount we were able to recover from Darcy's team. The data spike was too damaged."

"Figured." I mutter quietly.

"Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that one of the few leads we have as to where the Death Star s getting its crystals…is Lothal."

_LOTHAL._

"Oh yeah…" I mutter to myself.

I saw it flash by on the screen and it almost stopped my heart.

"You, Sabine, Kanan, Hera, you might be making a return trip home. I wanted to prepare you for that possibility."

"Sounds like there aren't much details right now." I say.

Ahsoka cracked another smile. "You read me right Ezra. It's strictly an idea right now. But I'm pretty positive it will end up happening."

Awesome.

_I can get a chance to make things right a little bit there._

"But what I really want to talk to you about Ezra, is about Vader. Specifically what you two talked about in that hallway before Darth Maul came." Ahsoka says carefully.

I nod, then swallow. "Okay."

"Let's start here. What do you think? How did the conversation go?"

"It went well, actually. He never got mad or anything. You know about the constant vigilance thing about my mental shielding."

Ahsoka's face remains placid while asking "Why did it come up? Or did he just comment on it?"

_Shoot._

I cringe before answering. "He…I messed up. Vader was talking to Rex, and I had the thought that right there, that moment was the first time the two of them had seen each other since the Clone War—"

Ahsoka clenches up. "Ooh."

"Yeah." I continue quietly. "I made the connection. And Vader knew I made the connection."

"So he knows that you know."

I nod. "He knew it was you too. Said something almost like 'My master's too naïve to think that the footage actually made it off the planet. But he didn't buy it because you knew where to look.'"

Ahsoka suddenly smiled. "Kenobi."

"He said that too. How'd you know that?" I ask her.

"How else would I know where to look? Ana…Vader isn't dumb. There's only a handful of people that know what actually happened to him. You, Me, Obi-Wan, Master Yoda, Palpatine and Anakin. I told you, you've never seen Palpatine, Anakin didn't tell you and Yoda is in exile. That only leaves Obi-Wan."

"Narrows the candidates down pretty quick." I say quietly.

Ahsoka nods. "So he was pretty calm? Gave you the tips on mental shielding?"

I nod. "Yeah. He, he knew how important Rex's pauldron on me was. Little stuff. It wasn't lost on him."

Quickly, I glance over at Ahsoka to see her with her eyes closed along with a painful expression on her face before I continue.

"I think he's still in there."

_I'm almost positive."_

Ahsoka sighed, then opened here eyes. "That would make sense. Obi-Wan said when I talked to him that the Dark Side consumes you in moments. It's not all Vader all the time."

"It's just a name change?" I ask gently.

Ahsoka bit her lip and—

_Oh my…_

NO WAY.

"It's not your fault."

Ahsoka's eyes shoot open, looking right thru me before she slowly turns around.

Padmé smiles, then takes a step forward. "It's not."

I open my mouth, but nothing comes out.

_She just…appeared._

"How?" Ahsoka breathes out. "You're only supposed to be able to appear as a Force Ghost—"

"If you're a Force sensitive? She's not that simple Ahsoka. You know that." She smiles.

I clear my throat, then ask "It's actually you?"

Padmé smiles. "Yes Ezra. It's nice to see you again."

"Again?" Ahsoka asks, spinning back to me.

"Right after I got rescued. I…the Force called me to an empty delivery room. I saw a vision, then she came and hugged my arm." I explain.

Ahsoka's eyebrows snap down. "Sabine said that in a report. But why didn't you say anything about…" She says before looking back to Padmé.

"He was a mess. I asked to pass back down to the real world as a spirit-shade in order to comfort him and to show the Force still smiles upon him."

_What?!_

Ahsoka looks completely lost before looking at me, then back to Padmé. "What? I'm so confused. How long are you here? You're here for a reason."

Padmé…winced. "I'm here about Anakin."

Immediately tears fly into Ahsoka's eyes. "I…I'm so _sorry_…" Ahsoka chokes out before she starts crying.

Padmé quickly steps up and puts both on her shoulders as Ahsoka sobs. "It's not your fault."

"How is it not my fault? I left the Order! I didn't stop him from going and saving the Chancellor right at the crucial moment!" Ahsoka howls.

_What?!_

She saw him? Right before he turned?

"Ahsoka. It's not your fault. There was nothing you could have done."

"I could have stayed! Fought by his side until the end!"

"Then Palpatine would have orchestrated your murder before turning Anakin. He outplayed us all." Padmé says calmly.

Ahsoka blinks quickly, then wipes her eyes and looking back to Padmé, who smiled at her. "I…How are you even here?"

_She's right. She's not Force sensitive. Last time I didn't think of that._

"It's difficult to explain properly. But basically…when you die, there are three places you can go. The First World is for the more, let's say enlightened beings. Dead Jedi, upstanding, hard-working people and the like. The Second World is for people whose fates are in the balance and are looking for redemption. Whether they know it or not. The Third World…is exactly as it sounds. Sith, people that hold no value for life and the like dwell there for all eternity." Padmé explains. "When I died, I went to the First World. There I met many Jedi, including Master Qui-Gonn Jinn, the Jedi you encountered on Mandalore as Order 66 was being enacted. If I do what I need to, for lack of a better explanation, I can come down and talk to you."

"Wow. So you know kinda what's going on?" I ask here.

Padmé smiles, then nods. "Kind of. Mostly I monitor Luke and Leia. She likes you a lot Ezra."

"Like…?" Ahsoka smirks.

Padmé beams. "She does. But you're with Sabine. She isn't going to do anything to violate that."

Oh.

"So you've seen Luke."

Padmé nodded to Ahsoka. "Yes. I wish he was with you right now. Owen and Beru have done a meager job raising him. He would be more loved with the Rebellion."

Ahsoka's expression brightened. "We can go get him right now. That's always been on the—"

Padmé raised her hand, silencing Ahsoka. "No. That's not how it's meant to work. It could happen, but the consequences could be disastrous. Luke is safe under Obi-Wan's watch and protection and Owen and Beru's roof."

"But you said you wished he was here." I say to Padmé, confused.

"Ezra, just because I want something doesn't mean it should happen. That's how we got into this mess." Padmé smiled at me before turning to Ahsoka. "On Mandalore, right before he left you to go try and save the Chancellor…Anakin told you."

Ahsoka looked down at the floor. "I'd known for years. You did a good job hiding it, but he couldn't."

"Typical Anakin." Padmé smiled at her. "The real reason Anakin fell, you heard on that recording."

"Save the ones you love." Ahsoka repeated flatly.

Padmé nodded. "He thought I was going to die. Palpatine tempted him with knowledge to save me."

Ahsoka suddenly fluffed up. "Why'd he listen? If he knew Palpatine was a Sith, then he should have eliminated him on the spot!"

"That, is my fault. A lot of Anakin's fall rests on my shoulders Ahsoka." Padmé smiled.

"But that's not fair to YOU." Ahsoka retorted heatedly.

"Fair doesn't matter. What's done is done. Anakin, like Ezra said, is still in there. He's about equal parts machine and man now. Twisted and evil, but only in moments."

"How long are these moments?" Ahsoka asks Padmé.

Padmé bit her lower lip before replying "Hours long usually. His hatred comes from himself. He hates what happened. He lost you, lost me, lost Obi-Wan. He thinks we all betrayed him. Although it's actually the other way around. All he has left now is Palpatine, and protecting the Republic, now the Empire."

Ahsoka swallowed a lump in his throat. "He hates himself?"

Silently, Padmé nods. "Yes. The most powerful moments are when he shields himself from Palpatine and lowers his guard down. Those are his worst moments. When he allows himself to feel."

_That must be miserable._

"What can we do then? If there are weak moments, maybe there's something we can do about it." Ahsoka said, sounding inspired.

Padmé looked up from the ground and smiled. "There is still good in him. He is still the Chosen One."

_WHAT?_

"Really?" Ahsoka's eyes widened. "After all he's done—"

"Nothing has changed." Padmé cuts Ahsoka off. "He was conceived by the Force to combat Palpatine and his Sith Master and bring balance to the Force. That is still true. No actions of his can change that. Only his death as a Sith can change that prophecy to become false."

"So he's supposed to bring balance? What does that mean?" I ask Padmé.

Padmé turns to me and smiles. "That's the right question Ezra. I don't know. There's currently a lot of debate in the First World about how exactly the prophecy should be read. Currently, the belief is that Palpatine and Anakin will die at the same time, for reasons unknown. Leaving the balance of the Force unsteady, but in the light if not barely."

Ahsoka smiled, but not before Padmé continued. "But there are always great threats. Palpatine has never been stronger in his abilities. I would strongly suggest you look into those Star Destroyers he sent into the Unknown Regions." She said, turning to Ahsoka. "There is smoke and fire there."

Ahsoka nods once raptly, before we all fall silent.

Finally, Padmé speaks up again. "There is a war coming, Ahsoka. One that will consume the galaxy. When that happens, I plan on going down to the Second World. I do not wish to see what becomes of Anakin. The Force has said she will allow this, on the caveat that if I die in the Second World, I won't be able to go back and will be stuck in the First World."

"Why? What do you mean?" Ahsoka asks her.

Padmé smiles. "In the Second World, you can be a real person again. Do good things. The people there are there to repent, although many just live their afterlives there like their normal lives. Here, I'm just a spirit. You can see me and hear me, but I'm not real. In the Second World, I'll be real."

_Wow._

"I never would have…interesting." Ahsoka mutters.

Padmé smiles at Ahsoka. "Master Qui-Gonn told you this Ahsoka. "There is no death, there is the Force." Ezra, you've seen him too, on Naboo before coming and visiting me."

"The long haired guy?" I ask, as Ahsoka turns to look at me.

Padmé simply nods. "I know there is much about the Force you do not understand. And that's perfectly alright. Just trust in her, and she will not lead you wrong. That is the best advice I can give you."

I nod and bow my head in understanding. When I look up, both Padmé and Ahsoka and smiling softly at me.

"Ahsoka…I know you wonder about your place in the Force." Padmé says bluntly, causing Ahsoka's head to pop up quickly.

"I left the Order. I'm not a—"

Padmé cuts her off. "In the eyes of the Force, you are following her word. That gut feeling you had at the Temple? That was the Force. You did the right thing. Otherwise your fate would have been sealed. You are a Jedi Ahsoka. Like Anakin before you."

I can't hold back a smile, as Ahsoka quickly looks overwhelmed.

"This conflict can go any number of ways Ahsoka. I, personally, would love it if you found a way to get Vader alone and work on him. Show him the light, that things _can_ _still be changed_. Try to get to Anakin, thru all the years of Vader he's built up." Padmé told Ahsoka.

Ahsoka nodded. "I'll start on it right away."

"My job here is done then. I was sent to comfort you about the past 17 years, and to show the the light of the way. Everything else is frosting on the cake." Padmé smiled.

"So you're leaving?" I ask quietly.

_No._

Please don't go.

Padmé solemnly nodded. "Ezra…you've been so good. So strong. Do not stop now. Momentary distractions such as your mother cannot stray you from your ultimate goal. You have an integral part to play. Play it. Trust yourself."

"His mother. She's not real is she?" Ahsoka asked, causing me to turn back.

Padmé's expression darkens. "Even now, the Inquisitor's and she scheme. Plot. Not only to get her back, but to hurt him." Padmé points to me. "Do not reveal this to her, but tread carefully. All that is good is not gold."

I silently breathe thru my nose as my stomach shrivels up.

_Mom._

"Continue working to overthrow the Empire. That is the best advice I can give."

Ahsoka smiles. "Thank you, for coming."

"Always Ahsoka. I love you. Anakin loves you too. He mourns you everyday. You can do this. The road is just hard." Padmé puts her hand on Ahsoka's shoulder.

Ahsoka smirks. "The road's been tough before. Hasn't stopped me."

"Exactly. Ezra." Padmé looks to me.

I quickly bow my head. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Padmé replies, then looks to Ahsoka. "I'll try to reappear to you if I can. But the Force may not allow it. Just doing this took a lot of convincing."

Ahsoka smiled. "Well, if you can…I'd love it."

Padmé simply nodded, then let go of Ahsoka's shoulder. "May the Force be with you. Always."

And simply faded away.

(A/N: I'm back! Sorry about the long break everyone. School has been awful, but more importantly I wanted to get Padmé right. And for the last week plus, she hasn't been right. But now I've got it. The 'First, Second, Third World' stuff is a reference from my personal favorite Star Wars fanfic, Purgatory by HelenT. If you want an amazing Star Wars story set AFTER ROTJ, then I believe you'll enjoy it. Update schedule is back to normal. And whew. I'm tired. See you Monday. –James)


	84. Mission of Mysterity

"There shouldn't be any Imperial Patrols around, and the planet is loosely occupied. As long as we keep a light cover, this should be just a simple in and out supply mission." Hera says, face illuminated by the blue holo of the hanger we'll be in.

Sabine nods beside me, as Sophie is standing on a chair next to her. On the other wall is Darcy, Brie, Lana, Mira and Katiey with Rex and Echo filling the doorway to the cockpit.

"Chopper, keep the engines hot. Just in case." Kanan adds.

"Womp Womp!" Chopper replies, saluting with his arm beside Sophie.

Silently, Darcy types something into her comm on her wrist. "I think we're in position."

Hera nods. "Alright, let's get this show on the road." then walks past Rex and Echo into the cockpit.

"So I'm staying here?" Sophie asks Sabine.

"No. You're coming outside too to make it look good." Sabine said, helmet on her hip.

Lana and Katiey slide up beside her. "Don't worry. Everything will be fine."

"I've never been on a mission before." Sophie admits peppily to Lana as the others walk up.

"Everyone has a first mission. Guess this is yours kiddo." Darcy beams at Sof, then ruffled her hair.

Sabine adds "Just listen to what everyone has to say though."

Sophie spins around to me. "I always listen. Right?"

"Kinda." I smile, causing Sof to frown.

"I do listen!"

Sabine rolls her eyes. "C'mon. Let's make sure everything's ready to go down in the turret."

Obediently, Sophie follows Sabine while I glance at Darcy and smile. She replies with a smirk and a sarcastic salute.

"Coming out of hyperspace in two minutes!" Hera calls before I turn and slip down the slide.

"—everything to be okay?" I hear Sophie ask Sabine as Sabine slips a stun pistol into her pocket.

Sabine nods silently before tucking her hair behind her ear and explaining. "Yeah. We do this all the time. Couple of times a month at least. This is business as usual. Like Daddy's monthly meetings that he has to stay late at."

"He hasn't had many of those lately." Sophie answers.

I nearly laugh as Sabine smirks. "Things have been crazy. You know that goof." She tells her, beaming, causing Sophie to light up.

"Oh blast it!" I hear upstairs, causing me to turn before I hear Hera yell.

Sabine jumps to the ladder. "Yeah?"

"Tractor beam! It's a Star Destroyer!" Darcy replies.

Immediately, Sophie squeaks in fright, followed by Sabine turning to me and saying. "Toss her up."

"Got it." I reply bluntly as Sabine leaps up the ladder and I pull my lightsaber to me. "Sof, keep still."

"Okay. But—" She says as I brush past her, then lift her up and toss her up to Sabine. "WHOA!"

I smile, then leap up and almost land on Sophie, causing her to stumble back and fall on her butt.

"How'd you do that?" Sophie asked.

I appease her with a smile, then say "Lots of practice Sof."

"Just tried to get a S.O.S. to the Rebellion. We think it got out, but we can't bet on it." Kanan tells Sabine, Darcy and the others.

Rex and Echo walk over to a closet and pull out two large rifles. "Sophie, we'll protect you. Don't you worry."

"Do we have a plan?" Mira asks Kanan.

Kanan smiles, then points at me. "Kill their tractor beam, destroy the reactors, cripple the Star Destroyer, get out. Safely. That's the plan."

"Do you know what model Star Destroyer it is?" Darcy immediately asks Kanan without missing a beat.

Kanan looks at her quizzically in reply. "What?"

"Oh forget it…" Darcy storms past him, then walks into the cockpit.

"Knowing what model Star Destroyer it is will tell us how to get into the reactors and the tractor beam." Lana explains.

Sabine replies "And what? You just have the designs of Imperial Star Destroyers committed to memory?"

"Yeah." Brie replies flatly.

"And you didn't mention that before?" Kanan asked.

"Slipped my mind." Brie says sheepishly.

Hera cuts everyone off by yelling "We're inside!"

"Sounds good!" Kanan replies, then start towards the door. "On three okay?"

"Got it." I smile.

_I haven't been with Kanan in a long time._

I've been going solo a lot recently.

Kanan and I march to the bay door and wait until we all set down, with Sabine and everyone else filling in behind us.

"—it's a Imperial-class Star Destroyer. The bridge and tower are self-contained and will be sealed off by thick blast doors. Which is good because the reactors and tractor beam isn't all in there. The rest of the ship loops back like a cul-de-sac. So if we split up we'll be able to meet halfway and retreat back here." Brie says.

Kanan replies "I like the plan. How confident are you that those plans are right?"

"100%." Darcy cuts Brie off.

"CLUNK…"

_We've landed. Now I'm just waiting for Kanan's signal._

"Shing! Shing!" sound out, causing Kanan and I to glance at each other.

"Uh oh." I hear Lana mutter quietly, before the door just pops open and three gray canisters tumble inside and start spewing gas.

"Gas!" Darcy calls out.

"One… Two…" Kanan tells me, snapping me back to reality.

_Door's almost cracked enough for us to pop thru._

"Three!" Kanan calls out, and we both leap thru the door at the same time.

The Stormtroopers on the other side of the door don't have a chance as I slice thru two of them, then throw two others bodily.

_My side's clear._

I turn back to see Kanan push three Stormtroopers away, followed by Sabine pulling Sophie out of the _Ghost_, with her, Darcy and the others all hacking their lungs out.

"Irritant…not a sedative." Katiey gasps before Hera, Chopper, Rex and Echo all bust thru the smoke inside the hull and appear.

"You okay?" Rex asks Kanan simply.

Kanan nods. "We're going to shut this place down."

"We'll create a perimeter. Sophie." Echo says in his commanding voice.

_No room for misunderstanding._

Obediently, Sophie runs over, and Rex starts talking to her.

"If we go straight ahead, that front door will get us to where we can split off." Brie says, directing my attention to her.

Kanan doesn't answer, instead starts towards the door. "Tell us when."

_No new Stormtroopers._

"Who is with who?" Sabine asks, marching beside me.

"You're with Ezra. Girls, do you want to stay together?" Kanan asks.

I see Darcy nod out of the corner of my eye.

"Looks like you two will be on your own. I'm not letting you guys go without a Jedi." Kanan says to Darcy.

Darcy immediately replies "We've worked cover free before."

"Not like this." Kanan replies coldly.

_Left._

I spin on my heels and reactivate my lightsaber just before a door open up and a battalion of Stormtroopers opens fire.

Quickly, I crouch down and hold my ground as Sabine slides right behind me and aims a missile over my shoulder, then lets it go.

"BOOM!"

Without another word, Sabine turns forward and continues walking.

_I don't think they're all dead. I still feel one._

I let my eyes linger on the pile of Stormtroopers but keep my feet moving before I hear Kanan say to me "I like how quiet your body is Ezra."

"Thanks. Trying to incorporate—" I smile, then scowl as a shot flies in from nowhere.

Brie, Lana, Katiey and Mira all hit the deck as Sabine and Darcy flinch before I send the shot right back at the lone living survivor.

"Uhh…" He groans out before falling to the floor.

Darcy and the others straighten up and look off to where the battalion is in pieces. "You're a freak." Darcy remarks.

"Oh you haven't seen anything yet. He could do that way before you all met him." Kanan comments.

_I've been good at deflection for a while now._

Just takes work.

"Ezra!" Sabine calls out, causing me to turn and see three staff wielding droids.

"Magna Guards?" Kanan says, sounding taken aback.

I step in front of Sabine and reply "Droids. Don't take them both on. Get in a one on one fight."

"Any other advice?" Kanan asks, before another door opens, revealing another battalion.

_Damn!_

"Don't kick them. That's how I broke my leg." Sabine replies.

I don't add anything, instead leaping out towards the new battalion before they can open fire and slice thru one before raising him up to take the shots of two others.

"NO!" One of them yells before wildly swinging his rifle at me. I catch it, pivot back and catch him in the neck with my elbow then spin back and deflect a blast right into a guy.

I spin back around the other way to find the final Stormtrooper, only to see him charging Sabi—

_OOH!_

Headshot.

The Stormtrooper crumples before I hustle back as Kanan has apparently ignored my advice and is taking all three droids on at the same time.

_He's doing a hell of a job keeping them all off him, I'll admit that._

"Kanan!" I say jokingly as I leap behind two of the droids but manage to cut one in half before retreating from the horizontal slash of the droid I missed.

"What? I like a challenge!" Kanan replies as Darcy, Sabine and the girls are all under fire from a new battalion in front of us.

Blocking a powerful downward slash, then spinning I say "Of course you do!"

Kanan laughs as I part out my droid, then jump and grab his droid by the neck. Immediately the droid tries grabbing my hand, allowing Kanan to bisect his lone droid. "I win."

"You've got the experience!" Kanan retorted.

"So?" I smile.

"So! You—"

Brie quickly cut us both off. "We're here. But they've locked the doors on both sides."

Kanan smiled. "Not a problem. Ezra, take half."

"Got it." I smile, following him to the blank wall between two doors.

"What are you doing?" I hear Katiey ask.

"Be quiet! They're going to cut thru the wall." Sabine explains, just before Kanan and I both slam our lightsabers into the wall beside each other and start cutting a semi-circle on our side.

Kanan growls out "Just keep those doors shut! We don't need crossfire."

_They're moving._

"Kanan." I say to him, still cutting thru.

Thick door.

"I know. They've taken notice of our plan." Kanan growls out, just before we each finish our semicircles. We both take a step back and let out a breath, causing Darcy, Mira, Lana, Katiey and Brie to look at us in confusion.

"What are you—" Darcy asks, just as Kanan nods at me.

_Draw back…_

Kana and I both rear back, then explode towards our sliced Durasteel hull, causing it to go flying thru the wall and taking out multiple Stormtroopers in the process.

"WHOA!" Lana exclaims as Kanan ducks inside and is forced to activate his lightsaber almost immediately.

I slip in behind him and try to give him a break from the barrage he's facing by advancing on a pack of Stormtroopers.

_They don't like this._

Quickly, I cut off the barrels of their blasters, then smash them all together, knocking them out. Turning back, I see Sabine, Darcy and Brie have all scrambled thru.

"Alright, we'll take the right, Sabine you and Ezra take the left. Keep in touch and be careful!" Kanan says.

Wordlessly, Sabine and I both take off to the left. "First one to the tractor beam wins!" Sabine replies, before we both round the corner.

"Phew!"

_Whoa!_

Sabine cackles, then lets off a shot from her wrist. "Not bad for a buckethead!"

"It almost hit me!" I smile.

_It did, missed by a couple inches at most._

"Well whose fault is that?" She says as I deflect a shot from a Stormtrooper before crouching behind a pillar.

Sabine laughs again. "Yours!"

"PING!"

"Aaugh!" The final remaining Stormtroopers yells out in anguish before falling lifelessly to the floor.

Sabine simply turns to me, then we take off again. I quickly take the time to probe out.

…

"I don't feel anyone up ahead!" I tell her.

"I don't like that!" Sabine replies. "Try it again!"

I probe again as Sabine and I keep advancing, unimpeded.

_Found them._

"They're on the other side with Kanan! He's got his hands full!" I say.

I feel at least thirty Stormtroopers.

"Then let's hurry it up!" Sabine tells me before slapping open a door, revealing the reactor room.

Multiple techs turn around, then raise blasters.

"Stop! That's an order!" One of them yells.

"You're not my officer!" Sabine retorts before firing off two rapid fire shots which hit their marks.

The techs quickly panic and start towards their consoles.

_Oh no you don't…_

Quickly, I leap to the closest tech, then knock him out with a swinging elbow.

"Locking down the reactor…20%." The display reads.

"They're locking down the reactor!" I call out to Sabine.

Sabine nails another technician before replying "You're letting that stop you?"

Decent point.

Without replying, I grab two techs and fling them down into the reactor, leaving us with two more technicians.

"Lock it down over there!" One of them yells to the other.

"Oh no you don't." I say, grabbing the tech's arm with the Force.

"AAAHHH! I can't move my arm!" he calls out as I leap over to his station.

Just as I move to shut off the panel, it—

"FSHHHH!"

"Ahh!" I yell, covering my back and stumbling back two steps.

"YAAAAHHHH!" The technician yells, falling off the rails beside me.

_It blew up?!_

Uncovering my face, I see Sabine and a technician in full uniform exchanging fire.

_He had to have shot out the panel._

Without thinking, I reactively leap towards the technician and grab his blaster. The tech responds by cocking his arm back and—

WHAM!

I take the punch, then brutally kick him into the panel, causing his back to bend at an awkward angle. "Shut it off!"

The technician gingerly falls to all fours, then blindly hits a button.

"Reactor 1 powering down…"

"The other reactor has already been notified. You won't shut that one down." He says defiantly.

Sabine shakes her head and replies "Oh we'll see about that." Before kicking the technician off the reactor bridge towards the core.

"C'mon. This might be tough." Sabine tells me.

"Hang on." I say, already looking back to where we came.

_It'll take too long to run around all these bridges._

"Hang on to—WHOA!" Sabine yells as I pick her up and bodily toss her towards the reactor door. Landing heavily, she slowly gets to her feet.

"Never do that again!" She screams at me, just before I leap to join her and land on my feet.

"Running would have taken too long. C'mon." I reply, then take off down the long hallway.

_Uh oh._

This is bad. They're completely surrounded and pinned down.

Silently, I slow down half a step and look to Sabine, who shrugs at me.

_I don't think that there's an easier way to do this. We're going to have to just dive in and get our hands dirty._

Looking back towards the front, we're about five steps away.

Instinctively, I drop to my knees, slide and throw my lightsaber out to the right, then yank on it.

"Fwish—Fwish—Fwish—Fwish."

My lightsaber cuts right thru four Stormtroopers, just before Sabine fires off a missile and takes out more Stormtroopers.

_How many of these guys do they have on here?_

"Finally! Some breathing room!" One of the girls quips as a Stormtrooper turns around and fires on me.

_Bad move._

"Aaugh!" He yells in anguish before he can even get a shot off.

Silently, I probe out and turn back around to make sure we're not being outflanked as Kanan says "You guys clean up down there?"

"The last technician said they were going to know we're coming." Sabine says to him.

Kanan scowls. "Knowledge won't help them. Ezra."

I slip between Darcy and Lana, then slam the hilt of my lightsaber into the door.

"C'mon…" I growl, dragging my blade thru the thick Durasteel plates.

_Has to be multiple of them._

Gritting my teeth, I finally drag my lightsaber about 1/3 of the way thru the door before it quickly starts buckling. One glance back tells me who is pulling on it.

Kanan.

The door makes a massive "CLANGGG!" sound while being torn out of place, then simply set aside and replaced with blaster bolts coming in from all angles. Darcy, Sabine and the girls all duck to the side as Kanan and I start redirecting bolts and taking small steps inside.

"FWING! SHIZ! SPARK! CHZZ!"

Finally Darcy and the others start opening fire on the Stormtroopers and technicians filling the reactor room.

"One of you! Go!" Kanan orders one of the girls bluntly.

Lana, Mira and Brie all suddenly duck down, under where Kanan and I are holding our ground and take off for the bank of control panels.

Unfortunately, the Stormtroopers immediately adjust their fire, moving to focus on the girls. Quickly, I leap between the two and buy them time.

"Thank you!" I hear Mira yell as Brie is hacking her way into the panel

I grit my teeth as I reply "Don't mention it! No problem!"

"Do they ever stop firing?" Lana asks, sounding frightened.

"No!" I reply, before I hear Kanan and Sabine yell.

"EZRA!"

I whip back around to see that the door we just came in from is now filled with Stormtroopers.

_Karabast!_

"Hurry it up girls…" I say anxiously.

I need to get back over there. We messed this one up pretty good.

"Got it!" Brie exclaims, followed by them all making a break for it.

I quickly follow while keeping their backs covered.

The bridge ahead of us explodes in fire from one of Sabine's missiles before I hear Kanan says "We're smarter than this! We should have guarded that door!"

"Absolutely!" I answer, then slip beside him and cut off a shot directed for Sabine's head.

"WHING! POP! BUZZT! SHH!"

_We're not getting anywhere._

"Anybody have any bright ideas?" Sabine calls out, sounding frustrated.

Kanan quickly hits his comm. "What Hera? I can't hear you!"

"—at—" "—force—" "—ly!"

"Hera! Come in! I only heard tiny bits of that!" Kanan repeats himself before reigniting his lightsaber.

I narrowly miss redirecting a bolt right where it came, instead hitting the trooper next to him. His spot is immediately filled and firing on me.

"Behind us!" Darcy yells, before unloading on a Stormtrooper.

I whip around to see that we're being surrounded.

_Not good!_

"We're surrounded!" Mira exclaims.

"I see that! We might have to brute force our way out of this." Kanan replies as Darcy and I have our hands full over.

"CHUNG CHUNK CHUNG CHUNG CHUNG!"

_Huh?_

That sounded like Orir's chain gun.

"C'MON!" A familiar voice yells.

I turn back, only to see five familiar looking Mandalorians, all wearing different armor.

"Mom?" I hear Sabine say in confusion.

"Yup! C'mon!" Kanan orders us, then starts towards the opening Prime and the others just made for us.

Darcy yells in my ear "I ASSUME YOU KNOW THEM?!" as we race to the door.

"Yeah! Friends from Mandalore!" I reply as Mrs. Wren and Will cover us from behind, then slip out the door.

"Have you got the tractor beam?" Prime asks Kanan.

Kanan immediately shakes his head. "No, that's what was next."

Mrs. Wren adds "We'll take the door." as Brie immediately starts working on the keypad.

"Where'd you guys come from?" Sabine asks.

"We had just left Mandalore when Safe Zone said they received a distress signal from you. We changed our coordinates, parked in a hanger, saw the Ghost and followed your trail of destruction." Mrs. Wren silkily answers.

"Your father's with Rex, Echo, Hera and Sophie. The hanger's quiet. All their resources are being funneled to us." Prime cuts to the chase.

"This your battalion?" Kanan asks me.

I nod.

"Nice timing." Sabine says brightly.

The door suddenly pops open, and Kanan and I take the lead, walking into the reactor.

_Looks just like where we found the first Inquisitor._

"Nobody's here…" Kanan mutters.

Then a door pops open. "Ezra Bridger! Long time, no talk…how are you feeling?"

_Barriss._

I scowl and immediately activate my lightsaber as Barriss pops into everyone's line of sight.

"Oh." I hear Sabine say in surprise.

Kanan's scowl deepens slightly. "Haven't seen you since Onderon. What have you been up to?"

Barriss shrugs, face hidden by her mask. "Oh not much. Just the normal reign of terror and destruction. How's your house of cards you're trying to hold up? Rebels."

I hear somebody's blaster click out of its holster. "And who are you?" Darcy asks loudly.

"Ahh. The true traitors are here. Darcy Ridley. And the rest of the "Adjustments". We thought you were kidnapped. Looks like we were wrong." She taunts Darcy, voice pitching up to a mocking tone.

"Who are you?" Prime growls out, as he, Will, Orir and Kal all have their weapons pointed towards Barriss.

"I…am the Seventh Sister. Six proceeded me. Five more have come after me. I am the only one left standing. Before me, you are nothing."

"Oh we'll see about that." Mrs. Wren says, hand on her wrist, ready to fire.

Barriss cackles. "See? No. You won't see. Only dear Ezra has seen what I'm truly capable of. And it's not that bad. Is it?" She asks, slipping past a console and walking to within three feet of us.

Kanan takes a half step closer to me, blocking the rest of our group from her.

"You're not telling the whole story." I scowl. "You never do."

"Is that how you're going to repay my kindness dear boy? I didn't have to feed you. I could have let you starve into turning to the Dark Side. But I didn't! Did I? I overruled mean 'ol Fifth Brother, or as you knew him Shark Bait and fed you." Barriss said airily. "Not only that! I taught you secrets of the Force. Lightsaber techniques! All things you've used to help your friends survive and live."

I frown before Kanan speaks up. "You did your work on him, and he rejected it. Your mind games and subtle tricks to try and turn him from afar all failed. We didn't do anything. It was all him."

"Quiet Caleb Dume! Your opinion is worthless, and I'm not talking to you. You and your Rebel friends mean nothing to me. All you've done is get your most important assets outside of Ahsoka Tano captured. You're soooo predictable."

"Oh we'll see about that." Kanan answers, then ignites his own lightsaber.

Barriss doesn't reply, instead activating both ends of her lightsaber. Immediately, all the girls behind me cause the Force to ripple.

_In fear._

But nothing from Prime and my guys.

Smirking at the thought, I bring my lightsaber behind my head to a Form V position.

"Ezra…after everything I taught you, you're going to use Form V on me? I'm really hurt by that." Barriss says, sounding legitimately wounded.

_Nope…not going to work on me. We've got to find a way around her and to kill that tractor beam._

Instead of replying, I hold my stance and breathe thru my nose.

"What did I tell you? He's beaten you." Kanan tells Barriss.

Barriss lowers her lightsaber slightly, then points the blade to Kanan. "Well, if you're so eager to show I'm wrong…come and prove it!" Barriss says, then lashes out at Kanan.

In response, Kanan flinches while blocking the slash aimed towards his waist. Quickly, I vault up and over Barriss, then press her from the other side.

_We've got to limit her options._

I flash out a cut towards her ankles, which she easily blocks before turning and locking up Kanan. Then she directs her attention to me for a split second, blocking another cut towards her neck.

Back and forth.

Blinking, suddenly my vision is filled with blaster fire by Darcy, Sabine, Prime and the others. Effortlessly, Barriss taunts them by sending almost every shot towards the ceiling. "Is that the best you've all got? Surely you can do better!"

Immediately I feel everybody's temper spike, then take action by grabbing Darcy and Prime and start levitating them over Kanan and Barriss.

"Go! We need that tractor beam down!" I tell them, before seeing Sabine activate her jet pack and fly over to assist them.

As I whip back to slash at Barriss, the air is once again filled with blaster shots from Lana, Mira, Brie, Katiey, Kal, Orir, Will and Mrs. Wren.

Barriss quickly blocks my slash, then has to push me away in order to deflect a pinpoint shot from Mrs. Wren.

"Concentrate your fire on her lower half!" She calls out authoritatively.

_Good idea._

I let Kanan take a strong step forward and engage Barriss, then take a step back and watch her break off his attack, expecting me to be there. Then I take another step back.

"GSSHH!" Her lightsaber finds catwalk before she glances up in time for me to spin and slice at her head.

_Only for her to flash the tip of her lightsaber up and block it!_

BLAST!

I quickly try to lock her up in her uncomfortable position, on one knee and blocking up so Kanan has a great shot at her. But Barriss quickly grabs my arms with the Force and tosses me off the railing.

Sabine desperately makes a blind grab for me, missing. "NOOO!" I hear Sabine scream in terror.

"EZRAA!" I hear Darcy yell.

_Not so bad guys. This is the same reactor style as where Kanan and I fought the first Inquisitor._

I know there's another railing right below it.

Calmly I let myself fall, then catch myself on the other railing and catapult myself back to where Kanan and Barriss are locked blade to blade.

"Surprise!" I call out, landing a few feet away from Sabine, Prime and Darcy causing Barriss to whip around and get firmly kicked in the head by Kanan.

Barriss immediately wheels around and tries taking Kanan's head off, which he blocks.

I whip back to look at Sabine, Darcy and Prime. "How close are you guys?"

_The real fight is going to be getting out of here._

This fight is just the beginning.

"Almossttt…Got it!" Sabine said brightly.

I smile, then grab Prime. "Okay! Over you go!"

"WHOOOAAAA!" Prime yells like a little girl as he flies over Barriss and Kanan.

Turning back, I see Sabine nod once at me, then jet away. Darcy immediately says "No. Don't you dare."

I shake my head. "You've got to get over there!"

"I can hang back here! Give you some cover!" She retorts.

"No! I'm fine back here. I'll feel better if you're with everyone else!" I say, then grab her and throw her.

As she flies thru the air she yells "EZRAAAA!"

Barriss cackles out a laugh. "You all are just so cute. You know that?"

"Go! We'll cover you!" Kanan tells Mrs. Wren, who turns back to the door and starts directing traffic.

Immediately I take a step back and let out a vertical slash, which Barriss blocks, then back up. Kanan carefully retreats, slipping a couple of quick cuts while backing all the way to the door.

Finally, after what feels like forever I slash down at Barriss, before she ducks and slips thru the door.

_Now._

Kanan leaps in, grabbing Barriss' arm and throws her into the wall. Then we both take off at a sprint, with Sabine, her mother and everyone else up ahead.

Undeterred, Barriss quickly starts pursuing us, forcing me to turn back and deflect a slice at my knees. "So you're really not going to fight me after all? You're just going to _run_?"

"I'm not going to fight you on your terms!" I tell her, as Kanan jumps in and allows me to drop back and watch as he spins, slices and locks Barriss up before she pushes him away.

In response I jump forward and let Kanan drop back this time by feinting a slice, then cutting at the middle of Barriss' lightsaber and connecting.

"SHH!" Her lightsaber sparks, followed by a frustrated scream.

_Half of her lightsaber is gone._

I smile then fall back, while Barriss initially doesn't pursue, instead appraising her situation.

"C'mon!" Kanan barks at me, before taking off.

_Two hallways, then the long corridor._

Then we're in the hanger.

We both take off in time for Sabine and her Mom to fire off a missle and a string of bolts past us, covering us. "Everything's clear!" Sabine tells us.

"Good to know!" Kanan says, just before a massive explosion rings out, and Barriss appears out of nowhere above us.

_Take out her landing zone!_

I quickly slash down at where she has to land, changing my angle due to how close Mrs. Wren is, only for Barriss to take advantage of that, block it, then nail Mrs. Wren in the chin with a kick, sending her staggering.

Immediately Sabine lets out a savage yell, then hits Barriss with her shoulder, directly into a downward strike from Kanan, which she blocks.

_He's being a lot more aggressive._

"Vaapaad. You truly are of Master Windu's lineage as a Jedi. Too bad your master died." Barriss taunts.

Kanan scowls. "Yeah, I feel like I can blame you for some of that."

I jump in and swing at Barriss, only for her to sidestep and cause me to whiff completely.

_Blast!_

Barriss pivots on her heels and swings her lightsaber out wide, catching both Kanan and I off guard and forcing us to back up.

"CHUNG!"

She deflects Sabine's shot, followed by Kanan falling back. Taking his place, I give ground while engaging Barriss.

_So close. And I've got help._

I've got this. It's just like our last fight. If I get to the Ghost, I'll be fine.

"I see you've been practicing Lord Vader's techniques!" Barriss says airily, then finally drawing back her mask and sneering at me, revealing her disgusting eyes.

Behind me, I feel Mrs. Wren recoil and hear Sabine scream, while Kanan makes a disgusted sound. "Well, I've had a little bit of down time." I explain to her.

"You're walking the right path Ezra. And you know that I'm right." Barriss says, spinning away before lunging at me.

I block her off to my left, turn my wrists, straighten up my lightsaber and locking her up before taking two hard steps and scowling at her.

_I'm stronger than you now._

Barriss grits her teeth as I keep marching towards her, pushing her back, away from the hanger, Sabine, Kanan and Mrs. Wren.

"UHH!" Barriss yells, before reactivating her lightsaber, turning herself completely horizontal and nailing me with two kicks, sending me careening to the floor heavily.

Kanan quickly jumps in. "Go! We're here."

_We are?_

I scramble to my feet and glance up to see a massive ship beside the _Ghost_, engines on and ready to leave.

"GO! We'll be right behind you!" Rex yells at Kal, who is standing in the doorway just before it shuts. Beside Rex is Mr. Wren and Sophie, watching us fight.

Looking back, Kanan is back in his Form III groove, slowly but strategically giving ground.

_He's trying to bait her._

Barriss seems to recognize this too and breaks off her attack.

"BOOM!"

A fireball suddenly envelops Barriss, then Kanan turns and sprints. "GREAT SHOT!" He tells Sabine as she and her mother activate their jetpacks and zoom away.

_I think we've got it!_

Kanan and I sprint side by side right towards the _Ghost_ at top speed.

"Behind you!" Sophie suddenly screams and pointing behind me.

I whip back around to see Barriss, face guard back down and half way thru a slash aimed at my neck.

_Uh oh!_

Quickly flashing back my lightsaber, I get the tip of my blade on it, then repeat my motion from earlier.

I. AM. STRONGER.

_And that's my leverage here. Not my precision with my lightsaber._

Hearing Kanan's feet hit the ramp of the _Ghost_, then him yell "Hit it! Ezra, JUMP!"

I take a strong, decisive step towards Barriss, shove her away, then am backed up by multiple shots and a missile towards Barriss, forcing her to give more ground and defend herself, or else get blown up.

Taking advantage of the situation, I turn and leap up onto the ramp, allowing Sophie to grab onto my wrist protectively.

"Heads up." I slip right past her, then dart down to my turret.

"What do we got?!" I hear Kanan ask as hurried footsteps sound out everywhere.

"Clear! Hyperspace!" Hera yells in reply as we jolt right out of the hanger, then waste no time getting into hyperspace.

_Whoa._

We're out of there.

Numbly, I sit in my seat for a moment, then spin around to see Sabine standing behind me, with Sophie climbing down the ladder.

I lock eyes with Sabine as she takes off her helmet, then smiles at me. "Nice job."

"Thank you." I smile. "Great job covering me. That really did help."

_It got me some space._

Sabine sighed, then shook her head. "I didn't feel comfortable with a single shot I took. I just remembered what Kanan told me and trusted my instincts and you."

"How are you not breathing hard?" Sophie asks randomly, causing me to look down at her.

Sabine laughs, before I smile and crouch down. "It's hard to explain. But remember how I wasn't tired after deflecting all those bolts back at your house?"

"Uh huh." Sophie nods raptly.

"It's a bit like that." I explain.

Sabine adds "And you'd kept up with your cardio."

The three of us all fall into silence, filled up by the sound of Sabine's parents talking to Kanan upstairs. Sophie jolts like she just got shocked with electricity, then scrambles up the ladder.

Sabine quickly follows her, looking concerned and I follow right behind, leaping up.

To see Sophie hugging both her parents, with her in the middle of them. "I missed you guys…"

Aww…

Sabine laughs before crouching down and hugging Sophie, with Darcy, Katiey, Lana, Brie and Mira all looking on.

Silently, Kanan slips beside me, smiling and whispers into my ear. "I think I'm starting to understand why they're such a big deal to you guys."

_To Sabine and I._

I smile, then nod.

It's hard to explain.


	85. Meeting of the Minds

"You think she's actually going to tell everyone what she told us?" Sabine asked me as we walk down the hall towards the meeting room.

"Yeah." I nod. "If not, they already know what I said in my little briefing I made. They're going to badger her until she talks."

"Heheh." I hear a familiar figure laugh.

"Woooomp womp womp."

Up ahead, Chopper and Zeb just came around the corner, coming towards us.

Sabine laughed, then covered her mouth with her hand. "Sophie! Don't ride Chopper like that! He's not a speeder."

Sophie, who's happily perched on top of Chopper and is hanging on frowns.

"WOMP! Blahhhhh…" Chopper shakes his dome at her emphatically.

Zeb smiled at us, before replying "I actually think Chopper likes carrying her along."

"Don't ya Choppy?" Sophie beamed down at Chopper.

Chopper motioned to nod with his dome. "Womp womp!"

"He's done it for the last few days too! And nothing bad's happened!" Sophie argued.

Sabine frowned, then looked to Zeb. "So this has been a normal thing?"

"Yup." Zeb smiled.

"She's not annoying you guys is she?" Sabine added, getting Sophie to frown dramatically.

"WOMP!" Chopper retorted loudly.

Zeb chuckled, then looked to Chopper. "No, not at all. She's actually a lot of fun. Reminds me of you a little bit."

"How so?" I ask.

Sabine slightly rolls her eyes before Zeb replies "She's as stubborn as her sister. And learning to be a good pilot."

"You're flying?" Sabine looked down to her sister, still perched on Chopper.

Sophie shook her head. "Kind of. Hera is having me read the manual to her and is explaining all the parts of the Phantom to me."

"We've gone out only once." Zeb tacked on. "Hera let her steer a little bit, to get a taste."

"Did you like it?" Sabine turned to Sof.

Sof nodded enthusiastically. "It's…I don't remember the word."

I smile at Sophie's determined frown. "Whatcha thinking about?" Sabine asked.

_She's trying to get her to work for it._

"Like…it's really touchy. If you nudge it, it moves a lot." Sophie says, then looks up to her sister.

Zeb smiles. "Sensitive."

"YEAH!" Sophie lights up. "That's it! You barely touch it, and WHOOSH!"

Zeb, Sabine and I all laugh. "You'll get the hang of it." Sabine smiled at Sof.

"You guys going to that meeting?" Zeb asked us.

I nod while Sabine smiles. "Yeah."

"Have fun!" Sophie smiled. "I think we're going to go to the observation deck and watch the ships come in!"

Zeb sheepishly smiled at both of us, while Chopper extended one of his arms and pointed towards the lifts.

"We'll see you guys later." Zeb smiled, then Chopper and Sophie started rolling towards the lifts.

Sabine smiled before calling out "Comm if you need us."

"Okay!" Sophie replied without looking back.

We both watch them get into the lift, before I turn to Sabine. "And they say we're domesticated."

Sabine bit her lip, unable to hold back a smile and replies "When Sof first met Chop, I was afraid he'd be mean to her."

I laugh once, then shake my head. "Guess you were wrong."

"Yeah." Sabine smiled happily, then gently spinning me back towards the meeting room. "Glad I'm wrong."

Together we walk toward the automatic doors, which swish open to reveal everyone milling around.

_I mean everyone._

Darcy, Brie, Lana, Katiey, Mira, Prime, Hera, Kanan, Ahsoka, Lux, Rex and Echo along with Commader Sato, Admiral Ackbar and a disguised figure on the holo.

Sabine gently deters me over to where Prime is over by himself, separated from everyone else. "Hey."

"Hey. How are you guys?" He asked us, looking pleased.

"Good. Has anyone else arrived?" I ask.

_They should be cleared by now._

Prime shook his head. "No. They're stuck in the bureaucracy."

"Why?" Sabine frowned.

Prime shrugged. "I don't know. I thought personally that your clout would push them thru, but no."

"Sorry." I apologize.

"Not your fault. But thank you.

Sabine's eyebrows shot up. "Are they close to getting cleared soon?"

"Rumored to." Prime mused. "I thought your folks would have known since they're so plugged in."

I shake my head. "Haven't really gotten a chance to talk to them. Everyone's been busy."

Prime's eyebrows knitted together, then Sabine spoke up. "We're still training. Simulations for battle tactics, target practice, hand to hand practice, he's got lightsaber combat practice, blaster deflection practice, cardio, weights…"

"Didn't know you're so busy." Prime admitted.

I smile. "You saw the finished product first. Now you're seeing all the work I put in."

Prime moves to reply, but before he can reply, the doors open again, revealing multiple soldiers, guarding a prisoner.

The Force immediately tightens up before Mom is revealed and promptly uncuffed. I see Kanan's hand twitch towards his lightsaber, before Mom sits in the provided chair.

The room quickly falls eerily silent.

"So. Mrs. Bridger." Kanan breaks the silence, stepping forward. "This is going to be short, sweet and to the point. You'll have another briefing in the next day or two regarding other relevant information you can provide us."

Then Ahsoka chimes in. "But currently, we'd like you to tell us about the project you were working on while in Imperial custody. We've got a briefing here from Ezra, but we'd also like to hear it from you."

I feel Mom's nerves pike, and she nods weakly. "All right. What would you like to know?"

"Is Operation Remnant a piece of the larger project known as Project Hammertong?" Rex asked.

Mom nodded in the affirmative. "Yes."

"And the name of the entire project is known as the Death Star?" Commander Sato asked.

"Yes." Mom replied, before the room fell silent.

"What are its capabilities?" Ahsoka asked.

Mom answers "Supposedly it's supposed to house a quarter million troops, dry dock multiple Star Destroyers, have the capability to destroy an armada of capitol ships and potentially a planet."

"A planet?!" Admiral Ackbar and Kanan both ask, as Kanan takes a step back.

Mom nods. "In theory."

"How do you know that?" Echo asks.

"I was in charge of aligning the crystals used for the superlaser."

Looks of disbelief fly across everyone's faces.

_This is what we've been searching for for months now._

Ahsoka is the first one to recover. "So that was your job. Aligning crystals."

Mom nods.

"Do you know what kind of crystals specifically?" Rex asks.

"Kyber Crystals. I wasn't supposed to know, but a Moff popped off to me once about it."

Mrs. Wren speaks up, drawing the room's eyes onto her. "And you were working willingly on this project?"

"Yes." Mom nodded. "After being held in a cell for years on end, it was nice to do something for a change. And it involved something I enjoy doing, which is working with sound waves."

"Have you seen a schematic?" Rex asked, as Admiral Ackbar and Commander Sato are speaking to each other in hushed tones.

Mom nodded.

"What does it look like?" Commander Sato questioned pointedly.

Mom cleared her throat, then said "It's designed to look like a moon. Circular, with the superlaser directly in the middle.

The room quickly fell silent, then Ahsoka stepped forward. "Mrs. Bridger, thank you for your honestly and information."

Mom hesitated, before replying "You're welcome. If there's anything else—"

"Get her out." Hera orders Mom's battalion of soldiers, who quickly jump into action and lead Mom out of the room.

_She does not like Mom._

Not a fan.

Sabine turns to me as I spot Echo begin typing into the holoterminal with the obscured figure.

"Senator Organa, did you catch all of that?" Echo asked, just before the Princess appears on the holo.

"Oh." I hear Sabine say under her breath, as her parents and Prime look taken aback.

Leia nodded. "I did. Are the doors locked?"

Rex pressed a button on the console beside him, and the room filled with solid "Click!"-ing sounds.

_They're locked._

"Alright." Leia sighed. "This must stay within this room. That meeting, along with this is Top Secret. Code Blue clearance from now on."

Ahsoka nodded while Kanan sipped on a glass and looking uncomfortable.

_He hates this kind of thing._

"I've done a little digging into both of these projects, along with the codename 'Death Star'." Leia began, before Commander Sato interrupted her.

"Have you found anything?"

"No." Leia shook her head. "It would account for some of the spending that not even the Senate Finance Committees can figure out, but nothing remotely concrete."

"We must figure out the capabilities of that battle station." Admiral Ackbar said resoundingly.

Leia nodded before Ahsoka spoke up. "I agree Admiral."

"There's a lot of background intelligence we need to begin on right away. We may have some information dating back to when Ezra and Miss Wren infiltrated the Imperial base on Denon." Leia says. "Where is it being built? What can it do? What can't it do? Is it even real? Where are the pieces coming from? All of this needs to be fully fleshed out and deliberately dealt with."

"This is the biggest breakthrough this Rebellion has ever seen." Commander Sato proclaims.

Really?

Sabine and I turn to look at Commander Sato just as Leia nods. "I agree June. We cannot afford to miss out on such an opportunity, especially since the Empire does not believe we know about its existence."

"Miss Ridley?" Ahsoka turned and spoke, causing Darcy to jump out of her skin.

"Yes?" Darcy smiled, quickly regaining her composure.

"In Ezra's report, he mentioned that you and your team might know why the Empire would create such a weapon."

Darcy nodded. "Yes. It's called the Tarkin Doctrine."

"We're going to need a full report with everything you know, by the time we reconvene with more information on this battle station."

Darcy nodded once again. "Yes ma'am. It'll be done within 72 hours."

"It doesn't need to be that quick on the turnaround." Leia smiled. "I estimate we'll need about a week to put everything together."

_Makes sense. The Rebellion probably doesn't have all their information stored in one central location._

"How are you looking?" Lux turns and asks Mr. Wren.

Mr. Wren shrugged without looking up from his datapad. "Rough idea."

"Are you confident in what you have, or do you want more time?" Ahsoka asks him.

Beside me, I hear Sabine say "Huh?".

"Doesn't matter. I can refine it later if you all would like to see it now." Mr. Wren finally looks up.

Leia smiles. "I think it'd be good to see a rough estimation of what we're dealing with. And so we can show Mrs. Bridger our best guess, so she can hopefully refine it."

_Does he already have a holo of—_

Mr. Wren quickly turns his datapad around revealing a massive circular structure with a circular array directly in the middle of it.

The room immediately breaks out in murmuring.

"That thing's huge." Sabine says quietly.

_How would it move? Or is it even supposed to move?_

Mr. Wren cleared his throat, then spoke up. "It's truly a guess. I just made it so that you can drydock multiple Star Destroyers, both horizontally and vertically. Don't put too much stock into this."

Off to the side, Ahsoka is biting her lip while wearing a concerned expression.

"For now, keep that model here but continue working on it please." Leia asked Mr. Wren, who nodded.

Silently, Admiral Ackbar and Commander Sato nodded, then moved to leave the room.

Kanan turned to Hera, then looked at Ahsoka. "Are we done?"

"Guess so. Unless you've got anything else." Ahsoka replied.

Kanan shook his head, and the room began clearing.

"_Ad'ika_, do you know where Sophie went?" Mrs. Wren came up to us and asked.

Sabine nodded. "Observation deck with Zeb and Chopper."

Her father laughed. "She's watching the supply ships come in again."

I nod, while Prime laughs.

"Alright darling, we'll see you later then." Mrs. Wren smiled at Sabine and I, then started away.

"Ezra!" I hear Leia call out, causing me to turn to look at the holo. "Can you stay for a moment?"

_Uhh…_

Helplessly, I glance over to Sabine before smiling and answer "Sure."

In response, Sabine pinches me in the side before slipping off towards the door. Prime silently exits, leaving just Leia and I.

"How are you feeling? I heard about the excitement on your supply run." Leia asks, appearing concerned.

"I'm fine." I shrug. "Nobody got hurt and we all got out. I know that things got a bit more stressed resource wise."

_Commander Sato wasn't thrilled when we came back empty handed._

Leia shrugged. "Better to come home empty handed in one piece than otherwise."

I nod, then we both lapse into silence.

"So your friends are there now? The Mandalorian battalion?" Leia broke the silence.

"Yeah. I know people aren't thrilled." I say.

Mr. &amp; Mrs. Wren brought them before they got cleared. I was supposed to talk to Leia beforehand to clear things up. Leading to everyone getting a very cold reception.

_Everybody basically got interrogated before being sent to a temporary room._

"Ezra, it's not quite what you think. There are just ways to do things."

I frown at her. "I know that. I didn't try to get around it. But they're not bad people."

"It's not that I think they're bad Ezra. But there is a way to do things and not get compromised and a way to do things and have a Star Destroyer over our heads." Leia sighed, then put her hand in her hair. "I'm trying to say this and not make you mad like I did last time."

"What's the big deal Leia? I don't understand." I tell her.

_I don't. I've been treated very nicely by every Mandalorian I've met, yet when the Rebellion gets involved there's a lot of resistance._

"There are a lot of old wounds, dating back to the Clone Wars. The Siege of Mandalore might have been the worst part of the war, and almost every higher up, Mon Mothma, Ahsoka, Rex, Echo, Commander Sato, Admiral Ackbar, whoever, all lost at least one friend. After that, the Mandalorians withdrew from any resistance to the Empire, just as we needed just bodies to be able to resist. Those kinds of things can be hard to get over, even if it's 15 plus years later. The fact that they're just now willing to start heloing seems suspicious to a lot of people."

Makes sense I guess.

"I get it." I tell her. "I'm just telling you our side."

Leia smiled. "I know. I was going to clear them, but after talking to you and making sure everything would go okay. That they're team players, willing to help the cause as a whole and not just loyal to you, that kind of thing."

"Ahsoka said that a lot of people think I'm creating a power base."

Leia opened her mouth to reply, then closed her eyes. "We…always have to be on the lookout for trouble Ezra. And you've got 9 highly trained people, former Imperial operative and Mandalorian warriors that came because of you. All of whom when asked say they put you above everything else. That hasn't gone over well."

"I don't want power Leia! You know that!" I say emphatically. "Come on!"

"I know Ezra. It…it's just a really bad look."

I roll my eyes. "It's not about looks. It's about intent. Isn't that what's really important here?" I ask her.

"Yes, but it plays a role. And you know that." Leia replies. "I'm on your side here. I'd just like to keep things running smoothly until our hand gets forced."

I nod, then glance over at Mr. Wren's guesstimate of the Death Star.

"I really hope it's not that big." Leia says quietly.

"Why not?" I ask.

Leia scowls. "Because it's going to be really hard to beat. And if the Empire does what they always do, a lot of people are going to die before we realize we have to stop it."

_Alderaan._

My stomach ices over, and I shake my head before looking back up at Leia.

"How's your mother?" She asks. "Are things less acrimonious now?"

I shake my head. "No. I don't see her much."

Leia bit her lip. "Just so you know, she may be getting moved away soon. We've got a base on Dantooine that a few people believe she can be rehabilitated at."

"Okay." I nod.

"You're okay with that?" She immediately asks.

I nod again. "Yeah. Her being here…just makes things more difficult."

_It's awkward, and I believe what Padmé said about her._

She's plotting.

"How?"

I bite my lip, then hesitate. "I'm worried that they're going to come back for her. She's one of their most valuable scientists."

"That would make sense. And allow them to keep working on that thing." Leia replies, then gesturing to the Death Star. "Do you have any evidence?"

I shake my head. "It's a feeling I've got."

"I'll have her guard beefed up and monitored a little more. If that's okay with you."

I shrug, then look down. "I don't think my opinion matters here. It's a security issue." I admit.

"Ezra." Leia says firmly, causing me to look up at her. "She's your Mom. You're the final seal of approval. I'm not doing anything until you say something. I'm…We're not going to lose you over this. You're too important to m—us."

She stumbled thru that.

_Whoa. She does like me._

I'm too important to her to lose in a fight over my mother, who is our prisoner.

_Go figure._

I try giving her a reassuring smile. "Well thank you."

"I'm going to come by there in a few weeks. After your prospective Lothal mission. We can talk things over there, then she'll get moved most likely. Okay?"

I smile. "Okay."

"Have a good night Ezra." Leia smiled gently at me.

"Night Leia. You too." I smile back, before she cuts the holo off.


	86. Two Is Better Than One

(A/N: Hey guys, it's Spring Break here and somehow I'm now busier than ever. Going on a road trip late this week and won't be able to give you guys a Friday update. But I'll see you guys Monday bright and early with another one! Thanks for reading –James)

Balancing the tray of bread, butter and plates on my shoulder, I activate the sensor for the door, forcing it to swish open for me so I can walk in.

"Hel—Oh yeah. You've done it this time." Prime suddenly bursts into a wide smile as Will and Kal turn around, then light up.

"Bread? How'd you get that?" Kal asks me.

Will just smiled while hitting his comm. "Hey, come down the hall. Ezra cooked."

"Aww. It's almost like he likes us." I hear Orir say.

Prime smiles while clearing off his dresser so I can put the bread down. "Weight room?"

"Are you in weights?" Will cracks.

"No. Shooting range with _Prime's_ girl."

In confusion, I turn to Will, who mimes a name to me.

_Aiden?_

She's been battling a ear infection that messed with her balance. Gave her vertigo.

"Trying to get back into form?" Will cracks.

I hear Orir sigh. "Yeah. She's hardly said two words to me. Trying all sorts of shots. Shit you never actually use."

"Like?" Will asks as Prime starts carving the bread.

"Oh. Who made this?"

I smile. "Kitchens. But Sabine and her mom told them what to put in it."

"Figures. Garlic, cheese…and I don't know what that is…" Prime muttered while inspecting the first slice.

"—t down here. Before we eat it all."

"Okay okay. Already on the way." Orir replies to Will before he cuts the call off.

Kal gets to his feet and grabs the second slice of bread Prime has sliced.

"Thanks for the heel." Prime quips, causing Kal to look mollified.

Instinctively I take the heel and start buttering it, causing Prime to eye me briefly before grabbing a piece for himself.

_Doesn't matter to me. Bread's bread._

At least it's not moldy.

"So, what happened on Mandalore?" I ask as Will snatches up a piece and starts buttering it as Prime takes a ill-timed bite.

He cleared his throat, then shrugged "It went. The new Prime Minster's Parjo Bralor, of Clan Bralor. House Cadera."

"He's a pacifist." Will scowls. "Was a politician during the Clone Wars and was knocked off his happy perch by the Empire."

"And now he's back." Kal rolls his eyes in contempt.

Orir opens the door behind us, gets a feeling for the room and says "You guys talking about Bralor?"

"Yeah." Will frowns without looking back.

"Bread's right there." Prime says, mouth full before turning back to me. "Long story short, not who we wanted as PM."

"Who'd you want?" I ask.

Without hesitation, Kal answers "_Mand'alor_."

"Really? He isn't busy doing stuff?" I reply.

Orir answered. "No, he is. But he's been _Mand'alor_ for over 10 years now. He's one of the best ones ever and guided us and our people thru the rise and grip of the Empire almost unscathed. I think that he's done enough in that pressure packed position and should make a sideways move."

"A sideways move? He isn't getting more power?" I question him.

_It's the Prime Minister. That's a big deal._

Prime shakes his head. "No. Being _Mand'alor_ is the highest position a Mandalorian can have. You're the leader of all Mandalorians across the galaxy. Being the Prime Minister gives you legal precedent over Mandalorians only on Mandalore. See the difference?"

I nod.

_His scope of power is much larger as Mand'alor._

"Hopefully…" Will sighs. "He won't start dragging us back to the pacifist ways."

Kal jumps in. "He won't. The people rose up against that regime. We've been a mix of the pacifist and warrior culture ever since then, right up until these last few months."

"You never know what kind of dumb thing somebody will try to do." Orir shrugs.

"You guys really don't like him, do you?" I ask them all.

Will and Orir nods, while Prime looks ambivalent and Kal shrugs.

"It's too early to tell. _Mand'alor_ has only had just the one meeting with him, to lay the groundwork for cooperation between them. We need them to work together." Kal tells me.

Will replies "It's not the fact that he got elected. It's what he could do. We all believe—" while gesturing to Prime, Kal, Orir and himself "that in order for Mandalore to thrive, for Mandalorians everywhere to advance, we have to at least be willing to fight. To assist in fighting and involved in conflicts. So that we get better."

"We can pick and choose our battles when we're independent." Orir adds.

Prime turns to me. "Does that make sense? Or do we sound crazy?"

I shake my head. "No. It makes sense to me. Fight to advance. To innovate and so on. I've read that most of the galaxy's inventions were made during wartime."

"Exactly." Will nods.

"We're not some bunch of crazy war-hawks that a lot of the galaxy loves to paint us as. We just want to do right by our people. We wouldn't be where we are if our ancestors didn't fight for what they believed in. Yeah, sometimes they got manipulated and sometimes they got heated and fought when they shouldn't have. But hindsight is always clear, and everybody makes mistakes. We can't look for a perfect history out of imperfect people." Prime says.

_Whoa._

Kal turned to Prime. "Maybe you should start looking into becoming _Mand'alor_ again?"

Prime laughed, then waved sheepishly. "No no noooo…"

"What do you mean?" I ask.

Will smiles. "Back when he was younger, Prime used to want to be _Mand'alor_. And that was one of the better mini speeches I've heard in awhile."

"He's got my vote." Orir jokes, mouth full. In unison, everyone bursts out into laughter.

_Mine too._

"I'd be hurt if I didn't get everybody's vote here." Prime admits with a shrug.

Quickly, Will winces. "Well…"

Prime quickly amends his statement. "Not everyone."

"Oh. That reminds me." I jump in. "I figured out why you guys got interrogated."

Immediately the Force rings with everyone's anger.

Orir just frowns. "Clearly we look evil."

"No." I shake my head. "I talked to Senator Organa, who said that all I had to do was talk to her and reassure her and everything would have been good."

Prime frowns "You can't babysit us, and we don't want you to. You don't have time to make a holocall about us. You're too busy training."

"Besides, you shouldn't have to." Will adds.

Noncommittally, I raise my hands. "You guys should be okay now. We talked, I reassured her. The higher-ups are afraid of me trying to take control or break off or something though."

Everyone's expressions went from calm, to confused. "What?" Orir asks, looking lost.

"The only time you've ever been aggressive is when you're fighting. Other than that, you're one of the most even keeled, balanced people I've ever met. That's ridiculous." Will says.

"You don't want power." Prime says, then turns and asks "Do you?"

"No!" I tell him. "I just have a talent for picking up highly skilled people when I go out on mission."

"The 'Adjustments', and now us." Kal says.

I turn and look at him. "How'd you hear about that nickname?"

"They all came down here and we played cards together." Will tells me.

"That's how we know Prime and Aiden like each other." Kal explained.

Hasn't she been in the medical wing?

"Hasn't she been out for the count?" I ask, feigning dumb.

_I wanted her for that mission, and she didn't get cleared._

Will nods, as Prime is giving him a punishing look. "She has been, but she's allowed to leave and have some contact, and we offered to have them for a game night sort of thing."

"They said that they're training Sophie too." Prime changes the subject quickly and abruptly. "Shooting and combat."

"I don't know about combat, but I know she was shooting with them yeah. She's also been flying in our ship to get her used to it." I say.

Kal smiles and Orir makes a noise of realization. "So she's not constantly dependent on a transport. She can fly herself if she needs to or wants to."

"Exactly." I answer.

"Can Sabine fly too?" Prime asks.

"Oh yeah." I smile. "She's Hera's copilot."

"Hera is…?" Orir asks nervously t the others.

"The green Twi'lek." Prime says.

"Ahh. Okay." Orir smiles.

I add "She's basically like a second Mom to me. Nice, thoughtful, kind. He and Kanan didn't have to scoop me out off Lothal, but they did."

Prime nods. "Takes some guts."

"Kid from the streets, trusting him like that." Kal says.

_Oh._

"That reminds me!" I jump in my seat, causing Prime and Will to jump. "I might be needing you guys soon."

"For?" Prime asks.

"Does it get us off this Space Station? If so then I'm in." Orir adds quickly.

I smile before saying "Maybe. It's not for sure yet. But…I may be going home."

Everybody's eyes quickly widen. "Home?" Prime asks. "Lothal?"

"Yeah." I nod. "There's…a battle station they're building. And it's weapon is made with huge crystals. Well Lothal—"

Prime cuts me off "—Has those crystals I'm betting?"

I nod. "That's top, top secret stuff. Darcy knows, but keep that quiet. This thing dates back to when I met them on that deep cover mission."

"They were telling us about that." Will tells me. "Sound to me like you're a damn good spy."

"Too good." I frown. "It ended awfully."

Orir nodded. "Yeah, for you to end up captured and tortured, yeah. You did your job too well."

Prime quickly glanced at the empty cutting board, with bread crumbs lying where the full loaf used to be, then jumped in his seat. "It's 9, shoot."

Everybody else quickly jumped out of their chairs, and Kal scoops up the dishes easily.

"What's going on?" I ask, also getting to my feet.

"We've got to go do physicals and stuff. Sorry. But we gotta run." Prime explained as they all started filing out of the room quickly.

I smile and wave them away. "Go. I'll see you guys later."

"Bye!" Will said, turning to look at me, then turning straight into the wall and falling to the floor. Immediately, Kal leaps into the air and starts cackling.

"Oh my gosh…" Prime smiles, as Will tries to save face by scrambling to his feet, with Kal still cackling.

"That happened! That totally happened! I LOVE IT!" Kal yells, before disappearing down the hall.

_I remember having to do all that stuff. It sucked._

Quietly, I slip out of Prime and everyone's room, walk to the lift and start heading home.

I wonder where Sophie's been all day. I haven't seen her.

_It's been a long day. Meeting with them was my first break of the day._

Conditioning and battlefield tactics with Rex and Echo to start, then a long mediation session followed by sparring and Force practice with Kanan and Ahsoka.

When the lift doors open, I probe out to find Sabine and Sof both in our room. With a smile on my face, I walk down, then open up the door and call out "I'm back!"

"Ezra!" I hear Sof say, then fly around the corner and come for a hug.

I pull her in, then smile. "Hey. How are you?"

"I'm good!" She bounces.

"What are you guys up to?"

Sophie shrugs adorably. "I'm watching Sabine fix her hair."

_Oh._

"Really?" I say, then start towards the bathroom, where I hear water running.

Then out of nowhere, Sophie shoves me to the ground. "No! You can't go in."

"I can't?" I blurt out, slightly angrily.

_Why not?_

"She's not wearing enough clothes." Sophie tells me.

"Yes I am…" I hear Sabine say before she walks into the room in a sports bra and shorts.

_And brunette hair the same shade as Sophie's._

I gape at her like an idiot while rising to my feet.

"It's okay Sof. He's seen me like this before. I've changed with him in the room before."

"But you're not dressed!" Sophie counters with a unhappy expression.

Sabine smiled reassuringly at Sof, then fully turned to me, then her expression turned to worry. "What?"

_She's…gorgeous._

"I…nothing. You just look great." I sputter out, causing Sophie to cock her head to the side.

Sabine smiles softly. "Thanks. Have you never seen my hair like this? I thought I let you watch me dye it last time."

I shake my head. "No. Last time you came to me."

"Oh. Yeah." Sabine said, expression brightening.

Sophie turned to look at her sister. "What?"

"Nothing. Just remembered something." Sabine smiled at me.

I smile along with Sophie, trying to coax it out of her.

_C'mon._

"Oh fine. I remember now. I went to your room before anybody else's hoping you'd like it."

Sophie beams before saying "Awww…"

"Hey." Sabine snapped at her.

"Aww. Thanks. Love you too." I smile, taking the heat right off Sophie.

Sabine smiled back, then moved to walk back to our bathroom.

"So what now?" Sophie turns and asks me as Sabine kicks the water back on in the bathroom.

I shrug.

"He's going to look for a darn ring!" Sabine calls out.

_Crap!_

Yeah, I haven't done that. She picked hers out the night after we had the idea, but I couldn't settle on one.

Sophie quickly looks confused. "A ring? But you guys aren't married!" She says, turning back to the bathroom.

Quickly, Sabine laughs in the bathroom, which makes me smile. "Sof, can you keep a secret for us?" Sabine asks her.

"Yeah…?" Sophie answers nervously, playing with her fingers.

Sabine walks back into the room while drying her hands with a towel. "Well…the truth is, Ezra and I have been married for a little while now."

…

"Really?" Sophie asks, eyes wide.

Sabine nods. "Nobody else knows yet though. We're trying to think of a way to tell everyone."

"So…I'm gonna know you forever?" Sophie turns and asks me.

Sabine and I both smile before I answer "Yeah, Sof. I think that's how it works."

Immediately Sophie tackles me into a ribcracking hug, which causes Sabine to laugh. "Easy Sof."

"I was so scared…" Sophie mumbles into my ear, causing me to lean in closer.

"Why?" I ask her.

Sof sniffled before saying "They said…you guys might not make it. That one day I might not see you anymore. But I didn't want that to happen because I love you."

"Well that's not going to happen Sof. Promise." I tell her, and in reponse Sof squeezes me tighter.

I briefly close my eyes and hug her back before glancing up at Sabine, whose eyes are shining and she's wiping a rogue tear that fell.

_I guess we're really a family now._


	87. Road to Recovery

(A/N: All rights are reserved to Lucasfilm, Disney and their corporate overlords. The material I'm quoting in this chapter is not mine, and I have no money, so don't sue me!)

Walking back to where Sabine is uneasily perched leaning against the wall, I extend my arm with the cup of caf she asked for.

"Thanks." Sabine said, flashing her eyes to me briefly before looking back to the front.

I smile at her, then stand beside her and look up front, where Commander Sato, Ahsoka, Admiral Ackbar, Rex and Kanan are all lingering. Darcy, Prime, Echo, Mr. Wren, Hera and Zeb are all hanging back, waiting for this meeting to start.

_Waiting on Leia._

I think this is the meeting where we get our next assignments.

The holo flashed green twice, followed by Rex hitting the button, then Leia appeared, fully in white with her hair coiled tightly on both sides.

Whoa.

_I've only seen her with her hair down._

"Sorry I was delayed everyone. General Tano, are we ready?" Leia turns and asks Ahsoka.

Ahsoka nods, then pointed to the doors. "Yes we are."

Soldiers standing by the door immediately lower their blasters and step directly in front of the doors menacingly.

"Alright." Leia sighed. "This is a Code Blue meeting about Project Hammertong, Operation Remnant and Sentinel. If that's not why you're here, get out. Or you'll be shot on sight."

The room went dead silent for a brief moment, as people nervously look around. Then Leia smiled. "Good."

"Any Progress, Senator?" Rex asked curiously.

Leia bemusedly shrugged. "Depends on what you classify progress. I dig a lot more digging. Opened up many more inquiries about the holes in the Senate's budget. That didn't go anywhere. In fact, I had a few of the Emperor's Imperial Advisor's why I was so interested in the subject."

"Sounds productive. You got somebody's attention." Commander Sato replies.

"Oh I didn't just get their attention. I was lauded for my_ determination_ by Emperor Palpatine himself. On the grounds of financial reform and investigative merit. He promised to dig into the matter personally."

Ahsoka quickly looks mildly revolted. "Oh. Too well."

"Yup." Leia nods. "He's a gross man, I don't mind telling you. But all my digging did get some people to go to my father."

Everybody quickly perks up, and Sabine turns to me hopefully as Admiral Ackbar asks "Who? What did they say?"

"I don't know who they are. But we did get a few interesting tidbits. First off, the name I mentioned earlier. Sentinel. That's another name for it. The Death Star."

"That's three." Echo states. Beside him, Darcy is chewing on her thumbnail anxiously.

_Nervous tick she's got._

"They really want this thing hidden." Lux mentions.

"More to your point Mr. Bontiri, there's also multiple bases for this thing. We got a few eyewitness descriptions, and honestly, they're almost too mind boggling to believe." Leia replies.

Sabine's eyes move to her father just before his mouth twitches. "I modified my model. My initial made a lazy mistake." He spoke up.

"Which was?" Echo asks gently as Leia motions for Mr. Wren to link his model to the holo beside Leia.

"Back on Mandalore, you gave me some information on the tributary shafts. Technical details that should give me a very close approximation of the battle station's actual size. Data is only useful when applied." Mr. Wren growls, then a technical readout pops onto the holo.

_Oh._

Sabine's head tilted to the side as the room burst into murmurs.

"Can't be that big…" I hear Prime mutter, almost under his breath.

Leia's eyebrows are in her hair when she asks "And how big is this?"

"120 kilometers, or klicks."

WHAT?!

"No…" I hear Sato say dismissively.

Mr. Wren turned around, looked angry. "I did the math. If those shafts are correct, this is the smallest it can be. I can show it to you later if you're interested in having your head hurt."

Commander Sato raises his hands in acquiescence, before Mr. Wren turns to Leia "I truly don't believe they'd make this weapon any bigger than this. I'm sure it's hard enough to hide as it is."

Leia nods, before Ahsoka says "You moved the array."

_Oh yeah. From the middle to the top left quadrant._

"I did some stress tests, and it would rip the station apart if it was halfway. So I isolated it there, and it worked, and left it there." Mr. Wren explains. "I also added an equatorial trench and space for hanger bays. Quality of life things. I tried thinking if I was designing this thing."

Rex then spoke. "As a veteran of the Clone Wars, I understand the value and safety of a big gun, but this is just _too big_. Why would they even build this? Superlaser projects were famously temperamental. They can and do blow up."

"That's a question for Ezra's mother I'm afraid." Leia says, then glances over at me.

_I'll add it to the list of questions._

Hah. Jokes.

I shrug dismissively, then feel people start to look away from me.

Leia then turns to Darcy. "Miss Ridley. What did you find as to why the Empire would make this contraption? The Tarkin Doctrine?"

Darcy nodded, then cleared her throat. "Yes, thank you. I've got the full text of it right here…" Darcy aid, then pointed at a datapad.

"Load it up, if you will."

Echo steps forward to help Darcy, and Sabine sips her caf beside me before leaning into my shoulder. Reassuringly, I slip my hand around her waist and pull her closer.

Then a massive wall of text pops up on the holo.

"Your Majesty:

It has recently come to my attention that what had previously been the quiet grumbling of malcontents on backwater worlds has become dissidence in more civilized systems. Your Majesty will forgive me if I am repeating foundless rumors, but I have heard there is even armed defiance in some sectors.

Coupled with increased resistance to your plans from hot-headed young senators, this situation has given me pause to think about our long term security arrangements. I myself have been frustrated chasing pirate bands in my sector, only to have them leap deep into a neighboring sector where my forces cannot follow without running into conflict with another Moff. If the scattered armed resistance should become organized, it will doubtless follow the example of its criminal brethren. Granting any rebel group the advantage of elusiveness is foolhardy at best. At worst, it could lead to our destruction.

Even the excellent pace with which His Majesty is increasing the size of the Imperial Fleet can scarcely hope to provide all-encompassing security should a significant number of planets decide to defy your New Order. We are years—perhaps decades—away from a force vast enough to secure every system and every world simultaneously.

Therefore, I present the following recommendations for your consideration:

To provide a swift, systematic response to rebellion as it appears and before it has time to entrench, I suggest the formation of Oversectors—sectors consisting of systems in which rebellion is newly born, or systems which maintain frequent contact with systems in chronic unrest. These Oversectors would be formed without regard to current sector boundaries. With the freedom to cross outdated political borders, Oversector forces would be able to respond to threats quickly, while they are still small and manageable.

Liquidating a dozen small threats is easier than rooting out one well-established center of defiance. As an Oversector is created only across problem sectors, they must be given a greater quantity of forces than a normal sector. Three Sector Groups should suffice.

Command of an Oversector should be given to a single individual who reports directly to His Majesty. This will bypass any delays caused by political opportunism in your advisors.

Cannibalize existing holonet transceivers, modify them, and put them in the flagship of every Sector Group in an Oversector command. Place similar facilities within His Majesty's command ship and within the Royal Palaces of Imperial City. This will enable forces to respond to threats almost as quickly as they are reported. Imperial forces will be able to coordinate to a degree impossible among an enemy whose fastest means of communication is an ever-changing rendezvous point somewhere in the galaxy.

Rule through the fear of force rather than through force itself. If we use our strength wisely, we shall cow thousands of worlds with the example of a select few. These examples would need to be highly visible worlds, whose punishment would be further revealed through our control of information via the hyper media.

Your Majesty, it has long been my contention that your New Order needs one undeniable and overwhelming symbol to impress and, yes, frighten the masses. The average citizen has no grasp of numbers nor a head for calculation. I maintain that the effectiveness of the Star Destroyer stems from not only its massive firepower, but from [sic] its size. When citizens look at a Star Destroyer and then compare it to the craft which might be mustered to attack it, they have a tendency to dismiss such a notion as suicidal rather than approach the problem tactically.

This natural state can be exploited to a far greater degree, as the average citizen deals in symbols, not rational analysis. If we present the galaxy with a weapon so powerful, so immense as to defy all conceivable opposition against it, a weapon invulnerable and invincible in battle, then that weapon shall become the symbol of the Empire. We need only a handful, perhaps as few as one, of these weapons to subjugate a thousand worlds. It must have force enough to dispatch an entire system, power enough to shatter planets. The fear such a weapon will inspire will be great enough for you to rule the galaxy unchallenged. What do you need with the Senate when you can give direct control of territories to your hand-picked regional governors? Sweep away the last remnants of the Old Republic and let fear keep the local systems in line—fear of our ultimate weapon.

I am ready to begin work to implement these steps at your word.

Wilhuff Tarkin"

The room is entirely silent, with most people still reading.

"This is going to take a little bit to fully understand and digest." Admiral Ackbar says.

"It's about force. How to use it, when to use it, and if the threat of force is better than the actual, real application." Rex spoke up. "At least that's how I'm reading it."

Echo then adds. "But one thing does seem clear to me. This Death Star is certainly their weapon. It needs to be stopped."

"Miss Bridger said that this weapon was probably a year away. Maybe less. We don't have much time." Kanan speaks up.

"Then we must act immediately." Leia replied. "Ezra."

I smile and turn to the Senator. "Yes Senator?"

"How soon can you and Miss Wren be ready to go to Lothal?"

Hera and Kanan's heads pop right up before I answer "Two rotations, maybe three."

Leia nodded. "Alright. I'll speak with High Command. The only place we know for sure that is mining and refining those crystals, is Lothal. We'll need to discover how high up the chain of command it goes, et cetera. Rex?"

Rex simply nods. "I understand where you're going Senator."

"Potential sites, sympathetic figures, all of that. Use who you believe would be best for the mission. We can get them cleared later."

"I can do that." Rex smiled.

Leia returned it, then suddenly turned off screen. "Oh blast. I forgot about that…" She mutters to someone, then turns back to us.

"Go." Ahsoka tells her.

"Sorry." Leia apologizes. I forgot I was about to have guests. I have to leave. Organa out." Leia says quickly, then the holo goes dark.

In seconds, both Sabine and her father are already going for the door, to nobody's surprise.

_Do I go with them?_

Kanan and Ahsoka both start walking over to me, and I smile before Kanan says "So, you're going home."

"Guess so." I smile while burying my thoughts deep into the back of my brain, feeling Ahsoka trying to poke around.

"I know you won't want to do it, but you'll probably have to go speak with your mother Ezra." Ahsoka explains.

I barely can hold back a sigh. "I know."

"You've got to do it though. Any sort of intel you can get would be invaluable." Kanan tells me as Lux and Hera sidle up beside he and Ahsoka.

"That was some document Darcy pulled just now. A top secret Imperial briefing from Tarkin straight to the Emperor. Wonder how she got that." Hera says to Kanan.

Kanan replies darkly "I'm not sure we want to know."

"I'm leaning towards them going to Lothal too." Rex speaks up, revealing him and Echo walking up. "If we're actually going to go back, it's likely a one shot, deep cover mission."

"To destroy a facility?" Lux asked, before Ahsoka shook her head.

Rex replies "That's not what I've got in mind. I'm not sure yet. I'm working all this out in my head right now."

"He's having a lot of fun." Echo smirks, getting Ahsoka and Lux to chuckle.

Silently, Hera turns to me. "You should go home. Is Sof still sick?"

I nod. "Yeah. She's the same. The medicine hasn't kicked in."

Everybody's face simultaneously falls, and Rex makes a quiet, angry sound. "That's weird."

"Go, I'm sure we'll all meet later." Ahsoka shoos me away, before Lux and kanan strike up a conversation.

Without another word, Rex and Echo join me as I alk out the door, but break off towards the kitchens as I go to the lift, waving before I disappear.

_Poor Sof. It hasn't been good._

I've been sleeping on the floor. She started feeling bad two days ago, hanging out in Sabine and I's room. And basically, except for a trip to the medical wing, hasn't left. All she wants to do is stay under the covers and not come out while sounding like she's about to hack her lungs out, sniffling and sneezing, and throwing up.

"HAACKAKAK. KACK!"

Oh no.

I cringe before I hear the familiar sound of gagging, then Miss Wren's reassuring voice.

_I hate this._

I linger for a bit, until Sophie stops throwing up and I hear her high pitched whine before sliding my key into the door, allowing it to pop open.

Revealing a tired looking Miss Wren, her upset husband, and Sabine.

_Who looks the worst out of all of us._

"Ummmmhmhmhmhm…" Sophie whines, then croaks out. "I'm sorry Mommy."

"It's okay darling. It happens."

"I…thought I was going to keep it down." Sophie tells her. I turn to Mr. Wren, who mimes the word.

_Apple sauce._

Oh man. If she can't keep that down, then she can't keep anything down.

"No problem. We'll just have to try it again later." Her mother tells her, then rubs the spot in the middle of the mattress where Sophie's head is.

Sabine walks into the room, totin the clear container and a pitcher of water. "Mom, Ezra and I can take her for the night if you guys want to get some rest."

Her mother immediately hesitates, but her decision was made by Sophie's arm moving and her fingers popping out of the blanket. "Thank you Mommy…"

_Aww._

"Okay _ad'ika_. Comm us if you need us in the night okay? Promise?" Miss Wren asks Sophie, reaching out and rubbing her fingers.

"Promise." Sophie says quietly, then curls up tighter.

"Night." I smile at Mr. Wren, who smiles back but wearily leads his wife to the door.

"Clunk."

"It's just us now Sof." Sabine tells her. I've got some more apple sauce, some cool water, what do you want?"

"Some cartoons on the holo and the lights off." Sophie answers bluntly, leaving no room for misunderstanding.

"We can do that." I smile, as Sabine and I both spring into action. Sabine immediately reactivates our holo and starts looking for cartoon as I grab the lights, then start pulling out my inflated mattress and set it near the door.

_I'll blow it up outside like last night._

After a few moments, we all settle into a silence, Sophie underneath the covers, with Sabine cuddling Sof above the covers, with me sitting on the floor befor I hear "Sabine?"

Sabine perks up. "Yeah?"

…

"I'm sorry this is your birthday." Sophie says, voice barely above a whisper.

I look back to see Sophie's face barely poking out of the covers, tear tracks clearly visible.

"It's okayyyy….Promise. As long as you get better Sof. That's all I care about. Okay?" Sabine says gently, hugging Sophie's outline gently.

Sophie doesn't reply or return the hug, instead retreating back under the covers, where she's fully covered.

"Here, found the cartoons." Sabine speaks up, followed by the sights and sounds of Sophie's favorite show.

(A/N: Sorry about the long hiatus guys! First a computer virus, then a full Windows update was forced on me, wiping ALL of my data! Topping it off was coming down with Bronchitus early this week. So I apologize for the brief hiatus. I'll save my finale thoughts for another day, but I will say this: Ahsoka Lives. –James)


	88. Deep Cover One

"Hot hot hottt." I mutter to myself as I carry the cup of scalding water and bag of cookies out to the front and set it on the ledge.

_Where are those hand protectors?_

Sabine gets them for my caf, but I never need them usually. But now I think I just burnt my palm for tea that's not even mine.

Shaking my right hand, I poke around with my left, looking for the hand protectors.

"We need that hand. You okay?" I hear Prime joke behind me, causing me to turn and see him smirking while holding a plate along with some silverware.

I smile, then nod. "yeah. Wasn't expecting hot water to be so hot."

"Tea?" Prime's expression changes to confusion. "I didn't think you liked tea."

"I don't." I shake my head, then gesture to the little white bag. "I'm going to see my mom. Got her some little cookies too."

Prime just smiles. "Any reason why? Or you just going to see her."

"I'm going to see if I can go get some more information out of her about the Death Star." I explain.

"Ahh." Prime answers, looking understanding. "So it's a business trip."

_There they are…_

"Yeah." I answer him, then look around. "Sorry, gotta go. Meeting after."

"Really? I didn't hear about a meeting" Prime asks.

"We're going to pound out the details to our mission. I'm not sure if anybody else is really coming. Sorry."

Prime waves me off. "No problem. I figure if I need o know, somebody will tell me."

"Thanks." I smile before scooping up Mom's tea and cookies and walking out to catch the lift.

_That…I'm just terrible with conversation today. First Sophie, now Prime._

I accidentally snapped at Sophie just before I left because she was ignoring Sabine about getting into the shower before Sabine and I left for our meetings.

_She didn't do anything wrong, she just wanted to know everything about Lothal. Don't know why, but she does._

I'm just glad she's feeling better and not constantly curled into the covers. Now she's just being stubborn about not wanting to take a bath.

_Normal Sof._

"Dinggg…"

I slide out of the lift and stride right up to Mom's door then balance the cookies on my knee briefly before knocking twice.

"Coming!" Mom calls out, before I hear footsteps approach the door.

The door opens, revealing Mom in her normal orange jumpsuit, just before she lights up. "EZRA! Hiiii."

"Hey Mom." I smile down at her. "Can I come in?"

Mom immediately steps aside for me, then shuts the door behind me as I step in. "Of course honey. C'mon in, sit down. Sorry it's a mess."

_Yeah._

There are papers and datapads everywhere.

"What's all this?" I ask, extending her tea to her.

Mom takes her tea while clearing stuff out of her spare chair with one hand. "Oh, somebody gave me some stuff to do in here after my requests were all denied. All about geophysics and the crystal conductivity theory, not very exciting."

I barely have to probe out with the Force to have my suspicions confirmed.

_That's not totally true. Partially true, but not all of it._

"Oh, okay." I play it off. "I hope that tea's okay. I don't really drink tea."

Mom waved me down quickly. "You take after your dear father and you don't even know it. Don't apologize for everything, you are fine. What's in the bag?"

"Cookies, they're for you also. Figured you don't get much dessert."

_Gotta butter her up somehow._

"Ezzy…Thank you." Mom smiles widely, then reaches out and hugs me again.

"You're welcome. Sorry I haven't been able to come down. They keep me busy."

Mom sips her tea, then nods enthusiastically "I know! Almost any time I see you you're grabbing lunch to go or your girlfriend is doing it for you. You should try to take a load off sometimes Ezra. They're going to burn you out."

"Nah." I shake my head. "I feel fine, I just don't have a ton of free time."

Mom can't hold back a frown. "You're 17 for griefs sake. You shouldn't have to have such a load on your shoulders.

_Mom._

Silently, I look up and barely glare at her. "Mom."

Mom simply looks at me for a moment, then relents. "Sorry, it is your choice honey. What brings you down here? I imagine you have some questions for me or something."

"What makes you think that Mom?" I ask her, again playing dumb.

_I don't like how she guessed that._

Mom sips her tea, then grabs a cookie out of the bag before replying "Well, I would imagine that they try to keep you away from me, since I'm a prisoner here."

I pointedly frown at her, then set my elbows on my knees. "Mom. No. If they told me that, I'd ignore them. You're my mom, they can shut up unless they have an actual suspicion, and they don't."

"I've sat down here since I got here." Mom says emphatically. "Haven't done anything."

_Nope._

I bite my lip, then push off my elbows. "There is some stuff that's come up though Mom. Nothing big, but it would help if you answer."

"So I was right." Mom quips flatly.

"Mom." I bite at her.

Mom quickly raises her hands defensively. "Hey, sorry. I just think they see me as an information dump instead of a person. Or your mom. That probably hurts my case honestly…"

I shake my head, causing Mom to change topics quickly. "Ask away Ezzy, please. I'd rather you hear it than somebody else."

"Do you know where any of the crystals you worked on came from?"

Mom immediately nods. "Lothal. And other planets. But back right before we got captured, we were going to figure out why the Empire came to Lothal. It made no sense to Ephraim and I—"

"I know." I cut her off. "Kingpin."

"Oh." Mom says meekly. "Sorry. Well that's why they were there for. Those crystals. For the Death Star."

"The ones for this laser? What other planets?" I question her.

Mom immediately waves me down. "Ilum, Utapau, Lothal, Mygeeto, all sorts of places. Ezra, you need to focus my son. Lothal. Your home. _Our home._ You need to go. Go and destroy their entire operation."

"How?" I say quickly, mind racing. "I don't know where this place is? I don't know anything!"

_She knows something. _

HOW DOES SHE KNOW SOMETHING?!

"Ezra, calm down. I'll tell you what I know. It's not much. But some Moff popped off to me once about how the crystals I was working on was 'a little piece of home'. That's how I know."

"That's messed up." I wince.

Mom shrugged. "Well, I've heard worse. It actually was nice. I felt close to you, and to Ephraim also. But anyway, what we discovered, is that they had some sort of facility on the southern continent. Have you ever been near the hives?"

_The hives?_

I nod. "Yeah, we used to hide out in the northernmost region while we were on Lothal."

"Try near the poles Ezzy. That's where we found it. We didn't know what it was for, but it was a massive complex on the opposite side of the planet as Capital City."

"Okay. Numbers would probably have changed though." I say to myself.

Mom nodded. "They've probably beefed up security after my kidnapping. Just don't get captured my son. They protect those sites with bounty hunters with shoot to kill orders. And if they capture you…"

I open my mouth to reassure herm, but—

"—it's a fate worse than death."

My stomach just immediately drops, and I freeze. "What." I mumble.

_Fate worse than death. Bounty hunters._

Oh no. Sabine's people. They're there.

_Is this a trap?_

"What?" Mom asks, suddenly looking concerned. "Did I say something wrong?"

"It just sounded weird. And kind of ominous." I vape blankly. "Why'd you say that?"

Mom smiles, then answers "Well, it's true. Most people would rather die than get captured by the Empire or a bunch of bounty hunters."

"Why bounty hunters?" I ask. "Why not load up on Stormtroopers?"

"Because Stormtroopers didn't stop your friends. And the Empire loves contracting security out. Wookies are their favorite, when they aren't being used as slave—"

"Beep Beep."

"Crap. I've got to go." I say, hopping to my feet.

I've got to get out of here.

Mom pops to her feet, smiling and wraps me up in a hug. "Okay Ezra. Please listen to what I've said. Take a load off sometimes. It'll do wonders I promise."

"Okay Mom." I smile. "Sorry I couldn't stay longer."

"It's okay my son, I know you're busy. Now go." Mom gently pushed me towards the door.

"Night Mom." I smile.

Mom simply smiles, waves, then shuts the door, leaving me with an uneasy feeling in my stomach for company. Numbly, I turn and start back to the lift.

_That was bad._

We've got a problem I think. Unless I'm completely paranoid.

I take a deep breath, then try to let my nerves into the Force.

_What are we going to do? What am I going to do?_

The whole time I was in there my alarm bells were going off. She was acting weird, immediately started moving stuff, the Force was warning me, stuff she said was off…

_Padmé was right. Mom's up to stuff. _

But how? My request to get her into a better room and a little more stuff was denied! All she got was reduced surveillance. Nobody should have been able to get in.

"Ezra." I hear, just before I'm grabbed by the shoulders.

"Huh?" I blurt out, before I blink and see that Sabine has grabbed me by the shoulders and is looking me right in the face.

_Everybody's looking at me. And when'd I get in here?_

"What's wrong? You're pale and totally zoned out." Sabine said, as Ahsoka sets down her datapad over by a holo.

"Uhh…" I stumble out, then gather myself. "I think my Mom just gave herself away. Something is up with her."

Mrs. Wren's face immediately falls, followed by Kanan saying "What?"

"What do you mean Ezra?" Lux asks, looking disappointed.

"Start from the beginning." Ahsoka adds.

Sabine lets her arms fall from my shoulders to my waist, then I clear my throat. "Well, she was off from the beginning. The Force warned me on the first thing she said that she wasn't telling the whole truth. Then she knew I came to ask her some questions. When I asked she directed right me to Lothal, and basically told me where we want to go on the planet. Finally, she hit your group on the nose." I gesture to Sabine. "She tried playing off 'Fate Worse Than Death' like it's natural."

Sabine immediately goes pale, and her arms slide off me.

"You think she's in contact with somebody?" Kanan said.

"Who would be the mole?" Mr. Wren asked the room. Immediately Echo lowers his eyes.

I frown and snap "Echo!"

"I didn't say anything!" Echo retorted.

_My guys aren't Imperial moles! How many times are we going to need to go over this?_

"I'm going to have security upped to her room. Immediately." Ahsoka said, then turned and began typing into the holo.

"I don't think it's them." Mrs. Wren tells Echo. "They came for him."

"They went to the Academy." Echo replied without a beat.

Sabine frowns. "So did I!"

"You left." Echo adds. "They graduated, but never went on to do anything with it."

"Wouldn't it be a little soon to start using an asset like that? Spies are supposed to have a long term use. Destroy from the inside, unless I'm totally wrong." Hera turns to Kanan.

Kanan nods. "Yes. I don't think we should start pointing fingers. Although that is bad Ezra. Really bad."

"She named the group?" Mrs. Wren asks me, causing me to turn.

I shake my head and reply "No. Just the name of the leader. Right on the nose too. It wasn't natural, she mentioned bounty hunters as security right after—"

"Something is up." Rex cut me off. "Maybe they got a new assignment from Tarkin or someone."

I nod, then start over to the water dispenser.

_I'm dried out._

"From the Shadow Collective, to finding us." Sabine says.

Mr. Wren looks up from his datapad. "These are the bounty hunters. Correct?"

"Yeah." Sabine answers, eyes falling to the floor.

"We asked Darcy and her whole team if they knew anything about them. Nothing. No clue." Lux tells him.

"One of them literally laughed at the idea that the Empire would use bounty hunters." Ahsoka says without looking up from the holo.

"They're in the weeds for sure." Rex adds, before the room briefly falls silence.

Kanan breaks the silence as I sip on my water. "Where on Lothal did your Mom say this base is?"

"Well, I asked about if she knew where the crystals she worked on came from. She said Lothal, knew because some Moff popped off. Then went into a story about how right before she and Dad got arrested that they got a mission from somebody named Kingpin—" I say, gesturing to Ahsoka. "About why the Empire went to Lothal. Then she told me to look on the Southern Continent, near the hives on the opposite end from Capital City." I finish, then turn and see Ahsoka staring at me.

"How'd you know I was Kingpin?" She asks me, looking flabbergasted.

I shrug. "I figured it was a code name, and you can't have gone by Fulcrum forever. I just sort of knew."

Hera and Kanan blankly look at Ahsoka before Rex turns and asks. "When did this happen?"

"Right after I got involved with the Rebellion." Ahsoka sighs heavily. "I tried to get them in and out safely, then we were going to integrate them in slowly. Their son was very, very gifted. Suspected Jedi material. But we clearly weren't discreet enough, because they got caught. Back in those days we couldn't investigate anything. When they went dark, we assumed the worst, but had to move on." Ahsoka says quietly.

"That's cold." Sabine says quietly.

"Don't blame her. It's…there was nothing they could do. Small planet like back home, they only could have hid for so long." I finish, then look up to everybody looking at me.

"You going to be okay with all of this? Going home, with all these old and new memories?" Kanan asks me.

I nod. "I'll be fine."

_I need to set things right there. _

They aren't taking me oof this mission.

"here." Ahsoka quietly speaks up, causing everyone to turn and see that Ahsoka has pulled up a complex.

_Surrounded by hives._

"That looks like a fuel processing plant." Mr. Wren says.

Echo contradicts him by saying "Probably a front."

"True. Would give aerial assault a tough time too." Rex adds.

"Ground assault would be difficult because of the hives all around." Kanan frowns.

_Good placement._

"This place is important alright." Hera says.

"Is it cold there Ezra?" Mrs. Wren asks me.

"Eh. Kinda. It frosts daily. Doesn't get warm, but the lakes down there keep the temperature down low." I shrug.

_I don't like it down there._

There's nothing but farming communities and exiles down there in the Southern Continent. The only reason why people are down there is that and the fishing's decent. But the tornadoes are the worst down there.

They know that. Everything I could possibly think of, plus everything that everyone on the _Ghost_ could think of got put onto that big old datapad Sophie got ahold of before it got sent to everyone here.

"Could we use the WingSuits?" Sabine asked quietly.

"No!" I turn and frown at Sabine, causing her to smile at me.

"Just because you don't want to do it doesn't mean it's a bad idea." She smiled, then gently shoved me.

Mr. Wren pipes up "Can you get to this…complex thru the hives? And what are in those hives?"

"They're actually not hives." I smile. "It's mostly a cave system. I don't really know what's down there honestly."

"Water?" Rex asked.

"Some I would guess." I reply. "Can't really gue—"

Suddenly a MASSIVE Force signature pops up out of nowhere behind me.

I can't help but turn and look at the wall in the general direction that it came from.

"What the…" I mutter under my breath.

"What?" Sabine asks me.

Who…is that? Luke? I've never felt a Force Signature jump out at me like that. Like a spotlight, pointed right at me.

"What?" I hear Lux ask Ahsoka. Quickly I look back to Kanan and Ahsoka, both looking where I'm looking.

_They feel it too._

"What's going on?" Mrs. Wren asks the room at large.

"I…don't know." Kanan says very quietly.

"Who is that?" I mutter to myself, as Sabine jabs me in the ribs with her index finger.

I ignore it, and probe out to try and identify it.

_Nope. But whoever it is is STRONG._

"Rex." Ahsoka says. "Pull up the visual scanner."

"But—"

"Just do it! Now!" Ahsoka bites at him, before turning back to the wall.

Then Kanan calls out "Ezra, get over here."

I probe again while obeying Kanan and walking over to his side.

Rex types furiously as Lux asks Ahsoka "Do we need to call in an order?"

"No." Ahsoka shakes her head. "I think I know who it is, but it doesn't make sense…"

The holo suddenly throws up about six screens at once, the biggest showing a triangular shaped ship.

_Eta-2 Actis-class Interceptor _

"Now that is a ship I haven't seen in a long time…" Rex says, almost in awe.

"Open hanger B3N." Ahsoka says.

"Yes General Tano." An unknown voice replies curtly.

Behind me, Mr. Wren says "That's an old Clone Wars ship. Used by—"

"Jedi." Kanan, Hera and Mrs. Wren all answer.

Meanwhile, Ahsoka is frowning and looking at the incoming ship. "This is bad…he's…why is he here?"

"Is that who I think it is?" Kanan asks Ahsoka.

Ahsoka nods, then hits her comm again. "Let him land, and don't let anybody disturb him. He'll know where he's going."

"Who is it?" Sabine asks, crowding closer to me.

_Everybody's creeping closer to the holo._

Ahsoka turns back, then waves everyone away. "Can you take a few steps back please? I'm not sure if this is good."

The Wren's all retreat, along with Hera and Lux.

"Isn't he on his own mission?" Kanan asks Ahsoka.

"No." Ahsoka answers. "He's not with us. His mission is bigger. And he's deserved the retirement."

_That ship's about to land._

The three of us silently watch as the ship effortlessly glides into the hanger and touches down gracefully before a man in long brown robes with a hood over his head effortlessly hops out of the ship and starts towards the lift.

_He does know where he's going._

"How does he know where he's going?" Mr. Wren asks quietly.

I look back to see them all eying us with considerable unease.

"He feels us." Ahsoka mutters.

Oh he's close. That Force signature is just as strong.

_It can't be him though._

"This has to be bad. Very, very bad." Ahsoka mutters again.

He's on the floor.

Kanan gives me a weird look, before footsteps quietly approach the door.

I turn to the door just in time for it to pop open, and the mysterious figure to stride inside calmly, before letting the door shut behind him.

IT IS HIM.

Immediately Ahsoka steps forward, looking serious, causing Kanan and I to quickly follow. The man drops his hood just as we reach him.

_Revealing the familiar face of Obi-Wan Kenobi._

"Master…what's wrong? Why are you here?" Ahsoka asks, looking very concerned.

Shock immediately shoots thru everyone behind me, as Kenobi suddenly smiles. "Ahsoka, nothing's wrong. Do you think something is wrong?"

"You shouldn't be here. You knew we were here at Safe Zone, but…" Ahsoka trails off.

"I've felt a disturbance in the Force. That, among other things has spurred me to take a short trip here." Kenobi smiles at Ahsoka, then claps her on the shoulder before turning to Kanan. "Kanan."

"Master Kenobi. An honor, as always." Kanan says reverently, then bows his head.

"I take it things are well?" Kenobi asks curiously.

Kanan nods. "Very well. Your training guides have helped tremendously. Your recommendation to get back into Vaapad training is starting to pay off."

_Vaapad training?_

I turn to look at him in surprise, only to get completely ignored.

"Hopefully I can see you in action."

"I would love to." Kanan answers, before Master Kenobi turns to me.

"Ahh, my dear boy. Ezra. I dare say you look _much_ better than the last time I saw you."

Immediately Ahsoka, Kanan and I laugh. "Yeah." I smile. "I feel a little better."

Everyone, including Kenobi laughs again, before he says "You too, have come far. Ahsoka sent me Holos of some of your fights on Mandalore. I must admit I was impressed."

Quickly I feel myself blush, then look down. "Thank you sir."

Kenobi gently claps me on the shoulder, then looks behind us to see the Wren's, Hera, Lux, Rex and Echo. "Do I know the clones?" he asks Ahsoka.

Ahsoka suddenly beams. "Rex and echo."

Surprise pops right onto Kenobi's face. "No way."

Rex and Echo both step forward, extending their hands. "General Kenobi. Pleasure seeing you, and—" Rex says in a rush.

"Don't." Kenobi cuts him off abruptly. "Fives. The conspiracy. You and Anakin were right. There is nothing to apologize for. If anything, I'm the one that needs to apologize to you."

"Never sir. It's…an honor to see you again, to be honest."

Master Kenobi smiles at Rex, then shakes Echo's hand. "It's good seeing you both. Now Ezra's progress makes a little more sense."

"I don't know about that…" Rex smiles, as Ahsoka, Kanan and Echo all laugh. "But thank you."

Kenobi smiles, before turning and finding Sabine and her family. "Bo-Katan?"

Mrs. Wren hesitates, then says "Master Kenobi. Glad to see you're still alive."

"I can say the same to you dear. Your husband I presume?" Kenobi gestured to Mr. Wren.

"Yes. Carid, this is Master Obi-Wan Kenobi." Mrs. Wren introduces her husband.

"Pleasure." Kenobi shakes Mr. Wren's hand, who simply nods. "And Ahsoka's kind husband."

Lux smiles. "Master Kenobi."

"Lux." Kenobi replies, before smiling at Hera. "Miss Syndulla."

Hera nods before Kanan says. "My…wife. Yeah. Something like that."

_What?_

I turn back to Kanan and roll my eyes at him before I see Kenobi approach Sabine.

"You're Obi-Wan Kenobi." Sabine blurts out.

Kenobi nods. "Yes, although I try to go by Ben now. You are…?"

"Sabine. Our daughter. One of them." Mrs. Wren speaks up.

"And my girlfriend." I add, causing Sabine to smile.

Kenobi smiles as well. "Oh good. Funny how the Force works out like that sometimes…"

"Yeah. I guess. Now really, is everything okay?" Ahsoka asks Master Kenobi insistently.

Kenobi smiles. "Yes Ahsoka. I wouldn't have left home if I wasn't 1000% sure everything was safe. He never gets to go out. His growth is stunted. It's frustrating, but there's nothing I can do. But he is safe, for which I am forever grateful."

"Who?" Sabine asks.

Master Kenobi turns and smiles. "My dear that is an answer I'm afraid you don't want."

Sabine blinks rapidly, but doesn't immediately reply.

"I apoligize for interrupting your meeting. I was afraid Id have rather poor timing like this. Feel free to carry on. I can wait."

"No, we were just about done really. Ezra and Sabine are about to go out on a mission." Kanan explains.

"Where to?" Kenobi turns and asks.

"Lothal. Outer Rim. It's Ezra's home planet." Ahsoka tells him.

Kenobi's face doesn't change as he locks his gaze on me. "That sounds like a rather personal mission. Have you put everything regarding the past away?" Kenobi asks me, eyes piercing right into me.

_Uhh…_

Maybe.

"Yes." I tell him.

Kenobi's gaze lingers on me for a split second before he looks back to Ahsoka. "Why this planet? I've never heard of it. Was it part of the Republic?"

"Yes, but it didn't do much. We suspect that this facility—" Ahsoka pointed to the holo "Is part of a larger project regarding Kyber crystals ."

"Kyber crystals?" Kenobi asks Ahsoka.

Ahsoka simply changes screens, and Mr. Wren's holo of the Death Star pops onto the screen. "We believe it's a weapon. A big one."

"A Space Station?" Kenobi asks her.

"We believe so, yeah."

Kenobi lets out a quiet breath, then runs his hand over his face. "Well, I felt that the Empire was doing something big out deep in the Outer Rim. And I think you all have already found it."

"Don't give us too much credit." Kanan smiled slightly. "We've sort of stumbled to this point."

"But you got here, without the Empire knowing you're here. Which is a task to be commended of you." Kenobi answers him. "Do you have a name for this contraption?"

Ahsoka and Kanan both nod before Rex says "The Death Star."

"The Death Star…" Kenobi muses. "Sounds very peaceful."

I can't hold back a laugh, and soon everyone else has joined in, breaking the tension in the room.

"All right then, can you take me from the top on this infernal Death Star? Hopefully I can help." Kenobi says, then turns to the water dispenser and starts filling it using the Force.

I turn back to Sabine and her family, to see her and her father looking awestruck.

_The strongest Jedi in the world._

Here. Right now.

Wow.


	89. Repudiation

(A/N: This chap goes out to the last "Guest" reviewer. Thank you for getting this Monday off to a wonderful start. Enjoy –James)

_(Flashback)_

"I'll just go ahead and show you to your room Master." Ahsoka warmly smiles at Master Kenobi.

Kenobi smiles at Ahsoka, then turns to the room. "It was a pleasure meeting you all. Ezra."

I bow my head politely, before Ahsoka and Kenobi walk over to the door and open it.

_Revealing Sophie and Chopper sitting outside._

"Huh?" I hear Sabine say behind me, before Sophie hops to her feet and gazes up at Master Kenobi.

"—xplain it all in the morning Sof. He's come a long way and should rest." Ahsoka gently says to Sophie, before she and Kenobi walk right past her and further down the hall.

Sophie, like the rest of us, watches them walk away, before Sabine's parents step forward. Instinctively, Sabine steps forward, causing me to follow.

"Mommy? Who is that?" Sophie immediately asks when we reach her and Chopper.

"Thanks Chop." Sabine smiles at Chopper, who leaves Sof's side and wheels into the meeting room.

Mrs. Wren glances at her husband, before pointing to the lifts. "Just a minute _ad'ika_. Let's get into the lift first."

"Why?" Sophie asks while turning towards the lift.

"_Soph'ika_, remember what I said about some times being bad to ask questions?" Mr. Wren asks his daughter.

Sophie blinks, suddenly looking antsy. "Yeah?"

"Good. Now please listen to your mother." Mr. Wren says quietly.

Sophie silently obeys her father and leads her parents into the nearest lift, with Sabine right by me.

"Ezra. When'd you meet him?" Mrs. Wren blurts out the instant the door shuts.

"Ahsoka's wedding. She asked that I don't say anything about it." I explain. Beside me, Sabine rolls her eyes.

_Sorry._

I know she's going to be mad at me for a few hours. Maybe the rest of the night.

"Well, _Soph'ika_, that's Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi." Mrs. Wren says calmly.

Sophie's eyes widen, then she turns to me. "Jedi?!"

"Yup."

"That's…" Sophie says, then starts counting on her fingers. "Kanan, Ahsoka, Ezra and him. That's all the Jedi!"

"All?" Mr. Wren asks. "I knew there weren't many, that's what Ahsoka said but…"

I clarify "Sophie asked while you guys were on Mandalore. But, yeah. Just us four."

Mrs. Wren looks discouraged before turning back to me. "Carid knows this, but the Jedi that helped me escape…that Zabrak. That was him."

"Him. Obi-Wan Kenobi?" Sabine asks, looking incredulous.

Mrs. Wren simply nodded.

"Why's he here Mommy?" Sophie questions her mother.

Mr. Wren instead answers. "I don't think we know, outside of what he said about that Imperial Battle Station."

"I hadn't seen him, since right before…" Mrs. Wren says to herself, but catching everyone's attention.

"Before what?" Sabine prompted her mother, just before the lift opened to reveal that we're headed towards Sabine's parents room.

Mrs. Wren sighed, then began leading us down the hall. "Just before the end of the war, weeks before even, Mandalore was in complete chaos. Death Watch along with Separatist forces fought against the Republic's clone forces and a small contingent of Jedi. But that was before a small group of clones stumbled into where the Zabrak was hiding in Keldabe."

_Uh oh._

"That's not good." I say evenly.

Mrs. Wren nods in response. "They never stood a chance. That monster carved thru Death Watch, droids and clones alike until everyone stopped chasing him. Then, the Republic sent what they called 'a jedi agent'."

"Ahsoka." Sabine says then turns to me.

Mr. Wren turns to Sabine. "You know about that?"

Sabine nodded. "She mentioned it to us last Empire Day."

"Mentioned what?" Sophie pipes up.

Mrs. Wren's face contorts slightly before she says "Ahsoka had some problems with the Jedi. It's kind of why she doesn't call herself one now."

"Oh." Sophie replies simply.

"Anyway, the Republic sent Ahsoka to assess the situation. Ahsoka and I had fought several times, so we didn't get along at first, but we shared a common enemy. Which helped. It felt like she'd been planetside for a day before she found forces loyal to Maul."

"Like they'd been tracked." Mr. Wren pipes up. "As Fenn said at the time I believe."

Mrs. Wren nods. "He did. Ahsoka took care of the troops, but with some difficulty. So she petitioned the Jedi Council, who sent Kenobi, due to his knowledge of the situation here as well as Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker."

_Whoa._

"Ahsoka's old master." I turn to Mrs. Wren.

Mrs. Wren nods back to me. "I didn't know that at the time, but yes. Skywalker was only a rumor before then. But his actions in the war were the stuff of legend. He broke into an impenetrable Separatist prison, fought at Geonosis, where the war had begun, foiled multiple assassination attempts on the Chancellor, fought Count Dooku and General Grievous. And that's not even the start of it all. Skywalker was the strongest Jedi of them all, in my opinion."

Yeah. He's Anakin Skywalker.

I nod in understand as we continue down the hall.

"Together, Ahsoka, Skywalker and Kenobi all investigated and located where Maul had gone in Keldabe. But just before they could make a move on Maul, news reached us that General Grievous had launched a surprise invasion of the Republic Capital, Coruscant and had captured the Chancellor."

_Oh. And they left._

"What happened?" Sophie asks, looking captivated.

"Kenobi and Skywalker reluctantly left, leaving Ahsoka to gather up some forces to face Maul. By the gods, she chose me, along with Rex and some other clones."

Quickly, I look over to Sabine, who's jaw is on the floor. "You've never told me this part."

"I didn't think it mattered _ad'ika_. It is in the past. We fought Maul pretty much to a draw. I got one solid shot on him, before he knocked me out with a kick. When I woke up, Ahsoka was talking to Rex about getting something done medically. Then, Order 66 happened, and I'm sure you know the rest of the story."

_Rex and Echo had their chips removed, woke up and all the Jedi were dead._

"Yeah, it's been explained to us a little bit." Sabine said rather quietly.

Sophie on the other hand, shook her head strongly. "No."

"Sof, you'll learn when you're older." Her father said gently.

"But I want to know now!" Sophie frowned, then stomped her foot. "Why can't I know now?"

"You're not old enough _ad'ika_." Mrs. Wren told Sof.

"That's not fair!" Sophie protested. "Why do Sabine and Ezra get to know but I don't?!"

Mr. Wren crouched down and smiled at Sof. "They get to know because they're older. And because Ahsoka or Rex or somebody told them because they thought they were ready to hear it. You'll get there one day, you just have to be older."

Sophie didn't reply, instead frowning heavily at her father.

"We'll see you in the morning." Mrs. Wren smiled at Sabine and I, before unlocking their room.

_(End Flashback)_

"Ping!"

I let my feet naturally slide while blocking the bolt while also preparing for the next volley from the training droid.

_Battle of Mandalore._

_Battle over Coruscant._

_Invasion of Utapau._

_Battle of the Invisible Hand._

"Ping!"

After a thousand years, those three years of war really seemed to throw everything into absolute chaos. Nobody knew what to do.

_They'd never had a war on their watch. Nobody had any sort of experience dealing with a conflict of that level._

People might have liked it at first, but then you would have articles start leaking out against the Republic's propaganda like the one Sabine showed me about the Jedi Order's fatal flaw. They would want the old peace probably.

"Ping!"

That way, when the Empire, Palpatine and Vader came back, bringing peace with them, but at the cost of every serving Jedi at the time and stabbing democracy in the back, people took it.

_Necessary evil for peace and safety. A sacrifice for the greater good._

I guess it sort of makes sense, at least to me. Sacrifices always have to be made in order to get stuff done.

_I want to spend more time with Sabine, but I have to train. Sabine and I both want to help Sophie and watch her grow up, but we have to fight the Empire._

It's just stuff we have to do.

"Ping!"

"WHAM—"

I look down at my leg, breaking my concentration only to see Sophie holding onto my leg and looking up at me. "Hey." I smile down at her.

"Sorry for interrupting you." Sof says right away.

_She came in here to watch me train. She seems to like just watching._

"It's okay. What's up?" I ask her.

Sophie turned around, then pointed at Master Kenobi. "Master Kenobi came in and wanted to talk to you."

"Okay." I say reflexively.

_I know we're having a meeting with Ahsoka and Kanan later. But I didn't know he'd come and talk to me early._

"Thank you Sophie." Kenobi smirked at Sophie.

Sophie beamed at him, before the door opened behind Kenobi. "You're welcome!"

Ahsoka and Kanan walked thru the doorway, causing both Sof and Master Kenobi to smile. "Hey Sof. You watching Ezra train?"

"Yup." Sophie nodded raptly.

Kenobi looked back to Sophie, then asked. "Any questions?"

Sophie paused for a moment, then shook her head. "No, I don't think so. Ezra did what he always does. He never misses a bolt."

Nervously, I laugh before Kenobi, Kanan and Ahsoka all join in. "Alright then. Just remember what I said, and you'll be fine. Always ask questions if you have them. The biggest fool is the person who has questions but is too afraid to ask them."

"Okay!" Sophie beams at Master Kenobi.

"Chop's outside Sof." Kanan adds gently.

Sophie turned to the door before looking back and waving. "Bye!"

Ahsoka, Kenobi and I all wave back. "Night Sof." Ahsoka calls out to her.

The door briefly opens, revealing Chopper waiting loyally for Sophie, then shuts.

"She's going to be peppering everybody with questions now Master." Ahsoka smiled at Master Kenobi.

Kenobi simply smiled while shifting his weight in his seat. "That's a good thing. I wish more people would ask questions instead of charging into situations like a blinded gundark. More things would get done."

"I hope we didn't keep you waiting." Kanan says, moving to grab some water.

Kenobi shakes his head in response. "Oh no no. She and I just sat and watched Ezra here for about twenty minutes. I needed to observe him for a bit anyway. The timing worked out very well I thought."

"Twenty minutes?" I blurt out. "I didn't notice."

Kenobi simply moved his eyes and smirked at me. "Maybe I didn't want you to notice."

_Oh no._

He's like Kanan was back when I was training on Lothal. I had to untangle everything he said.

"What'd you see Master?"

"Well…" Kenobi sat up straighter. "I saw very solid fundamentals. Squared himself up to every bolt, lowered his eyes, good posture and improving accuracy. What I really think is good is how Ezra seemed to be bored. His mind was clearly elsewhere, yet he has either had enough repetition with this droid, or his bladework is precise enough to compensate for the lack of in the moment awareness."

Both Ahsoka and Kanan smile. "I believe it's the repetition Master. You would have loved having Ezra as an apprentice. He never takes a day off from either blaster deflection or sparring."

Kenobi smiled at me. "Your dedication is a credit to you Ezra. However…"

_Uh oh._

"Your footwork was iffy at times. Specifically when you retreated. You would pick up your back foot, your planted foot and step back. You should try and slide." Kenobi explains, getting to his feet and demonstrating sliding his foot back. "Sliding prevents your feet from coming out from under you ,as was the case with your final fight with the Inquisitor on Mandalore."

"Is it that, or the mud?" I ask.

Kenobi gently nodded his head toward me. "As with all things, it is a combination of both. It certainly didn't help things."

"It's a small thing, but it could give you the briefest of openings to defeat somebody Ezra." Kanan says, looking at me.

Master Kenobi smiled, then started over to the holo. "It's always the little things. Blade placement here, footwork there, body positioning…you never really know. Which is why you must practice. And look back on previous fights."

"The footage you provided us of you and Anakin fighting Count Dooku on Oba Diah came in handy." Ahsoka said, then turned to Kanan and I. "Don't you think?"

Kanan nods. "Yeah."

"It was nice to see somebody actually using my style. Gave me a visual I'd never seen before."

Master Kenobi cracked a smile. "Good. That was part of why I sent that along. Unfortunately Form II was practiced regularly by so few due to the lack of conflict and need for lightsaber combat that the Count is the only real example that I have access to. But…"

The holo suddenly lit up with—

_What looks like Anakin Skywalker and an older man walking down a hallway._

"Whoa." Kanan said quietly. "Where is this?"

Ahsoka's eyes are wide. "Naboo. Is this the—"

Kenobi smiled, and nodded. "The mission that the Jedi Council faked my death? Yes, it is."

"Faked your death?" Kanan blurts out.

"It was a necessary deception, at least we thought so at the time. I went undercover as a bounty hunter in order to try and root out a suspected assassination attempt. In hindsight, that might have been…a mistake." Kenobi says quietly.

"Why?" I ask.

Kenobi let out a breath before beginning to pace. "Anakin…was an emotional person. Sometimes it got the best of him, sometimes it fueled his considerable fire. In this instance, it most likely was detrimental to him. Anakin never seemed to take the Council at its word on a mission like this again. Now, let's watch. We can stop it at any time, just tell me what you see."

Kenobi pressed a button on his remote, and the scene began moving.

(A/N: This scene comes from the Clone Wars Season 4, Episode 18: Crisis on Naboo. All rights and characters belong to Lucasfilm.)

"We will leave as soon as Queen Niackni's banquet is over. I also want to say goodbye to Senator Amidala. She has been a very gracious host." The older man said.

"Hmm." Anakin said deeply. "Padmé didn't mention a banquet to me."

"Perhaps she meant it as a surprise." The older man said, sounding sympathetic, then laughed. "I must say, the lengths the Jedi will go to is nothing short of incredible. I assume the brilliant plan to disguise Obi-Wan Kenobi was yours?"

"No. It wasn't, Sir. I was in the dark as much as you were." Anakin replied, sounding angry.

_That's not good._

"Really? Interesting. I was under the impression the Jedi always worked as a team." The older man said, sounding discouraged.

The door raises up before them, and I can't stop myself from gasping. "Dooku!"

Off to my right, Kenobi smiled.

"Welcome!" Dooku proclaims warmly.

The door snaps shut behind them, then immediately two droids with electrostaffs pop out of the shadows.

"I believe you've seen more than a few of those…" Kenobi comments.

"My gracious, it's a trap!" The older man says, before being shoved back by Anakin.

"Chancellor, stay back!"

It's the Chancellor?

_Palpatine…_

Immediately the droid on the left takes a swing and hits Anakin right between the shoulder blades. But he doesn't go down, instead only bending slightly.

_WHAT?!_

He should have been flattened by that!

Anakin glanced to either side of him taking in both droids. "You should have quit while you were still alive, Dooku." Anakin scowled, looking angry and pointing right at Dooku.

"Fighting off the entire Jedi security force would have been difficult, but now that they are gone—"Dooku stood and ignited his dark red lightsaber in the textbook Makashi salute. "Defeating you alone will be an easy task."

Both droids step forward and look blankly on Anakin, who quickly glances at both of them, sizing up the information.

"He's taking everything into account…" Ahsoka says quietly.

Kenobi smiles. "Precisely."

Quickly, the droid on Anakin's right rushes forward, but in a flash he's missing an arm. Then stabbed in the chest. Finally, he's kicked to the floor with disdain.

_Wow._

And I was thinking I was good with those droids.

Anakin then wheels around and nails the droid in the chestplate hard enough to break his arm, but forces the droid back. The droid slashes at him, Anakin blocks it, then seamlessly transitions into a vertical blow.

That is blocked, Anakin attempts to stab at the droid, which sidesteps it, then knocks his saber hand down before attempting to punch Anakin.

_Only for him to catch it._

"Whaaattt…" I say quietly as Skywalker crushes the droids hand in his own—

"That's a mechanical hand by the way. A gift from the Count himself." Kenobi tells me as the action continues.

In a flash the droid goes from on the ground, to hovering in the air, then in about six pieces.

"Hmm." I hear Kanan say, sounding sarcastic.

_How'd he lift that droid so fast? And with his back turned?_

I've never even tried lifting one of those droids.

"Chancellor! Get out of here." Anakin says firmly, but politely.

"Good idea." The Chancellor replies, nodding fervently before rushing to the door.

_He looks afraid._

Aaaaand there's droids. Great!

The droid grabs the Chancellor aggressively, causing him to yelp. "Unhand me!"

"Look to Anakin Ezra." Kenobi tells me, and I quickly see Anakin on the table, slashing at Dooku.

It's easily blocked before Anakin flips off the table and slashes at Dooku, who blocks it one handed.

_For a guy that's not that big, he makes that look so easy._

"Is he doing something that lets him block that so easily? He doesn't look that strong." I ask the room.

Kenobi speaks up. "Everything is set up and ready. Feet, hips, shoulders, wrists. Otherwise you're correct, he isn't strong enough to hold Anakin back one handed. You probably know that Anakin's style is Dooku's weakness."

_Yeah._

Dooku disdainfully pushes Anakin's blade off his, only for Anakin to strike again. The scene repeats itself, with Dooku blocking one handed before shoving him off.

Then Dooku seems to fall into a rhythm, with Anakin striking down twice, but barely touching Dooku's blade before Dooku snaps his wrists and pushes his blade off him.

_Never thought of that. Looks so easy._

A simple motion gets him off me, and with little effort.

Finally, Anakin gets something behind his blow and pushes Dooku back, only for Dooku to push him back with the hand he's holding his lightsaber with.

_Whoa. Now that's impressive. How'd he not push his lightsaber out of his own hand?_

Anakin staggers back, then charges at Dooku. Dooku responds by grabbing a chair and throwing at Anakin, who basically wears it before marching forward.

_That's not…what I've seen out of him._

Anakin's winning. Dooku basically just admitted it.

Dooku throws another chair, but Anakin shatters it into splinters with a backhanded slash, sending debris everywhere. Immediately Dooku grabs platters, plates, forks and knives with the Force and flings it all at Skywalker.

Anakin simply raises his arm to protect his face, and the result is multiple forks and knives sticking out of Anakin's mechanical arm.

"Oh!" Ahsoka says in astonishment as Anakin just rips them out of his arm and scowls at Dooku.

_Oh my. He really wants him._

Dooku's in trouble.

Anakin immediately charges right at Dooku, who grabs a chair and places it forward as a shield and—

"GSSSSSHHHH!"

"Whoaaa…" Kanan says, as Anakin goes right thru the chair, up to the hilt of his lightsaber, trying to get at Dooku. The only thing holding Anakin back is Dooku's grip on the chair with the Force.

Ahsoka then suddenly speaks up. "Look at the Chancellor."

I glance over and—

_Whoa. That's an evil look right there._

Like he's the one really winning.

_It really was a long con after all._

"That's weird." Kanan says.

I look back to Anakin and Dooku, only for Dooku to push the chair away in desperation. Anakin, who got way too close, is shoved into a shining stone pillar, before getting back up and advancing on Dooku once more.

"He just doesn't stop." I mutter quietly.

Kenobi smiled. "That's what I loved most about Anakin. He never once let me down. Always found a way."

This time, Anakin and Dooku slash out at each other, meeting halfway. Then Dooku begins strategically retreats, with the droid dragging the Chancellor deeper into…wherever this is.

_Royal Palace?_

Every advance Anakin makes is immediately cut off by Dooku, who moves whichever way gives him the positional advantage over Anakin. Total sidestep, slide back? Spin? Doesn't matter, Dooku is doing it all.

No limits or boundaries. Just complete creativity, finesse and an open mind.

_Just like his paper._

Finally Dooku lets out a grunt, then whiffs on a slash. Anakin capitalizes, bats his next move away then nails Dooku in the chest with a kick, following it with three battering, tooth shaking slashes, the last one bringing Skywalker and Dooku almost nose to nose.

In a flash, my jaw drops, while Kanan and Ahsoka make audible noises of shock.

_He just grabbed Dooku by the throat._

Dooku choked out a breath, torn between holding off Anakin's lightsaber while also losing oxygen rapidly.

_He doesn't know what to do._

In an instant, Dooku pops up and fries Anakin with lightning from both hands, then discards him down the hall, bouncing him off multiple pillars.

"Ow." Kanan says flatly, getting Kenobi to smile.

"Oh look, it's me." He says brightly, as a figure coming sprinting at top speed as Anakin picks himself up.

"Are you alright?" The man asks Anakin in a dark voice.

"Who are you?" Kanan asks.

Kenobi shrugs. "Bounty hunter scum. Lousy lung capacity."

"C'mon!" Anakin rises up, then takes off after Dooku.

They finally catch up to him as the Chancellor is dragged into a waiting ship. Dooku turns just in time to block a ferocious slash by Skywalker. Master Kenobi deftly leaps beside them, scraps the droid then grabs the Chancellor. Dooku simply pushes Anakin off him, then looks to Master Kenobi regally.

"Well done, Master Kenobi. You are a worthy adversary. I cannot say the same about your young apprentice." Dooku proclaims, before the ship speeds off and the clip shuts off.

Kanan is the first to speak up. "He said that last part to get into Anakin's head."

"I thought he beat him for the most part. He dictated pace, Dooku had to use all the tricks in the book."

Kenobi simply smiled. "You says that, but Dooku invented tricks and basically rewrote the book. Hoever, that's not even what I want to truly focus on."

Quickly rewinding the footage, Kenobi turns to Ahsoka. "Speak up if you believe me to be incorrect, but the biggest thing to take away from this fight is to slow down sometimes. One thing at a time. Be methodical, focus on exactly what you're doing."

"Yeah." Ahsoka nodded. "I can agree with that."

Master Kenobi smiled, then pointed to the very beginning of Anakin engaging Anakin. "Good example here. Anakin jumps, a simple movement negates him. The cycle repeats until Dooku begins pushing him backwards using the Force. Even then, he's focusing completely on that, not on his lightsaber. To my eyes, this was the first fight Anakin really stood toe to toe with the Count. Dooku recognized this, and focused thusly."

"It looked to my eyes that he won the fight, Dooku just won the most important portion, throwing him off those pillars after shocking him with the lightning." Kanan adds quietly.

The footage continues, showing Dooku and Skywalker duking it out before Master Kenobi speaks up.

"Ezra, a few of your fight you seemed to just simply be doing too much. That's not entirely your fault, due to the technical nature of some of your fighting style. And I may be a difficult judge, I can't really say. But slowing down and focusing just a little more might come in useful." Master Kenobi explains, then releases a small smile.

I nod in understanding. "Okay."

Kenobi then turns to Kanan. "Would you mind sparring with Ezra for me? Give me a chance to observe you and Ezra both?"

"Sure." Kanan says, looking pleased.

"Absolutely." I add.

Kenobi nodded, then gestured for Kanan and I to separate. Ahsoka followed his lead by drifting over to the side, giving us some space. I drift backwards and pull my lightsaber off my belt, then turn back to see that Kanan's ready.

_Vaapad._

I don't know anything about it. It's the last form, Ahsoka said way back when on Polis Massa that it was considered highly forbidden, and that only one Jedi ever mastered it.

_I need to play this safe until I have a feel for what I'm going up against._

Kanan and I eye each other before Master Kenobi raises, then drops his arm. I blink, then a flash is upon me causing me to raise my lightsaber and—

"GSSHHH!"

_WHOA!_

I bodily throw Kanan's blade off mine, then spin back.

_He did this last time. Same fast start that I wasn't expecting._

Relentlessly, Kanan marches forward and chops down at my head. I flash my blade up to block him, only for him to use his leverage to start exerting downward pressure on me.

_Let's try the wrist snap move Dooku did._

I flash my right wrist out, which does force Kanan off me. Gaining momentum, I quickly slash at Kanan's left arm, am blocked, then spin back and slash at his right.

Kanan's waiting for me with a block before he slips his blade under mine and tries jabbing me between the eyes.

WHOA!

I nearly bend over backwards avoiding Kanan's blade, then have my feet swept out from under me and crash to the ground.

_DAMN!_

I just got lectured on my footwork too!

Kanan quickly attempts to pin me by releasing a downward cleave, which I stop by extending my right arm and blocking.

_This isn't going to work…I don't have anything on this…What can I do?_

Kanan continues exerting pressure on me, grabbing his blade with both hands and pushing down. I compensate by grabbing my blade with both hands.

_Feint? Blade flash?_

On a whim, I break the blade lock, dodge my blade while rolling away frantically then flash my own blade at Kanan's ankles, trying to gain some air space.

Kanan's blade falls right where my head was, before he quickly jumps back to avoid my quick cut and allowing me to scramble to my feet.

I flash my eyes behind Kanan, where Ahsoka looks pleased and Master Kenobi's face is expressionless.

"Good idea. I had you in a tight spot." Kanan says, reengaging me with a downward chop before he alters the angle at the last possible moment.

I barely get my own blade on in, then rotate my hand in order to free my own blade only for Kanan to lock me up again.

_Okay, he's definitely coming at me with more aggression, trying to not let me breathe. Maybe Vaapad is a targeted counter of all the dueling styles._

Shien, Makashi, Djem So.

Kanan tried leaning into my blade again, so close that I grab his wrist and throw him to the ground, partly out of frustration.

Master Kenobi's eyebrows raise in surprise, as Kanan gets to his feet. "Not bad." Kanan grumbles.

"Instincts." I retort, before jumping to him and snapping off multiple cuts to either side of him. All of which get blocked before he forces me to vault away by cutting at my own ankles.

I land on a foam crate softly, giving me the high ground over Kanan.

_I've got the advantage—_

My mind suddenly goes blank as Kanan leaps over me. In a stunned rush, I spin and try to take away his landing zone.

Kanan bats my lightsaber away, then catches me right in the face with a kick which knocks me off the crate and to the floor.

"Oof!" I gasp, hitting the floor.

_He violated EVERYTHING he's ever said about not jumping over people._

AND he knocked me off! Great! He's never going to let me live that down.

In frustration, I grab the crate he's standing on and yank it hard enough to send it completely across the room. Kanan cries out as his feet fly out from under him and he crumbles in a heap.

The foam crate pile caves in due to Kanan's weight, and I leap into the collapsing chaos to try and catch him off_—_

"WHACK!"

Stars suddenly appear in my vision and I stumble away, protecting my head just before the Force gives me a warning.

_Back!_

I slip my blade behind me as I turn around and block a chop from Kanan.

If he would have jabbed at me, I would have been done for.

Spinning around fully, Kanan breaks the blade lock, twirls, chops at me then plants his foot in my chest the moment I get my blade on his which sends my skidding backwards.

_Jeez._

My defensive game isn't up to it today. He keeps catching me with those kicks.

Getting back to my feet, Kanan meets me and tries cutting me in half. I block it, then snap my wrists and push him off me. Undeterred, he advances again, this time altering his angle of attack again, causing me to barely get a blade on his cut.

I spin away from him, then my lightsaber disappears from my hand, replaced by Kanan's foot.

_Huh?_

Instinctively, I grab his foot and essentially spike him onto his shoulder guard awakardly.

"YAH!" Kanan yelps, followed by Master Kenobi's voice.

"Alright, that's enough."

Right away I rush over to Kanan and help him to his feet. "Sorry about that."

"Did you have to spike me? I'm not a Huttball kid." Kanan asks gingerly.

I shrug nonchalantly then turn back to Ahsoka and Master Kenobi, who is holding my lightsaber in his hand.

"Kanan, very good job. I can't say that I'm a Vaapad expert, but you certainly seemed to abide by the tenants of the form." Master Kenobi says to him, walking right up to him.

Kanan nods. "Thank you Master."

"Now a few quick counters…" Kenobi says, just before Ahsoka hands me a water cup.

"Funny isn't it? Being on the other side of it for once." Ahsoka smiles at me.

"Huh?" I ask, in confusion.

Ahsoka smiles as Master Kenobi is demonstrating a stance for Kanan. "This fight wasn't about you Ezra. You did all right, but Master Kenobi knew you'd never really seen that form before. You handled yourself admirably. Kanan was the focus here."

"I feel like I got my butt kicked." I admit.

Ahsoka turned and eyed me gently. "Ezra, some credit is due. You didn't really know anything about that style."

"Let me guess. Varied attack angles, constant aggression and a more offensive form?" I guess.

_Kind of._

Ahsoka nods. "Not bad. The varied angles is the most important part that I've read. You noticed?"

"He started conventional, but the longer the fight went, the more his vertical chops turned diagonal at the last moment."

"Late movement." Ahsoka says. "Your footwork did get a little slippery there near the end, which can account for that. But you blocked him, which means you have good hand eye coordination."

I laugh. "I think we knew that."

Ahsoka chuckles as Master Kenobi and Kanan finish their impromptu lesson and turn back to us. "Ezra." Master Kenobi says. "Not bad."

"Thank you."

"On thing though. You seem to be gaining a propensity for losing your lightsaber." Kenobi says, expression turning serious and bring my lightsaber up for me to see. "That cannot happen, and it seems to be happening every other fight now."

_Blast._

"Yes." I nod solemnly.

"I once told Anakin this, who told Ahsoka this, who I'm sure has told you this. But it's worth repeating: This weapon is your life. Once you lose it there is no guarantee that you will get it back. The universe is a cruel place, especially for a Jedi." Kenobi says sternly

Nervously, I look down at the ground. "I apologize Master."

"Losing it does happen. Just don't make a habit of it."

"I understand." I nod obediently.

Kenobi smirks, then claps me on my shoulder. "Now go get some rest. You've done enough for one day."

Nodding once more, I look to Kanan and Ahsoka, then slip out of the room.

_And completely forget my lightsaber._

(A/N: Thank you to everyone who has kept up with and read this story as its passed the one year mark. I thought I'd be done by now, but writing it has turned out ot be a longer process than I had ever imagined. What seemed to be a few simple ideas that required some foundation to be laid have turned into 89 chapters. As always, I thank you for your patience, and for reading. –James)


	90. Jump and Fall

I bow my head as Master Kenobi walks thru the doorway, holding a steaming drink. "Master."

"Thank you for coming Ezra. Ahsoka mentioned that you're about to leave for Lothal." Master Kenobi says without breaking strike.

"Yes." I answer, falling into step with him. "She said you wanted to talk to me?

He nods, then sips his drink. "Yes. You forgot something."

I blink, and he's got my lightsaber in his hand.

Casting my eyes to the floor, I quietly say "Yeah. I did."

"I tell you that this weapon is your life. And you _forget _it in my hands."

_Yeah…_

The silence drags on as we continue walking. Master Kenobi breaks it, saying "I don't mean to come in and be telling you that you're doing everything wrong Ezra. I'm not doing that, and I apologize if I come off like that."

"No." I quickly and strongly shake my head. "If I'm messing up, I need to know here, rather than learn the hard way."

Kenobi considered that for a moment. "True. I came to help fill in gaps. Ahsoka and Kanan, for as good as they are, were never actually Knighted. And maybe I'm old fashioned, but there's some things you just have to know. The Temple always found ways to humble you. And they never got the chance to learn many of those lessons."

"Makes sense. But I still think they're doing a good job."

"Oh yes, especially given the circumstances." Kenobi nods. "They're training you in a style that neither of them ever learned. That's why I've sent Ahsoka Holos of Dooku, and did this same this time. I thought a visual would help."

"They've helped." I tell him. "You sent them?"

Master Kenobi smiles. "Good. I thought so too, but you never really know. Multiple times with Anakin, I'd do something, expecting him to react poorly, and he took it well. The reverse occurred many times as well. Fluidity of the human condition is something I've thought a lot about during my time in exile."

"Are you sure that you don't want to become a part of this Master?" I ask, gesturing around the bustling scene around us. "You'd be invaluable."

"I'd be utilized too much. A crutch so to speak. No Ezra, I'm quite fine where I am right now. Maybe one day, if the stars align correctly and we all play our cards right. Maybe." Kenobi says, leaving no room for interpretation.

I nod in acceptance, then wait for him to speak again.

_He's earned that right._

"Besides." Kenobi suddenly laughs. "I'm too old to be much use in a war anymore my dear boy. That time has mercifully come and gone. Now, as I meant to say in the first place, I only have one more criticism. Then I promise no more."

I smile at Master Kenobi. "Bring all the criticism you see, please."

"It's simple Ezra. You need to focus. There are just lapses in concentration that could potentially be fatal. Like the lightsaber gaffe. Which is what it is."

I nod, before Master Kenobi continues. "The other good example I can think of, is when you're thinking during combat. You drop your arm down like this—" Kenobi drops his arm down in a slashing motion. "Anticipating trouble. You need to always keep your blade up so that you can engage your foe quickly. If your blade is pointed down, you could easily be beaten, or have to maneuver very rapidly."

The door in front of us opens, revealing the maintenance crew scurrying around the _Ghost_, along with the familiar sights of Sabine, Chop and Zeb pushing stuff into the loading bay.

Suddenly, Master Kenobi stops and turns to me. "Well my dear boy, this is where I leave you. I should be here when you return from Lothal. May the Force be with you. And let it be your guide."

I bow my head. "Thank you Master."

"My pleasure, dear boy." Kenobi claps me on the shoulder, then walks back towards the interior of the station.

_(15 Hours Later)_

"Clunk, Clunk, Clunk…"

"Ezra?" I hear Sophie call out as I descend the steps.

"It's me. How's it coming?" I ask, skipping the final two steps, hopping down and turning around to find Sophie looking at me, with her sister and Zeb digging in a bag.

"You need another heater. We don't know how cold those caves will be." Zeb mutters.

Sabine shakes her head. "I've got a heater."

"Ezra's not a heater Sabine, even if you use him like one. I'm going to see if Kanan or Rex has another one lying around." Zeb replies, then turns and smiles at me before taking the ladder two steps at a time.

"Do you always do this?" Sophie asks her sister.

Sabine nods. "You've got to know everything you need is in there and know what is what. We might need all of this."

"What about food?"

"We've got food." I reassure her. "It'll be in my pack."

Sabine turns to me. "I've already gone thru all your stuff. Looked good, but I threw another grenade in there for you."

I laugh, then smile. "Thanks. I'm sure you'll use it well."

"Are you excited to go home?" Sophie derails the conversation.

I pause for a second, bite my lip then turn back to her with a smile on her face. "I don't know."

"Huh?" Sophie asks, eyebrows furrowing in confusion.

Sabine's expression softens. "Sophie… Lothal for him isn't like Mandalore for us. Ezra had a hard time there."

"But that's where he met you guys." Sophie retorts.

"Yeah…" Sabine smiles. "But the reason we left is because we drew the Empire to the planet. We don't know what happened afterward. It could be bad."

Sophie quickly looks worried. "Like Mandalore if you guys didn't fight?"

"I don't know Sof. We'll find out though." I tell her quietly.

Sophie took all that in before Sabine began rifling thru her bag. "You're basically packed." She says without looking up. "All you need is your helmet and lightsaber."

_My lightsaber's over in the gun turret._

"Sof, can you grab my lightsaber?" I ask before walking over to the other side of the room to grab my helmet.

Sophie doesn't reply to me, but I hear her footsteps moving away from me.

"What?" I hear Sabine asks her sister, causing me to turn, helmet in my hand and see Sophie holding my lightsaber but looking terrified and sick at the same time.

"What is it?" I parrot Sabine, before Sophie spasms and chucks my lightsaber at my feet.

_Huh?_

I turn to Sabine, who looks at me before looking back to her sister and asking. "You don't like it, do you?"

Sophie strongly shakes her head.

"Why?" I ask her. "It's not active."

"I…It scares me. It might pop out and hurt me." Sophie whispers.

Sabine jumps forward and grabs Sophie's hand and my lightsaber at the same time.

"No…no. Sophie, don't be afraid of Ezra's lightsaber. It's really simple."

Sophie shakes her head strongly. "How do you know?" It's not _yours_." She says firmly.

"Because." Sabine smiles. "I've seen Ezra use it so much I know how it works. The blaster part right now works, but if you press this button…"

Sabine tilts the lightsaber away from both her and her sister, then—

"Hummm…Womp. Womp."

"It's just a button?"" Sophie asks me, causing Sabine to look back to her.

I nod before Sabine adds. "There's safety features too Sof. If I drop it—"

Sabine drops it suddenly, causing it to hit the floor with a loud "CLUNK.".

_Ooh._

"Maybe don't just drop it so heavily?" I ask nervously.

It is delicate.

Sabine ignores me and points down at my extinguished, benign lightsaber. "See? The blade shuts off, and it's safe, and a blaster again. Make sense?"

"Yeah…" Sophie says anxiously. Sabine, in response snaps it back up and hands it to Sophie.

"Activate the lightsaber part. But don't point it at anyone or anything."

Hera's voice calls out "—I completely agree. SABINE!"

"Yeah?!" Sabine replies.

"You and Ezra need to come up here. Mission Briefing just came in."

"Coming!" Sabine replies before silently getting to her feet and leads Sof and I back towards the ladder.

"On our way." I say, as Sof starts climbing her way up.

_I don't like how she's never mentioned how she doesn't really understand my lightsaber. If I'd have known, then I would have sat down and showed her._

Maybe after Sabine and I get back from this mission I can show her so it doesn't scare her.

_She was fine on Mandalore when I was fighting Shark Bait. But maybe that was just an in the moment thing._

I don't know.

I climb up the stairs, mind running in circles before seeing Kanan, Ahsoka, Lux, Hera, Zeb, Rex, Echo, along with Sabine, Chopper and Sophie either standing or sitting around the holo.

"Everybody ready?" Rex asked, looking from me, to Sabine before scanning the room.

I nod along with the others, before Ahsoka speaks up.

"Now Ezra…I know you lived here. But we're going to run this like we normally do. Okay?"

"Okay." I reply.

"Alright then. Now everybody knows the planet. Lothal. Outer Rim Territories, Lothal Sector, Lothal System. The planet has one sun, and two moons." Echo told the room, bringing up a view of the whole planet. "The terrain varies as much as any planet in the galaxy. Grassy plains one minute, mountains the next."

"The planet consists of two supercontinents, connected through both poles. However, The southern hemisphere doesn't have any large cities and is only inhabited by small farming communities. The northern hemisphere's where intergalactic import-export goes on and where the three cities, Capitol City, Jhothal, and Kothal are." Rex says, flipping the holo to a view of all three cities and where they are on the planet."

"However, the planet is currently in a state of rather severe lockdown. It's improved since the Empire initially came a year ago—"

_Because of us._

"—it is still very difficult to have any sort of organized resistance on the planet itself." Ahsoka explains.

"The mission right now looks like this. We already have a team in place, in Capitol City—" Zeb begins before being cut off.

"A team already in place?" Sabine asks, looking shocked. "Since when?"

Zeb turns to Sabine. "Three or four days now."

"Why—" Sabine starts, but then is cut off by Kanan.

"Weren't you told? Simple. You're operatives on this mission. We don't want you to compromise them if something goes wrong." He explains.

Sabine frowns at him. "I don't like how we're just now finding this out."

"Yeah. It seems rather—" Mrs. Wren starts before being shut down by Rex.

"What they think doesn't matter I'm afraid. Ezra, along with Sabine both still aren't realizing what we've tried telling them multiple times. Nobody holds all of the cards. You won't know absolutely everything at one time. You'll learn as we go along. I still do. Hera and Kanan still do." Rex tells the room coldly, looking tired of Sabine and I. "I'm getting rather tired of giving you two that message."

The room is silent, before Zeb mercifully continues. "Like I said, there's already a team on the ground in Capital City with their own mission."

"The mission here that Sabine, you and Ezra will begin here shortly is simple. You will infiltrate the gas facility on the southern continent, suspected to be a processing plant for Kyber Crystals used on the Death Star. Once inside you will need to destroy the processing operation, the power they use for the entire facility and gather any and all intelligence along the way." Echo explains, pulling up a rendering of the suspected facility.

"How will they get down to the planet?" Mr. Wren asks Rex and Echo.

Rex and Echo exchange looks before Rex tells him. "WingSuit. The same device they used to drop down to Mandalore."

I don't bother holding back a groan as I pinch my nose with two fingers.

_Not the WingSuits…_

"No! Why?" Sophie asks.

"There isn't a better way?" Mrs. Wren asks Rex.

Echo answers her, shaking his head. "No. There really isn't unfortunately. The WingSuits are the simplest and safest way there."

"Once Ezra and Sabine finish there, we will pick them up at an extraction point then go and grab Ezra's friends from Capital City." Hera says finally.

_Okay. Makes sense._

"Do we have any idea where any of this stuff is?" I ask Rex.

Rex shakes his head. "No. Not a clue unfortunately."

"If you get a chance, try to pick a map of the complex or something off a worker there. It's an idea at least." Echo says sympathetically.

"Exactly. Are you two ready?" Kanan asks Sabine and I.

"Yeah." I reply.

"Almost. Gathering the last of our stuff." Sabine adds.

Ahsoka looks over to Hera. "I'll send the mission briefings to their datapads. Can you go make sure they're ready?"

Hera nods, before Sabine's mom cuts in. "I'll go do it."

"Okay." Hera says meekly, as Sabine nearly rolls her eyes before sliding back towards the ladder to the gun turret.

I watch Sophie follow her sister, then let Sabine's parents go down before descending the steps again.

"Okay…" Sabine mutters quietly while her sister and parents look on.

"What food are you bringing with you?" Her mother asks.

"Ration bars…" Sabine replies, setting a few collapsible heaters into my bag.

"You need more than ration bars and nutripaste." Her father says.

Sabine freezes her head then says "Do you have any better ideas?" and gestures around us.

_Not much in the way of food. And it has to be easily portable and not too heavy._

"Well, I don't know…I'll go ask upstairs." Her mom says, then quickly climbs the stairs.

"Sabine." Her father says to her in a flat tone.

Sabine sighs, then continues packing. "Dad, thank you guys for coming along. But we know what we're doing. We've done this before."

"Not this specifically." He replies. "I've read every mission report you've ever done."

Sabine cringes and lets out a hiss. "Oh I wish you didn't do that." She says to herself, loud enough for me to hear.

"Sorry _ad'ika_. I can't help it."

Yeah. He's an engineer. Designs ships. It's probably his nature to want to know more about everything."

_Wrong place for that._

Sabine didn't reply to her father, instead zipping up my bag. "I think we're ready."

"Okay." I nod, then look to Sophie, still holding my lightsaber before a shout and the ship shaking slightly causes me to turn towards the turret.

_Lothal._

"Whoa…" Sophie says in awe, then runs over. "Daddy! That's it!"

Her father walks over, leaving Sabine to smirk over at me.

I'm almost home.

"Yup." Sabine says, moving to close up her bag. "That's it."

"Sabine! Ezra! We're about to make our approach. Are you ready?" Kanan's voice carries down to us.

Sabine nods at me, and I reply "Yeah!" before letting Sabine start back up the stairs one final time.

When I climb up, I'm met by Kanan, Hera, Echo, Rex and Mrs. Wren.

"Who is flying?" Sabine asks Hera.

"Zeb, with Lux as his co-pilot. You…Be careful down there. Okay?" Hera says before drifting over towards Sabine.

Sabine and I both smile at Hera. "We will." I say as Hera hugs Sabine.

"Clunk, Clunk, Clunk."

I turn and see Sophie diligently climbing up the stairs, then turning and taking my lightsaber back from her father. "Thanks Daddy."

Mr. Wren's voice replies, but I don't catch it as Hera slips over and moves to hug me.

"It might be tough down there Ezra. We're not sure you'll like what you see." She tells me while giving me a gentle hug.

I smile. "We don't know much of anything."

"Exactly. Be careful. We can come help if you need it. You know how to get ahold of us." She tells me before letting go and turning to Kanan.

"I think you're forgetting something." He smirks at me.

I roll my eyes in response. "She wanted to hold it. I'll get it back."

Kanan smiles at me, then says "Trust your instincts. It should be blaster deflection practice. But if Sabine's assassin friends are there, comm us. We don't know how good they are."

"I feel like we already know though." Mrs. Wren speaks up, letting go of Sabine and coming to hug me. "Be careful."

I smile, then hug her back.

"Let's get you two dressed in the cargo bay." Rex says simply, allowing Echo to take the lead.

When we reach the cargo bay, everything is already set, except for our bags.

Like he read my mind, Rex says "Kanan is grabbing your stuff. We don't know if we can stay very long in the atmosphere without being detected so we're going off the assumption that we cannot stay long at all."

Beside me, Sabine steps into her suit and settles into it, stretching her fingers into the gloves at the end so that Echo can zip her up.

"I've got you Ezra. Hopefully your pauldron stays down this time." Rex says, holding up my suit.

I smile at the memory of fighting my pauldron last time I got into this thing as I step inside.

"I told myself I'd never do this again." I joke with Rex, causing him to laugh as he pushes down my stubborn pauldron.

"Why?" Rex asks as Sophie an her parents walk in.

I smile down at her then reply "Jumping out of a ship isn't my favorite thing to do."

"I loved it." Sabine counters with a smile before taking her helmet from Echo and putting it on.

I take my helmet from Rex and say "It sounded like it. You scared me to death by screaming before I realized it was a good thing."

Everyone laughs, just before Sophie tentatively steps toward me. Quickly I crouch down and smile.

"We're going to be fine." I try to reassure her, as she has a scared look on her face.

Sof nods, then holds my lightsaber out to me.

"Thanks." I smile, then pull her into a hug. "Love you. We'll be back in a couple of days."

"That fast?" Sophie asks me, before hugging me back softly.

_She's afraid to mess the suit up_.

"Oh yeah. Shouldn't take too long." I say.

"We're dropping them very close to where they need to go. It's more a timing thing than anything else." Kanan explains to Sof, who nods then scurries over to Sabine, who pulls her into a big hug.

"I wouldn't try to do anything too crazy tonight. Just get down there and find some shelter. It'll likely be easier to move at night, rather than in the day." Rex tells me.

"I was thinking the same thing." I nod. "The two moons will give use plenty of light."

Echo and Rex both smile at me before the bay door creaks ominously, then starts to open.

Sabine hands off Sophie to her parents, both of whom latch onto her before I slip my helmet on and take a deep breath.

"Gussshhh…"

_I'm never going to get used to that sound._

Kanan edged out to the middle of the bay, then waved for Sabine and I to join him.

"Okay! So this jump is going to be a lot tougher than the last one!" Kanan yells so we can hear him.

"THUD!"

A heavy weight being placed onto my back makes me turn and see Rex tightening the straps to my backpack, which I'm now carrying.

"You're going to have to stay tucked in and not spread on the wings for a while because of the extra bags! We don't really know how the suits will take the extra weight!" Kanan tells us.

"We've run thousands of simulations, but this is the first field test!" Echo adds.

"Oh great! Thanks!" Sabine says in a bitterly sarcastic tone.

"We ran out of time! Your mission got moved up! Everybody's getting antsy about this Death Star thing!" Ahsoka says, suddenly at my right shoulder before clasping both of our shoulders. "Be careful, and stay in contact with Darcy! Text communication should be just fine!"

Sabine and I nod as cold air blasts us in the face.

"When the light goes green, you've got to go!" Rex adds lastly, pointing to a red light.

_Okay._

I take one bag from Kana, and Sabine takes the other.

"What about—" Sabine asks, before the bay is doused in pale green light.

"GO!" Rex and Echo both yell.

"BUT—"

"GO!" Rex and Echo both yell, then point for us to jump.

Sabine wearily looks over to me, then takes off at a sprint. I quickly follow her and leap out a split second after her.

"WHISSSSHHHHHHHHH…"

The air rapidly whistles around us as we fall like rocks in pitch darkness for what feels like forever. Then a bright white light off in the distance appears, drawing my eyes to it.

_That's it…_

We're pretty far away, but that's okay. We've got some time.

Sabine's voice causes me to turn and look at her.

_She saw it too._

I tear my eyes from her and try to find something to show me how far up we are.

_Nothing…_

I don't like this.

Ignoring the tension in my stomach, I continue searching around for something to show—

Then Sabine disappears.

_NO!_

I spin my head as fast as I can and find her almost diagonally, holding her bag in her right hand.

Her wing is holding, but I don't think it liked it.

_Guess it's my turn._

I close my eyes, take a deep breath, then grab the bag with my hand and spread my—

"POP!"

_OWWWWWWW!_

My speed immediately decreases, but my vision is smothered in spots as I grit my teeth.

_That's not going to help my shoulder at all._

Oh crap.

Numbly, I look down and find my parachute handle, dangling for my attention.

_Wrong hand._

I've got to switch hands with this bag so I can grab to parachute.

DANG IT!

Taking a deep breath, I pull my arms back in and pick up velocity again. Then Sabine screams something sounding like my name.

I ignore it, switch hands holding the bag, then spread my arms out again.

"POP!"

_OWWWWWWW!_

Great!

_Now both my shoulders are killing me!_

"WOMPH!"

I turn and see Sabine's activated her parachute and is now floating down gently to the ground. Copying her, I yank on my parachute cord.

"WOMPH!"

_Okay. I think we're okay._

Now I've just got to—

_GROUND!_

Reflexively I pull my legs up and try to get a running start when I hit the ground, but fail and tumble heavily to the ground.

"WHAM! WHONK! WHACK. THUD."

Rolling over multiple times, I come to a stop on the ground and quickly hear footsteps run over.

"Ezra! Ezra!" Sabine says, sounding frantic.

"Uhh…" I groan. "I'm okay!"

Sabine quickly appears above me, helmeted but visibly concerned. "What's wrong? What hurts?"

"Oh…I just messed up my bag hand, then didn't see the ground." I mumble then move my right arm to push myself up.

_Too easy._

I look back and see that my right "wing" is totally shredded.

"Aww man…" I sigh, then hang my head.

"It's okay. It's only a prototype."

"Worth a lot." I counter, getting to my feet so I can unzip her.

Sabine shrugs as I slip behind her back. "Hey, it did its job. They can only be so mad."

_Guess so._

I unzip Sabine, and she slips out of her suit then takes off her helmet and looks around.

"Welcome home Ezra."

(A/N: Hi! So, I'm sorry about the essentially month long hiatus to the story. Long story short, graduating from college is hard and takes a long time. Basically a month to move everything and stuff. But now it's summer! And I'm committing myself to Monday/Friday chapters with Wednesdays chaps when I can fit it in. Hopefully you guys understand that life happens, and enjoy the chapter. Thanks for reading –James)


	91. Business Transaction

"Blink…Blink Blink Blink…Bzztttt…"

"Oh shut up…" I hear Sabine mutter.

Seeing the light from Sabine's comm causes me to roll over in our makeshift bed.

"Why aren't you asleep?" I ask quietly.

_Today's the day._

We're gone from hive to hive via a cave system we found shortly after landing here for the past three days. The crystal processing plant is less than five clicks away.

"I couldn't sleep. So I looked thru your datapad. Wanted to see if you'd been talking to anybody." She answers teasingly.

"Sabine." I say flatly while wanting to roll my eyes.

"You know I'm teasing. But I do have a question."

Blast.

I force myself to roll over and look at Sabine, who is sitting on the ground in a tank top and the lower half of her armor. "What is it?"

She silently turns my datapad to me, revealing the list of stuff from my dream and the notes I've made on it.

Sophie – Older, six maybe seven

Big Bow – Got it on Mandalore

Name? – Doesn't matter

Model? - DM

Sabine – Older, seems in charge

Meeting – Between Rebel leadership

Yavin IV – Planet?

Death Star Thing – Mom's project weapon

Explosion – Planet destroyed

Alderaan? - Planet

Senator Organa's father dead?

Mountain range? – Sabine Dad Mountain Home

Location? – Mandalore

"You were asleep. I wanted to see if you had anything else on the mission when I bumped into it. I…I don't understand. What is this?" Sabine asks me, looking anxious.

I sigh, then sit up. "Okay. Hear me out. Okay?"

Sabine nods.

"When I sat down to make my lightsaber, I was all set to start. And I was worried about how to do it, since it'd been so long. I didn't want to have to go to Kanan. And then out of nowhere, I was in this…dream like thing. That's what I saw. Sophie who was older, at your dad's mountain home. She had her bow and just got back from practicing. I was in shock until you came in. You looked older too, and said something about some Death Star being destroyed, but after Bail Organa had died. The three of us were supposed to go meet up with Kanan and everyone for some ceremony." I say, then wait for Sabine to respond.

…

"I know. I sound crazy. I've figured out some stuff, like where we were at the time. I didn't even know that at first. I didn't want to worry you. I knew I'd sound crazy."

"You still sound crazy." Sabine frowned.

"Sorry." I say meekly.

Sabine got to her feet and paced. "I…Is this normal? Have you talked to Ahsoka or Kanan about this?"

"No." I reply. "Just your Mom. I don't know if it's normal or not. Things have been just…weird ever since I was captured."

"How?" Sabine asked, annoyance now out of her voice.

"I…Well I've met Padmé." I say.

_Might as well let her in on that._

Sabine spun on her heels, eyes suddenly bulging. "WHAT?!" She hissed.

"She appeared to me at Polis Massa when you found me. I didn't know why. Then a few weeks ago, when I went to go talk with Ahsoka?"

Sabine suddenly lit up. "Ohh…I tried to join you guys later. But the bridge was totally locked down. I couldn't get it."

_Ahsoka wouldn't have done that._

"I don't know about that. But she explained that I'm still on the light side of the Force. And some stuff about Vader and that whole thing."

Sabine's eyebrows snap back down. "What do you mean?"

"She…" I sigh. "She explained that Vader is still Anakin. The Dark Side doesn't consume him completely, just in moments."

"He's still…in that suit?" Sabine asked, looking horrified.

I nod. "Apparently he's half machine. And he blames himself for what happened with Order 66 and Padmé."

"But that was all Palpatine." Sabine counters.

I shake my head. "I don't know. But…Padmé wanted Ahsoka and I to try and get thru to him. Show that he can make things right. He apparently is that "Chosen One" that that article you showed me talked about. He's supposed to bring balance to the Force."

Sabine heavily sat down. "This…is a lot to take in."

"I know." I smile. "And I feel like just knowing this could get you killed."

Somehow, that gets Sabine to smile. "It's not going to get to that point. Do you think…on Mandalore, the reason he talked to you, helped you out, then fought with you and saved you…that that was Anakin Skywalker, not Darth Vader?" She asks, working it out as she goes.

_Huh._

"I don't know. I'd never thought of it like that. Maybe. It would kind of make sense." I reply.

Sabine takes that in, then adds "Yeah. And Padmé just appeared? Like that vision?"

"Yeah. She explained it, and I kind of get it. It's sort of complicated." I cop out.

"Okay. Tell me later, okay?" She tells me.

"Sure." I smile. "What time is it? Are we supposed to leave soon?"

Sabine nods before getting back to her feet and walking to her bag. "Yeah. It's around midnight. And good news. I snuck off while you were sleeping and—"

"Sabine! You snuck off?!"

_I could have died!_

Sabine ran a thermal scan to look for wild animals, but those can always be wrong.

"And…if don't you cut me off, I can show you the map I snagged off a off duty guard. Your mom was right. No Stormtroopers. All mercenaries."

Great…

"So we'll have to work to get in."

"Maybe not." She counters. "I found an access tunnel half a click west of us right now. I thought it'd be at least worth checking out. Worst case we turn around, get in another way."

_Best case, we slip in undetected._

"Maybe we'll get in." I smile.

Sabine adds. "What use is an access tunnel without a way to easily access it?"

I laugh, then hang my head. "When do you want to leave?"

"Soon. I messaged Darcy and told her the plan. She acknowledged it, and asked for a message once we're inside. Why, she didn't say."

"Maybe they've got something that depends on us getting inside and starting to shut that place down."

Sabine shrugged, then moved back to her bag. "Blankets and stuff go in your bag, remember."

"I remember." I answer, snagging my jacket off the log I used to prop it up against the cave wall.

_My lightsaber is in the pocket of my jacket. The rest of my stuff is inside my bag._

We used the other bag as a fire starter after emptying it of the rest of our food.

_Which we had before we were supposed to get some sleep._

Before Sabine decided to go find us a map.

I slip my jacket on, clip my lightsaber to my belt, then throw the blankets and pillow into my bag.

"Do you have the vacuum seal?" I ask Sabine without looking.

"Was just about to use it myself." Sabine tells me. "Can you watch the entrance?"

"Sure." I reply, then walk a few feet.

"WHIIIIIRRRRRRRRRrrrrr…"

_Man that's loud._

"WHIIIIIRRRRRRRRRrrrrr…"

I turn back around to see that my bag, which had been full to the brim, can now fit in my backpack comfortably with room to spare.

"Amazing. Thanks." I smile.

Sabine smiled at me before slipping the torso part of her armor over her shirt, then her own backpack, then her helmet. "I guess we're ready."

"Yup." I agree, causing Sabine to look around one final time before walking back towards the entrance of the cave.

I follow her in silence for a minute, then ask. "This access tunnel you found is half a click away?"

"Uh huh." Sabine answers, stopping for a moment and digging in her backpack, then hands me a small holoprojector.

I take it, fire it up, and see a map of the entire area.

_Whoa._

"We're here." Sabine points to a cluster of hives on the edge of the map. "The access tunnel is here." Sje points to a square marking. "Which takes us…"

She zooms in, and the holo changes visuals to reveal the inside of the facility.

_Looks like a real factory. Assembly lines, desks…_

"Have you already scouted out the power sources and the processing?" I ask.

Sabine nods. "Power is over here…" She zooms out, revealing three cylindrical structures, set apart from each other in the shape of a triangle. "And I think the processing is done by actual people. Like how your Mom said she oversaw the operation?"

"Ohhh…"

_She's right._

Good call.

"Good call on that. I didn't make the connection." I compliment her.

I can almost see Sabine's smile thru her helmet as she answers "That's why I'm here. C'mon."

Sabine leads us out of the hive and to the sight of both moons high on the horizon.

_I didn't even know I missed that._

"It's the little things." Sabine says while continuing to walk.

"Huh?" I ask blankly.

"The grass, the moons, the air. All of the little things. I felt it going back home, now you are too." Sabine explained to me, looking back at the end. "Nostalgia."

I shrug. "I just missed it."

Sabine lets off a soft noise before continuing on, finally stopping at a grassy overhang.

_With heat coming out._

"Oh blast…it's hot." Sabine mutters, sounding angry.

"Ventilation?"

Sabine shrugs. "We're about to find out whenever we find the opening."

It's pretty well hidden.

"They camouflaged it nicely."

"Yeah. Why…would you camouflage the vents…for a gas factory? It's expected that you would _release_ gas_._" Sabine shakes her head while feeling around for something.

_Yup._

I slip my hands down into the deep grasses, trying to ignore the heat pouring out of the grate and feel around for something.

"Pat pat pat…clung…"

"Got something." I say, then gently grasp the hard metal I felt.

Sabine silently sidles over to me and grabs onto the same metal piece I have. "Okay, keep your hand there. I'm going to see how big it is."

I nod, then watch as Sabine slides down the piece of metal I have, feeling around.

"Joint." She says, as her hand abruptly stops. She then drags her fingers across it, and finds another piece like mine. "I think it's a normal grate."

"Okay. Only question is how big is it?" I ask.

Sabine doesn't reply, instead picking up the pace, running her hand down the grate, trying to find the edge.

Then her hand falls off, disappearing into deep grass. Immediately she reacts and grabs the edge of the grate. "Awesome. I think we can both fit inside."

I smile, then move to grab the edge with her. "Ladies first."

_It's not too heavy._

We both lift our end up, and a rush of steam greets us. "Please don't be waste disposal, _please_ don't be waste disposal…" Sabine pleads before sliding inside.

"Yes! You're clear! Just let me slide down this ladder…" Sabine hisses to me.

"Okay." I reply.

_Good communication. Have each other's back. Always be on the lookout for people. If compromised, don't hesitate to get out. Hera and Kanan are around and will help if we need them._

"Clear." I hear Sabine say, then slip under the grate while holding it over my head. Sabine keeps her hand in the small of my back as I find the ladder and slowly lower the grate back to its original position.

_They won't even know how we got in._

"Clunk."

I hear Sabine let out a quiet breath, then let go of me and start downward. Slowly and deliberately, for what feels like forever, we descend in darkness.

"Splssshhh."

"Haar'chak!" I hear Sabine spit out. "Oh good, it's just muddy water. Whew…"

I laugh, then take the final few steps down and step into standing water, which doesn't even cover my foot.

"I don't know how big…okay." Sabine say as she flashes a light ahead of us, revealing a tunnel tall enough for us both to stand, but with wires of all colors running compactly across the ceiling as well as pipes sticking out here and there.

"Try not to crack your head open. I don't want to use this light too much in case somebody can look down here."

"Yeah." I agree. This isn't Denon."

With those thousands of battle droid parts.

_We never did hear what they got out of those ships we found down there._

Sabine cuts the light, plunging us into total darkness and causing me to slightly crouch down and follow her lead.

_The lower I am, the less likely I find a pipe with my head._

"Splssshhh. Splssshhh. Splssshhh. Splssshhh. Splssshhh…"

"Thud—"

"Whoa…" Sabine says, knocked off balance by me stumbling into her.

"Sorry." I blurt out, grabbing her by the waist and preventing her from falling into the water. "Sorry sorry."

Sabine's arms snake around me. "It's alright. I stopped to check the map." She explains, before the darkness is abated by the soft red glow of her map. She studies it before flashing her light down the way, revealing a fork.

"Okay. We're here." She says, cutting her flashlight and pointing right before there's a fork in the access pipe, ¾ of the way to the factory. "The nice thing about this pipe—" Sabine zooms out a bit, revealing all three power conduits. "—is that we can access all three straight away. But we have two pick. Do we want to get two, then go all the way back, or vice versa?"

"Two, then go back." I vote. "Makes it easier."

Sabine nods. "I agree. And if we're spotted we've already got two down."

She shuts off her map, then a slight flash reveals that she's taken her helmet off.

"What are you—?" I ask, before being cut off by a kiss from Sabine.

On a whim, I pull her closer to me and kiss her back before she breaks it off and looks up at me.

"I love you." She says softly.

"Love you too." I smile. "We'll be fine."

Sabine nodded. "Well, you know what happened last time we thought that on a mission."

"Don't worry about it. We're going to be fine." I try to reassure her, even smiling although she probably won't see it.

In response, I hear Sabine sigh before she takes her hands off my shoulder and runs her hands over my jawline on both side. "Please keep it."

"It's nothing." I sheepishly smile.

I shaved before I came, and it's barely grown enough to feel it.

"I know, but I still like it. Let it grow a little. Please?" She asks, still running her fingers over my jaw and cheeks.

"Fine." I compromise.

Sabine simply pecks me before slipping her helmet back on. "We said two…so left." She points off to the left.

I reach out and probe with the Force before moving to follow her and—

"WHACK!"

My left cheekbone erupts in pain, I let out a hiss and crouch down just before Sabine whips around, flashlight already on.

"You okay?" She asks, crouching down with me.

I nod. "Stupid pipe."

"Sure?"

"Yeah." I brush her off, then move my cheek to ease the discomfort.

_I think there was some residual grease on that pipe. I feel it just below my eye._

It'll have to stay. I'm not cleaning it with this water.

Shuddering, I follow Sabine as we deliberately ease our way down the pipe, to the fork, then take it to the left.

"Splssshhh. Splssshhh. Splssshhh…"

I probe out again, and—

_One._

I tap Sabine's right shoulder once. Sabine briefly pauses, nods, then continues on.

We should be close.

I probe out again, and the one life form about fifteen feet away is still there.

_Keeping guard?_

Sabine slows her steps, then stops and peeks up.

We're here.

She turns back to me and whispers "I see him. Can you do Kanan's mind trick thing from here?"

I nod, slip by her and look thru three tiny slits in a grate with water pouring out of the bottom to see a man in indistinguishable armor from head to toe.

_This is where the pipe starts._

Okay…

I take a deep breath, put my fingers together then focus on the man's mind and wave my hand slightly.

He goes stock still, Sabine lets out a delighted breath then opens the grate and silently forces the man to the ground with her arms around his neck.

Once he's knocked out, I slip out so that Sabine can put his unresponsive body inside.

_Sucks to be him._

I gently replace the grate, his feet not visible and look around. Sabine points to our left, where there are two, large rectangular rooms separated by a catwalk.

_We're on the second floor somehow. Below us are…_

Hundreds of people, working away.

It's hot in here.

I nod at Sabine, and we take off towards the first room.

_Three men._

"Hey, what are you—" One of them says, just before I wave my hand and he immediately falls to the ground.

The other two freeze up, looking at me in shock. Sabine ruthlessly blasts them both, leaving them to fall to the ground.

We both run to the massive turbine, which is spinning rapidly.

"GHHZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZHZH

"Uhh, how do we do this?" I ask her.

Sabine shrugs, then pulls down on a lever almost happily.

"Whhhhhghhhzz…"

"That was easy. C'mon. They're gonna notice soon." Sabine tells me, then sprints towards the next door.

She opens it, only for a armored person to be in the doorway.

"Oh." Sabine blurts out.

"Stop. What are you—" He gets out before Sabine flings him over the rail.

"AAAAHHHH!" "CRASHHH!"

Multiple frightened yells ring out.

"So much for stealth!" I tell Sabine and probe out. "Three more!"

"They were gonna notice anyway…!" Sabine counters, voice rising and flinging the door open then filling it with a missile.

"BOOM!"

I hop inside to see one man was blown away, while two others are dazed.

As Sabine steps inside, I throw them together violently, knocking them both out and causing her to cringe. "Owww!"

I ignore her, dart to the turbine and pull the lever.

"Whhhhhghhhzz…"

"That's two!" I tell her. Before she can reply, screams begin to trickle in from outside the room.

Sabine and I briefly look at each other. "Uh oh." Then race outside.

_Fire._

WHOA.

It takes me a moment to process what I'm seeing.

_Mercenaries with flamethrowers are just torching the place. All of the workstations people must have sat at._

Up in flames.

Sabine slips down off the catwalk and takes down one of them, causing two to get her attention. I smile, crouch, then leap over both of them, bring their attention with me.

"AAUUUGHH!" One of them yells, felled by an unseen shot from Sabine. Before the other one can respond, I reveal my lightsaber.

"Hummm…"

_Gotcha._

The mercenary turns and sprints at me, only for Sabine to pounce and pile drive him into the ground in a crumpled heap.

"C'mon! Find a untorched desk, and put everything into your backpack! Then we'll get the power!" Sabine tells me, taking off at top speed.

People completely ignore us, the look familiar but none of the faces as I race to follow her, then split off as she finds a desk off to the right and I find one in the very back.

_They're using the local people as slaves…_

"How to Weaponize a Kyber Crystal"

"Prepartions For the Liquidization of Crystalline Structures"

Titles fly out at my as I shove all of it, including a crystals the size of my hand into my backpack, then run to meet Sabine in the middle.

They all looked Southern Lothalian. It's different than what I'm used to, a little darker skinned. They usually have an accent too.

"Throw me." Sabine points up, where there's a catwalk that leads to a door.

I smirk. "Okay!" then toss her up ten feet, where she lands softly. I then leap up myself and land softly.

_One._

"Just one." I tell Sabine.

"Really?" Sabine says, just before kicking open the door and walking in.

A lone figure stands in front of the turbine, back to us, head to toe in armor.

Easy.

I move to blast her, but something silver flies at me and hits me in the rib—

"AAAAAHHHH!" I yell, skin suddenly feeling like it's on fire.

_WHAT IS THAT?!_

I fall to one knee and look at the figure, who isn't even fully turned to face us.

"Drop whatever that was, and your weapons. And I'll let you live." Sabine barks out at the mercenary.

The mercenary lets out a quiet laugh, then fully turns around. "You'll let me live?"

Sabine raises her blasters, leaving no room for misunderstanding. "I'm not asking you again."

Again, the mercenary laughs. "Oh Sabine…"

The mercenary grabs something above his head and pulls, revealing the "armor" is a disguise.

_But digital. _

The disguise completely disappears, and a red haired woman in a blue and black body suit, complete with large rifle and multiple blasters is standing where the mercenary was.

I hear Sabine gasp as my jaw hits the floor.

_NO._

"I thought I had you trained. You don't just let people live in this business." Markas Renless smirks at us.


	92. Homecoming

"Drop whatever that was, and your weapons. And I'll let you live." Sabine barks out at the mercenary.

The mercenary lets out a quiet laugh, then fully turns around. "You'll let me live?"

Sabine raises her blasters, leaving no room for misunderstanding. "I'm not asking you again."

Again, the mercenary laughs. "Oh Sabine…"

The mercenary grabs something above his head and pulls, revealing the "armor" is a disguise.

But digital.

The disguise completely disappears, and a red haired woman in a blue and black body suit, complete with large rifle and multiple blasters is standing where the mercenary was.

I hear Sabine gasp as my jaw hits the floor.

NO.

"I thought I had you trained. You don't just let people live in this business." Markas Renless smirks at us.

_It's her._

Mom was right. Fate Worse Than Death.

I silently pull my lightsaber to me and activate it before it's settled in my hand.

"Hummm…"

Renless' eyes snap to me. "You are a Jedi."

"You didn't believe it when your mission report said that?" I taunt her.

Renless barely shakes her head. "Not after I saw you last time. You were just another boy. You're different this time."

I let a smile spread onto my face. "Things have changed a little bit."

A momentary silence is disrupted by the sound of more flamethrowers downstairs.

"You're destroying evidence." Sabine calls out.

Renless' expression turns to one of anger. "That's what happens when a project gets compromised. Grab what you need, destroy the rest Problem-Solver. You know that."

"Why are you here? Stormtroopers usually do your job. You're overqualified."

Renless smirked. "Think about it this way though. A highly important asset to the Empire is abducted out of her laboratory by a known Rebel team. Just after it is accidentally revealed to her that there is a crystal factory here. It would make sense that she would talk her only son and compromise this facility. We were sent to ensure this facility was working until the moment it was compromised, then to burn it to the ground."

_This is confusing._

"The Moff in question is dead by the way. Lord Vader saw to that himself. Spouting details about this project to the mother of a known Rebel is bad for your health."

Vader.

"We. There are more here?" Sabine asks Renless.

"Why would I go anywhere without backup?" Renless counters Sabine.

The Force calls for my attention behind me, and I pivot to see three figures climbing onto the rail for the catwalk.

Blast.

"Behind us." I tell Sabine, who turns and sees the three for herself then sighs.

Sabine says "I don't want to do this. Don't make us fight you Markas. Please."

The first of the figures steps into the room, sees Sabine then looks to Renless. "My lady, is this the Lost One?" A female voice asks.

"The orders are the same." Renless replies, voice flat.

The other two come in, also with large rifles on their backs. However, one has a baton on her strong hand.

_House Renless is all women._

And they want us both dead.

"So how much do you know?" Sabine asks Renless.

Renless rolls her eyes. "Depends on how much you're willing to tell me. I'm still very much open to you joining us Sabine. Maybe your boyfriend too if you're willing to…_share._"

"No." I blurt out.

"I don't think that's your call." Renless bites at me, as two of the three other assassins walk around Sabine and I to stand near Renless.

One of them looks me up and down, then shoots me a sweet smile. "He is pretty hot."

Sabine raises her wrist and points it at her with an intimidating "Click".

"So that's a no?" A high pitched voice on the other end asks.

"No." I answer for her.

Beside me, Sabine is sizing up the two beside Renless. "I don't recognize them."

"Your friends, the all-girl Imperial defectors that _I tried telling you had been compromised_ thinned out my ranks on that mission. I would send them my regards, but they're being dealt with."

_What. She's playing games._

She can't know…

"What?" I blurt out.

Renless smiled at me. "On Mandalore. Lord Vader told Rook Kast his eyes are everywhere. Well I'm one of Lord Vader's many pairs of eyes. They're in Capital City right now. I would have loved to put them down, but your friends are going to cut them down easily."

"Friends?" Sabine asks.

Renless scoffed and took her eyes off all us and began pacing. "Inquisitors, trained lapdogs really. Mystics. In my opinion Force Users have had their day. And look where _that_ got us. A civil war, followed by a Imperial Restructuring. Now a Rebellion. No offense." She added, nodding towards me.

"I disagree. We've got to restart somewhere." I counter. "There are Inquisitors in Capital City?"

_Darcy isn't going to have a chance in hell._

"FINALLY!" Renless said exasperatedly. "He puts in together. About time."

Sabine looks over to me, arms falling to her sides.

_She knows they don't stand a chance._

We have to move now to even have a chance to save them.

WHOA!

The Force gives me a split second warning, I spin down and away from Renless and barely avoid another one of those electrical shocks.

"If you don't want to come in peacefully, I can't call off those Inquisitors. Final chance." Renless told Sabine while unsheathing two knife sized blades and putting the cover between her teeth.

Sabine slips her blasters back into their holsters and shrugs her shoulders.

No way.

_Sabine—_

She fires off a bolt at Renless then spins back to give herself room.

I turn back and see the other two running at me.

_Behind me._

In a smooth motion, I spin on my heels, lightsaber still active and—

Then a pair of arms slip around me violently, stopping my motion immediately and causing my lightsaber to fall. The assassin on the left follows her comrade up by punching both of my arms near the shoulder, elbow and wrist.

_But not hard._

I smirk, then slam my heel into the assassin behind me and slip out of her grip as she doubles over in pain, then call my lightsaber to my hand.

But it doesn't move.

_Huh?_

I look to my hand in bewilderment, then see the punchy assassin move to hit me again and spin away. I yank on it again, only for it to not respond again.

_What is going on?_

Turning back to the pair of assassins, I see they're both smirking while closing in on me. "You may know how to swing that sword, but you don't know your own body." The lithe puncher smiled.

I take a step forward so I have a chance to physically grab my lightsaber, but a flash appears out of the corner of both of my eyes.

"Thwing!"

Out of nowhere, I go flying backwards, all the way out the door and the catwalk. Numbly, I see two metal objects pinning me to the metal bars.

Looking up again, they're closing back in on me.

_What is going on?! Three on one, with weird weapons._

Tiny electrical shocks, these things that have me tied to this—

"UHH!" I hear Sabine grunt, then my heart leaps into my throat and I look over to see Sabine shove Renless aside then throw a knife away.

_Good, she missed._

"WHAM!"

My vision goes spotty as I'm hammered in the jaw with a kick.

"Had enough yet Jedi boy?" The assassin behind me asks, who has heavy set eyes and an almost expressionless face.

_I've got to buy myself time, then get to my lightsaber._

An idea springs into my head, just as the three girls continue closing in.

NOW!

I suck in a breath, bring my legs up and kick as hard as I can. All three girls go flying back by the force of the kick.

_I've got the Force back. Thank you Ahsoka for that trick._

Using the Force with your hands and your feet.

I snap my wrist, and my lightsaber zooms into my hand.

_Hah!_

Activating it, I divert my attention to Renless and unleash a vicious Push her way. She never sees it coming and is taken off her feet then crashes into the side wall.

Sabine takes the opportunity to line up a shot on the punchy assassin, and nails her with a solid "THUD!"

The tides have turned.

"Bzzzztttt…"

I look back to my other two assassins, and see that one has taken out her baton and activated it, while the other is struggling to get up.

"YAAHHH!" The baton wielder yells, then takes a massive swing at me. I drop down, roll away then activate my lightsaber.

_One cut and this'll be over._

Popping to my feet, I advance on her, causing her to frantically back up and poke her baton.

"Gssshhh!"

_It didn't break?_

She continues backing up, allowing me to get a head of steam behind my next blow which she blocks but slides backwards due to my momentum.

I must have 80-90 pounds on her.

_I can beat her both ways._

She slips away from me, only for her comrade to fire another one of those electrical bolts at me. I square it up and brace for impact.

HAH!

I let out a wide smile, then in a flourish slip my lightsaber into the Form V guard.

_I've got you now._

The Force suddenly calls for my attention, and I look back to Sabine and Renless to see Sabine ready to fire off a missile.

_It's not too close quarters?_

She's going to blow her face off!

Sabine lets the missile go, then turns and runs.

_Oh!_

She wasn't aiming for Renless.

I turn and run for the catwalk, catching Sabine within five steps and—

"BA-BOOOOOMMMM!"

A massive fireball throws both of us off the catwalk, down to the burning work floor below.

"There's TIE Fighters on a landing pad! It's our only chance to get there!" Sabine tells me, getting to her feet and sprinting.

I take off after her, occasionally looking back for Renless and her friends.

_Nope._

We cover the length of the plant, then reach the TIE fighters. Sabine scales the ladder to the nearest one and hops in, leaving me to simply jump in.

I almost land on top of her, then scramble behind the pilot's seat as Sabine quickly disengages us from a tether.

"Click, click, WHIIIIIIIIRRRRRR!"

"Whhoooooaaaaa!" I yelp, as Sabine FLIES away from the factory at a terrifying pace. "Why so fast?"

"Only gonna be using it once! And it's either we get away or they catch us!" Sabine says without looking back, looking frustrated then hits her comm. "Kanan!"

…

"Kanan! Come in! C'mon!" She yells, still picking up speed.

"What? Here! What?!" Kanan says frantically, followed by sounds of chaos in the background.

"What's she yelling about?" I hear Mr. Wren's voice.

"Yay Sabine!" Sophie cheers.

"No 'Yay Sabine!' Sof. We've got a problem. It's a trap. They knew we were coming. Inquisitors are in Capital City and they're going to hunt down Darcy and her team." Sabine quickly explains.

"How do you know that?" Rex asks as more noise trickles in behind them.

"Getting us ready to jump…" I hear Zeb tell somebody in the background.

"Zeb!" Hera shouts him down. "Not yet! How do you know that Sabine?"

"My old boss. Markas Renless. She was there. Ezra's mom was right. We played right into their hand."

…

"_Now_ I'm jumping us to Lothal." Zeb tells someone, I'm assuming Hera.

"How'd you escape?" Ahsoka asks.

"Fought, like always. She wasn't alone. Sabine blew the last turbine up with a missile which got us the time to escape." I explain.

"She's not gone though. I'm expecting to have company soon." Sabine adds.

"Okay." Kanan says calmly. "So you stole a TIE fighter and are flying to Capital City now?"

"Yes." Sabine and I simultaneously answer.

"Did you get anything useful out of the plant?" Echo asks.

I nod. "Yeah, we both got stuff off workers desk. It was like a factory. Hundreds of people just working in a really hot room. When we got spotted they started setting everything on fire. It was the best we could do."

"I got a crystal." Sabine adds.

"I did too." I smile.

A shout on the other end causes footsteps to hastily move away from the holo.

"Are you okay Sabine?" Mrs. Wren asks Sabine.

"Fine…as can be!" Sabine growls while zooming around a cluster of tall hives.

"Didn't sound okay!" Her father counters.

"I'm flying here Dad! I haven't flown a TIE outside of the Academy sims before, cut me some slack! _Karabast…_"

"You're doing fine Sabine. Rex just went to get in contact with Darcy's team. "

"Where are they?" Sabine asks. "I don't really know where I'm going!"

"Imperial Complex, wherever that is." Mr. Wren replies.

_YEAH!_

"I know where that is!" Sabine beams. "Can't miss it!"

"Kanan." I interrupt. "When you guys get here watch out for those assassins. They've got some sort of electrical projectile, plus gravity knives. One of them punched me in a way that I couldn't call my lightsaber to me."

"Dun Möch. A branch of it that was lost to history, except to House Renless."

Somebody groans in the background, which causes Sabine to smile. "Surprising, I know."

"Do you know it?" Kanan asks her.

"Kind of. You have to be so, so precise with it. I think it cuts something off related to using the Force. If you miss you're kind of screwed."

"So it's a last resort." Mrs. Wren adds.

"One of them surprised me from behind me. I didn't have a chance to respond." I explain.

"Ezra!" Kanan groans.

"There was about a thousand things going on at the exact same time that I had to keep track of! I forgot one tiny thing!"

"No harm, no foul." Ahsoka says.

"Guys." Sabine jumps in. "We're approaching Capital City."

_Seriously?!_

"Already?!" Kanan and Mr. Wren ask, sounding incredulous. "How fast are you going?!"

"I'm maxing this thing out! Only going to fly it once!" Sabine counters.

"We're going to be a little late then. Hold them off best you can Sabine. If you have to…you two are the primary objective to get out."

I cringe, then shake my head. "We'll get everybody out."

"Gotta go!" Sabine says, as the Imperial Complex appears on the horizon followed by the clicking of Sabine's comm.

"Are we good?" I ask Sabine.

"We're good. I'm starting to think they believe we died in that explosion. I really was expecting trouble." Sabine tells me, then slows slightly and avoids a communications tower. "Ahh…" She cringes, then shakes her right shoulder.

I glance down, and see red and coagulated blood between a cut in the black mesh of her armor.

_She didn't miss that knife._

"Sabine." I say matter of factly.

She's hurt.

"I'm fine. I pulled it out as soon as it went in. It'll get treated. No big deal."

"No it's not!" I counter. "You got stabbed Sabi—"

I'm silenced by Sabine raising her hand. "Tarkintown…"

_WHOA._

It's gone. Nothing is left but ash.

_They…burned it._

"They must have known we sympathized because of all those supplies…" I say numbly.

Sabine continues to slow down as the burnt, black and gray seems to stretch on and on. "Geez…"

_Because of us._

I knew Vader was here after us. I knew that the Empire would make the planet pay. That's why we didn't come back.

_Because of us._

Sabine pitches us up, then hits the gas again and we zoom closer to the Complex. "When we get close, I'm going to ditch this thing. Be ready to jump out."

"What about you?" I ask.

"Jetpack." Sabine smiles thru her helmet.

"Where are you going to ditch it?" I question her.

Sabine shrugs. "Haven't decided. Maybe a—WHOA! Look! Middle level!"

_Lightsabers._

Red lightsabers.

I rise into a crouch, and Sabine reaches off to the right.

"Don't worry about me Ezra. You know I've got tons of tricks up my sleeve. I'll get over there."

I nod, eyes scanning the surroundings.

_They hung three massive Imperial banners, complete with the Empire's logo along the Imperial Complex._

And it must be a Market Day. Tons of people are out in the streets.

_Looking up by the way most people's heads have turned._

"Gssshhhh…"

Light filters into the cockpit, and I look up to see the top hatch had released, but not slid back.

"Good luck." Sabine says as we continue to fly right at the pair of lightsabers.

"Please be safe." I ask her.

"Always, as a friend of mine once told me."

I can't help but laugh before the cockpit it bathed in light.

_Time to go._

Letting out a breath, I grab onto the top of the TIE while looking out the front.

_Almost…_

…

NOW!

I leap out of the cockpit, fly in the air for what feels like forever then land and hear gasps.

The Force suddenly surges with positive energy, and I look up and smile.

_Barriss and another Inquisitor._

"You got a new partner." I smirk, effortlessly activating my lightsaber into a Makashi guard, off to the side. "How's the training?"

Barriss' face guard retreats, revealing her face. "Rather poorly unfortunate—"

"BOOOOOMMMM!"

Behind Barriss, a fireball erupts with a lone figure escaping the scene via jetpack.

_Good._

Barriss and the other Inquisitor whip around to see the fireball as well as Stormtroopers advancing on the scene.

"Sorry your training isn't going well. Maybe I can end it early for you?" I offer Barriss, smirking.

"Pass." Barriss rolls her eyes.

"Okay. Then pick on somebody who can fight back." I say, then point back to where I feel Darcy, Lana, Mira, Katiey, Aidan and Brie.

They're tired.

"They've murdered the Prime Minister. They don't deserve a fair fight." The other Inquisitor barks out in a rough voice.

_Murdered?_

"Sounds like a misunderstanding to me." I counter.

"SHUT UP!" The Inquisitor yells, then leaps out at me. Smoothly. I meet him at his apex, plant my foot in his chest and send him to the ground heavily.

On the way down, I see that the lone figure is making short work of the battalion of Stormtroopers, with many on the ground already.

I land, pivot then engage Barriss. First by flashing a cut out at her right side. Barriss blocks it but gives me enough room to duck under both of her arms and slam the metal armor on the side of my arm into Barriss' face guard which has reactivated apparently.

Barriss stumbles back, and a frantic yell followed by a "THUD!" reveals Sabine skidding into the picture.

"Renless!" She gasps, just before Barriss moves to bisect her.

Sabine rolls away, and I cover her by sliding over and locking Barriss up. Behind me, Darcy and the others begin firing on what I'm assuming is Renless and her assassins.

_I don't know, but seems like a safe guess._

Barriss slices up at me, and I block it before ducking down to avoid another one of those damn pulses.

"What the fuck was THAT?!" I hear Katiey yell.

A yell answers her before Barriss straightens up, locking me up.

_She's trying something._

I see a flash out of the corner of my eyes and I jump just high enough to completely horizontal, barely missing the acrobatic assassin's targeted blows.

_I don't have the time to deal with those two, plus Barriss and her friend._

Without another thought, I grab both assassins, one of which is engaged with Sabine and lift them. Sabine clocks her foe with a right hook, then I throw the two of them together and leave them slumped on the wall.

"OOH!" I hear Darcy cringe, then see Sabine lunge for something.

_The baton!_

I slip away from Barriss and dodge the Inquisitor's blow where I had been standing.

"No! Don't!" I yell at Sabine. "I've got this!"

She's going to try and help me.

Sabine ignores me and leaps at the other Inquisitor. Barriss cuts at my shoulder, leaving me an opening to get away, then spot all the girls in fierce combat with Renless.

_Six on one._

"GSSSHHH!"

I look over and see Sabine and the Inquisitor in a blade lock.

"You don't like that…DO YOU?" Barriss taunts me, slicing at my ankles. I leap away, but go no farther.

_I don't like her chances against that Inquisitor. She'll get butchered by Barriss._

I'll got to keep her away from Sabine and go help when I can.

"What I like doesn't matter right now!" I snap at Barriss, cutting at her left arm before riposting her block into a slice at her head which misses entirely.

_I've got to play the game._

Barriss takes one too many steps in retreat, allowing me to push the Inquisitor away from Sabine. Sabine answers by firing a missile into a group of advancing Stormtroopers.

"Hey! Help!" Sabine tells the girls.

"A little busy!" Lana counters Sabine behind me.

I jump out to where Barriss is before she can advance on Sabine and distract her with a blow towards her waist which she blocks. She counters by skipping her blade on mine, then stabbing at my neck. Frantically, I move out of the way and scramble away then look up.

And smile.

"BOOOMMM!"

Two green bolts and another explosion announce the arrival of the _Ghost_.

_Reinforcements have arrived. But they're going to have to turn around so we can all get on._

I smile, find the Inquisitor and push him away from Sabine again.

Time. We need time.

Barriss complies by slashing out at me. I block it, spin away then fire off a blaster shot at her. She deflects it as the _Ghost_ is turning around behind her.

An unfamiliar grunt forces me to turn and see Sabine on the follow through, with the Inquisitor falling back and his helmet falling off.

_I don't think she can kill him with that thing._

But she got a big blow.

Barriss straightens up and turns back in time to see the bay doors open, revealing Kanan, Rex, Echo and Mrs. Wren.

Kanan leaps out onto our platform while Mrs. Wren flies over to assist the girls, revealing Sophie in the background of the bay, holding onto something.

"Good work Sabine." Kanan smiles, then activating his own lightsaber. "I'll take it from here."

Sabine darts towards the girls as Barriss and the Inquisitor close ranks. The Inquisitor activates the other end of his lightsaber without a word.

"It's your fight Ezra. Call it." Kanan tells me, moving to stand beside me.

"I've got your back." I tell him. "I'll take Barriss."

"Fair enough." He replies, then jumps out at the Inquisitor and slashes down violently. Barriss moves to assist him, but I kick out at her and force her to change course.

Small arms fire tells me that off to my right, Rex and Echo are stalling the Stormtroopers.

_We can't stay here forever though._

Without glancing back towards Kanan, I swipe out at Barriss high. She jumps, and I counter by spinning into a vertical blow meant to cleave her in half. She locks me up, but can't stop her feet from sliding back.

Towards the edge of the building.

"Here!" I hear Kanan yell. Kanan ducks, causing the Inquisitor to stumble blindly towards me. Kanan takes my place with Barriss, allowing me to bat the Inquisitor's panicked blow away and spin him towards the edge.

I feel mesh beneath my feet as the Inquisitor attempts to get his lightsaber up in time to block a slash, but I beat him by instead stabbing at him, hitting him directly in the chest.

Multiple yells ring out as I feel my lightsaber go into, then through the Inquisitor. Then I kick him off the building, just like I did Shark Bait.

_He's not coming back._

The crowd below lets out a collective, massive scream of approval, causing my heart to leap and I can't stop a smile.

My people.

_Rooting for me._

On a whim, I look down, see that I'm standing on one of the Imperial banners. I cut it right in front of my feet, sending it right off the edge to join the Inquisitor and impulsively salute the crowd.

I turn back and see Kanan defending against Barriss, along with Rex, Sabine and Ahsoka all looking at me.

"Come on!" Rex yells as Ahsoka is waving to me to come to her. I obey, run and leap onto the bay ramp, allowing Mrs. Wren, Sabine, Rex and Echo to all grab me and throw me on board.

Behind me, the girls are all huddled around a small figure as Kanan spins Barriss around, then jumps onto the ramp himself. Barriss starts to get a running start towards the _Ghost_ but Ahsoka releases a Force Push which hits her and puts her on her back.

_Whoa._

Kanan and I both stand beside Ahsoka as the bay door closes.

That was big.

_Monumental._

The entire ship rocks as we zoom away from the Imperial Complex, which gets my brain going again.

We aren't out of this yet.

Kanan and Ahsoka lead me next to the holo, then I break off and dart down into my gun turret.

"Anything?" Sophie asks her sister.

Sabine shakes her head as I land. "No. It can't possibly be that easy…"

Sophie turns, sees me and launches herself into a huge hug. "EZRA!"

I hug her back and crouch behind Sabine. "Let me in."

"No. I'm the Phantom pilot. I outrank you when it comes to the guns."

"It's my gun!" I argue.

"No it's not!" Sabine replies hotly as we continue to zoom toward space.

Out of nowhere, we hit hyperspace.

_No way._

We're out of there.

Sabine spins back to me, ecstatic look on her face before she tackles me into a hug. "You did it!"

I laugh ,then hug her as Sophie jumps between us and hugs us both. "You helped. Even though you didn't listen to me!"

Sabine laughs, then smiles again. "I told you, I can use a blade alright!"

"Not in combat! You scared the crap out of me!"

Sophie makes an ecstatic noise and squeezes us both, causing us to smile at each other before hugging Sof.

"Thanks Sof." Sabine tells her sister softly.

"EZRA! Get up here!" I hear Darcy call out to me.

I let go of both girls, then hop up the ladder. Only to get tackled into more hugs.

"ThankyouThankyouThankyou…" Katiey mumbles.

"We should have been dead." Lana says.

Brie adds "I thought we were."

"We should have been." Darcy says, then lets me go to see her beaming at me.

_The same smile she had when I was dating her._

"Eh. I'm not so sure. Ezra finally put it all together." Ahsoka says behind all the girls.

I slip out of all their grip, then eye Ahsok as Sabine and Sof climb the ladder. "Really?"

Ahsoka and Kanan both nod. "When we got there, you were playing everything perfectly. And you kept doing that." Kanan tells me.

"Otherwise you don't have the chance to dispatch that Inquisitor." Ahsoka adds. "You deserve a lot of credit Ezra."

Quickly, Hera rushes out of the cockpit and finds me.

_And smiles proudly._

I did it.


	93. Talk Me Down

Sophie hovers near Sabine's injured shoulder as Ahsoka frowns at the holo and Kanan avoids my eyes.

"I don't know any other explanation. Something is wrong." I say once again.

The room continues to not meet my eye.

"C'mon, get back to me." Ahsoka mutters quietly.

Darcy finally speaks up for the first time in hours, sitting in the corner with Aiden and the others. "I don't think we should rush to conclusions."

The holo suddenly changed screens, and Aurebesh is thrown everywhere. "Okay…" Ahsoka says to herself, then her eyes start scanning at top speed.

"We're really not rushing to conclusions." Sabine replies to Darcy. "She knew where the place was. She mentioned the mercenaries. Mentioned Renless, which there's _no way_ she should have known about."

I glance over to where Sabine's parents are sitting on crates, with her father inspecting the crystal from Sabine's backpack and her mother listening to our conversation.

"What did you girls think of her?" Echo asks Darcy, Brie, Lana, Aidan, Mira and Katiey.

"She was good." Mrs. Wren leans forward and says firmly. "Very talented, very skilled."

"Those other two assassins looked formidable too, until Ezra knocked their heads together." Lana shrugged, causing Sof to shrink slightly closer to Sabine.

Sabine pulled Sof closer, tightening the bandage covering where Renless stabbed her and causing her to cringe to pain.

"Ezra said that they had some high tech stuff. Pulses, gravity knives, that kind of stuff." Kanan tells the girls.

"Yeah." Katiey scoffs. "We saw that. Looked pretty wicked."

"Packs a punch." I add simply.

"Did you two complete your mission? Or did you get compromised beforehand?" Ahsoka asks, before turning to Zeb behind her. "Zeb, how far out are we?"

"Couple of minutes." Zeb answers.

"Tell Hera that we're not going to wait around. Ezra's mom is in detention talking to our guest and Prime."

Kanan turns to Ahsoka in surprise. "They let him in?"

"Didn't have a choice. Apparently as soon as he heard we got into some trouble, he went down to where she is being held and didn't leave."

Sabine sighs quietly as Kanan looks surprised.

"Answering your question, yeah we got him. They'll need a new PM soon enough." Darcy tells Ahsoka calmly.

_Him?_

"Him? The Prime Minister of Lothal isn't a guy. It's a woman. Minister Tua." Sabine tells Darcy. "What do you mean got him?"

"Poisoned him. He's no more." Brie says matter of factly. "We monitored him, saw what he drinks and how he drinks it. From there it wasn't hard. They freaked out when it worked so fast."

"I can't say much for the security he had." Lana says. I can't help but shooting a frown her way.

_Watch how you talk about that._

"Ezra. Tua's been dead. Remember…back on Denon? At that dinner where I told you about Vader?" Darcy says to me. I nod, before she continues. "Vader…disposed of her. It wasn't made public, but she was held personally responsible for the actions of the Lothal cell."

"That was us, mind you." Kanan cuts across her.

_Us._

Tarkintown, the Southerners, Tua. And I'm sure they're paying in ways I don't know about yet.

"Why'd you assassinate him? That's not what we do." Sabine says, sounding angry. "We don't go around just killing politicians."

"That was our mission." Darcy answers.

"I don't like it." Sabine snaps back.

"Tough shit. We were fine, got the intel we wanted until we got wind of those Inquisitors. Then minutes later we were running for our lives." Katiey bites at her.

Ahsoka's eyes pop up, blazing. "HEY! We've got a kid here. Watch your language."

Katiey raised her hands in apology before Kanan says "I think we should change subjects. The topic isn't appropriate either."

"Fine. But I'm comfortable discussing it with Sophie here. We've told her sometimes we have to do bad things."

"But always for a good reason." Sophie pipes up quietly.

_She's defending them. Huh._

Both of her parents look up and eye their daughter briefly as she slinks back to Sabine protectively.

"You said we'd be there soon?" Rex asks Zeb.

Zeb nods, as Chop pops out of the cockpit straight to Sophie, who smiles and puts her hand on his dome.

The ship rocks, then steadily starts slowing down.

_We're here._

"You need to go to the medical wing." Kanan turns to Sabine.

Sabine shakes her head. "I'm fine Kanan. It's not that deep."

"Could be a slow acting poison." Echo says, looking at the same screen as Ahsoka.

Sabine lets out an annoyed groan. "I think we'd know that by now. And she wanted to recruit Ezra and I. Not kill us."

"Who is this guest?" Darcy asks Ahsoka. The girls behind her all share her expression of curious confusion.

Ahsoka let out a breath, looked to Kanan, then me before speaking. "An old Jedi Master. He came just before you all departed for Lothal."

"Old Jedi?" Brie turned to Darcy, who is still looking at Ahsoka intently.

_I know they know there aren't all that many candidates._

They weren't as mindless as most imperials.

"Master Obi-Wan Kenobi, Master Yoda, Master Uvell, Padawan Jax Pavan, Padawan Caleb Dume, Padawan Ahsoka Tano and Padawan Ferus Olin. That's all the known survivors." Aidan said to Darcy, but loud enough for everyone to hear.

"How do you know _that_?" Kanan snapped, suddenly looking furious.

"Yeah. I'm very curious in this answer." Rex said, crossing his arms.

"Clunk."

_At the air lock._

"I researched it best I could back when we were with the Empire." Darcy admitted, looking put off by everyone's reaction.

"Why?" Sabine bluntly asked.

Lana and Katiey turned to frown at Sabine "Why not? The Empire is always on the lookout for Jedi. Why not do our homework in case we bump into one?"

"Ever wondered why Ezra's abilities make sense to us?" Darcy adds, looking frustrated. "His speed is amazing, but not what he does."

The cockpit door opens to Lux and Hera talking to each other, then seeing us and stopping. "What's going on here?" Lux asks innocently.

Sabine stands up and starts toward the loading bay, practically dragging Sophie with her. Kanan, Rex, Echo and her parents follow behind just slightly leaving Ahsoka, the girls, Hera, Lux and I in their wake.

"What did we miss?" Hera asks Ahsoka.

"Sabine didn't like the real details of the girls mission to Capital City." Ahsoka says, sounding mildly upset.

"Really?" Lux asks, looking surprised. "You'd have thought given her background—"

"It was more how you do things, not that we did it." Katiey shrugged.

Hera eyed the girls for a minute. "You don't sound too upset about this."

Darcy looked down. "Well, we don't answer to her. Our mission was completed. That's all I care about. If she's mad, she can be mad."

_I've had enough of this._

I silently get to my feet, pausing briefly to pull my lightsaber from where Kanan had it over Darcy and Brie's heads and into my hand firmly, then clip it to my belt.

After a few steps, it is clear that everyone is following my lead and walking off the ship.

"Are you mad?" Darcy quietly asks, sidling beside me. "That I do care about."

I smile. "I know. And no, I'm not mad. Not much different than Oba Diah."

"Yeah." Darcy laughed. "Slip in, assassinate, get out. It's a little harder on this end of it though."

"What do you think of the mission? I guess that's the most important question." I ask her as we step out of the airlock into Safe Zone.

Darcy let out a sigh. "I don't know if you've kept up with your Senator, but the PM was pretty much the same. Embezzling money, sleeping with prostitutes off the streets while the planet degraded around him. Things aren't going great there. That crowd was there wanting his resignation, and got his death. Then all that chaos."

"Resignation?" I ask, surprised.

Darcy nods. "You know how the Empire restricts information. It wasn't working. We were all shocked how much of the truth was common knowledge. They knew who you were."

_WHAT?_

I turn and look at her, momentarily speechless. Darcy simply smiles. "There was talk about you on some underground transmissions. About you being a Jedi, part of a larger rebellion. I think the crowd realized it was you up there, and thought it was planned."

"It wasn't." I say quietly. "They're thinking the wrong thought process."

_That line of thinking is dangerous._

"I know." Darcy says. "But they have hope. I didn't have the heart to tell them any different."

"How deep did you go?" I ask her.

Darcy smirked, then rolled her eyes. "As deep as I needed to in order to complete the mission. And maybe a little more when I heard your name."

I smile, then look up and see soldiers lining the hall. A probe tells me that they're all on edge, especially the ones near a door at the very end.

_This place has become a lot more militaristic. And if…_

If Mom is a mole for something, then we're all in danger.

Darcy and I walk down the hall, soldiers on either side of us. I grab the door for Darcy, then slip in beside her.

"Click…"

I look up to see Prime leaning on the far wall in full armor with a dark expression, while Master Kenobi seems to be sizing her up.

_Everyone else, minus Sabine and her family are in that other room. _

Watching.

"Ezra, you look like you just fought a fire." Mom says immediately, looking at me. I briefly glance in the lone mirror next to the hidden window and see that I've got a mark from that pipe I walked into near my cheekbone, smoke and dust coating my face and my jacket's beat up.

"Well, it's been a long day. Haven't had a chance to sit down." I tell her, then bite my lip.

_Not totally true. I sat down on the Ghost, but I didn't think about how I look._

"Master Kenobi here says you've been on a mission. Did you just get back?"

"No." Prime interrupts. "He just came from a tropical archipelago. He actually was fighting a fire."

_He's grumpy._

"Mrs. Bridger, like last time, you're deflecting. As I've told you, there are many here that would simply prefer to discard you without another thought." Master Kenobi changes the subject coolly. "You would help your cause immensely if you would answer just a few questions."

"Like?" Mom asks.

"How'd you know where that factory was?" I ask right back. "You knew right where it was."

"Honey, that was information I've had since I lived on Lothal. Like I told you, your father and I knew that facility existed, but had no way to go do anything about it."

"You and your husband weren't fighters anyway Ma'am." Prime rolls his eyes bitterly.

I ignore Prime, then say "You knew a little too well."

"It's set off a few alarm bells." Kenobi backs me up. "And rightfully so. Somebody that hasn't been on a planet for over ten years should not have that good of information."

"Master Kenobi, I know that planet like the back of my hand. It was my home all of my life before I was taken. I hope to go back one day."

"I don't think you'd like it right now. A little too rowdy for you." Darcy says caustically. Master Kenobi's eyebrows arch in surprise and he turns, takes in Darcy, then looks back to Mom.

The door opens behind us, revealing Sabine with her shoulder rebandaged, but otherwise looking fine.

"You took her with you? And didn't protect her? Ezra." Mom says in disapproval.

"It's not his fault." Sabine counters right away before looking to Master Kenobi. "The holo you requested made it. It's ready whenever you are sir."

Master Kenobi smiles. "Wonderful. Thank you Sabine. Now we can show Mrs. Bridger what happened down on Lothal."

"What do you mean 'What happened down on Lothal'? Ezra, what happened?" Mom demands me.

I turn away from her in frustration. "Roll it."

_She's deflecting and not giving anything up._

Master Kenobi's hands don't move, but the holo comes to life, revealing a news broadcast and the sight of the massive crowd outside of the Imperial Complex.

"Ladies and Gentleman, we take you now to the Imperial Complex on Lothal, where a spontaneous and unpermitted demonstration again Minister Ayrn Vuplgrif has exploded into violence." A female voice said as the shot zooms closer to the complex itself, shifting away from the crowd.

"Yes Betia, like you said the demonstrations were due to be resolved, but then the shocking and horrifying news. A small group of assassins have apparently murdered Minister Vuplgrif in cold blood. We take you now to the pursuit of these criminals, now in progress."

_They showed this live? _

Maybe to demonstrate the power of the Inquisitors to the Rebellion. But that didn't happen.

"The crowd doesn't seem to know what to do. The outrage on the ground has morphed into unbelievable grief at the news of the assassination. Lothal is a primitive farming world, doing its humble part in the Empire but now it's a flashpoint Braya."

I glance away from the screen to see that the one way mirror has disappeared and everyone is watching, in addition to Mom, Prime, Sabine and Master Kenobi.

The lens continues zooming in before finding Darcy busting out a window and scrambling out of it.

"By the looks of it, they're being chased by security personnel to the edge of the building, where they will either jump or be forced to surrender."

"Or die." Darcy adds helpfully, causing Mom to glance at her.

Brie barely gets out of the window before the window and the entire surrounding wall is blown apart, sending Katiey tumbling before she gets to her feet and starts to run for it.

Mom's head tilts in surprise as the Inquisitors, Barriss and the other one march out, one lightsaber blade out each.

Noises of astonishment come from the studio. "Braya, are you seeing what I'm seeing this?"

"It appears that a group of Jedi…are in pursuit?" The male voice, Braya says sounding very uncertain.

"Do Jedi have the red blades? I think they're mystics, the ones rumored to be gathering in the Outer Rim."

"I don't know Betia!" Braya snaps in annoyance as Darcy, Brie and Lana are doing everything they can to keep the Inquisitors back, firing off well placed shots and grenades.

But it's not causing them to break step.

_How long did this go on._

"Braya!" The woman exclaims, just before a blur jostles the camera.

"What?"

The camera steadies itself in time for a lone figure to fall seemingly from the sky, land with a flourish and activate a blue lightsaber.

"Nice landing." Prime jokes, getting Master Kenobi to smile.

"A TIE Fighter! Stolen from the South!" Betia says quickly as talk to Barriss and

"BOOOOOMMMM!"

The massive explosion rings our, causing more chaos in the studio and the camera to turn and show that Sabine drove the TIE right into the loading bays of the Imperial Complex.

_Huh. I guess that worked._

"What did you do Ezra?" Mom turns back and demands while raising her voice.

I ignore her as I begin fighting Barriss. The room falls silent as I kick the unknown Inquisitor to the ground before Sabine skids to the ground, mere feet away.

Prime perks up, moving to stand up straight as Renless comes into view and immediately being fired upon by Sabine, Darcy and the girls.

"You might know her. A 'Fate Worse Than Death', some would say." Sabine tells Mom as the fighting continues. I block Barriss, then slam the two assassins with Renless together.

Mom lets out a little scream and covers her mouth, while Kenobi looks slightly repulsed. His expression quickly changes into one of surprise as Sabine snatches up the baton and goes right at the other Inquisitor. "Well that's something."

"Ladies and gentlemen, we're currently working to get confirmation on the allegiances of these unknown figures." Braya says reassuringly to the audience.

Barriss and I keep fighting, as Sabine as bashing blades with the other Inquisitor. Finally, after what feels like too many exchanges I finally counter Barriss with the slash at her head that missed badly.

_The Ghost should be here now._

Two red bolts send everyone scattering and sending Stormtroopers flying. Then an Imperial frigate backs up, and Kanan hops off.

_This isn't what happened. The Ghost got us. Not this frigate._

Numbly, I turn to Sabine, who has a look of disbelief.

"It was my understanding that your friends got you?" Master Kenobi needles me while turning back to look at Sabine and I.

"This isn't right. They're done something." I answer, then glance at Darcy.

Who looks worried.

"Thoughts Miss Ridley?" Master Kenobi turns to Darcy. Darcy jumps, then looks taken aback and hurriedly clears her throat.

"Uhm, in my experience, which could always be wrong—"

"I understand the caveat and appreciate it. But I'd also like the point." Master Kenobi gently pushes her along.

Darcy swallows a lump in her throat. "They've done this in order to capture criminals in the past. This is a familiar tactic to give them security that the Empire doesn't know exactly who they are. To me, this says that they know exactly what the _Ghost_ looks like."

The footage continues with Mrs. Wren beating back Renless, then jumping back to the frigate. On the left on the screen Kanan ducks.

"NOOO!" Mom screams, then makes a move to move from her chair, then is violently stopped by her chains. I jump out of my skin and spin to her looking horrified.

"Oh what now?" Prime bites at her.

Mom ignores Prime. "Ezra! You…murdered him."

"No I didn't." I dismiss her..

"Yes, you _did_. My son. That's murder. You're a murderer."

"Mrs. Bridger, it's either kill or be killed. That's…not somebody that is on our side." Sabine says, clearly editing on the fly.

_It's a Sith. An Inquisitor._

"You don't think I know that. Do you know what a Pau'an is? I had one of those guys torture me because they figured out Ezra was my son!"

"How long ago was that?" Master Kenobi asked Mom calmly.

"I don't know. I heard something about you using Jabba the Hutt as an alias. Which is really stupid. Really."

Darcy leaned forward. "You're awfully well informed."

"How did you know about Renless?" Sabine demands.

Mom quickly looks lost. "Who?"

Sabine marched forward and SLAMMED her hands into the table with a loud "BANG!"

"Enough of the_ jehaatir_! Talk! _Duumasa gaa'tayl duraani_!" (A/N: Lies; Allow us to help you, contemptable scum!)

Prime effortlessly translated. "Cut the fodder, allow us to help everyone you scum."

"I'm not scum!" Mom looks at Sabine, insulted. "I'm telling you everything I know! The Fate Worse Than Death thing was a threat by one of the Moff's way back when! Is that what all this is about?"

_That's not true._

I turn away from Mom and shake my head in frustration.

_She isn't budging._

"You clearly aren't believing me." Mom states the obvious.

"You nearly got three people in this room killed today Mom! How am I supposed to believe you?"

Mom counters immediately. "I…My son, I'm not sure you're on the right side. You murdered that Inquisitor. This…Rebellion or whatever it is is making you into something you don't want to be."

Silence fills the room as I feel fury come thru the wall.

"I've heard enough of this_ gett_." Prime fumes, then walks out. (A/N: Nut)

Master Kenobi gently turns and follows Prime out. Sabine and Darcy take the hint and walk out, closing the door with a "Click."

Leaving Mom simply looking at me.

…

"I…I am proud of you my son. I know it's not what you want to hear. You're doing what you think is best."

"The Empire is bad Mom. You…They're destroying Lothal. I saw it. They burned Tarkintown to the ground. The people are suffering. When I got that Inquisitor, _they cheered_." I tell her firmly, trying to leave no wiggle room.

"Desperate people can latch on to delusions Ezra. I know that. I spent years hoping for a rescue." Mom counters.

"You don't think I know that Mom?" I fire back. "All the time I was alone, hoping you guys would be home the next day?"

Mom break eye contact with me. "You remind me of your father so much. Stubborn to a fault sometimes when he really believed in something. But you're…you're a powerful Jedi. That looked like a great fight."

_She's never see me fight before._

"Thanks." I smile.

Mom is silent for a brief moment. "But your father wasn't perfect Ezra. I ended up being right."

My temper spikes, and I grit my teeth.

_Always have to get the right word don't ya?_

I grab the metal table in front on Mom, spin on my heels, rip it out of the floor, activate my lightsaber and slice the table in half while levitating it. Mom freaks out but I ignore her as I crush the two halves of the table into each other, then throw it as hard as I can into the wall behind her.

"WHAM—CLANGGGGG!"

…

"GGGGgggg…"

"Yeah. I am strong. And a Jedi. Unlike either of you." I spit at Mom, then walk thru the door and close it quietly behind me. Two steps out of the room I shut off my lightsaber before the door to my right pop open.

Sophie immediately tackles me into a hug. "She's mean Ezra. Don't listen to her."

I bend down, hug her back then scoop her up as Kanan pops out.

"Sorry about the table." I say.

_That was probably overdoing it._

Kanan shrugs. "Maybe that's what will get her to crack. A show of force." Behind him, the Wren's slip out, followed by Master Kenobi, Rex, Echo, Kal, Orir, Will, Ahsoka, Hera, Lux and Zeb.

"You need to get some food inside you, then rest. Senator Organa is gathering everyone to come tomorrow for a meeting. She thinks all this needs to be addressed immediately." Ahsoka said.

Rex adds "She'd like to have to meet her in her hanger when she lands."

I nod. "Will do." Then glance at Master Kenobi.

He smirks, nods then says "Get off your feet. Rest is as important as training."

The Wren's glance at Master Kenobi, then smile at Sophie.

_I'll go eat then._


	94. To The Victor Goes The Spoiled

_(Flashback)_

Leaning on the wall, I wait for Sabine to come back with her caf while sipping on a caf of my own. In front of my eyes, the amount of people keeps increasing.

_This meeting is bigger than I thought. How many people are invited?_

We're gonna use more than half the hangers here for once.

Sabine pops out, glances around in surprise then looks at me. "When did all these people come from?"

"I don't know." I answer with a shrug.

Sabine casts her eyes around again. "Seems a little excessive."

"Maybe the leadership is bringing more people into the fold?" I throw out, seeing if it'll stick.

Sabine eyes me before replying "Must be." before starting down the hall leaving me to catch up.

"Leia was coming before we went to Lothal right?"

"Yeah." I nod. "She mentioned it to me right after we got rescued on the Star Destroyer."

Sabine lights up. "Oh yeah, they weren't happy about that. Was she mad at you?"

"No, she was more annoyed that I didn't comm her like she asked me to before they came so she could clear them."

"So it was a misunderstanding." Sabine deciphers.

"Yeah." I explain while rolling up my jacket sleeve and readjusting Sof's bracelet, preventing it from cutting into me.

Sabine gently smiles at me as I bite the end string so I can retie it. "I can't believe you're still wearing that.

"It's a gift, why wouldn't I wear it?"

Sabine rolls her eyes. "She really likes that you still wear it. Mom, Dad and I all stopped wearing ours right after.

"Well I like it." I say simply.

The door directly in front of us open up, revealing a mass of people entering thru an airlock. Sabine and I keep walking but make room for the new arrivals.

_This place is really confusing initially._ _So many levels and subsections._

Once we have the hallway somewhat to ourselves I speak up. "They were afraid that I was building a power base."

"A power base?" Sabine turned to me, looking almost insulted. "For what, so you can break away or something?"

"I don't know." I answer. "I told her that's not going to happen, but I don't know if they bought it. If I have a chance I want to ask her about that."

Sabine nodded, then leaned on the doorway in front of us that leads towards the lifts and the conference room everybody will be meeting in later on. "Good luck with that. See you later."

"Later." I smile, wave then turn back and start towards the hanger.

_(End flashback)_

"The shuttle just requested clearance to land sir." A soldier hustles to me, then says raptly.

I smile, then nod at him. "Thank you."

The soldier acknowledged me, then quickly left the hanger, leaving me and the minimum security detail that every incoming hanger has when a ship comes in.

_I know we're going to talk about yesterday._

It's crazy that I was home yesterday. Hearing all those people cheer for me after I dispatched that Inquisitor was _yesterday._

Leia's probably not going to like how Mom basically tipped me off about House Renless trying to stop us at that Crystal Manufacturing Plant. She might know that, but I don't know.

In front of me, a shuttle with a cone shaped cockpit slowly flies into the hanger.

_It's clearly unarmed. It practically screams diplomatic shuttle._

Maybe they should have painted it blue or orange or something to really get the point across.

"CRASHHHhhh….GSSSHHHH…"

The standard white pressurized smoke and air mix comes out of the landing gear just before the bay ramp lowers, and three figures begin to walk down. Hastily, I step forward and see that Leia is flanked by two guards in head to toe blue, metallic armor complete with lances.

"Senator." I bow my head. "I hope your trip was uneventful."

Leia silently lifts my chin up, taking me out of my bow, then dismisses her guards. "It was. It's good to see you." She beams before hugging me softly.

I hug her back, very aware of her body then let go and smile like an idiot.

"Are you okay? You…You were just fighting them. The…Inquisitors I think Ahsoka called them."

_Oh yeah, she's never seen them._

I nod. "Yeah. They're not bad. Not nearly as bad as Vader." I say, relating it to somebody she knows.

"Good. Fighting multiple guys like that would probably be too much for you, or anyone for that matter." Leia says, then points for us to start towards the meeting.

We both walk in silence for a moment, before Leia takes the lead. "Has your mother said anything more? I heard your meeting with her went badly."

"She won't let us help her." I say bluntly. "She knew that Sabine's bounty hunters were there. And that's bad."

Leia covered her mouth, then removed her hand to reveal her biting her lip. "She can't talk to anyone. She has no way of communication."

"I know. Which scares me."

"It sounds like she did discover some things because she was your mother."

I shrug. "I just don't know. She's…so different than how I remember her, which sounds stupid—"

"No it doesn't." Leia says soothingly. "You've gone from her child to an adult. And I don't think either of you really know how to take that."

"I barely know how to talk to her." I sigh. "It's…frustrating."

Leia looks sadly up at me, then puts her hand on my shoulder. "if you want…we can get her moved as soon as tomorrow. The Dantooine cell is ready to take her whenever you're ready."

"Dantooine?" I ask.

_Never heard of it._

Leia shrugged. "It's a lot like Dxun. Nobody ever thinks of it."

Ahh.

"You can take her tomorrow. I'll talk to her tonight, try to get her to talk knowing she's leaving."

"Be sure to tell her goodbye. You don't know when you'll see her again."

_Yeah._

I let the conversation lapse into silence until Leia speaks up again. "I've got news on the Death Star. But you have to keep it quiet."

"Really? Did you get something out of all that digging you were doing?"

Leia smirks and hands me a datapad. "Sort of. We have found a Imperial Defector that's working on the Death Star right now."

"WHAT?!" I whip around in shock.

"He has a major moral question about the capabilities of the Death Star, Isn't sure man should have the ability to apparently destroy an entire planet. To be honest, we've been able to level a planet for a millennia. Look at Taris."

"What'd he say?" I ask, changing the topic slightly.

Leia visibly refocuses. "He said that it's two years away from completion right now. Most of the issues are in the massive laser superweapon due to a key scientist being lost on the project recently."

I can't help but roll my eyes. "Lost."

"Yeah." Leia smiles. "Another reason to move your Mom. She is that scientist. Neither of us are dumb enough to think otherwise. Mon Mothma is probably going to head up this mission, looking for the people to be in it—"

"I want in." I cut across her.

"I knew you'd say that." Leia sighed. "We'll see. She's already got a potential lead for the mission. Open that datapad and tap "Rogue One".

_Nice name._

I tap "Rogue One", and a personnel file opens up.

Jyn Erso.

5'4-5'6; Weight Unknown

Gifted, the daughter of Ailyn Erso

Mother died at 16; Jyn has been on her own ever since.

…

_There's a lot of redacted information on here._

"Why all the redaction?" I ask Leia, still looking at the dossier.

"Nobody can have all the information in case it gets lost." Leia explains.

_Fine._

Erso is extremely resilient, yet although aged now 25, is still defiant and does not trust figures of authority above her.

Cannot hold any meaningful job, leaving her to bounce around and rely on seasonal work to maintain and survive.

Good at infiltration, hand to hand combat and lying.

_Huh._

Now that's a bio.

"Remind you of anyone?" Leia smiles at me when I look away from the datapad then takes it from me.

I laugh, then smile. "Yeah. Me."

"Me too. As I said, it's extremely early in the process. So she may not even be chosen. But I thought you'd like to be in the loop."

"Thanks." I say. "Please…you're going to need me for that mission."

If that thing is everything it's being made out to be, you may need me, Ahsoka, Kanan and Master Kenobi.

Leia nods, looking tired as we slip thru a door that leads out past the curtain and out to the stage in the conference room. "I'm afraid of that. We're thinking of taking an idea off your mom and hiring bounty hunters as hired guns for this mission. We won't tell them what we're doing, but for the firepower."

"Makes sense. You're going to need all the firepower you can get."

Leia nods, then smiles up at me brightly. "You're going to like what I'm going to talk about. Can you stand up on stage with me? Off to the side?"

"Sure." I tell her. "What are you going to say?"

Leia takes a large step to be directly in front of me, then smiles back as she steps out onto the stage. "You'll see."

The Force heaves as the room sees her and the mood of the room shifts. I step out just behind Leia and see that the room is PACKED. Almost completely full, faces everywhere. Soldiers lining the walls.

I look around ,trying to spot Sabine and everyone and instead see Master Kenobi blending in in the back. Finally I—

—

—

I blink, mind completely blank as I try to process what I'm seeing.

The Force heaves and—

"Click Click Click."

I feel multiple blasters get pointed at me, then see that it's actually ten blasters. Many of them security soldiers, but Will, Kal and Echo are also pointing blasters at me. Numbly, I look back to where I saw everyone.

And look back into my own face.

_Hold on. That's impossible. I'm here. I was with Leia._

How is Sof…on my back?

Then it hits me.

_That's not me._

I hear Leia's voice as I frantically reach out with the Force and feel it tightly compact and cold.

"Whoa…What are you doing? Why are you pointing your blasters at Ezra?" Leia asks quickly, moving in front of me to protect me.

Behind her, Sabine's parents are looking at me, lost while Kanan is looking from me…back to me beside him, with Sof on my back.

Out of nowhere, an explosion rings out with a loud "BOOM!"

"POP POP POP!"

Screams erupt, the room scatters and—

"WHAM!"

I'm tackles off my feet, barely getting a glimpse of fire before being slammed into the wall. My body crunches, I fall down, then see—

"WHAM!" "WHAM!"

Pain erupts in my skull as Sabine rears back for another punch. "WHO ARE YOU?!"

"I—" I start, before Sabine rears back again.

"WHAM!"

"ANSWER ME!" She screams, before I hears a metallic sound and see her extend her leg.

_What the_—

"AHHH!" A sharp burst of pain erupts in my thigh, and I can't hold back a yell of pain.

She stabbed me.

In a flash, Sabine's got a knife, and I quickly try to try and disarm her.

"No no—" I say quickly and extend my arms and try to stop her from—

"AHHH!"

I grit my teeth as Sabine violently yanks the knife out of the middle of my back then leans back and flicks her wrist.

_The jagged blade._

"Sabine!" I yell at her, before instinctively upper cutting her and knocking her helmet off.

Sabine looks down at me, fire in her eyes before she sucker punches me and the world briefly changes color. Finally, she firmly presses the blade on the right side of my face, between my eye and my ear causing more pain.

"Ahhh…" I gasp out, as Sabine glares at me, still looking absolutely mad.

"Who…are…_youuu…_" Sabine growls out, pressing the blade into my head more. "I'd hate to mess up that pretty face."

"Sab—" I open my mouth, but Sabine simply grabs the front of my hair , lifts my head then slams me back down.

"OWWW!" I yell in pain.

"TELL ME!" Sabine yells at me.

_I need a way to show her that it's me!_

"It's me! Ezra!" I barely get out, head throbbing and my stab wounds on my leg and back absolutely _killing_ me.

Sabine somehow looks even madder than before. "No…you're not." before pressing the blade back into my head. Before long, I feel it cut into me and blood start pouring out.

"Sabine!" I yell frantically in a panic.

_The wristband._

I yank down the sleeve of my jacket and show her my wristband. The one we were just talking about not even an hour ago.

Sabine stops, then slowly takes her blade off my head as her face starts going white. "No way…"

Immediately I take a deep breath as my head spins.

"You…" Sabine gasps, looking terrified out of nowhere. "You came in just before the meeting." She takes another breath. "Looking mad. So mad. You said Leia went off on a rant and that you left her with some soldiers." She takes another deep breath. "You kissed me on the cheek in front of everyone."

_I don't do that._

She hates that.

"Sabine that's not me!" I say desperately.

Sabine numbly looks me in the eye. "But…"

I open my mouth, then shut it as something clicks inside my head.

_Wait. When I was captured, they cored out my arm just above my elbow. It was so painful I almost passed out. I think they got some of my bone marrow._

My mind goes blank, except for one thing. Something Rex and Echo said way back, one day at lunch at Polis Massa.

Rex and Echo explained that the best way to get a reliable sample for a clone is to get bone marrow. Living cells.

_They cloned me._

"Sabine they cloned me." I blurt out, unable to stop it. "That wasn't me. I know you hate PDA. Sabine, they _cloned me_."

I can't believe it.

Sabine looks at me, and I see it start to dawn on her. "Your elbow…"

I nod. "Bone marrow. That wasn't me."

"They…Sophie."

_SOPHIE._

Uh oh.

"We've got to go." I say, then get to my feet and depositing her off my knees where Sabine had settled. Sabine reaches for my hand and I instinctively pull her up before she looks up at my face.

_What she did._

"Ezra…"

I ignore her, glance around to see bodies on the floor of the conference room in front of the podium and probe out.

_Kanan and Ahsoka are down two floors to the right._

We've got to go left.

I take off at a sprint, blocking all the pain out and call back to Sabine. "I'm guessing Kanan and Ahsoka are chasing what they think is me! I'm looping around! Cutting them off."

"What do you think is going on? The Empire?"

_Oh yeah._

"I don't know. But I've got a hunch." I tell her, then probe out again.

_Yup._

I've got to cut them off.

Sabine and I run down the hall Leia and I just walked down at top speed as small scale skirmishes are going on all around us between soldiers and unseen enemies.

_PRIME!_

I frantically skid to a halt as she door in front of us pops open, revealing Prime, Will, Kal, Orir, Darcy, Aiden, Brie, Lana, Katiey and Mira.

"Whoa!" Katiey yelps then points a blaster at me. Behind her, everyone else follows suit except for Prime.

Prime looks to Sabine. "What's going on?"

"Guys, there's no time. This is the real Ezra." Sabine says frantically.

"How do you know that?" Darcy asks Sabine.

Flippantly, I pull my jacket sleeve down again to reveal Sophie's bracelet. The girls quickly all look shocked.

"Sophie was so happy you wear it…" Lana mutters.

"Sof made that?" Kal asks her.

"Guys." Sabine refocuses everyone. "This is the real Ezra. When he got captured, they drilled into his arm and pulled out some bone marrow" Everyone cringes as Sabine plows forward. "That's the best way to _clone_ somebody."

Prime, Darcy and the others looks blankly at Sabine before Mira perks up first.

"Are you saying…" Mira begins.

"We saw Stormtroopers earlier—" Will turns to Darcy.

"—Empire cloned Ezra?!" Prime asks Sabine.

"Yeah. I don't know why they're here, but Kanan and Ahsoka are down two levels chasing somebody."

"Sophie." Kal says.

"C'mon. We've got to hurry." I say before busting down the door to the stairwell and starting to run down at top speed.

_One…Two!_

I fling the door open to a sound that chills my blood.

"AAAAAAAAAHHHHHH!" Sophie screams at the top of her lungs.

Behind me, Sabine piles past the door, stops and looks to me.

"Uh oh." I hear Orir say, hustling thru the door with a rifle on his arm.

"LET ME GO EZRA! YOU'RE NOT EZRA! LET ME GOOOO!" Sophie continues to scream.

We all start sprinting towards the screams before the sight of a battalion of Stormtroopers, causes me to skid to a halt. Sabine however, doesn't hesitate and fires a missile directly into the battalion.

"AAUUGHH!" Multiple Stormtroopers scream and the remainder turn around to see who fired upon them. Only for Darcy, Prime and the others to cut the remainder down.

Sabine takes the lead and we start forward once more before a…

"Stop!" Darcy calls out to the unknown alien.

Sophie lets out another scream of terror as the green skinned alien turns to us and—

"It's me!" The alien grabs onto its head and pulls it aside just like Markas Renless did to reveal Leia Organa.

_How'd she get that?_

"How'd you—?" Sabine asks before Leia replaces her disguise and hustles to us while pulling out a blaster.

"No time. I'm not going anywhere without Sophie. Kanan and Ahsoka should be coming but—

"LET ME GO!"

"Be quiet little Sophie." The mechanical voice of Barriss Offee floats to us.

_Oh._

Sabine immediately crouches down and taps on her jetpack, causing everyone to back away from her.

I probe out and feel her right around the corner up ahead of us.

"This corner." I tell her, and Sabine gets into a low crouch.

The Force suddenly tenses up just before I see the edge of Barriss' hat. That's enough for Sabine who flies off and—

"WHAM!"

We all rush forward to see that Sabine has driven Barriss into the nearest wall, causing it to buckle while knocking her helmet clean off, revealing her long black hair and hideous eyes. Behind her, the Clone is holding Sophie in his arms with an unknown figure behind him. Stormtroopers along with my Mom bring up the rear.

"Watch your fire!" Prime yells as everybody behind me begins thinning out the number of Stormtroopers. Sophie starts thrashing around in the clone's arms and

"Stop mmph—Sophie!" The clone says, sounding _exactly_ like me.

Sophie continues squirming, then opens her mouth and—

"AAAAHHH! SHE BIT MY EAR!" The clone Ezra yells, dropping Sophie and grabbing his left ear. Sof lands on her feet and runs towards us while screaming like a maniac. Quickly, I drop to my knees and skid past her to give her cover from any potential fire before taking out a Stormtrooper with a shot to the face.

"Oh no you don't." I hear Mom say, then take three steps towards Sophie.

_And towards me._

I pop to my feet and scowl at Mom. "Don't take another step."

"Move Ezra. You don't know what you're doing."

I activate my lightsaber pointedly and reply "No." as Sabine gets to her feet behind Mom and points both of her blasters.

"What have you DONE?!" Sabine yells at my mother and Barriss as she picks herself up out of the crumpled wall.

"We have moved to protect the Empire from you terrorists." The unknown figure says in a noble, rich tone.

Barriss briefly eyes me before spotting Sophie behind me then vaulting towards her with a primal scream. "MIIIINNNEEE!"

I frantically block her double blades then barely snag her ankle, slam her into the ground with one hand then crawl forward to—

"WHAM!"

Barriss kicks me in the face, freeing her ankle before stumbling to her feet before Darcy upends her by diving at her knees and causing Barriss to somersault and crash back to the floor heavily.

A warning from the Force causes me to turn around in a panic and see the blur of my clone leaping over my scrum to get to Sophie.

_Uh oh._

I spring up and grab him with the Force just as Prime and Will both move to tackle him and end up pile driving him into the floor and sending his lightsaber bouncing away.

_That's my old lightsaber! The old model!_

I grab it, ignite it with the Force and pull it to me. "Hey Barriss! I got a new one! You know this!" I yell bitterly at her as she and Sabine are scrambling for control over her lightsaber.

"SHUT UP!" Barriss yells right back, just before Sabine pulls Barriss' lightsaber out of her hands. However her momentum causes her to stumble and fall onto her back.

"Heads!" I hear Darcy yell, sounding terrified before glancing up and seeing the unknown figure activate a double bladed lightsaber while having already jumped over us in all the madness.

Sabine yells "YAH!" while activating Barriss' lightsaber and throwing it at the new Inquisitor. The lightsaber takes off at top speed as the Inquisitor turns to block it. Just as he starts to square it up, Barriss' lightsaber breaks sharply down and at his knees.

I hear a "GRAHH!" noise come from him before his own lightsaber is knocked out of his hands and sticks in the wall nearest them. The Inquisitor moves to reach and grab it but is stopped by Lana and Katiey double teaming him, Lana going high and Katiey going low and tripping him.

The ground shakes as he hits the floor heavily and I look around to see what is going on.

_Stormtrooper lining up to fire._

I grab him, focusing all the pain in me to the man's neck and throat.

"GACK!" The Stormtrooper gasps, dropping his weapon and moving to clutch his throat.

"Yes!" Barriss yells, sounding triumphant while moving to get to her feet. I reflexively throw the poor man right at Barriss, hitting her in her hip pocket and sending her flying thru the wall Sabine just sent her into.

Lana lets out a scream of terror, causing me to turn and see my Clone escape Prime and Will, duck under a Kal haymaker and pull Sophie right out of Mira's hands. Sophie lets out a terrified scream as she zooms right to the clone, who turns and throws Sof to my Mom.

"AAAHHHH!" Sophie screams while flying thru the air. Mom easily catches her, but Sophie immediately raises her arms and—

I gasp in pure shock as everyone turns to see—

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!" Sophie screams in either terror or fury, raising both arms with clenched fists and savagely wailing on Mom, punctuating every 'NO!" with a blow. Mom lets out an agonized yell and falls down onto her back. "NO NO NO NO NO!"

The Inquisitor responds by grabbing Sof with the Force and bodily tossing her towards Mira and the scrum behind me. Leia quickly jumps back, stretching out her arms and snatching Sof before crashing to the ground.

"Yah!" I hear Barriss yell before seeing a red flash. I reactivate my lightsaber and block her.

_Not good!_

"GO!" I yell at Leia. "We'll catch up!" then block Barriss who is standing while I'm on my back. Sabine stands and moves to knife Barriss.

"BZZTTT!"

The clone leaps up, looking triumphant as Sabine lets out a heartstopping scream, followed by her doubling up in agony. "AAAAHHH!"

"No!" I yelp.

"Yes!" Barriss says, as the clone lights Sabine up again.

"aaaaAAAAAAHHHH!"

I kick Barriss off me, spin on my heels and slash at the clone. He blocks me with my old model lightsaber and growls. "I thought you were bigger."

"Sorry to disappoint!" I snap at him just before he disappears in a black blur.

_What the_—

"WHAM!" The nearest wall buckles as Prime, Kal and Orir slam the clone into the wall forcibly before the clone pushes them all away.

I spot a cluster of white huddled around the far corner and fire off a blaster shot, hitting a Stormtrooper and sending the whole battalion scattering.

_Uh oh._

We're really outgunned.

"We've got to go!" I yell to everyone. Lana, Will, Brie, Mira starts firing on the battalion as Prime, Orir, Kal, Darcy, Katiey start scrambling towards Will and Lana.

Barriss turns back to me as Sabine turns and runs. "Three on one. You won't be able to stop us."

Pointedly, the Inquisitor yanks his lightsaber out of the wall, where it apparently got stuck again and the Clone activates his lightsaber. I slide back and go straight into my Makashi guard.

"Ezra!" I hear Sabine yell, sounding terrified.

"GO!" I answer her, then let out a breath.

_Barriss is an athletic Form V. I don't know what the clone or this new Inquisitor is. Sorensu it is._

The clone, behind me and off to my left strikes first, letting out a yell and a vertical chop. I spin away easily, block a initial poke from the Inquisitor and reach out with the Force.

_Okay. Where are Ahsoka and Kanan?!_

Blocking Barriss' first slice down, I quickly answer by shuffling my feet and reducing both the area I have to cover and the number of enemies that can fit in this absolutely wrecked hallway.

_There's wreckage everywhere._

Following that up with the Sorensu guard, I meet another angry chop from the clone halfway, push his blade into the path of a slice from the Inquisitor. He is forces to break it off and spin, handing me valuable time that I use to beat him to the spot and riposte his chop.

Barriss immediately tries to capitalize by leaping over both of them. I calmly hand her my space, grab something and clock her from her blind side and sending her flying off to my left. She's replaced by another battalion of Stormtroopers, who begin to fire on me.

_BLAST!_

I lift another random piece of debris and use it as a shield so I can glance back and see nobody behind me.

I'm on my own.

_FINE!_

In frustration, I push what turns out to be just a large piece of wall forward and catch both the clone and Inquisitor as they jump, kneecapping both of them and sending both to the ground. Barriss springs up, blasts thru the wall with some Force Lightning, then rears back and unloads on me. I pivot, bring my blade vertical and block it just as Ahsoka taught me.

"Don't just march right up to him! You're playing into his hands! Your hands clone!" Barriss yells at the Inquisitor and the clone, cutting off her lighting in the process.

_He has my style._

I smile, then slide back farther and reach out with the Force.

_I need help. _

"CLUNG!"

A flaming projective is lobbed in, over the Inquisitor and the clone.

Oh shoot.

Defensively, I let out a Force Push just as it explodes. The projectile explodes and my push handles the debris, but the concussive effect tosses me onto my back like a rag doll.

_NO!_

Barriss capitalizes, looking like a animal on the hunt with her hair flowing behind her as she leaps towards me. I feebly flash my wrists in order to block her slash.

"GSSSSHHH!"

_Huh?_

Blue and Red collide violently above my blade, causing me to look who stopped Barriss.

AHSOKA!

"Ahsoka. How nice of you to join—us!" Barriss scowls, breaking her saber lock and putting distance between herself and Ahsoka.

I roughly get picked up from behind and dropped on my feet, and I turn and see that it's Prime.

_With everyone else._

Kanan steps to my right, activates his lightsaber and surveys the situation.

It's Barriss and Ahsoka in the middle. Kanan and I are immediately behind her, with Prime, Kal, Orir, Will, Darcy, Sabine, Mrs. Wren, Rex, Echo, Lux, Hera and Mr. Wren holding Sophie. On the other side the Inquisitor and Clone are backing up Barriss, with their backup being the battalion of Stormtroopers.

"Your madness ends here Barriss. Stop your games." Ahsoka says to Barriss before taking in the clone and Inquisitor.

Barriss simply laughed, sending a chill down my neck. "He's not a game! That's Ezra's exact genetic replica. Down to the lightsaber style. Impressive isn't it?"

"No. Can't say I'm impressed. You had him three to one and he couldn't get him pinned." Kanan points out.

"I just HAD him pinned!" Barriss screams at Kanan.

"BA—BOOMMM!"

A fiery explosion fills the area behind the clone and Inquisitor, followed by a Stormtrooper stumbling out, completely engulfed in flame.

_Oh._

Ahsoka seizes on the opportunity granted by the explosion and engages Barriss with a slash with one lightsaber and swipe at her ankles, forcing her back. Kanan jumps behind Barriss and almost lands on the Inquisitor before engaging him.

Leaving the clone and I.

I let out a breath, block out my throbbing body and calmly step forward to where the clone is waiting for me.

"Time to see which one is the real Ezra Bridger." The clone says, looking up at me in a extremely creepy fashion and voice.

_He's shorter than me too._

"I've already done that." I tell him, then flash out my left hand in an effort to distract him.

Blaster fire reveals Darcy, Lana, Brie, Katiey, Mira and Aidan as the clone panics, shifts his whole body weight to his right to stop my feint and opening himself up to my vicious sucker punch.

"WHACK!"

_OWW!_

Landed RIGHT on his jaw!

The clone stumbles back, eyes unfocused before blindly slashing out at me. I deflect the slash, then try to take away his space by advancing on him and stabbing at his thigh. The clone spins away and blindly swipes at my head, which I duck to avoid.

_I am the Makashi master here! And there's no way this PUNK is going to beat me!_

If I take away his space, it's only a matter of time.

Rising back up, I bat his lightsaber hand down then pop him in the face with my metal arm guard, busting open his nose and causing him to let out a high pitched scream.

"AHH!"

Darcy and the girls are engaged in a firefight with an large group of Stormtroopers as shots start flying past me, aimed at the clone as he is clutching his face. I spin back to see that its Prime and my battalion being directed by Rex and Echo.

_Oh here we go._

The Force heaves with energy as I jump back into the fray with a stab at the clone immediately after a volley from behind misses. He directs his lightsaber vertical to block me and I quickly take advantage by pivoting into reverse grip and nicking his shoulder.

"AHHH!"

His whole body spasms in pain before he spins away and—

"FWHUSH!"

The clone gets nailed with two shots, one right near his injured shoulder and the other near his heart.

_Sabine and her mom._

The Stormtroopers take notice of this and completely shift their focus the prevent me from taking another step forward by unloading on me while backing down a corridor with spikes protruding thru the walls.

_That's weird._

Darcy and the girls rush to my side as I attempt to block as many bolts as I can. Thankfully, Kanan steps forward and coolly takes most of the burden.

_Wait._

"Where's the Inquisitor?" I ask, in confusion.

He should be fighting him!

"Look!" Darcy yells while spinning me around.

_WHOA!_

KANAN GOT HIM!

_He's dead! Kanan put a hole in him!_

That's what I felt in the Force!

Coming back to my senses, I spot the clone attempting to rejoin Barriss and fire off a shot. Somehow, he manages to block it while scrunched up and in obvious pain.

_BLAST!_

"Come on! Our fight's finished! We're going to the hangers! Can you run?" Kanan turns and asks me.

"We're running?" Katiey asks in disbelief.

Mira adds "We've got them on the ropes!"

"We don't know how many ships the Empire sent! We've got to get out of here!" Kanan answers bluntly, leaving no room for argument.

_Fine by me._

I rise up once more, and then stop as I see Mom behind a grouping of retreating Stormtroopers.

She…

I set my jaw and frown at her while trying not to be angry.

_She's an Imperial. She sent them all here and caused all this mess._

They can have her.

"No Ezra! She…she's a lost cause! C'mon!" Darcy says while her and Brie spin me around and push me towards the others as they are retreating.

My head suddenly spins and my stomach turns before Brie removes her hand. "I've got blood back here!"

Kanan turns around as seemingly everyone's eyes snap to Brie and I. Before I've taken two steps, Rex pulls me to him and examines my back.

"He's…that's deep but he's okay! The exertion is the worst of it!" Echo says before Rex skeptically looks at him.

"GSSHH!"

I turn back and see Barriss push Ahsoka away, then run away in the direction of Mom and the Stormtroopers.

"C'mon! Two floors, then we're getting Sabine, Sof and Ezra to the _Ghost_!" Ahsoka says authoritatively.

"Take everyone!" Sabine says adamantly.

Mrs. Wren cuts us both off and grabs Prime by the shoulder. "You and the others take the girls. Hide. I don't care where. Dxun. Three weeks. Main complex. We'll be there."

"We're not splitting up!" Will says heatedly before Mr. Wren throws a door open.

"With what ship?" Prime asks Mrs. Wren.

"Take one! Use the ship we used to intercept them at the Star Destroyer with!" Mrs. Wren counters.

Sabine turns to her mother. "We can't split up!"

"We don't have a choice!" Ahsoka says loudly as the entire base shakes. "We've been compromised! For all we know there's Star Destroyers waiting on us! WE. HAVE. TO. GO!"

I obediently follow everyone else as the world starts really shaking and spinning then stumble and crash into the wall right by the door just after making the stairs. Someone heaves me to my feet then pushes me out the door.

Right into a firefight. Kanan is already protecting Sabine, Rex, Echo and my battalion as they combat wall to wall Stormtroopers.

_Great._

I grit my teeth, gather some strength and move to help Kanan, only to immediately be pushed away. "NO!" Darcy yells. "You're too weak!"

Just as I open my mouth to argue, a wave of pain overtakes me and I nearly fall over again. Brie and Mira both grab me and start basically carry/dragging me to the hanger bay door.

"Go! It's next door! Don't wait on us!" Ahsoka tells Prime, Will, Kal and Orir forcibly. They all look my way and see me basically being supported by the two girls.

Prime gives me a quick salute, then takes off, leaving the others to quickly follow behind him.

_I put them all in danger. They all fought like hell for me._

The hanger door opens, revealing a torn up hanger but the _Ghost_ completely intact and practically unharmed. Chopper flies out of the loading bay and starts talking to Hera.

"We can get the _Phantom_ out clean! Chop says the _Ghost_ might be a different story!" hera relays.

"Get him to the _Phantom_. Them all. Sof and Sabine included." Lux says to Kanan, Sabine, Mira and Brie.

_NO!_

Sabine immediately protests! "What?! Where are we going to go? We aren't leaving without you!"

"GO _SAB'IKA_!" Mr. Wren yells, sounding angry.

Whoa.

Wordlessly, Sophie runs onboard and starts climbing the ladder to the _Phantom._

"I've got him." Sabine says flatly to Mira and Brie, with Lana, Darcy and Aidan looking on.

"Thanks." I say, then smile at them.

The girls all run off to catch up to Prime and the guys in the other hanger.

Sabine lifts me up and starts helping me towards the ladder as Kanan is guarding the bay door. "Take off. Don't hesitate."

"We aren't leaving!" Sabine counters angrily.

"How are you going to leave?" I ask Kanan.

_If we're in danger, they're in more danger. Their ship is bigger._

"Hera's got tricks! Now GO!" Kanan says, then Force Pushing us both to the ladder.

_OW!_

Uhh…

"How are you…" Sabine says blankly.

I cut her off. "I've got enough in me to jump, but not climb."

"Are you sure?" Sabine asks. I nod in response.

_I think._

Sabine visibly gulps, then steps back and lets me grab the ladder. "Heads up Sof! Ezra's coming!"

"Okay!"

I take a deep breath, then unload and spring up, grab the top of the ladder and throw myself up there. Immediately the world nearly fades to black on me, but I see Sof grab onto my hand, then arm then cradle my head. Chopper is right behind her, messing with the data port by the pilot's chair.

"Ezra…" She says gently, tears flowing down her face.

I grit my teeth then force myself to sit as Sabine clambers inside, drops her helmet and into the pilot's seat.

"Fine…if you want us to leave. WHERE ARE WE—"Sabine calls out.

"SLAM!"

_That's the lock. _

They forcibly locked us in here. We have to leave.

_Without them._

Oh no.

Sabine numbly looks back to Sof and I for moment, then robotically starts the undocking process. I push myself into a leaning position near the seats, and Sophie stays glued to me until she puts her hand on one of my stabs.

"Oh! Uhh…" She says, then rushes to a storage container. "whereisitwhereisitWHEREISIT!"

"What?" Sabine says in a panic.

"Got it!" Sophie says brightly, holding a roll of gauze tape. "Tape so Ezra gets fixed!"

"I'm not going to be fixed with tape Sof." I tell her.

"You can stop the bleeding with that!" Sabine tells her.

Sophie goes pale as we undock from the ship and start forward.

_We're really doing this._

We're abandoning ship.

Sof and I watch Sabine as she quickly pulls out of the hanger, slaps in some coordinates and hits the hyperdrive.

The _Phantom_ lurches, then the cockpit goes blue as we zoom off.

…

Sophie drops the gauze tape, causing me to look at her. "Hey. Can you fix me?"

Sof looks up at me, tears in her eyes and I spot her right hand covered in red. "I…I can try." She says unsteadily.

I smile at her and attempt to boost her confidence. "I believe in you."

Out of nowhere, Sabine sits heavily next to me. "Okay Sof. We've got this. Go get a wipe and clean your hands. They're by my seat."

Sof springs to her feet and obeys, leaving Sabine and I.

"Where'd you send us?"

"Home. The Mountain House. I…I can't fully treat you until we get there. You have to be stretched out. I…I don't even know how to treat some of this…" She mutters, then looks overwhelmed.

"It's okay." I say evenly. "You'll figure it out."

Sabine bites her lip as her eyes start swimming with tears before Sophie comes back.

Together they start bandaging me together, Sophie applying pressure and getting way too much of my blood on her hands as Sabine tightly wraps both of my legs, my back and cleans my face. Chopper monitors the ship behind them, occasionally coming over to check on everything bfroe returning to the data port.

After what feels like an hour we're forced to sit and wait.

Before too long, Sophie extends all the seats, pulls the emergency blanket out and tries telling me to sleep. Sabine turns it around, saying that Sof should sleep.

She tries to fight, but within ten minutes is asleep on the outstretched seats, using my bag as a pillow.

Then…Sabine and I just sit there for awhile.

"I…" Sabine breaks what could be an hour long silence. "I hurt you."

"You fixed me. You did what you thought was best." I whisper, trying not to wake Sophie.

Sabine swallows thickly. "I…You might have a scar." She whispers back, then wipes a trickle of blood off the side of my face.

"You like my other scar." I tease her, trying to lighten the mood.

Sabine chokes out a laugh, then lets out a tear. "I…"

I quickly pull her into my lap and hold her close. "Thank you. You did great. Don't beat yourself up."

Tears immediately start streaming down her face. "I'm so _sorry_…"

"It's okay. I'm going to try and rest." I say, finally starting to give in to my drowsiness that crept up on me.

"No!" She hisses. "I…You…"

"What?" I ask.

Sabine immediately looks away from me. "Don't…Don't _die on me. _ I don't know if I hit anything big."

_I…_

"I'm not going to die. I won't let that happen."

Sabine grabs onto my collar. "Stay up. Please. I'm begging you. We've got…Three hours until we land."

Three hours?

"I…" I begin, then sigh. "I'll try."

Sabine looks relived, then curls up into my lap. And starts to cry quietly.

"What are we gonna do…" She says.

Over and over again.


	95. Tears and Fury

"Gssshhhh…"

To my left, Sabine lifts her head off my shoulder, then gets to her feet. I move to follow, only for my entire body to protest and not want to move.

_Damn. I didn't think of moving around. I settled in for the trip and gave everything time to lock up._

"Zzzz…gszzzhh…" Sof gently snores in front of me as I clumsily get to my feet and Sabine crouches down in front of Chopper, who is beside Sophie.

"We're going to go get everything set up Chop. Lock everything down if there's trouble." Sabine tells Chop, who salutes her silently.

I follow Sabine outside the ship and see that she landed down near the firing range.

_It's an uphill walk home._

Sabine and I wearily walk up the hill in silence except for our footsteps on the gravel path.

"Ow." I blurt out after my back twinges after a particularly long step.

"You okay?" Sabine glances back at me.

I nod. "Step got me."

Sabine bit her lip. "I…we've got some stuff to do but I'll try to get you fixed up right away." She says, trying to reassure me.

"I know." I smile at her.

"It looked okay from the air, but you saw it when we came last time."

_Yeah._

No heat or air. Food is all in storage, and there wasn't much of it. Dust everywhere. House was cold.

"Don't worry about me. Let's get things going then we'll get to me."

Sabine nods once more. "Say something if you start not feeling good. Don't over-exert yourself."

"I'm going to using the Force a lot." I say.

Utilizing the darkness since it feel like two in the morning.

Sabine looks back to me anxiously, then continues up the hill. We walk for a few more minutes before coming up on the empty, completely dark house.

_Looks foreboding from this point of view._

"Beeeeeppp Boop."

In one motion, I pull my lightsaber off my belt, activate it while also levitating a bunch of gravel with my other hand while spinning around—

_Oh._

It's Chopper and Sophie.

Sophie immediately squeaks and ducks, and Chop puts his arms up.

"Bo-BOW! BO-BOW!"

I hear a "Click." Behind me then Sabine's voice. "Sorry Sof. Did we wake you up?"

Sophie nervously peeks back up over Chopper's dome, revealing that she's already crying. "I…It's okay."

I take a couple of steps, then crouch down and hug Sof. "Didn't mean to scare you. Sorry." I apologize.

_We're all a little wound up right now._

Sophie loudly sniffles and replies "It's okay." Before Chopper starts towards the house.

Together, the four of us make it onto the deck without incident and Sabine starts typing into a key pad.

_Last time her father showed us how he stored the keys in an inconspicuous key box right on the side of the house._

"Tap Tap Tap…Click!"

Sophie perks up, pulling her head off Chopper's dome then settles back down as Sabine leads us all inside the dusty, silent house.

"Okay…" Sabine sighed, then looked back to Sof, Chop and I. "Chop, take Sophie to her room. Ezra and I will get this place straightened up a little bit."

Chopper makes an affirmative noise before Sophie chokes out a sob. I turn back to see that she's _bawling._

"Hey hey hey…" Sabine says as we both rush to her sides. "What's wrong?"

Tears stream down Sof's face and she sniffles loudly. "I thought everybody would be heeeeerrreee…" Sophie cries out, then starts crying even harder.

I gently pull her into a hug and my arms bump into Sabine's as she does the same. "I know. I was hoping so too." Sabine says softly.

"Whaaatt…" She asked, then hiccupped. "Are we gonna—dooooo?"

"Well, we're first going to get you to bed. It's late. Ezra and I are going to get everything ready for the morning. Then we'll wait and see."

_They may be here tomorrow for all we know._

I feel Sophie lift her head, look at her sister then hug her tightly. Chopper tootles out a calming message to Sof and I keep hugging her until Sabine lets go.

"Love you. Chop, can you get her tucked in?" Sabine asks.

Chopper doesn't reply, instead saluting Sabine before Sof grabs on and Chop slips off to Sophie's room.

_Leaving Sabine and I._

We both eye each other, Sabine with a weary look on her face. "I'll start the fire, if you look what Daddy stored away food-wise I think we'll be able to start patching you up right after."

"Okay." I nod, then spin on my heels and start to the walk-in freezer on the side of the house.

_That also has a lock._

(18 Hours Later)

The clinking of dishes as I finish setting the table, meeting Sophie's eye at the end and smiling at her. "You hungry?"

Sophie nods, then smiles back.

"Good."

Sabine and I decided to go for broke. Bantha steaks, potatoes, Dust Corn, small salads with ice sticks for dessert.

_We're betting that the others will be here relatively soon._

Sabine slips past me and places a plate with just a little of everything in front of Sof. "Here ya go!" She says with energy.

"Thank you Sabine." Sophie says, then lets out a wide smile.

Sabine returns it immediately. "You're welcome."

I turn back to Sabine, causing one of the stabs Sabine filled with sterile gauze to let out a shot of pain but bite my lip and ignore it. "Can I help?"

_Blast I couldn't keep it out of my voice._

Sabine's eyes dart to me. "No." She says bluntly. "Go sit down. Rest. I've got it. In fact…" Sabine trails off, quickly filling a plate before handing it to me. "Here. Sit."

"Thanks." I smile meekly at her then listen and sit down, which causes my back to briefly seize up and to cause me to sit straight up.

"Sabine." Sophie calls out to her sister, spotting me and causing Sabine to drop what she's doing and grab an ice pack.

"I'm fine…" I say. "I sat wrong."

"Don't listen to him." Sabine tells Sof. " And don't overexert yourself."

"I didn't!" I counter as Sabine slips an ice pack between my back and the chair.

Sophie eyes my, looking angry before going back to fixing her baked potato and taking a bite.

_She shouldn't do that. She should wait._

Doesn't matter though.

I keep my mouth shut and fix my own potato as Sabine sets up her plate then walks over and sits down. "Okay…dig in everyone."

Forks clink on plates on either side of me as I continue with my potato. Before too long, we all settle into a comfortable silence except for the holo in the living room playing the news softly.

"I'm done." Sophie says as I'm halfway thru my bantha streak.

Sabine looks up. "Okay. Can you eat a little more corn for me?"

"Yeah." Sophie says. "After that can I get an ice stick?"

Sabine pauses and eyes Sophie's plate, which has been picked over but not really eaten much. "Eat a little more Sof. There's some meat on that bone."

I more to my salad as Sophie continues working away at her dinner, not really eating but making it look like she's doing something.

A few minutes later. "Good?"

The Force twinges with Sabine's annoyance at her sister. "Sof. You didn't really eat anything else."

"I want an ice stick." Sophie states simply.

Sabine nods to her plate. "Eat a little more."

Sophie lets out a disappointed whine. "Sabiiiiinneeee..!"

"Are you not hungry?"

"I want an ice stick!" Sophie complains.

"Sof." I calmly jump in, causing Sof's head to snap to me. "We don't want you waking up in the middle of the night after filling yourself on ice sticks. Okay? We're not trying to be mean."

"I'm full! If I eat anything else I won't be able to _have_ an ice stick!" Sophie counters to me, then looks to Sabine with a sad expression.

Sabine bites her lip, eying Sof's plate.

_I don't think giving in is a—_

"Fine. Let Ezra have some of your stuff and we'll go put your plate in the sink."

Sophie lights up, then hands her plate to me before racing to the freezer. In response, Sabine lets out a loud sigh before resting her head in her fist.

Blast.

The rest of dinner is pretty calm, as I polish off my plate and Sof's then creak over to do some dishes as Sabine watches cartoon and downing three ice sticks before reluctantly going to bed.

(Early Next Morning)

A shot of pain in my thigh causes my eyes to shoot open.

_Why am I—SHOOT!_

I let out a grunt before_—_ "WHACK!"

My face firmly hits the bedroom floor, causing me to lie there for a second and hear sheets rustle around as the right side of my face throbs.

_Okay…gotta get up._

I force myself up, ignore the wounds Sabine tended to just before we went to bed and see a small figure curling up to Sabine.

_Sof._

A quiet mechanical buzz causes me to turn and see Chopper wheel into the room. I silently point towards the bed, then slip past Chop and towards the kitchen.

I'll get some water, wait a minute then go back to bed.

Staying slightly hunched deliberately, I grab a glass, fill it with water and walk over to the window where the mountain peaks sit in a silent statement.

_This isn't my vision._

For one, I don't really have a beard. The only thing I have is light stubble and seven stitches on the right side of my eye.

I let out a sigh, then hang my head.

…

We're in trouble.

_We got compromised. It didn't really hit me until this afternoon. I was too busy getting Sabine off me, then saving Sof, then fighting my clone._

Somehow, I don't know how that clone got in The clone is Barriss' pride and joy. My exact genetic replica.

_Out there to destroy my good name._

The clone got in, which let Barriss in, which let the other Inquisitor in, which gave away Safe Zone's coordinates to the Empire, who sent Star Destroyers and a lot of Stormtroopers.

Looking back at it, I can kind of see a plan being formulated. They sneak Ezra in, betting that I'm off doing something, anything. As they do that, they get a few battalions in, set off a distraction then start rounding people up. But that's the real distraction.

_They got Mom back._

She…it seems impossible that she was the mole. She had no way of communicating with anyone in or out. We had isolated her just for that reason.

They grabbed Sof, I imagine because like at every meeting she asked to get on 'my' back so she could see, and the clone went along with it. He probably just played stupid, letting everybody just give him information.

_About Leia, Sophie, Mom, Master Kenobi, everything._

I don't know where they were going with Sophie though. Or what else they were doing. Good thing everybody got together and fought down there.

_We probably shattered Leia's romantic views about the fights._

I was outnumbered three to one, but my battalion and Darcy's group all did he best thing you can do when you're going against an opponent that strong.

We mucked it up. Shots to the knees, trips, cheap shots, anything to get the playing field even. Sabine got fried, everybody got beat up, but we got Sof back.

_I don't know what took Kanan, Ahsoka, Rex and the others so long, but they got there too._

Kanan killed the Inquisitor, I barely hit the clone before Sabine and her Mom nailed him with bolts from their wrists. Somehow that didn't kill him.

Then we each mutually fled to our ships. I didn't get to see much of the Ahsoka/Barriss duel but I would imagine Ahsoka had the upper hand.

_And now we're alone._

We have no clue where anybody else is. They could be scattered around the galaxy. I don't believe the Empire got them, because I think I'd feel that in the Force.

The Rebellion could be over now. Done. Finished. They captured Safe Zone.

_Vader probably took the Executor there right after. Nobody had any time to grab anything, we just had to run._

…

I let out a breath and hang my head.

_Are Sabine, Sophie and I the only Rebels that didn't get captured?_

Nobody knows where anybody is. Yeah it makes sense that Sabine and I came here, to her parents isolated home in the mountains but Kanan and Hera have never been here. They've only heard about this place once.

_This easily could drag out. We only have enough food for a few weeks before Sabine would have to go for supplies. _

I don't know when I'm going to be 100% again. Sabine learned on the fly how to treat the stabs she gave me, and mended me thru her tears. But it wasn't the best medical care, and that's going to lengthen my down time.

The sun begins to lighten the sky behind the mountaintops as I sip my water.

_This might take a while._

(2 days later)

"Sof, are you ready?" Sabine asks.

Sophie ignores Sabine and keep watching her cartoons with Chopper by her side.

"Sophie. Are you ready to go shoot with Ezra?"

_Sabine needs a break so I'm taking her for a few hours._

Sophie shakes her head. "I don't want to go shooting."

"Sophie." Sabine says while exhaling rapidly. "You've been watching cartoon for three days. You need some exercise. And you need to practice with your bow."

"I don't want to practice!" Sophie raises her voice. "I WANNA STAY HERE!"

Sabine simply frowns. "Too bad. You're going with Ezra."

"No I'm NO—"

"BANG!"

I quickly leap over the couch, bring my blaster up and fire off a bolt at the group of Mandalorians at the far door.

_They must be Maul's._

"Sabine!" I call out, and feel them both start to panic.

_We've got to_—

"Whoa!" A familiar voice calls out, before a person in green Mandalorian armor walks in before forcibly causing a warrior to lower his weapon. "HOLD ON!"

Behind me, I hear Sabine say "_Mand'alor_".

_What?_

I glance back at Sabine, then look back in time to see _Mand'alor_ remove his helmet and reveal the familiar, friendly face of Fenn Shysta.

"What are you guys…" He says quietly in confusion, helmet on his hip.

Sophie breaks away from her sister and runs to _Mand'alor_, crying.

"Whoa, hey…it's okay." He scoops Sof right up, then turns to the battalion behind him. "They're fine. Lock this place down. Priority one. Nobody approaches without me knowing. Inspect their ship. I want that to be ready to fly right away."

_Right away?_

I feel Sabine's anxiety spike as the battalion break apart, and _Mand'alor_ gives Sof a hug.

"I have so many questions. Why are you here? What happened? Where are your parents?" _Mand'alor_ says, walking into the living room and setting Sophie down on her feet.

I look back to Sabine and see her biting her lip. "Whose side are you on?"

_Mand'alor_'s eyebrows snap down. "I'm on yours. I…I should probably explain why I'm here. Would that help?"

Sabine and I both nod, then wait for him to speak.

"We've been running reconnaissance missions, trying to prevent the Empire from sneaking black ops teams onto the planet thru some of our more remote locales. On one of those missions, we saw your ship parked near the firing range. So I called your father—"

"Did you get him?" Sabine blurts out.

_Mand'alor_ shakes his head, causing Sophie to let out a whine and for him to pull her closer. "No. I couldn't. On any frequency that I know of. And I've got everyone he has. So I gathered up my private guard and flew up here. And here I am."

I hang my head and let out a heavy breath.

"Did you try the _Ghost_?" Sophie asks _Mand'alor_.

"I did _ad'ika_. The transmissions bounced right back to me."

_Oh no._

My stomach drop as Sabine says "Either they don't want transmissions right now or—"

"The ship is destroyed." _Mand'alor_ finishes. "I don't think the Empire has it because they most likely would try to draw it into a trap after whatever you all did on Lothal."

Yeah, that makes sense.

I nod, then cringe, causing _Mand'alor_ to eye me. "What happened to you?

"We…got compromised. Safe Zone did. We don't know how." Sabine begins.

"There…was a clone of me, and Sabine mistook me for the clone." I explain.

_Mand'alor_ quickly looks lost. "Wait, WHAT?! Clone?"

I nod.

"OF YOU?!"

I nod again as Sabine says "Yes."

"And you did this to him?" _Mand'alor_ asks in disbelief, gesturing to me.

Sabine avoids his eye as she answers "That's not even the worst of it. If you brought a medic I want Ezra looked at. I…stabbed him."

_Mand'alor_ raises his voice. "_Sha'kuir! iviin'yc adade baar'ur! iviin'yc!_" (A/N: _Sha'kuir_, get the medic quickly! Hurry!) "Medic's coming. He's one of the best." He reassures Sabine.

Sophie pulls _Mand'alor_ tight with tears streaming down her face_. _"Thank you."

"Don't say thank you _Soph'ika_." _Mand'alor_ tells her. "It's what you do for others. Now…" He looks back to Sabine and I. "You don't know where your parents are?"

Sabine shakes her head. "We don't know where anybody is. We separated so we could get out of the station, and didn't get to coordinate a meet up."

"Okay…"_ Mand'alor_ nods, biting his lip. "Okay. How are you around here? Food?"

"We've got enough for a few weeks." I tell him.

_Mand'alor_ replies "I'll get a ship up here with more. You guys don't need to risk your cover going out."

"What should we do?" Sophie looks up at him.

"Well, first off, we're going to stock you guys up and get Ezra fixed up. Everybody needs him." _Mand'alor_ begins as a medic slips past the sliding door off to our left.

I slip off my jacket and reveal the mass of bandages on my back, which causes him to wince and call out multiple short statements to the men outside, who walk away briskly.

"They're going to get a sedative and some antibiotics. I think they're going to work on you here." Sabine decodes for me.

"We'll work on him on my ship. It has a medical bay. Now…"_ Mand'alor_ sighs. "Let's keep it simple. Get Ezra fixed, then gather up enough food for a cycle, get it up here. As we're doing that I'll try and contact Mr. Bontiri. That's another avenue we could break this silence. You guys shouldn't be here alone." Then he turned to Sabine. "What happened to my men?"

"Prime and everyone went to Dxun. They got a rendezvous as well as Ezra's Imperial team there in three weeks' time."

_Mand'alor_ nods. "We wouldn't want to mess that up…Okay. Let's roll with it from there."

(Three Days Later)

"Clink Clink Clink…"

I grab another plate, apply some dish soap and slip it under the water. Off to my left, Sophie just gave Sabine the last plate.

"Okay Sof. Thank you for your help. Go get in a bath alright?"

"But…" Sophie protests.

Sabine cuts her off. "You need a bath. You haven't had one in two days."

"I don't want to take a bath!" Sophie says, suddenly sounding angry.

I set down my plate and see that Sof does look mad.

"Doesn't matter. Go." Sabine says wearily, then points off to the bathroom.

Sophie lets loose an ugly frown. "No!"

"Sophie!" I say quickly.

_You don't tell her no._

Sabine takes one hard step, then strongly points to the bathroom. "Go. Take. A. Bath. NOW."

"NO!"

_Whoa._

"Sof—" I start.

"You can't make me take a bath! You're not Mommy and you're not Daddy!" Sophie yells at Sabine and I, looking angry.

_Sophie._

Chopper quickly wheels in, making a beeline for Sof.

"Take a bath Sophie. Or you'll be in trouble." Sabine says firmly.

"NO! I want Mommy and Daddy here! NOT YOU! It's gonna be my birthday in a couple of days! I want them here! NOT YOU AND NOT EZRA! I WISH YOU'D GOTTEN LEFT AT SAFE ZONE!"

I freeze up in shock and Sabine goes still as Chopper grabs Sophie by both wrists, tosses her onto his dome and starts off, Sophie kicking and screaming the whole way.

"I DON'T WANNA GO! PUT ME DOWN CHOPPY! CHOPPYYYYY!" She screams, just before Chopper shuts the bathroom door.

…

I feel numb as Sabine slowly turns back to me, already starting to cry.

"She didn't mean that." I say, reaching out to hug her.

Sabine basically collapses into my arms, completely bawling. "What'd I do Ezra? I…" She sniffles and I hold her. "I'm doing my best here! I'm trying!"

"I know. I know. We're both trying here." I say.

_I wasn't worried about Sof when Kanan said she'd be with us._

But I've never seen Sophie act like this.

_She's acting like a petulant kid._

"I…I knew we could both handle her! I wasn't worried at all coming here! What…what am I doing wrong?" She begs me.

I shrug, not knowing what else to do. "I don't know if it's us Sabine. But she didn't mean that."

"I…" Sabine says, lip quivering before putting her head onto my shoulder and starting to cry again. I simply pull her close and hold her.

"It's okay. Not your fault. I love you. And she loves you. I promise." I tell her, then glance up.

_Bathroom door's open._

Sophie…

_Sophie's eying us with the door cracked._

I let my eyes linger on her for a second as she eyes us, then lower my head and hold Sabine as she cries.

"…click."


	96. Burden

…

…

…

"AAAAAHHHHHH!"

My eyes shoot open, going from sleep to alert immediately. Sabine jolts off my chest while I pull my blaster to me, wheel around and—

"WAAAAHHHH!" Sophie cries uncontrollably.

Numbly, I turn to Sabine, whose face is in an 'oh' expression as Sophie bawls in the walkway to the kitchen.

_I…I can't believe it._

I look back to where Sophie is being hugged by her parents while Kanan, Hera, Rex, Echo, Ahsoka, Lux and Zeb look on in the background.

A soft pair of arms gently wraps me up then drives me back down onto the couch where Sabine and I were taking a nap while Sof watched cartoons just moments ago. Instinctively I hug Sabine back and look up at the ceiling.

_It's over. I think._

Sophie choking out a sob while her parents gently calmed her down filled the room before I hear a mechanical whir approach us followed by the extension of a mechanical arm. I open my eyes long enough to see Chopper with her arm on Sabine's back, looking somehow mournful before Hera walks over and crouches down.

"It's okay." She says softly while putting her hand on Sabine's shoulder. "We're here. We're going to figure this out."

Sabine doesn't verbally reply, instead holding me tighter. I sympathetically smile at Hera.

_I can't believe they found us._

The days have been dragging on. It's Sophie's birthday today. Sabine and I were starting to panic that the _Ghost_ got destroyed and that we were on our own.

_It was starting to feel like I had a weight on my chest I was so stressed._

Sophie has been acting better, but still worse than I've ever seen her. It's…been awful.

Sabine brings me back to reality by letting out a shaky breath, picking herself off me and moving to hug Hera. I pivot on the couch to a sitting position, then run my hand thru my hair and look to where Sophie is no longer crying into her parents' arms.

Rex, Echo, Lux and Zeb all smile at me reassuringly before I pivot back to hear Sabine say "When'd you guys get here? All I heard was Sophie scream."

Sophie looks back to her sister as Hera replies "About five minutes before. You guys were passed out and we wanted to let you two keep sleeping. You both look exhausted."

"Yes." Ahsoka added, walking over. "You both look drained."

"But Sof kind of freaked when she saw us." Hera smiled at the end.

Sophie meekly looks down to the floor. "Sorry."

Ahsoka's eyes pierce into me. "How are you feeling? Are you semi patched up?"

"Yes." I reply. "I…it's hard to explain."

Before anyone else can speak up, Sabine turns to her father. "_Mand'alor_ came a few days ago. Apparently he has had recon mission looking for Imperial infiltrators. They saw the _Phantom_—"

"And they came to check it out." Mr. Wren finishes.

"Did they have a medic to fix him up?" Her mother asks Sabine as the whole room is directed towards the conversation.

Sabine nods. "Yes. They had to knock him out in order to fix everything right. He…had a infection that I didn't know about. Another couple of days and…" her voice shakes.

_Yeah._

"But it's fixed now." Hera says.

"Yeah. I'm off limits for physical activity for five more days." I tell the room.

Kanan nods with Rex and Echo looking on solemnly before Sophie drifts over to Zeb.

"Hey…c'mere." Zeb crouches down.

Sophie hugs Zeb as Sabine gets up slowly and I put my chin on my palm while closing my eyes.

"I'll go ahead and start on dinner." I hear Mrs. Wren say, but don't open my eyes.

"What are you making?" Sophie pipes up.

"Your favorite birthday meal."

_Birthday._

Sophie squeaks before I hear hurried footsteps and a small body hitting someone firmly. Beside me, Sabine gets up. "How can we help?"

"You can sit." Rex says gently.

"You guys have done more than enough." Lux adds before smirking. "Relax, or at least try to. It's a birthday party."

_Somebody is now six years old._

I let out a breath and pop to my feet, catching everyone's attention.

"Were you okay? Listen to your sister and Ezra?" Mr. Wren asked Sophie. Immediately Sophie walks towards the kitchen to wash her hands. Chopper says something in binary, causing Kanan, Hera and Ahsoka to frown.

Mrs. Wren turns to them. "What'd he say?"

"Sophie…apparently wasn't all that great. Didn't listen to what Ezra and Sabine asked her to do sometimes."

"Sophine." Mr. Wren called out to his daughter authoritatively. In response, Sophie immediately ducked down to hide behind the kitchen counter.

Mrs. Wren pivots to Sabine and I. "How bad was she?"

Helplessly, I shrug. "I…It wasn't fun, I'll say that."

"She missed you guys. Ezra and I weren't who she wanted." Sabine compromises.

_That's fair. She's been better since she yelled at Sabine before Chopper forced her to take a bath but still has been grumpy._

Both of Sophie's parents pivot to Sof, who is peeking over the counter anxiously before Mrs. Wren simply gestured for Sophie to go to her room. Sof listened, with both of her parents right behind her.

"That bad?" Hera asks Sabine and I once the door to her room clicks softly.

I sigh and turn to Sabine as she answers "It was more…how Ezra and I left Safe Zone thinking "okay, we've had Sof before. This won't be a problem." And she was a problem."

"Mental." Ahsoka says simply.

"You guys have had enough mental stress as it is. Sounds like she didn't help." Rex adds on.

Lux's expression is confusion as he asks "What was so bad?"

"It was a no fest. Eat more vegetables. No." I start.

"Take a bath. No." Sabine adds.

"Go shoot. No."

"You're not Mom and Dad. I want them, not you."

_I wish you'd been left at Safe Zone._

I…

_She's six. But I'm having a tough time not taking that personally and letting it go._

That hurt a LOT.

"She did _not_ say that." Hera immediately says, sounding affronted.

Sabine and I mournfully nod, before Ahsoka and Lux both start back to Sophie's room.

"Sophie Wren." I hear Ahsoka snap the second the door is open and Lux shuts it behind them with a snap.

Echo spoke up to fill the silence. "Sit down. You two have done admirably. Not everyone your age could fill the gap you've been asked to fill."

"Okay. But…" Sabine trailed off, looking at a loss for words.

Rex smiled. "What happened?"

"Yeah." Sabine immediately replies. "Where'd you guys go?"

Kanan and Hera trail off to the kitchen, leaving everyone else to follow. As I round the counter, I see a gaggle of bags and containers.

"Roast _shatual_." Sabine states, then points down.

Rex smiles. "Apparently Sof likes it on her birthday?"

"Yeah." Sabine nods as she cuts on the water to wash her hands. "Where'd you guys get all this?"

"We stopped by the Keldabe markets before coming here." Hera smiled. "Good selection."

"You're really lucky to live down the road from such a great…I don't know. Area?" Kanan looks to Rex and Echo.

Rex says "There's just a great meeting of people there. Ideas, cultures, food. It's all there."

"It's healthy for people to be exposed to so much, no matter what age. But you and your sister both grew up around there." Echo smiled.

Sabine smiles as she washes her hands before grabbing a towel and allowing me to clean my hands.

"So, the big question." Hera jokes, getting Sabine, Kanan, Zeb and Rex to laugh.

Kanan shook his head. "Okay. So let's begin when we all realized something was wrong."

"You." Rex turned to me. "Walked up after apparently raging your way into the room and saying that the Senator had gone off the rails. You left her with a battalion of soldiers."

"Then you just walked up on stage, while Sof was on your back just a few feet away from us." Zeb states.

"The clone gave himself up right after Sabine tackled you. He bolted." Ahsoka says, walking back into the room with Lux and Mr. Wren behind her.

"We knew that couldn't be right, and after you kissed her on the cheek something just was off."

"Plus Sophie was with him. You wouldn't do that. So we all chased after the clone, thinking Sabine had you under control."

Mr. Wren says "I saw her hit you, and it looked like you cleaned his clock."

"Yeah." I nod before bending down to start grabbing salad stuff. "I got punched three times before I knew what was going on."

Kanan silently pulls a datapad to him as Rex asks me "How'd you get so cut up?"

"Sabine." I say calmly, feeling her anxiety spike as she is unwrapping the roast, I assume to season it for her mother. "It…was an accident. She didn't see the clone bolt so she thought I was the fake."

"How'd you figure out he's the real Ezra?" Zeb asks Sabine. In response, I point to Sophie's wristband that I'm wearing.

Everyone's expressions turn to surprise. "We'd just talked about it before I went to get the Princess." I explain. "The clone didn't have it since it was after my capture."

"How'd you know right away he was a clone?" Echo asks.

Rex turns to Echo. "It's in his report. They cored his arm, into the bone."

"What does that have to do anything?" Kanan asks as Sophie and her mother start back to the kitchen.

"They need living cells to produce a good clone. I'm guessing that was the ultimate backup plan in case they pushed Ezra too far."

_I was so close to going over._

"Ezra was the first to put everything together. Then he got right up and started after the clone like I hadn't…hit him at all." Sabine says, shaking off a quiver in her voice. "We bumped into the Princess, Prime, Darcy and the others on the way down to where Ezra felt Sof was."

Hera turned to Kanan "We were wondering that. You guys went right to them."

"We just followed their destruction." Kanan said. "They immediately busted your Mom out, then blew a hole in the floor and slipped down."

"We had to go around." Ahsoka adds.

_That's why it took them so long._

They had to go around.

I gather the cucumber, celery and peppers and move everything to the kitchen table as the arrival of Sabine's Mom makes things very crowded.

_Ahh, my back._

I cringe and bite my lip as it seizes up before I slip my hand to my back. Sophie responds by darting to the freezer.

"What are you—" Her mother starts, sounding irritated before seeing Sof rushing to get me the handy ice pack that I can slip around my back.

_It's super cold, but it helps._

"Thanks." I say, then slip it under my shirt and around my back then get back to chopping.

"Ezra—" Zeb starts.

"Sit down. We can—" Hera says softly as Sabine takes a half step towards me.

"No." I shake my head. "I'm fine."

The room is momentarily silent with Sophie on my hip, eying me for a sign or something.

"I've got the footage of your fight once you found everyone." Kanan broken the tensions, waving his datapad.

Sabine laughed. "There's a lot of sloppy fighting there."

Sabine's parents, Hera, Rex, Echo, Zeb and Ahsoka all laugh. "Yeah." Ahsoka smiled. "But that's good. That's the best way to react to a situation like that."

"Ugly it up. The only time we were successful against Dooku was in a similar situation." Echo says while motioning to Rex.

"No rhythm." Rex adds before Kanan hits play and the battle starts.

_Ooh._

"Hit her harder next time darling." Mrs. Wren says without looking up from the roast. Sabine, Sof and Lux all watch the holo in awe.

Sabine briefly glanced at me then asked "How'd you guys get this?"

"And how many fights do you have of Ezra's?"

"We transferred the video to the _Ghost_ before setting off an EMP, rendering all of Safe Zone's electronics dead." Ahsoka explains, sounding pleased. "And we have almost all of Ezra's fights. All except Onderon. We've even got some others that have helped."

_Dooku, Anakin and Master Kenobi._

Sophie immediately looks up at Ahsoka. "Other Jedi?"

"AAAAHHH! SHE BIT MY EAR!" The clone yells, loud enough for it to come across on the recording, followed by Sophie making a break for it.

"You bit the clone?" Rex asks, looking slightly sick with Echo and Lux also looking nauseated.

Sophie looked down to the ground. "Mommy and Sabine always told me that if I'm with somebody that I don't like that I should scream and kick and do anything to get people's attention."

"We have said that." Mr. Wren says mournfully as I smoothly slide past her on my shinguards then hop to my feet and prevent my mother from advancing.

"Was she going after Sof?" Kanan asks me.

I nod. "She told me to move."

"They wanted to kidnap her too." Lux said.

"I don't think that was part of their original plan. But when Sof asked to climb on the clone's shoulders so she could see, they reacted accordingly." Ahsoka hypothesizes.

The holo keeps playing as the fight quickly gets emotional, with Sabine screaming at Mom and Barriss, Barriss screaming as she tries getting Sof back, then the room lets out a groan as Darcy upends Barriss before Prime and Will flatten the clone.

Mr. Wren asks while flinching "Are all fights this physical? All I've seen is this and the fight in the alley with Ezra."

_With Shark Bait. That was part street fight too._

"No, not always. But this is how Sabine and the others all had to fight. Barriss, the clone and the other inquisitor would destroy them if they tried to play it even slightly close to even." Kanan reasons.

"You saw the Lothal fight. That is a lot more conventional." Ahsoka adds.

Sabine throws the lightsaber, causing Kanan to whistle in approval, followed by Sophie flying thru the air and—

"NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!"

"Oh my god." Hera blurts out as everyone looks on with horrified expressions. Mr. Wren looks down to his daughter in shock.

Sophie immediately runs away from everyone, straight to Chopper as he is holding a stool for her.

Sabine turns to me. "That looks so much worse in the playback."

"Not to me." I reply. "I thought it looked awful in the moment."

Rex eyes Echo briefly before speaking up. "Well, I don't think Sophie's ever going to go down quietly. You all have taught her that."

Leia miraculously catches Sophie after the Inquisitor threw her, followed by me blocking Barriss and everybody fleeing the area.

"That's some catch." Lux says.

"Explains why she had Sof when we saw them running for their lives." Echo replies.

"Where'd she go?" I ask.

_We never saw her after that._

"Got her in a transport, told her to lay low." Ahsoka explains.

Kanan smirks, then briefly pauses it. "This is the part I'm more interested in. It's three on one."

"Remind you of anything Ezra?" Ahsoka asks.

_Yeah. Two things. Palpatine versus Windu in his office, and Dooku/Anakin/Kenobi on Obi Diah._

I nod silently, causing Rex, Echo, Lux, all the Wren's and Zeb to look at Ahsoka.

"What are you talking about?" Rex asks Ahsoka pointedly.

In response, Ahsoka glances at Kanan. "Think I can let this out of the bag?"

"We've already seen it. If it's discovered, they can't stop us since we already have the footage." Kanan replies.

"Seen what?" Zeb asks as Lux looks at me.

"What have you got up your sleeve?" Lux asks Ahsoka.

"A trump card. It's really helped Ezra." Ahsoka smirks before typing rapidly and bringing up another window.

_Yup. _

Obi Diah.

The Force shakes as Rex and Echo's jaws both drop. "This…is unbelievable."

"No it's not." Ahsoka smiles. "You know where it came from. That makes it make all the sense in the galaxy."

Everybody's eyes are glued to the still of Anakin and Kenobi looking at the old man just before he gets choked.

"That's Kenobi." Lux states.

"You…that's your source." Rex says simply, looking oddly proud.

Ahsoka smiles. "Of course it is."

"He's your off world source you never told us about." Echo adds.

"Every time you leave, it's to go talk to him." Rex figures it out.

Mr. Wren glances at Ahsoka. "This." He points at Master Kenobi on the holo. "Is the same guy that we just met a few weeks ago?"

"yes." Ahsoka nods. "Take away a few years though."

"The purpose of these holos have been to show Ezra what the Jedi looked like when we were fighting in the war." Kanan explains to everyone.

Sophie pipes up. "Who is that?" while pointing to all three people on screen.

"Obi-Wan Kenobi, Anakin Skywalker, Count Dooku." Her mom points to each one while wearing a dead expression on her face.

"How'd you know Dooku?" Rex asks.

"I…" Mrs. Wren sighs. "I saw him speak with Pre Vizla on multiple occasions."

_She really was in the middle of all of this._

"I can't believe you have these." Echo says, still in awe. "These are _priceless_."

"It's proof everything happened." Rex adds.

Ahsoka beams. "Well of course they happened Rexy. But I know what you mean."

"Is that really Skywalker?" Zeb asks, sounding curious. "I never saw him, but his actions are the stuff of legend."

Ahsoka smiles again as Rex and Echo glance at each other. "That's my master Zeb. He taught me…so much."

"Really?" Sophie asks in amazement.

"Really Sof. I didn't know what a big deal it was at the time. Now…just watch. Ezra, you've already seen this."

Kanan plays it, followed by Dooku pointing his saber and Sabine glancing at me.

"You stole that."

I shake my head, then smile. "Maybe."

The fight begins as it always does, with Dooku taunting them, Anakin rushing Dooku and Dooku fending him, then Kenobi off.

I glance down ad see the flash of the lightsabers in Sophie's eyes then see everyone watching the fight in amazement.

"When was this?" Rex asks as the trio of fighters slip thru the door.

"Last half year of the War." Ahsoka says simply. "Right before…Fives."

"Fives?" Lux asks.

"Oh." Echo says simply.

The fighting continues with Kenobi providing only distraction for Dooku as he vigorously holds back Anakin.

Mr. Wren quietly says "I see a lot of similarities between this Dooku and Ezra to be honest."

"That's intentional." Kanan replies just as Kenobi almost falls off the edge.

"EEP!" Sophie squeaks and covers her mouth before Anakin saves him, then nearly gets his guts spilled out by Dooku and the fighting continues.

_I've watched this enough times now that the entire sequence makes a lot more sense._

Kenobi, Anakin and Dooku fight all the way to where Dooku stops to gather his breath, then Kanan stops it.

"We're showing you that first, so that when you see this." Ahsoka explains, bringing the Safe Zone fight back up. "You'll know what Ezra did."

Kanan hits play as the Inquisitor and clone advance on me. I block the Inquisitor, effortlessly transition to the clone, then to Barriss, then to Sorensu.

_You can visually tell. It's better._

I feel Mrs. Wren's attention perk up as I reduce the area I have to cover while holding back all three and retreating strategically.

"Ezra." I hear Sabine laugh in amazement.

_It's not over yet. I did my best work with that piece of wall._

Right on cue, I play the clone into the Inquisitor, buying me time then stop Barriss after she leaps over them and tried to get at me.

_Wall._

"This…is familiar." Rex sighs mournfully, causing me to turn around.

"Why?" Kanan looks back at him.

"Coruscant." Ahsoka answers quietly.

_Huh?_

Rex nods, looking sad as I take out the Inquisitor and clone, then block Barriss' lightning. Barriss screams in frustration, then the flaming projectile bounces in.

_And now Ahsoka and Kanan are here._

Kanan stops it, as Ahsoka is no longer looking at the holo, instead at the floor. "Ezra, you couldn't have played it more perfectly."

"What's Coruscant?" Sabine asks Ahsoka.

Lux turns to Sabine. "Stop."

"But—"

"Stop." Lux repeats himself.

…

_That must have been when Ahsoka was framed. She must have done something to counter the charges. Something to try and clear her name._

"Coruscant was outside the system." Ahsoka speaks up, pulling in everybody's attention. "Ezra, here worked within the system. It was a bunch of little things. The reduction of the area you had to cover, footwork, form, utilizing debris. Higher level thinking like blocking the lightning and maintaining your cool in the moment. That, all of that was _exactly_ what you had to do to get to that point. That's what we wanted to show you today."

"I don't think you could have done better." Kanan says warmly, then places his hand on my shoulder.

I smile sheepishly, then look at the floor. "It was all thanks to you guys teaching me. If you weren't so persistant, encouraging the footwork, the thinking, the forms, I would have fallen. But no, I did survive."

"You thrived." Zeb replied, and I turn to see him smile.

The room goes silent, and I notice that everyone has halted dinner preparations and is watching the paused holo.

"General Skywalker would have thought Ezra was a piece of work I think." Rex looks in Ahsoka's direction.

Ahsoka laughs. "Anakin gave me the idea for our hiding spot. After we left Safe Zone."

"The Balmorra Run?" Hera asks.

"The nebula." Ahsoka smirks, a look in her eye before clapping at Sof. "C'mon. Don't stop. You want to eat before midnight don't you?"

Sophie scrambles back to her salad spinner and starts working on the lettuce, causing her parents to smile.

"So you hid in a nebula?" Sabine asks.

Hera nods. "You can only jump so close to a nebula. It's very volatile so there's some safety built in."

"And some danger." Mr. Wren says darkly while smiling, getting Kanan and I to laugh.

"How'd you know to come here?" I ask, turning back to my task of chopping and destringing.

Sabine slips past me as Mr. Wren says "We didn't."

"We just tried think of places that you would think to go." Ahsoka reasons.

"Vandyne is pretty darling. You didn't mention the violet cirrus clouds." Mr. Wren says to Sabine.

"Vandyne?" Sabine repeats, spinning to face her father. "You went there?"

"Yup. Very pretty."

"This was our fifth guess." Mrs. Wren says, followed by the sounds of her applying spices.

_Five guesses. They probably have been just as stressed as we have been._

…

"So, dumb question. But what now?" Zeb asks the million credit question.

I turn back to him and shrug as nobody audibly responds immediately.

"Well, first we wait and see if anybody contacts us. There have been whispers about a Rebellion floating around the Outer Rim since we went to Lothal. Talks about conspiracy and an Imperial cover up." Ahsoka tells everyone.

Sabine laughs. "They're onto something."

"Exactly." Kanan replies.

"For now, I believe that we should wait to hear from anyone. Then we go as a group to Dxun and pick up, Darcy, Prime, everyone and go from there." Ahsoka proposes.

"But for now, we should focus on dinner." Mrs. Wren adds.

Lux walks over. "Move. Go sit."

_Fine._

They'll just keep pestering me until I do it.

I move away from the counter and float to the far wall. Hera floats over too and pulls me into a hug.

"Good job. You're doing so well."

I hug her back, then smile. "Thanks."

Out of nowhere, the Force rings out, causing me to pop my head up.

_What was that?_

Glancing over at Kanan, his eyebrows are furrowed. I turn to Ahsoka, who bites her lip before eying me and shrugging.

_She doesn't know either._

Nobody knows, really. We're just trying to get by over here.

_With the burden of history on us._

(A/N: Apologies for getting this up so late. You've got to love a work schedule that can call you in at any time, with this time being when I planned to finish this chapter. Hoep you enjoyed, and check back Monday! –James)


	97. New Road

The sun dips below the treetops, casting the gun turret into a dim, but not dark light. Out of nerves, I slide out of my chair, pull my lightsaber into my hand and clip it to my belt then eye myself in the mirror in the corner.

_I look back to normal._

Sabine patched all my clothes up while I rested over the last week and a half. Trained a little but mostly was forced to help with lunch, dinner and clean. Rex, Echo and Ahsoka occupied Sophie at the firing range, allowing Sabine and her parents to relax.

Kanan, Hera and Zeb made a quick supply run, but did relax a little bit. Less than Sabine's parents or Sabine liked though.

_I don't think they think they fit in great with Sabine's family._

They're wrong about that, but it's up to them.

I hear Sof start climbing down from the Phantom as I scale up to the crew area, where Rex, Echo and Sabine's parents already are.

"Clunk."

"Hi Ezra." I hear Sophie call out to me, causing me to turn and smile.

"Hey Sof. See anything cool up there?"

Sophie lit up then nodded. "Yeah! The stars were really pretty."

A gentle whirr causes Sof and I to look up and see Chopper peering down at us.

_Oh. He can't come down until Sof moves._

"Move Sof, he can't come down until you move."

Sophie rushes to my side, just before Chopper activates his rocket booster and slowly lowers himself down the ladder shaft.As Chopper lowers himself, the fire from his booster causes Sabine to poke her head out at us and make sure we're okay.

_Sophie would have been a fireball if she hadn't moved._

"Womp." Chopper says, then gently puts his arm on Sophie's shoulder. "Whoop womp whee wop."

_And that's just what Chopper told Sof._

"Sorry Choppy. I didn't think about that." Sophie says, then follows Chopper to the crew area.

"—nothing from traffic control. Which makes me think they've gone to ground." Ahsoka says to Kanan, Rex, Echo, Sabine and her parents as they're scattered throughout the crew area.

Mr. Wren is the first to speak. "By gone to ground you mean…?"

"That they're not doing anything to reveal themselves. To a potential friend, or a foe." Ahsoka answers.

"Like they're not even there." Rex adds.

The ship lands firmly and shakes, causing everyone to pop to their feet. Ahsoka turns to Kanan "I think we should take point walking out. Just in case there is trouble."

"Saw no signs that would point to an Imperial ambush." Hera calls out to Kanan.

Kanan nods then looks back to Ahsoka. "You want first shot?"

"You know me too well." Ahsoka smirks while leading the way, Kanan at her side with Sabine and I behind them.

Kanan slaps the bay door controls and the door slowly lowers, first blinding us with light then revealing the familiar gray—

"NO SUDDEN MOVES! HANDS WHERE WE CAN SEE THEM!"

_Whoa!_

I pull my lightsaber into my hand as Sabine grabs both of her blasters and start to raise them. At the same time, the door lowers enough to reveal soldiers surrounding the _Ghost._

"HANDS! IN THE AIR!" The man up front, holding a sawed off blaster barks at us.

"Whoa! Easy! We're on your side!" Kanan says reassuringly.

"Somehow I doubt that." The man growls in response.

Suddenly a Sabine elbow causes me to look up where she's pointing.

_Prime._

"Prime!" I call out, causing his head to snap to my voice.

"Excuse me—" Rex mutters to Sabine and I as he muscles past us, then Kanan. "Stand down soldier."

"Captain Rex." The man says in astonishment.

Rex gestures for all the soldiers to lower their weapons as he strides off the _Ghost_. "Why the overreaction?" He asks the soldier as Ahsoka, Kanan, Sabine and I all follow him.

"You're the first ship we've seen in weeks. We've been forced to assume the worst."

Out of the corner of my eye I see Prime walking up to us.

"Hey." I turn and smile. "How's it—"

A blaster barrel coming to rest on the side of my head cuts me off.

"Prime!" Sabine snaps at him, sounding angry.

"How do I know it's the real Ezra?" Prime responds. "tell me. What did you bring right after the fight at MandalMotors?"

_MandalMotors. Bread. I brought bread as sort of a peace offering._

"I brought you guys bread. Because it was right after Ordo. Figured it couldn't hurt." I say simply, then feel the ice cold barrel still resting on the side of my head.

Then it's gone.

"Okay. Good. It is you. Sorry sir." Prime smiles sheepishly as he slips his blaster back into it's holster. as multiple men hustle towards us.

_Orir, Will and Kal._

Sabine doesn't return his smile, instead hitting him firmly in the chest. "_Hukaat ser sera_. _Ori'haat_"(A/N: Watch yourself. It's the truth.)

"He's just being careful." I reassure Sabine. "Better that than to assume and be wrong." ]

Prime sheepishly smiles as Sabine is still frowning at him. "Thanks. It's not personal."

A tap on my shoulder causes me to turn. "Gather everyone up. Eighth floor. Bring Darcy and the others as well." Kanan tells me, then starts walking away with Sabine's parents, Lux, Zeb, Rex, Echo, Ahsoka and Hera.

"Okay." I say as Will, Kal and Orir arrive.

"Sometimes good things do happen I guess." Orir says grimly as Chopper wheels over to us.

Sophie runs past us, straight to Will who scoops her up and hugs her. "Hey!" Sophie immediately hugs him back before Sof is hugged by Prime, Kal and Orir as well. Beside me, Sabine smiles softly and brushes off the side of my head where the blaster was.

"You okay? Where'd you guys go?" Kal asks Sof, Sabine and I.

Sabine smiles. "Long story. Can you comm Darcy and the girls? Kanan and Ahsoka want us all to meet them on the eighth floor.

"Home." Sophie smiles and answers brightly before Will sets her down on her feet.

Prime doesn't answer Sof, instead hitting his comm. "Hey."

A moment passes before Katiey's voice rings out. "Hey. Sorry, at the range."

"Not anymore. Eighth floor. Hurry." Prime answers as we all start towards the main building.

"Why?"

"Our fearless leader has returned with the rest of the _Ghost._"

A loud squeal causes me to jump, as well as Kal and Sophie. "On our way!"

Prime shuts off his comm in disdain and shakes his head. "My ears…"

"So loud…" Sabine winces.

"What have you guys been doing?" Sophie pipes up happily as we trek to the compound.

Kal and Orir shrug. "Not much." Will explains.

"Just waiting for somebody to show up. We told the skeleton staff here what happened at Safe Zone, and how we might need to pack up and leave at any time. But since then we haven't heard anything from anyone."

"Nothing?" Sabine asks.

"We didn't hear anything from anyone either." I tell them, causing worry to flash onto all of their faces.

Prime sighs to himself, then looks at Kal, Will and Orir as we arrive at the front door. "Nothing. Are we alone?"

I grab the door, shrugging as I do it and let everyone inside.

_I don't know if we are or not. _

But at least my part of the Rebellion is intact.

_I'm being selfish, maybe too much._

The seven of us all march up to the eighth floor and Kal opens the door in time to see Ahsoka talking to a cluster of men.

"—We'll get everybody on the same page in a couple of hours. Right now, I want to make sure _my team_ knows exactly what it is doing. I can't give you guys an accurate picture if we don't have our ships in a row."

"Understandable General." One of them replies.

Ahsoka continues. "I would like to get some drinks for this meeting though."

"Oh!" Sophie lights up. "Can I get a juice?" She asks her parents.

"Please." Mr. Wren adds, mollified.

The men all quickly exit the room, allowing Mr. Wren to start working on the holo.

"Prime, boys." Kanan waves his hand as a greeting.

"General." Prime nods in response.

"You holding up okay?" Mrs. Wren asks, looking over.

Kal shrugs before Will responds "Hanging in there."

"Do we have any idea where we go from here?" Orir asks. "Or are we just done?"

"We're not done." Ahsoka says quietly. "But I don't know where we're going from here. That's why I'm having this meeting. To see if anybody has any ideas."

I glance over at Sabine and am met with an anxious look back at me.

_Great._

The door suddenly bangs open, causing Sabine to jump in fright behind me and for all the girls to rush towards Sophie.

"Oh we've been so worried…" Lana blurts as they all engulf Sophie in a hug for a moment.

…

I hear Mrs. Wren laugh, and Will rolls his eyes with a smile before Aidan looks up. "Oh."

Lana, Brie, Katiey, Aidan, Mira and Darcy's heads all pop up, then they step away from Sof.

_Maybe a little too aggressive._

"Okay…you girls always complained about not knowing what's going on…"

"We didn't complain General." Darcy corrected her.

Ahsoka simply gave Darcy a sideways look. "Well, you're here for the meeting. Sit down, stand, do whatever. Drinks should be here in a moment."

"What's the meeting about?" Kal asks.

Kanan shrugs while Ahsoka starts to boot up the holo. "What we know. What to do next."

"You mean you don't know what our next move is?" Katiey asks.

"No." Ahsoka replies. "That's why we're meeting in a base on a planet the Empire considers uninhabited."

Sabine nervously looks at me, then shrugs before the room falls silent.

"So here's where we stand. We believe that the Empire captured Safe Zone, but due to the EMP that was placed there, no valuable intel was gained." Rex said.

"Ezra's mother has been captured." Echo adds.

"And we lost all of our momentum that could help lead us to the Death Star." Ahsoka finishes, looking discouraged. "The key right now is making our next move a good one."

Rex turns to Darcy "After the Empire captures an area, what's their standard protocol?"

"Gather all intelligence, attempt to lure people back in by giving off a false signal that everything is actually fine then attempt to continue destroying the group they're after."

"Like a dragonsnake." Echo says.

Katiey, Mira and Brie all visibly react. "How'd you know the name?" Lana asks Echo.

"Because." Echo smiled. "I named it."

"Then why ask if you already know?" Aidan fires back.

"I didn't. So I asked." Echo explains.

Beside Echo, Rex glances at Ahsoka. "So Safe Zone is off limits."

Ahsoka nods solemnly.

"Why not send exploratory parties out to find other abandoned stations like Safe Zone was?" Will asks.

"Yeah! Wasn't it built around the time of the Clone Wars?" Kal lights up.

Echo shook his head. "No."

"It took four years just to find Safe Zone, floating around in space, completely forgotten. Plus the time it took just to make it habitable for even a small group of people, then having it become the base of operations—" says Rex.

"And we only got a couple of years out of it." Echo finishes, looking discouraged.

"Uphill climb." Mira says simply.

Hera smiles. "Oh yeah."

"Do you want me to contact Saw?" Lux asks Ahsoka very…gently.

_His voice got softer._

"No." Ahsoka scowls, and Sabine' eyes shift over to.

"But—"

Ahsoka cut him off. "Turning to Saw Gerrera as our first move would only inflame things with Leia and her father. They are our power base Lux."

"Not right now. We don't have—"

"We have more than we think. Right now though, we're all rattled. Saw's…Saw hasn't exactly helped himself." Ahsoka sighs.

"Last I heard he freed up an entire barracks for the Empire thanks to his Partisans." Zeb speaks up.

"Who is Saw Gerrera?" I ask Ahsoka and Lux.

"Somebody we fought with back in the Clone Wars." Ahsoka says, leaving no room for discussion.

Rex steps forward. "I agree with Ahsoka. The attack on Safe Zone most likely means that we were too out in the open. We need to slip back into the shadows, where the Empire does it's best work."

_Makes sense._

I reach out with the Force on a whim, trying to see if I can get an idea in my head.

_I have no clue what we should do._

"Would it be too crazy to just lay low? Everybody go back to what they were doing a year ago? Play it casual?" Mr. Wren throws out.

"Doing that would weaken resolve. It'd be a sign that if the road gets tough we get going. And that can't happen." Rex disagrees politely.

Immediately Sabine's father relents. "Okay. That's not where I was going at all. Didn't mean to offend."

"You didn't Carid." Lux smiles.

Three short raps on the door cause me to jump. "General Tano? The drinks you requested for have come up from the kitchens along with some snacks."

Ahsoka simply waves her hand, the door pops open to reveal three soldiers pushing two carts loaded with food and drink.

"Thank you." Kanan nods to the soldiers before they quickly leave the room.

"Uhm, Generals. I, uhm, would be more than happy to ask around back on Mandalore if anyone knows anything. If you would like that." Prime says, sounding very nervous.

"It's an option." Rex says neutrally.

Mr. Wren shakes his head. "The new Prime Minister is proving to be a difficult nut to crack. He's being very diplomatic with the Imperial garrison and representatives."

"A little too nice." Kal says darkly.

A tug in the Force behind me causes me to turn and see Sophie raising a shaking hand.

_Huh?_

"Guys." Darcy says simply.

"Yeah _ad'ika_?" Mrs. Wren smiles.

"…" Sophie says, mouthing the words too quietly for us to hear.

Sabine turns to me. "What'd she say?"

"We can't hear you sweetheart." Ahsoka says strongly, crouching down to Sophie's height.

"I…anybody can help right?" Sophie whispers while quivering.

Darcy nods firmly. "Yeah. Anybody can help. Right?"

"Right." Rex nods as Echo crouches down beside her.

"Did you hear something?"

The room goes silent as Sophie doesn't say anything for a moment.

"What's a youngling?" She asks, looking up at Echo.

_Youngling?_

"A youngling?" Rex asks, turns to Ahsoka with a shocked expression.

A youngling is a Jedi at a very, very young age.

_Like Sophie's age._

"A youngling is a Jedi around your age Sof." Echo answers her.

"Under 12." Ahsoka specifies.

"You were with them. The clone and the others." Darcy begins.

Sabine glances at me as Will asks "Did you hear something?"

Sophie nods, then ducks her head shyly. "I think I did."

"What is it _Soph'ika_?" Mr. Wren prods her along.

…

"They blew up the floor, then asked me 'Where are the younglings?' They thought they were my friends." Sophie says to everyone.

_Oh this just got so much worse._

It was a three part plan. 1. Get Mom 2. Try to kidnap Sof 3. Kidnap younglings?

I look over to Kanan and Ahsoka both looking flabbergasted.

"We didn't have any younglings." Rex answers Sof.

"I didn't know what it was. So I asked. And I got shushed by Ezra. Ezra never shushes me." Sophie says bluntly.

_Yeah, I always try to value what she has to say._

I smile at her as Aidan says "And that's when you realized that he wasn't Ezra."

"Plus he was shorter and had a different lightsaber." Sophie adds on, voice coming back to her.

"That's what they really want." Ahsoka says, pivoting the entire room to pay attention to her. "Years ago during the Clone Wars, a bounty hunter attempted to kidnap a few Younglings that were on the Jedi Order's rolls. And my Master and I were able to get them back to their families." She finishes, looking somber.

_Those kids never got to be Jedi._

I hope they aren't dead. They'd be 20 or 21 now probably.

"They want to continue the cycle." Kanan says darkly.

"Oh no." Sabine mutters as Prime catches my eye, looking horrified.

"They're indoctrinated?" He asks Ahsoka and Kanan.

"Would _you_ join knowingly?" Lux asks right back sarcastically.

Kanan's scowl deepens. "They have to justify it to them. You're doing it for the good of your family. Keeping everyone safe. You're protecting the Empire. You're stopping people who want to cause things to change."

"Fear." Ahsoka sums up.

_Sof found it._

"We've got to…I don't know. If the Inquisitors want younglings, that's how we find them." I say.

"Use what they want as the bait." Lana jumps ahead.

Ahsoka lets out a heavy sigh. "I…need to do some research. Now." She says firmly, then turns to Kanan. "I'll need yours and Ezra's help, but I don't know when yet."

"Give the General our regards." Rex smirks.

_She's going to contact Kenobi._

"I always do Rex." Ahsoka smirks at him before turning back to Kanan. "Tell everybody that I can't meet with them. We probably won't be long for this base. We're going hunting."

Kanan nods, then starts towards the door, prompting the rest of us to follow him. We all reach the door as he is speaking to a couple of uniformed men.

"—e've figured out our next move. Unfortunately that means Ahsoka needs time to contact somebody offworld."

"Offworld? That isn't safe right now!" A unfamiliar man says, beginning to get agitated. Behind me, I feel Darcy and Brie push Sophie along.

Kanan scowls but slides aside for us all to get past him. "I know you're upset, but I'm afraid that isn't what we need right now. We're trying to find our ways out of this."

"C'mon. Let's get you guys back home and settled in." Prime says to Darcy, who nods while pulling Sof along.

"Okay. Our place?" Sabine asks Darcy, who nods and causes Sophie to light up.

"YAY!"

"You've earned it Sof." Kal bends down and ruffles her hair.

Suddenly Darcy rocks forward and Chopper appears next to Sof. "Womp Womp?"

Sophie effortlessly climbs onto Chopper and smiles contently as Chop maintains speed.

_He's giving her a ride._

"We want to help you find them. Those Inquisitors." Will says.

"They aren't that bad. They can be handled." Orir adds, speaking for the first time in a long time.

Sabine smiles. "I think we can have you all along. We all have separate ships."

We all proceed out into the front courtyard and down to the path that leads to Sabine and I's…

_Complex? Building?_

I know that I'm feeling oddly nostalgic.

"So we also found something." Brie speaks up as we're surrounded on all sides by foliage.

_It's darker than I remember._

"Maybe. It's promising." Darcy compromises.

Prime proclaims "We…might not be alone."

"Really?" Sabine smiles.

"Not the way you think." Will frowns.

Sabine's face falls. "Oh."

"Kind of." Katiey says amicably. "Can Chopper enter the HoloNet from a secure dataport?"

Chopper makes an indignant noise and turns around to face Katiey before Sophie whacks her hand on Chop's dome.

"Choppy! No! She doesn't know how smart you are. Be nice!" Sophie commands Chopper, who…listens.

In shock, Sabine turns to me. "Did Chopper just listen?"

"Yeah."

"Baaaahhhh!" Chopper speeds up to the front door of Sabine and I's place.

_It is our place._

"So." Will says while turning to the girls.

"Right." Mira smiles.

Darcy cuts them both off. "So we've been having a ton of downtime. And after a few days of doing absolutely nothing—"

"They kicked back into Imperial Mode." Prime smirked at me, causing Brie to turn and smack him in the chest.

"That's not a bad thing!" She chastises him.

Prime raises his hands defensively before Darcy continues as we walk thru the suddenly clean front area and start up a ladder.. "We went looking for other underground groups that might not be such big fans of the Empire."

I let Sabine start climbing before I say "Okay…"

"There seems to be an entire age group, or a large part of it that aren't big fans of the Empire." Lana explains as I reach the top area, complete with bedside table, bed and a holoterminal.

"Okay. Did you guys already prep this stuff?" Sabine asks as Sophie pokes her head up over the ladder.

Kal shrugs. "We've been bored."

Sophie sneaks up behind him and wraps Kal up in a hug. "Thank you!"

"You're welcome." Kal smiles at her.

"It's mostly political stuff. They don't like how xenophobic the Empire is, wants more freedoms, that sort of thing." Prime speaks up. "I don't know about a fit with us."

"But…they're everywhere other than the Outer Rim. The Empire doesn't view them as a threat since they are ideologues mostly." Darcy explains.

"Can they be useful?" Sabine asks as Chopper propels himself over the guard railing and plugs into the holo.

"Look up 'X-Space' Chopper. Please." Will asks politely. In response, Chop flippantly salutes him and images start flying on the holo.

"16-23 mostly. Idealists. But there's a lot of them. On a lot of planets. I think they could be worth looking into." Darcy finishes her pitch, then looks to Sabine and I.

Glancing over, Sabine is chewing on her lip like always when she's debating somebody. "Mid-Rim?"

"Mid-Rim, Core Worlds, Corp-Sec, they're not small."

"Are they secure?" I ask.

Aidan nods. "The Empire doesn' think they're anything other than a political group. But we believe that they are maturing as a group and coming around to our way of thinking."

"Takes some guts to fight for what you believe in." Kal says simply.

Chopper is still flying thru files as Darcy turns to Sof. "What do you think?"

Sophie instead looks to Sabine. "Why didn't you tell Mommy?"

"Tell Mommy what?" Prime asks as the girls all shoot curious glances as Sof.

"No. Sof, don't you—" Sabine warns her.

Sophie ignores her and turns to Darcy. "Ezra and Sabine got married."

"SOPHIE!" Sabine says angrily.

_Now WE can't tell them!_

SOF!

I cross my arms in frustration as all the girls light up and I think kal and Will clap me on the back.

"That's awesome! Congratulations!" Darcy beams at Sabine and I.

"How long?" Mira smiles.

"Uhm…since right before Ezra met Prime and his battalion."

The Force suddenly heaves and prime snaps "WHAT?!"

"You've been married _this whole time?!_" Will asks incredulously.

Sabine turns around and frowns at them. "It's not the right time! Nothing has felt right, felt organic. I feel like it'd be shoehorned in, and it's more important than that!"

"But you've got to tell people!" Lana counters.

"Why didn't you say anything sir?" Prime asks, causing me to turn around while having a hurt expression.

"Because, you're the third, fourth, fifth, sixth and so on people to know! Only Sof knew before now!" I say defensively.

"Well I'm telling Mommy. If you don't tell them soon."

Sabine frowns at her. "No. You can't do that. That's not how this works. I'm your older sister. You listen to me."

"I don't like keeping secrets." Sophie spits out, looking frustrated.

_Well…_

Keeping secrets is part of growing up Sof.

Sabine turns and gives me a weary look as behind her, Sophie gets a big hug from Darcy, Mira and Aidan.


	98. Evaluation

"We should have a decent fix on a place in the galaxy by the time you guys come back." Kanan smiled with Hera at his side and Ahsoka and Lux behind him.

"Not having you around will reduce meditation distractions." Ahsoka teases me, causes Sabine, Kanan, Hera, Lux and Rex all to crack and laugh.

"Ramordia. Never been there." Lux says.

"Bo and I have. They have a great restaurant scene." Mr. Wren smiles wistfully.

Hera glances in front of Sabine and I where the Wren's plus Sof are leading the way to the _Phantom. _"Restaurant scene? Did you have a favorite?"

Both the Wren's nod. "There's a Corellian place." Mr. Wren smiles at Hera, then at me.

_Oh no._

I know this look.

"You need to take her." Mrs. Wren lovingly jabs me in the chest.

_Blast it._

"We actually have an important mission!" I counter. "I don't think we'll have time."

Sabine sadly nods beside me. "Unless we can make time."

"Chop's flying you guys. What's the difference of a few hours on a hyperspace route?" Ahsoka shrugs.

I hang my head before sighing while we all continue to walk. "I'd love to. But we're potentially expanding the Rebellion!"

"There's time." Mrs. Wren counters with a smirk.

I turn to Kanan. "Help. I'm being ganged up on."

"Go!" Sophie pipes up happily.

"Can't help. Hera and I already heard their pitch." Kanan tells me as Hera smiles widely.

"Pitch." Sabine turns to Hera.

"Echo is going to get you two reservations once he has a decent guess at your landing time." Lux explains.

Slightly annoyed, I turn back to the Wren's. "Guys. Thank you. But—"

Mrs. Wren cuts me off. "No. You two need a night off. Dare I call it a date."

"It's a date." Mr. Wren smirks like he just swallowed a canary.

"I hate to admit it, Ezra has a point." Sabine gestures to me, then lets her hands fall heavily.

"Doesn't matter. I've already packed you a change of clothes and put it in a bag which is already on the _Phantom._" Mrs. Wren smiles at her daughter.

_When she came and woke Sof up for breakfast this morning. She had a bag._

Dismayed, I turn to Mr. Wren. "Sir. How long have you had this planned?"

"It was actually spontaneous. Bo and I remembered the name from the restaurant."

"It's won culinary awards and is just a little better than what the Organa's and others pay for." Mrs. Wren adds.

I counter "The food is good!"

"But it doesn't win awards!" Hera adds helpfully.

"Guys!" I finally snap, annoyed. "We're meeting with a group that might eventually become part of the Rebellion. And you want us to go out to a restaurant?"

"There's a plan." Ahsoka finally reveals.

Mr. Wren adds. "You will look less suspicious if you go from that meeting to a dinner reservation as opposed to right back to where you park the _Phantom._"

"Oh come on." I say wearily, causing Sabine to laugh to herself.

"Do you not want to take her out?" Lux asks helpfully.

"LUX!" I bite at him.

Sabine backs me up, smiling widely. "You know how linear he is."

"Straight line." Rex says.

"See enemy, get enemy." Ahsoka pipes up.

"I think creatively!" I defend myself.

"Creatively straight maybe." Mrs. Wren cracks.

_This is ridiculous._

"The change of clothes is in the duffel _Ad'ika_. I hope your Jedi loosens up while you're there." Mrs. Wren smiles at Sabine as we all arrive at the _Phantom._

I extend my arms in frustration out to my sides. "Hey!"

"They love you. Like we all do." Ahsoka pacifies me before turning serious. "You know what it takes to succeed here. See if they're ready or if they need to be a satellite for a bit."

"But we just want you guys to be normal for a night." Hera hugs me from behind.

"We will be!" Sophie pipes up.

Her father stops smirking at me to look down at Sof. "We?"

"You…" Rex says gently but firmly. "Are not going."

"But it's non-combat!" Sophie argues. "Nobody's going to fight! I'll be fine!"

"You're staying here." Sabine crouches down to Sof's height.

Sophie crosses her arms. "I wanna go!"

"You can't." Sabine frowns before reaching out and tucking a strand of hair behind Sophie's ear.

Immediately Sof pivots to look at me. "Please?"

_Don't do this Sof._

"Sof…" I sigh, then hang my head. "Just because it's non-combat doesn't mean it's safe. These people might not be who Darcy says they are."

"Or kid friendly." Ahsoka adds.

"Pleeeeease?" Sophie says, looking up at me with wide eyes.

Mrs. Wren frowns. "Sophine."

"I wanna go! I'll be good, listen to everything Ezra and Sabine say! I'll even eat all my food!" Sophie bargains with her mother.

_She's not going._

"Honey." Lux crouches down to Sophie's height right beside her. "You can't go. It's not that they don't want you."

_Eh…_

It will be nice to have a moment away from Sof. I love her to death but she's been around Sabine and I every day for a while.

Sophie lets out a frustrated whine in response before slamming her closed fists against her legs.

Kanan claps me on the shoulder as Sabine pulls Sof into a gentle hug. "Trust your instincts. We're on your comm thru Chopper." Behind him, Lux gives me his customary salute.

I hug Hera, then crouch down to where Sof is waiting for me.

"Pleeeeeeeeeeaseeeee?" Sophie begs me while hugging me tight.

_She's crying._

"Hey. We'll be right back. It's gonna be boring anyway."

Sophie looks up at me. "Bring me something back?"

I laugh, then hug her again. "We'll try. I don't know if there will be something good."

"I love you." Sophie whispers, then hugs me tighter.

I hug her back, then whisper "Love you too." And kiss the top of her head before standing up and finding Mrs. Wren's eyes.

"Their salad, loin and chops and macaroni curls with chunks of fried bantha bacon is what I recommend." She immediately smiles at me.

"Okay." I sigh then hug her. "I'll take it under consideration."

"Finally. You relent." Mrs. Wren smirks before letting me go, allowing Mr. Wren to extend his credit stick.

"Dad…" Sabine groans.

"Sir." I protest.

Mr. Wren smiles. "I…don't care. Take it. Dinner is on us. Get a glass of wine or something."

"Money is not an object." Ahsoka smiles at us.

"Just keep it reasonable please." Mr. Wren amends Ahsoka.

Begrudgingly I take the credit stick and slip it into my pocket. "Thank you."

"You're welcome." Mr. Wren smiles.

"Have fun!" Rex waves.

"Try the macaroni!" Mrs. Wren insists.

Sabine loops her arm around my waist. "I won't be able to resist that."

I wave one more time, then gently usher Sabine inside the Phantom and allow Chopper to close the back hatch. The engines then fire, and we start forward, then start climbing vertically.

"Hey, I know we're alone now but would you mind if I got some sleep?" Sabine asks, turning to me.

"Of course not." I tell her.

Sabine sleepily smiles at me, then starts digging out the pillow and blanket out of one of the storage compartments.

(Hours Later)

"Gssshhhh…"

"Okay. They say they've upped security. The address is Adia 819 Avenue. I'm going to comm them and make sure they know you're coming."

"But not that it's actually us." Sabine smiles.

Darcy laughs. "I just hope they're not too big of fans of you guys. Maddie said that they were analyzing some Lothal footage tonight."

"We'll focus them." I reassure her. "Thanks for doing all this legwork."

"Let's just hope this goes well. As I said, they're not ready quite yet."

Sabine shrugs. "If they were ready, I think they'd be doing more."

"Good point. I'm switching over."

The comm goes dark, and the hatch opens.

"Thanks Chop. We'll keep you posted when we're heading back here."

"_Womp whee wop wop."_

Dinner reservations are one to three hours from now, whenever we can make it.

Sabine laughs, then rests her head on my shoulder. "Thanks Chop."

I gently lead her out of the _Phantom_ and into the small, low walled and dimly lit spaceport

_Huh. It's only 7 at night and it's completely dark._

Sabine's new outfit, consisting of an Alderaanian Bomber jacket, stylized t-shirt, dark, form fitting pants and boots holds my attention until we're outside and walking the street.

"Two more streets up, then make a left." Sabine looks at her wrist projector.

I nod. "Okay." Before Sabine slinks backs to me and leans into me.

_Just two teenagers in love. Nothing to see here._

Well…she definitely is.

_I can feel how happy she is right now._

"You know I did want to take you out." I break our silence as we walk.

Sabine nods before looking up at me. "I know. And I understand your point about this meeting. It is more important."

"I don't think I said it quite right." I say meekly.

Sabine responds by smiling, rising up to her tiptoes and kissing me on the cheek. "It's okay. I love you anyway."

I smile, then glance at her. "You know I can feel how happy you are."

"I know." Sabine responds. "How does it feel?"

We round a corner before I give her my answer. "Honestly?"

"No, lie to me." Sabine quips back.

"It feels like you're shining like a sun."

Sabine's expression quickly changed to shock, then amazement before she smiles. "That's…about how I feel."

"Please don't burst into flame. That would make me sad."

Sabine laughs, then wraps both of her arms around me and rests her head on my shoulder for a few steps before speaking again. "This is it."

819 Adia. The numbers shine dully in the streetlight.

Sabine lets me go only to punch the buzzer to the left of the door.

Then we both wait for a moment.

…

A door opens, revealing a short, round faced blonde girl before she pulls back a metal gate. "Hi. Are you Darcy's fr—" She asks before stopping and gaping at us.

"Yup. That's us." Sabine smiles warmly. "What's your name?"

"Uhh…I'm Maddie." She answers blankly.

_Starstruck._

This is interesting.

"Hi Maddie, I'm Sabine. And this is Ezra."

Maddie's eyes track over to me, unfocused.

"Can we come in?" I ask, trying to break the tension.

"Uh huh…" Maddie sputters, stepping back and allowing me to grab the gate for Sabine.

I let her go first before slipping past the gate and shutting the door behind me.

A quiet buzz drifts up thru the stairwell before a familiar voice reaches my ears.

"Just don't be weird. Don't make it awkward. They've come to see if you guys could help us down the road." Darcy tells an unseen person.

"We want to help now Darcy!" Somebody counters.

"That's not up to you. Or them really. The leadership here always takes it slow when it comes to inducting new people. I hated it too when I joined, but now I understand."

"Are you talking about that rumored Imperial offensive against the Rebels?" Someone asks as I round the corner and see the bottom of the stairwell.

_And a room full of people._

The room goes silent as Maddie slips past everyone then parts for Sabine and I to be able to make it up to the front of the room, where a holo is positioned next to what looks like a bar.

"Thanks for the warning." Maddie says to Darcy.

Darcy smiles. "I didn't want you guys to make it super obvious who it was. Giving you guys a heads up would have done that."

"You know Ezra Bridger and the Mandalorian personally?" A guy asks.

Darcy smiles softly. "I do."

"Sabine Noux." Sabine speaks up, then waves to the room. "Thanks for having us."

_She changed her name._

Her real name is still dangerous. I should have expected that.

"And you already know me." I joke, getting a few nervous laughs.

"Are you really a Jedi?" Somebody loudly asks.

_Blast._

"That's not why they are here." Darcy quickly cuts the question off. "They can't be here for too long, they have places to be and we don't want to expose all of you."

"Do you…want a drink?" Maddie nervously asks me, eyeing both Sabine and I off to my right.

Sabine nods. "Please."

"Water would be great. Thank you." I smile at Maddie, who quickly starts getting two glasses.

"Darcy said you were going to look at the Lothal footage?" Sabine changes topics effortlessly.

A few people nod in affirmation before I ask "How'd you get this?"

"We've got a few galaxy class slicers and hackers. They can get in almost anywhere."

Sabine immediately replies "I would be careful with that. I accidentally got a family of Hutts arrested because I was lazy with my IP usage."

"We always have it dead end somewhere, usually wild space or a nebula or something." A higher pitched voice says, causing me to see a lanky blonde guy with square glasses.

_That'd weird._

Glasses. Like physical glasses.

"That's good." Sabine compliments him before smiling.

"Have you all seen this footage before?"

Multiple people nod before somebody says "We had it live. Before they doctored the ending."

"Can you show us your lightsaber?" Somebody in the back asks. I quickly flash my eyes to the back and don't both hiding my annoyance.

_Immature. That'll be a note._

"No. He can't." Sabine tells the back of the room bluntly.

"Focus." Darcy rolls her eyes before a male voice floats in behind her.

"Who is with you Darcy?" Sabine asks, turning to face her.

"Everyone. My girls and Ezra's guys." Darcy says just before Mira's face appears above Darcy's shoulder and she squints and smiles.

The whole room laughs before Darcy shoves her away. "We're in the middle of the meeting. I'm trying to focus them."

"How old are the people there?" I hear Will ask Darcy.

"How old is everyone here?" Sabine asks the room.

"16 to 23." Maddie answers succinctly, handing us each a glad of cold water.

"Thanks." I smile at her before turning to the room. "What do you guys want to get done here?"

"Like with this group." Sabine clarifies for me.

"We want to affect change here on Ramordia." Somebody volenteers.

"More freedoms, eventually a democratic government here. Then help see those changes to the Republic." Someone else says.

"So you want to go back to the Republic." Darcy reads the room, causing many in the room to nod.

I laugh to myself before smiling.

_Leia is going to laugh when she hears about this._

"Do you guys know what that means?" I ask the room.

"What do you mean?" A guy asks.

I lean back onto the bar. "You want a government change. An entire regime change. This regime dates back to the Clone Wars. All the people that are in charge now like Emperor Palpatine were in charge then. Do you really think they're going to just give up power because you ask nicely and have a few good points?"

"It's a process." A girl says wisely.

"It is." Sabine speaks up.

"You're right. We're in the middle of that process now. That holo right there? That wasn't supposed to happen. That was more direct regime change." I say.

"And it failed pretty miserably." Darcy adds behind me.

"How do you know?" Maddie asks.

"Because my team and I are the ones Ezra bailed out." Darcy points out.

The room pivots back to me, and I can almost feel their nerves and awe.

"What I'm really getting at here." I speak up. "Is do you really know what you think you're doing? What that means? Are you willing to get your hands dirty?"

A male voice speaks up. "We'd prefer this to be nonviolent."

Sabine shakes her head and mutters "Idealists." to herself.

_Just like on Mandalore._

"Unfortunately you have to get your hands dirty. The Empire only sees things as goals. You can talk underground all you want. But if you pop your head up or hit a strategic target of theirs?" I lead to Sabine.

"They'll flatten you." Sabine finishes strongly.

The room is silent for a moment.

"Also: Can you play with others? People you don't agree with? We're a ragtag group that comes from every corner of the galaxy. This room is about as nice as it gets. And there are rules." Sabine asks.

"Are you in this for the long haul?" I ask finally, then sit back.

_And wait for an answer._

The room breaks out into whispers before I look to Darcy, who smirks at me.

"You don't want us to actually join. Do you?" A male voice asks directly at me.

I snap my eyes up and find him around the third or fourth row of people.

_Let's get in the middle of them._

Popping to my feet I ask "Why do you ask that? We wouldn't be here if we weren't seriously considering having you aboard."

"You're destroying us. Tearing us down. I'm sorry we haven't been able to affect more direct change like you guys." He says, allowing me to walk right up to him.

I smile, then sip my water. "We really haven't affected anything. It's a battle in the shadows."

"It's honestly amazing how well informed you actually are." Sabine speaks up from the front.

I nod in agreement. "I'm being blunt for a reason guys. This isn't easy. If it was, we'd have more people. I've had two bases assaulted and been tortured by people straight out of your nightmares. But it made me stronger." I say strongly.

"Durasteel sharpens Durasteel." Sabine says. "We're battle hardened. The leadership trusts us. Most people are like you guys."

_She's the good Stormtrooper, I'm the bad Stormtrooper._

"There's going to eventually be a battle for power. Some day." I say, as Vader's words echo in my mind.

"We want you guys, but there is some stuff that we have to have answered." Sabine says up front.

"How are we doing?" Maddie asks Darcy.

Darcy noncommittally shrugs before I hear Prime. "Can I pop in?"

"Yeah." I say loudly, then turn back in time to see him replace Darcy.

"Sir." He nods to me before addressing the crowd. "Guys, this isn't about intentions or ability right now. This is about your readiness. If we can bring you into the fold now or not."

_WHOA!_

A hand darts down at my lightsaber, but before they can grab it I pull it into my hand and activate it, finding the thief and point my lightsaber right between their eyes.

_It's a guy._

"How STUPID are you?" I ask loudly. "Do you want to die?" I ask him.

"No sir. I just wanted to—

_See it._

"See it?" I cut him off. "Well here it is." I say bitterly. "The most dangerously weapon in the galaxy. Get a good look."

I keep my lightsaber pointed right between his eyes for a moment before Sabine says "You know, what we're looking for aren't words. It's actions."

"Kiely you bantha." A male voice insults him.

_They think they're blowing it._

"I'm sorry about him." A girl smiles up at me kindly.

I deactivate my lightsaber then walk back to Darcy and Sabine up front.

"How integrated are they in this X-Space group?" Sabine looks up to Darcy.

Darcy shrugs. "Mildly. They're about in the middle. The more disciplined groups are in the core like Alderaan."

"Well we know who is running that." I laugh, causing Sabine to smile.

"Yeah, we do know that." Darcy smiles.

"I think we've got all of the answers we need" Sabine turns to me.

_Yeah._

I turn back to the room. "Thank you very much for your hospitality, and your time. Please be safe getting home."

Maddie immediately leads us up a back stairwell in silence for a moment. "I'm so sorry about that."

"I'm not actually mad." I clarify for her. "I just don't like people trying to steal my lightsaber."

"Well…he's an idiot." Maddie sighs. "I hope we didn't blow it."

"Not entirely." Sabine smiles kindly at her as we arrive at the ground floor and start towards the front door.

Maddie looks relieved as she grabs the front door for us. "But really…thank you for coming. Just having you two is an honor."

"Thanks." I smile sheepishly. "We're just people like you. I like to sleep in just like you all do."

Sabine and Maddie both laugh just before Sabine pulls open the gate.

"Safe travels back home." Maddie waves to us as I let the gate close behind me.

"Thanks." I smile. "Keep in contact with Darcy. She's good."

Maddie nods, and in response I allow Sabine to start pulling me in the general direction of the restaurant.

We both walk in silence until we reach the street corner and make a left.

"Chop, can you get me those directions to the restaurant?" Sabine asks.

"_Wop womp wop."_

Eh.

"It went okay." I shrug.

"They aren't ready yet. Think of us just after Ezra joined. That's about it, but with no Kanan."

"_Oh."_

"Thanks Chop. We'll comm you when we get out." Sabine smiles.

I turn to Sabine and smile. "To dinner?"

Sabine loops her arm with mine. "Please sir."

I laugh, then hang my head as Sabine giggles and we walk down the dimly lit street.


	99. Prelude to the Dream

_(Flashback)_

"Gssshhh…"

The _Phantom _rocks while touching down, followed by Chopper opening the rear hatch to allow Sabine and I to exit.

_One mission that took less than an hour took over two real days due to the hyperspace lanes._

Sabine rose to her feet beside me and started towards the hatch as Chopper descends from his perch on top of the _Phantom._

"Hey. How'd it go?" Ahsoka smiles at us as Kanan, Hera, Lux, Rex and Echo are all situated behind her.

Sabine shrugs, then looks back to me. "They're not ready yet. Need more seasoning."

"How so?" Echo asks.

I smile, then bite my lip. "The Princess would like them a bit more than we do."

"Oh…" Hera speaks up in realization.

"I don't think they are ready for an active role at least." Sabine clarifies.

Rex turns to Kanan and Ahsoka. "Good enough for me. We'll comm Senator Organa or Mon Mothma tomorrow."

_That's it?_

"What's going on tomorrow?" Sabine asks, changing the subject.

Hera smiles mournfully at Sabine. "Your family is going home?"

"Wait, why?" I ask, stomach sinking.

_It's been nice having everyone around._

"We've located two separate potential younglings." Ahsoka tells Sabine and I. "But we're not going after them with your family around."

"The plan is to drop them off at your home in Keldabe, then go from there. We're leaving tomorrow." Lux adds.

"Tomorrow?" I blurt out. "Aren't we moving a little fast?" I ask quickly, looking from Kanan to Ahsoka then to Rex.

Ahsoka smiles ruefully. "You guys are a little behind. The trip back was long enough that we've moved on some things."

"That's why we met you all here, even though it's almost one in the morning." Rex smiles before Echo yawns discreetly behind him.

"You guys didn't have to stay up. You could have hailed us on the holo." Sabine reminds them, beginning to walk towards the main complex.

Echo immediately shakes his head. "Holo communications can be intercepted, and we don't want anyone to know that we've got a fix on the Inquisitors and the younglings."

"Both?" Sabine and I both ask.

Kanan nods before Ahsoka says quietly. "The shroud of the Dark Side surrounds both of their futures."

"So it's imminent." I deduce.

Kanan and Ahsoka both nod.

_Great._

"So what's the plan?" Sabine asks. "After Mandalore, I mean."

"We are still working that out." Ahsoka admits.

"And everyone's okay with this?" I question Kanan.

Kanan nods. "Sabine's parents agree and have already packed everything up for you two."

I can't help but go red.

_They packed for me?_

"The girls and your battalion Ezra, they're meeting us at a rendezvous point in five days time." Rex explains to Sabine and I.

"They're coming?" I say in surprise.

Ahsoka inclines her head. "We're going to need all the firepower we can get. There's a decent chance we force not only the Inquisitor's hands, but Grand Moff Tarkin's."

"Not Vader's?" Sabine asks Ahsoka, before looking to Kanan.

Ahsoka thinly smiles as everybody comes to a halt in front of the main building. "We don't believe Vader will get involve unless it personally involves him. We don't know anything about his overall mission, his goals, anything."

"Wouldn't the best move be to initiate the action? Make him come to us and play on our terms?" Sabine asks the group as a whole.

_No._

That'd be using his…kindness, for lack of a better word against me.

_I've seen him four times, fought with him once and against him once. He seems to respect me._

"No. I think messing with him is a desperation move. All or nothing." I speak up.

_I don't want to give him a reason to hate me._

My mind flies back to the conversation Ahsoka and I had with Padmé.

_Ahsoka and I are the only good parts of Anakin that seem to be left._

Provoking him, manipulating things for a meeting, anything like that would be a disaster.

_And somebody could die._

I come back to my senses to hear Kanan debating over Vader.

"—are three of us—"

"No." I cut him off. "Just…no."

"Things went well given the circumstances between you two last time." Rex says simply.

I shake my head. "No. Seeing him is the last thing we should want."

_This conversation is over._

Everybody lapsed into an awkward silence before Rex clears his throat. "We'll let you two get everything ready."

"See ya bright and early!" Ahsoka said, throwing on some sarcastic energy and getting everybody to laugh.

"Later." Sabine waves to everyone before we both start down the jungle path back to our building.

"Things are back to moving fast." Sabine says, breaking a brief silence.

I laugh, then hang my head. "I think they're afraid if we don't act quickly that we will lose any potential advantage."

"Makes sense." Sabine nods. "We are hunting the Inquisitors. We're on the offensive for a change."

_That's a interesting way to look at it._

We're hunting for Inquisitors.

"Hey." Sabine waves her hand in my face, snapping me out of my reverie. "Did I say something wrong?"

I look up to see that we're already almost home. "No. I'd just never thought of this as hunting the Inquisitors. But you're right."

Sabine laughs just before I grab the door and spot Prime, Will, Orir, Kal, Darcy, Aiden, Brie, Katiey, Mira and Lana all around Sophie's holo.

_They're watching a holofilm._

Sabine quickly creeps in, and I close the door quickly but not in time for Prime to see us and hop to his feet.

"Sof's asleep in you guys' room. She tried staying up." Prime explains to Sabine who quickly drifts off to our room.

Prime moves to sit back down, but I hook him by the elbow. "Thanks for staying here and watching her guys."

"Happy to do it." Mira beams at me.

"You ready for tomorrow?" Darcy asks me.

I nod. "I'm glad you guys are coming. Thank you."

Will smirked. "Let's just focus on one thing at a time. After we meet up, we'll go from there."

"I'm not sure what we'll face."

Katiey smirked. "I think we'll be able to handle it."

"Go." Lana waves me towards my room. "We'll finish this film then head home."

I nod. "Night everyone."

"Night!" Darcy hisses out to me.

"Night." Will adds.

I wave, then turn and open my door

_AAH! _

Bright light RIGHT IN MY EYES!

I quickly bring up my hand to shield my eyes before Chopper cuts off his light.

"It's Ezra Chop!" Sabine whispers.

Chopper doesn't reply, instead stationing himself by the door with a calm whirring sound before I lance up and see Sof curled up underneath the sheets.

_She's knocked out._

Sabine slowly shimmies herself under the covers, eliciting no response from Sof as I quickly change into shorts and a t-shirt and follow suit.

To my surprise, Sophie quickly squirms, then latches on to me.

"Shh…go back to sleep." Sabine hisses as I freeze up.

_She never holds onto me when she sleeps. I always end up on the floor._

"Urgghhh…" Sophie groans before pulling me closer.

Okay.

I let out a breath, adjust my pillow then try to sleep myself.

_Weird mission, followed by an even weirder night._

_(End Flashback)_

"Glee Anselm and…what again?" I ask Kanan and Ahsoka, who are sitting on the couch by the table.

"Haruun Kal." Rex says, standing by the holo.

Ahsoka adds "It was the homeworld of Jedi master Mace Windu during the Clone Wars."

"And this is where you feel the Inquisitors and the younglings."

Kanan nods. "Yes. The Haruun Kal signature was more….it was stronger than the Glee Anselm signature."

"So Haruun Kal first." I work out.

Ahsoka nods before Rex says. "Believe it or not, the entire planet's inhabitants are Force Users."

"WHAT?!" I blurt out. "That's possible? Everyone?"

Ahsoka nods. "But. They're religious. There are two sects: the Korunnai and the Balawai."

"And I take it they battle for control?" Mrs. Wren asks, eying us from the corner of the room.

"Not really. The Korunnai have control, and the Balawai want it. It's not a battle if it's not a close contest."

Echo adds beside Rex "One problem: They're hostile to outsiders."

"We'll simply explain the situation. We believe an agent of evil intent is attempting to kidnap one of their own. If they let us in, okay. If not…on to Glee Anselm." Ahsoka explains.

"Wait." I cut Ahsoka off. "We'd just stop?"

Ahsoka shrugs helplessly. "Going there is a risk in and of itself Ezra. As Echo explained: They don't like being bothered."

"I understand that. But if and Inquisitor is coming to kidnap someone there, anyone from there—"

"Then there's nothing we can do Ezra. We have a much better chance on Glee Anselm. Both Ahsoka and I both have friends there. Powerful friends."

Ahsoka smiles. "I know the a few Councilors, as does Kanan."

"I like our chances there best, but we have to try on Haruun Kal." Kanan finishes, then looks to Rex. "Anything you have to add?"

Rex shakes his head before Mrs. Wren looks to me. "Do you have everything you need?"

"Yeah." I say instinctively. "I'm fine."

Behind me, Ahsoka giggles quietly.

"What?" I look back at her.

Ahsoka smiles. "She's just concerned and cares. No need to be so defensive."

"I'm not defensive."

"Yes, you are honey. But it's okay. You'll get used to it eventually." Mrs. Wren smirks before Rex lets out a laugh.

The _Ghost_ suddenly rocks, signaling that we're out of hyperspace.

"Guess we're here." Echo states.

I quickly make sure I have my shoes, jacket and lightsaber as the sound of Hera talking to a spaceport official slips out to us under the door.

Then the holo cuts on out of nowhere.

"Carid, I wish you'd…oh." _Mand'alor_ pops right onto the holo and gets right into it before stopping abruptly.

_Whoa._

"Uhh…sir." I say nervously, then smile and bow my head.

_Mand'alor_ quickly eyes Ahsoka and Kanan. "Ezra. Master Jedi."

"You must be Mandalor." Kanan says bluntly.

_Uh oh._

"That's me." _Mand'alor_ states coldly, before spotting Mrs. Wren. "Bo, not to be rude but where's Carid?"

"With Sophie and Sabine in the attack shuttle." Bo answers. "Is there a problem?"

"Yes. I wish you'd given me some warning that you were coming. It isn't safe for you."

"What do you mean?" Ahsoka cuts across both of them.

_Mand'alor_ turns to Ahsoka. "I'll explain it to Carid."

"Explain what to me?" Mr. Wren's voice echoes down the _Phantom's_ ladder shaft and out to us.

_Mand'alor_'s eyes furrow. "I thought he was off the ship?"" He asks Mrs. Wren.

"No, it's an ingenious add on." Mrs. Wren explains.

"Explain what _Fenn?_" Mr. Wren asks, walking into the room before Sabine's voice rises.

"WHAT?!"

"SHH!" Mrs. Wren shushes Sabine as Hera pops out of the cockpit, looking displeased.

Kanan looks to Hera. "What's going on?"

"I can't land until Mandalor here clears us. We're a sitting target right now." Hera explains, sounding very upset.

_Mand'alor_ sighs and runs his hands thru his hair. "I'll explain it to you better when you do land. Ma'am." _Mand'alor_ turns to Hera and nods his head. "But I think House Renless is staking out your place right now."

"Staking out?" Sabine blurts out, now standing in the doorway.

"Right now?" Mrs. Wren adds.

_Oh great._

"Yeah. You said you'd contact me to let me know when you were coming back!" _Mand'alor_ frowns at Mr. Wren.

Mr. Wren quickly purses his lips. "Oh…I forgot about that."

_Uh oh._

"I can't stop you from coming home Carid. But I can't guarantee your security. And I don't like that."_ Mand'alor_ says bluntly, sounding angry.

"How do you know they're staking out their house?" Lux asks.

_Mand'alor_ thinly smiles. "I'll explain it when you land." He then turns to Hera. "Please land on the lit up platform at MandalMotors. Same place you landed last time. They'll be a guard, but that's for me. I'll explain more then."

"Okay." Mr. Wren nods his head, then the holo goes dark.

"Uhh…what happened?" Sabine asks everyone.

"Nice fellow." Kanan rolls his eyes.

"Kanan." Mrs. Wren says firmly.

Kanan raises his hands in acquiescence. "It's not personal. But he could have been nicer." As Ahsoka and Echo nod behind him.

"Let's see what he has to say. Maybe we will have to alter our schedule to get rid of these assassins." Rex compromises.

The Force suddenly heaves with Hera's irritation before she slips back o the cockpit and we begin descending down to Mandalore in silence.

_Sabine's worried. Kanan, Ahsoka and her parents are trying to work out what to do next._

I suppose I could go out and try to root them out. Force them offworld.

_But if Renless brought those other two, I wouldn't have the upper hand._

The _Ghost _shakes, followed by the familiar sound of pressurized gas, prompting Sabine to scoop up Sophie's rectangular bag and start towards the cargo hold, swiftly followed by her parents.

"He's a good guy." I turn to Kanan and Ahsoka. "Old family friend. I think he's just being protective."

Kanan and Ahsoka exchange looks then Ahsoka's eyes drift back to me. "I just don't want to have to deal with an ex Death Watch guy.

"He's not one." I try to reassure them before walking off the _Ghost _and spotting _Mand'alor_ along with his personal guard talking to the Wren's.

I approach Sabine as she's inspecting some pictures on a datapad.

_That's the one that throws the gravity knives._

Guess she's recovered after I slammed her and her friend together back on Lothal.

"—I'm using my entire system of informants to try and even locate them, but I haven't been able to find them since those two pictures." _Mand'alor _tells both of Sabine's parents before nodding to me in acknowledgement and extending his hand to me.

I shake his hand, then glance over to Sabine's shoulder to see her flip to a photo of Markas Renless.

"Yup. That's her." Sabine says quietly, causing Sof to let out a squeak in fright.

"Renless?" Kanan asks, stepping off the _Ghost_.

Sabine turns and hands the datapad to him. "Yep. Helmet off for a change. She'd probably kill you for that." She says to _Mand'alor_.

"Out of all the things to die for. For taking a picture of somebody without their disguise. Seems rather minor."

"Not knowing her background sir." Rex pipes up, walking around where Lux, Kanan, Ahsoka and Hera are all looking at the datapad and walks right up to _Mand'alor._

_Mand'alor_ shakes Rex, then Echo's hands. "Good. I'm glad you two are here. Bo seems to think that coming back, plus the presence of three Jedi might actually flush them out."

"It'd flush me out." Mrs. Wren admits. "That's too juicy of a target to pass up."

"The question is who sent them?" Ahsoka ponders, causing the Wren's and _Mand'alor_ to turn to her as a speeder appears on the horizon.

"I don't know." _Mand'alor_ admits. "But I have a feeling we'll find out. Until then, I'd like the Wren's to go ahead and get on that first speeder home. Ezra will protect them while I speak to the rest of the _Ghost_."

_But I'm not a Wren._

Sabine gently accosts Sof and spins her back towards where the speeder is starting to land, then bring up the rear and probe out with the Force.

"I've got my comm on." I call out to Kanan and Ahsoka.

"Good. Keep it that way." Kanan smirks at me just before _Mand'alor_ shakes Ahsoka's hand and removes his helmet.

We all hop in the speeder just before it takes off, causing Sabine to sigh.

"What _Sab'ika_?" Mrs. Wren turns to look at her daughter.

Sabine hasn't removed her helmet, instead holding her whole head in her hands. "Here we go again."

(A/N: Hey everybody! Sorry about last Friday. My entire computer was refusing to charge/hold a charge, so this fully completed chapter was held hostage until Sunday afternoon. I'm thrilled to see everybody's excitement over the upcoming 100th chapter. Rest assured that I have fireworks and fun ensuing. Believe you me. Thanks for reading. –James)


	100. Century

"I want Ahsoka to move up towards those droids." Sophie says simply, pointing to where she wants them to go before Chopper begins enacting Sof's order.

Rex smiles over at her as the scenery is beginning to move again. "What about the droids over here?"

"Oh!" Sophie squeaks, then looks over where droids are advancing on her left flank. "Uhh…"

"Be instinctive. What was your first thought?" Her mom asks her while sitting right beside her.

Sophie immediately replies "Have the clones just move to cut them off." Immediately Chopper starts positioning clones and the droid advance is halted.

_Huh._

"Good idea." Zeb smiles behind her, causing Sof to beam and look back to him.

Echo, who is playing the role of "bad guy" here, is controlling the droids. He briefly taps rapidly before tanks slowly creep into the picture.

"Oh! Uhm…" Sophie bounces in her seat. "What's it called."

"The Anti-Heavy Artillery Forces?" Rex tells her with a smirk.

Sof lights up. "Yeah! Send them at the tanks Choppy. But not all at once."

"Not all at once?" Sabine says, sitting in a chair directly beside me while chewing on a straw.

Sophie nods. "Just in case they have shields or something."

"Very good _Soph'ika_." Mrs. Wren compliments Sof as the rockets fly towards the tanks and cripple two of the four.

"Send the rest!" Sof quickly says with a huge smile. "Then send Ahsoka and Rex right where the tanks are!"

_She's learning._

The last few simulations she's been making simple mistakes like not attacking fast enough, allowing her troops to split and not being assertive enough.

Rex, Echo and her mother in particular are trying to teach her the basics of combat and troop management now so that she doesn't end up like me.

_Learning stuff at 17 while having a lot of responsibility._

Meanwhile the entire battle flips on a dime. Ahsoka brings the 501st with her on the full frontal assault, which the inertia pulls Anakin with it. Anakin finds himself surrounded by droids, then simply scraps them all.

The room is silent as everyone is watching Sof rip the droid army apart. Ruthlessly.

"I have bombs right?" Sof asks.

Rex smirks. "You do. Where do you want them?"

"Where they're running." Sof answers shortly before Chopper starts enacting her orders.

_This is a bloodbath. Except droids don't have blood. _

The droid army begins retreating, then is decimated by Republic gunships before freezing.

"Complete Republic Victory"

"YAY!" Sophie hops out of her chair, beaming from ear to ear before tackling her mother. Sabine turns to me, looking impressed.

Ahsoka smiles, leaning on the bar leading to the kitchen. "Good job Sof. Let's let Ezra have a turn."

"Okay!" Sophie smiles as I slide over to Sophie's chair as Echo begins typing rapidly.

Rex smirks at me. "We've got a treat for you Ezra."

"Oh no." I say instinctively, causing Kanan, Lux, Hera and Sabine to all laugh.

_If they've got a surprise, that means that it's a challenge for me._

The sim starts up, displaying the regular screen that tells me the locale but nothing else which causes the room to fall silent.

_Mandalore._

It's the Siege of Mandalore.

The screen quickly changes, displaying all the troops I have…

"Hang on." I say, then double check. "Yeah, this is impossible."

I've got Ahsoka, Kanan, Anakin, Master Kenobi…and me. Along with Rex, Echo, Sabine and something called Domino Squad.

"This simulation doesn't always have to be realistic." Rex smiles at me. "It's meant to challenge you and to learn."

I counter. "But this is ridiculous!"

_I've got three Jedi Masters, plus Ahsoka and I plus some of the best clones from the war. _

"You'll see." Echo says while still rapidly typing and Sabine sidles over to join me.

"Oh hey, I'm here." Sabine says cheerfully, causing Sof to approach and Sabine to point it out for her.

Sophie smiles as I keep putting the pieces together. The timer to start the battle flashes up on the screen, which causes everyone to settle down.

_Five Jedi. Meaning I'm either about to be handed five Sith, or the amount of droids that will be sent my way is going to be absolute overkill. Okay. I'm betting that It'll be more of the latter. Unless we're going for complete unrealism._

The screen completely changes to a destroyed landscape with a background of random blaster fire. Quickly I drop five battalions, Anakin in the middle then drop the 501st on his left and 'Domino Squad' right. On the left I drop Ahsoka then on his right Master Kenobi. Finally I snap my eyes up to see mass amounts of Separatists droids with…Mandalorians interspersed.

"It's the Siege." Mrs. Wren says, sounding hollow.

"Right you are Bo." Rex says happily.

_Blast. Okay, that helps me though. I'll keep Sabine, Kanan and I back as reinforcements. Probably Kanan for Ahsoka's side, since he's more defensive then deploy Sabine and I as a pair._

"Wait! I want to play with Ezra and Sabine!" Sophie pipes up next to Zeb and Chopper.

Sabine smiles behind me as the battle begins uncharacteristically slowly.

"You will tomorrow. It's late." Her father pacifies her.

"But I don't wanna go to bed!" Sophie immediately counters as the action continues to unfold.

_I need to be patient._

Sophie and her father continue debating her bedtime as things slowly start accelerating.

"WHOA! Ezra! Look!" Sabine grabs me and forces me to look at the troops screen.

_It's her Mom. Bo-Katan Kryze._

Immediately I send her into the battle as Rex says "Sabine, this is meant to be attest of Ezra's abilities."

"Sorry." Sabine says meekly.

"I forgot that I technically was late to the battle." Mrs. Wren comments over my shoulder.

Sabine asks "Where were you?"

"Dealing with some political crap." Her mother replies as Mandalorians in jet packs immediately start flying around above my position and are tearing everybody to pieces. I quickly drop battalions in to replace the fallen clones then order Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan to push forward.

_We can split them into two separate groups and go from there._

I watch as Ahsoka, Anakin and Obi-Wan, aided by the 501st and what's left of Domino Squad quickly advance and—

Then the entire Separatist line shifts focus, going from expanding to try and spread us thin at the margins to collapsing down on everybody I just sent in.

_DAMN!_

"No. Air strike on where they're collapsing." I bark out as I put in the order, then drop Kanan on Ahsoka's side and Sabine and I on Obi-Wan's.

"Don't panic now. You're still in good position." Ahsoka says behind me as I'm waiting for the air support.

_They're getting ripped to shreds. By the Force._

Quickly I redirect Sabine's Mom to alleviate some of the titanic pressure being put on Anakin in Particular, but also Ahsoka and Obi-Wan. Thankfully she immediately creates a little bit of a bubble before the entire area is lit up with air support.

_Whew._

MAUL!

_I should have known!_

I hear everybody start talking behind me, but quickly send another battalion at Maul, if nothing else for them to be devoured by him then glance at the edges where Kanan, Sabine and I are.

_Kanan's fine, dealing with droids. Sabine and I are slowly starting to work our way towards Master Kenobi._

I shoot a glance at where Anakin is engaged with Maul. Ahsoka is making a beeline towards him to try and assist then look back to Obi Wan.

_Dooku._

"I want Kanan to go deal with Dooku. Master Obi-Wan can hold the flank." I explain it as I go, then throw on top of it an air strike before diverting my attention to Sabine and I dealing with Vader.

_Wait, VADER?!_

I don't have anything to help…me. Uh oh.

"Can I do anything with Sabine?" I ask, before I glance back to see that Anakin, Ahsoka and Obi-Wan are all occupied.

Rex solemnly replies "Not unless you like your Sabine in pieces."

_Oh no. I think I can deal with Vader for a very short amount of time in reality, but I don't trust this simulation to give me a fair fight._

With bated breath I watch as the three battles, Vader and I, Anakin and Maul and Obi-Wan plus Ahsoka versus Dooku come better into focus.

"Kanan?" Sabine asks me.

"Is too far away." I tell her as Kanan is advancing to cut off any route of escape for Dooku.

_I put myself on an island._

Desperately, I send Bo-Katan my way in a futile support attempt, which is quickly squashed by Vader as he grabs Sabine and her mother and flings them all the way to where Kanan is.

"That's not realistic!" Somebody behind me says.

"Actually, it is." Someone else replies.

_Vader's getting into a zone._

I command myself to retreat as quick as possible, with the idea of potentially throwing a battalion out between Vader and I as I loop back around to get to Kanan.

_Kanan isn't going to do much either, but—_

I watch as Vader smacks me in the mouth, then stabs me thru the chest and pulls his blade out with disdain before moving towards Anakin and Maul.

…

_My mind's blank._

Helplessly, I glance at the troop deployment screen. Thirty seconds more on an air strike, a minute on more troops. My little icon, complete with picture of me is greyed out.

I let out a sigh, then sit back. "I'm dead. I shouldn't be able to directly affect the outcome by ordering troops around." I say quietly to Rex.

_I'm dead._

Rex solemnly nods beside me before Echo begins allowing the battle to go at double speed. Looking around, I see Sabine look shocked, Sophie appears confused while whispering to her mother and Kanan looks slightly sick.

As the battle continues, my eyes settle back to where Vader left me. Face down in the dirt, sprawled out, lightsaber dropped in front of me.

"Separatists Hold Mandalore" the screen reads. Below it details "Republic retreat."

"Just like the real thing." Lux says quietly as I turn back to see that both he and Ahsoka look distinctly unhappy.

Mr. Wren turns to Sof. "C'mon. Bed for you. Sabine, do you mind?"

"Nope." Sabine smiles, then grabs onto Sof's hand and they both start towards he room, prompting me to turn back to Rex, Echo, Kanan and Ahsoka.

"Sorry." I say instinctively.

Mrs. Wren smiles beside me. "I didn't call it the worst fighting of the war for nothing."

"Were there seriously flying Mandalorians?" Hera asks her.

"Yes. That was an entire facet of the battle. Controlling the air was quite important."

Ahsoka adds quietly "That ended up being most of the battle when it began winding down and Maul realized he couldn't beat Anakin."

"You're not giving the entire story." Rex says gently to Ahsoka.

"How so?" Kanan questions Rex.

Rex smiles. "General Skywalker was trying to get Maul to retreat to his actual hideout. We'd been hitting false fronts for weeks. But he couldn't do it, Maul knew how to deal with the General. Ahsoka on the other hand, put on a masterful display of quick strikes to my untrained eyes and drove him back in a fraction of the time."

"Rexy" Ahsoka frowns. "Your eyes are better trained than almost anyone's in the galaxy."

"Now." Rex contends. "Now I kind of know what you're doing because you've gone thru it with me. Back then it was all just strikes and slashes."

Echo effortlessly puts us back on topic. "The plan, flawed as it was, was to hit Maul with Generals Kenobi, Skywalker and Commander Tano. To end his threat from the shadows once and for all. But when Master Kenobi landed, he had bad news."

"The chancellor had been kidnapped." Rex took over for Echo. "General Skywalker ceded control of part of the 501st to Ahsoka, promoted me, slotted Mrs. Wren into the ranks and we went."

I look back to see everybody, minus Ahsoka herself looking grim. "You probably want to go say night to Sof."

"Yeah. I'll see everybody tomorrow." I smile, then wave to everyone.

_I have first watch over Sof, then Ahsoka takes over for me at 2 AM._

We don't know what in the world House Renless has planned, so Ahsoka, Kanan, _Mand'alor_, Lux, Rex, Echo and Sof's parents all decided that Sof shouldn't be left unguarded. I've guarded her once and read some of Dooku's _Makashi_ manifesto.

I slip into Sof's room to see her talking to her sister already having changed into her pajamas.

"We were afraid you were in trouble." Sabine smirked at me as Sof smiles behind her.

"Nah." I shake my head.

"What happened?" Sof asks me, eyes wide.

I shrug. "I don't really know. I know that I left myself open for a surprise, and I got more than I bargained for."

"You think they're mad?" Sabine asks me.

"I don't know." I reply. "Probably on the principle of stretching myself too thin."

Sophie pipes up "There was a lot going on. I thought you did great."

"Thanks Sof." I crouch down and pull her into a hug, then lift her up and deposit her into bed as she giggles happily. Sabine smirks at me happily before crouching down. "You know where everyone is."

_And I'm in her closet until 2._

"Yup. Night." Sophie hugs her, then grabs a book off her nightstand.

I follow Sabine towards the door, then subtly close it until there's just a crack of light to make it look like I've left before creeping into the notch in the closet and pull this door mostly shut, leaving it open enough for me to slip out.

Sophie plays it off perfectly, turning on her bedside light and starting to read her book thoughtfully.

_Okay. We're in this for the long haul. I've had a couple of cafs since dinner, so I'm going to stay awake whether I want to or not._

The real story about the Siege of Mandalore is so…sad. They were so close to dispatching Maul, then moving onto Dooku and Grievous, the droid general.

_This almost didn't happen. The Jedi still almost won, despite having the entire deck stacked against them and being plotted against for centuries._

If they'd won, my life would have been totally different I guess. I would have gone to the Temple, never really known my parents, never known Kanan. Or Caleb, since he was training with his own Jedi Master.

_I need to ask him about that. Gently. I never have, and that's not great._

He needs to know that I do want to know the story. What she was like, her fighting style all of that.

_I never would have met Sabine, her parents, Zeb, probably Rex and Echo, Sof…_

My stomach shrivels up as I consider that very real possibility and how close we came to that being reality.

_I would have met Ahsoka and her Master when they were at the peak of their powers but confined by the Jedi Order._

Ahsoka couldn't love Lux. Anakin couldn't love Padmé. Kanan might never have met Hera.

_Maybe it's better that it worked out this way. I don't like…_

I probe out again as Sophie turns a page, clearly still awake.

_I don't like that reality. I think I prefer this one._

Second floor. There's movement, and it's not Kanan, Hera or Sabine. Sabine's in her room with me, while Kanan and Hera are in my old room. Rex, Echo and Zeb are all in Mr. Wren's office on the third floor while Ahsoka and Lux are kind of stationed in the living room.

_They've never slept as far as I know. They both have to run on like four hours a night. They're always awake._

The Force signatures continue creeping, now moving down the stairwell before suddenly all the noise in my ears turn to white noise.

_All the background noise, like Sof flipping pages, the air conditioner, everything is gone._

Uh oh.

Trying to focus thru all the white noise, I feel a distinct Force Signature land on the first floor. There are other Force Signatures, but the one on the ground floor is the most important—

Sophie is suddenly awash in light from the doorway, causing her to turn then look terrified.

"If you scream, your sister dies little one. Now quiet." The distinct, deep voice of Markas Renless floats to me. Sophie immediately scrunches up and starts retreating into the corner of her bed.

Without a though, I silently rise and pull my lightsaber into my hand.

"Now…who all is—" Renless asks Sof as she's about to put her hands on Sophie's bed.

In a flash, I step out of the closet, snap my wrist and activate my lightsaber before leveling with Renless' throat. "One more step, one more word, and your organization loses its head." I growl at her.

_I'm done messing around with her. Sick and tired of it._

Renless freezes up and Sophie barely loosens up.

"I got her Sof." I say reassuringly, then glance at Sof to see her pointing the stun pistol Sabine gave her months ago at Renless. "Where'd you get that?"

"Sabine gave it to me last night before I went to sleep." Sophie explains as Renless gives me a murderous look.

"You have no idea what you're doing Bridger."

I barely move my blade closer to her throat, close enough for Renless to cringe and close her eyes. "I feel like I do. Now move. Into the—"

Renless suddenly has a blade in her hand and slashes at me, forcing me to duck in a panic.

"AAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Sophie screams at the top of her lungs.

Renless' attention snaps back to Sof. "Oh you little _BRAT_!" before reaching over and — "SMACK!"

Sof lets out a cry of pain before I turn back to her seeing her clutch her cheek then my lightsaber flies out of my hand into Sof's bedside lamp, which immediately goes off and plunges the room into darkness.

_BLAST!_

I reach out with the Force in time to see a Renless kick coming, duck under it, then grab her with the Force and throw her into Sof's doorframe.

A loud "CRACK!" followed by the door coming partially off its hinges allows light to stream into the room.

Renless immediately attempts to make a break for it and I fling the door open in pursuit. "GUY—"

"WHAM!"

In a flash, my entire body goes horizontal in the air, then I crash down on the cold, hard wood floor.

_OWWWW!_

I barely see a figure above me, then blaster shots from my right towards the figure before hearing a loud "THUD!"

"You okay? Ezra…?" Sof immediately latches onto me and cradles my head as my throat throbs where the unknown assailant clotheslined me.

Without a word to Sof, I begin to get up and see that Mrs. Wren is out of her room, holding a assailant at blaster point, Mr. Wren has flattened Renless and cracked the pillar that leads to the stairwell but has successfully pinned her down.

"You're trapped." I hear Ahsoka call out before a heavy "THUD" sounds out upstairs.

"I got it…" Lux leaps over Mr. Wren and Renless then leaps upstairs only to then cry out "YO!" before another figure tumbles down the stairs.

_Sabine!_

Sophie latches onto me protectively as Sabine leaps down the entire last flight of stairs, lands and levels her wrist with the assailant's head. I pull my lightsaber to me, having flown out of my hand earlier and slowly rise to my feet.

That…was a cheap shot.

_That really, really hurts._

I feebly try to take a breath, before my throat throbs and I wince very gingerly.

_OWW!_

Out of nowhere, the white noise in my ears disappears, and shouts start floating down from the second and third floors.

"NEURAL DISRUPTORS!" Hera calls out.

"UP HERE TOO!" Rex replies before Kanan appears at the top of the stairs.

_He's mad._

He quickly makes his way down, then activates his lightsaber behind Sabine.

_They're totally trapped. Ahsoka's at the front door, Kanan's got the back. They can't go up because of Rex and Echo…_

"Living room. Now." Ahsoka barks out, not moving from the door. Sabine ruthlessly forces her assailant to turn and throws him to the living room.

There's four of them. Renless, the two assassins from last time and a man.

_Huh._

The backdoor suddenly opens, causing us all to pivot and raise our weapons at the visitor.

"Whoa! It's me, I'm friendly…" _Mand'alor_ says, followed by his personal guard.

Mrs. Wren asks "Did you see all this?"

"Partially." He admits. "I only saw Sabine point her weapon at him, then jumped down."

"Down?" Renless asked incredulously, still pinned by Sabine's father.

In a flash, _Mand'alor_ has Renless up off the ground and by the throat. "I'm going to lock you and your friends up…forever! I'm judge, jury and executioner. YOU are done." He tells her, then pulls some sort of tie out of his armor and ties Renless to the chair I was just sitting in by the bar.

"Let's get everybody else tied up…" Mrs. Wren says simply, followed by Ahsoka pushing the assassin that knows how to land her punches towards the living room. I shrink up, Sophie still latched onto me as Rex, Echo and Zeb come down, with Zeb bodily holding another male assassin.

The sound of ties clicking followed by Zeb dropping the assassin at the front of the stairs then darting over to Sof and I. "You okay kid?"

"Ezra's hurt…" Sophie says, sounding ready to cry.

I smile as Zeb quickly looks concerned. "I got clotheslined blindly Zeb. I'm okay."

"Can you breathe?" He laughs, breaking out in a smile.

"Yup."

Zeb snaps his fingers. "Blast. Guess I'm still stuck with ya." Which sends Sophie into loud giggles, causing everyone to look over and for Sabine to walk over.

"C'mon…sit. A blind clothesline?" She asks me as we walk to the only remaining seat by the bar. All the others have assassins bodily tied to them while blasters are pointed at them.

I nod weakly, then sit and take a glass of ice cold water from Echo.

"It'll slow the swelling. Drink. More is coming." He says shortly before the room falls silent as _Mand'alor _paces around.

"What I want to know…isn't why. I know why. To hurt her, specifically." He starts out, pointing to Sabine. "I want to know who you're working for. And how you got in the building."

The room is dead silent for a moment before multiple things ring out thru the Force.

_Monitors. Stealth._

And a black hole.

Uh oh.

"_On Mandalore. Lord Vader told Rook Kast his eyes are everywhere. Well I'm one of Lord Vader's many pairs of eyes."_

"Vader." I say quietly before my throat throbs.

It's Vader. He knows where they live.

"Huh?" Ahsoka says to me, eyes almost falling out of her head as everybody else has expressions of shock.

"Oh yeah." Sabine says beside me. "You said you're one of Vader's eyes and ears back on Lothal."

Renless smiles at Sabine "Very good Problem-Solver. About time you worked that ou—" before Mrs. Wren steps forward and "SMACK!"

"AHH!" Renless cries out in pain.

"Don't you _dare_ call my daughter that. She's not one of you." Mrs. Wren growls at Renless, a murderous look on her face.

"She almost was. But you wouldn't know that. Would you, Bo-Katan?'

Mrs. Wren visibly fluffs up and—"SMACK!"

"OW! This isn't legal treatment of a prisoner!" Renless turns to _Mand'alor_.

_Mand'alor_ shrugs, looking bored. "You see, I don't care. I am the law on this planet. And you see, everything she's doing is perfectly legal."

"You've rigged the system!" One of the assassins exclaims, then tries lunging at Sophie and falls over.

In the blink of an eye, Zeb has stepped in front of her and starts literally growling, Chopper appears, electrical prong out and fires it up with a frightening "BZZZZZTTTTTZTTTT…" and Kanan activates his lightsaber before one of _Mand'alor_'s guards yanks her back to her feet.

"HOW did you know it was safe…everything was clear. People were going to bed." _Mand'alor_ scowls at Renless.

…

"Monitor." Kanan blurts out.

"Where?" _Mand'alor_ asks coldly.

…

Renless and the others don't speak, causing _Mand'alor_ to turn to Mr. Wren. "Did you sweep for bugs?"

"I didn't even think of it."

_Oh my gosh we are so stupid._

We've been monitored this whole time.

Quickly, I look at Sabine as the entire room springs into action. Sabine's expression mirrors mine, as we're both clearly thinking the same thing.

_Thank the gods we haven't actually discussed anything here. Her home has been a no plan zone. We've tried enjoying the time with Sabine and her family._

"Got one." A soldier says, holding up a decoration in the living room that's been here the whole time I've been here.

"Another one! On the doorjamb of the little girl's room sir!"

_Mand'alor_ scowls at Renless. "Audio and video?"

Renless holds his withering gaze as one of his soldiers says "Yes sir. No way to tell where it's broadcasting to."

"We know where it's broadcasting to." Rex says flatly.

"Bring them both here." _Mand'alor_ commands his men. "Then give your scanners to the clones and Mr. Bontiri. It's about time we go."

"Go?" Sabine asks.

_Mand'alor_ nods. "They're not going to talk anymore, and I'd like to get the threat out of your house." Before turning to Mr. Wren. "I'll get a structural engineer out here first thing in the morning for that pillar Carid."

Mr. Wren nods. "Thank you Fenn."

"Always, you know that." _Mand'alor_ nods, then smirks as his men deposits two trackers into his hand. On a whim I pull them into my hand and glance at them.

_Tiny, square-ish, chip based tracers, complete with beeping red lights._

"I'll take care of them." I explain to the room

"C'mon…" One of the soldiers begins marching the assassins out of the room before _Mand'alor_ looks back to Mr. Wren.

"Oh Carid, one more thing?"

Mr. Wren turns to him, expectant. "Yeah?"

A wide smile bursts onto _Mand'alor_'s face. "Nice tackle."

Lux and his wife suddenly laugh, before hastily stifling themselves as the assassins are marched out of the house.

"Not funny." Mr. Wren shakes his head.

"You're a pacifist!" Echo says firmly. "And you contradicted everything you stand for!"

Mr. Wren shrugs. "Not everything. And they attacked my family. All bets are off when you attack my family."

_Absolutely._

"I'm going to destroy these by the grill." I tell the room, then stride across to the glass window and open it and let out a breath.

_I know he can hear me. And see me._

"You know…we were getting them out of the way. Clearing the board of them." I say, loud enough for the trackers to pick up before setting the trackers side by side on the duracrete. I can't hold back a disdainful "I thought you were better than that." Before activating my lightsaber and destroying both trackers.

_Blast it._

I rise back up out of a crouch and turn and see that Echo, Rex and Lux are all scanning the room for more trackers.

"—don't think there are any more. We'll sweep every room before we all go back to bed." Rex says to Ahsoka.

Hera laughs once in response. "I don't know about you all, but I'm up."

"Me too." Mrs. Wren says as her husband hugs Sophie.

"Kind of a down note to end the night though." Lux frowns.

_Yeah._

Sabine suddenly lights up, then turns to me. "Actually…"

Wait.

_Is she serious?_

Out of habit, I probe out with the Force to find it tranquil and clear.

"Actually what Sabine?" Kanan says, sounding annoyed.

_Uh oh. This might not be a good time…_

"Ezra…" Sabine beams at me, before loping her arm around me. "Ezra and I have something to tell you guys."

Sophie is the first one to react, beaming as everyone else eyes us with confused looks.

Then it hits Mrs. Wren and she gapes at us. "No…"

"What?" Mr. Wren asks, looking completely lost.

"Oh! Her hand… Herhandherhandherhanherhanddd…!" Ahsoka jumps up into the air and does a circle in ecstasy.

Everyone's eyes fall to Sabine's hand before she sticks out her left hand and displays the ring.

"Ezra and I are married." Sabine says simply, then looks up for everybody's response.

Mrs. Wren lets out a loud…squeal then tackles Sabine into a hug, yanking her arm away from me.

"Heyyy!" Rex smiles and Echo claps twice happily.

"Look at you." Lux smiles at me.

"Are you serious?" Mr. Wren asks, looking like he's in shock.

I nod. "Yes sir."

"I'm so happy for you…" Mrs. Wren hugs Sabine tightly. "Congratulations!"

"Way to keep that one quiet." Zeb gives me a sideways look before a smile creeps onto his face.

A tap on my shoulder gets me to turn and see that Kanan is in front of me. "Ezra."

_He's extended his hand._

For me to shake it. Man to man.

I shake his hand stiffly, before Kanan smiles at me. "Congratulations. Now it's your responsibility to keep her safe."

"More like my job to keep him out of trouble." Sabine cracks as her mother has finally let her go and Ahsoka is approaching her.

I laugh, then hang my head only for Sof to catch my eye, looking up at me.

"I told you we'd tell them." I smirk at her, crouching down to get down to her level.

Sophie simply smiled, then hugged me.

_That was a lot easier than I thought it would be._

(A/N: Thank you. –James)


	101. The End In The Beginning

_(Flashback)_

Kanan, Hera and Sabine's parents all lead the way past the door into the hanger and towards where the _Ghost_ is parked. Ahsoka, Lux, Zeb Rex and Echo are a step or two ahead of Sabine, Sophie, Chopper and I.

Everything has been quiet since Renless was hauled off by _Mand'alor_ and his men two days ago. I couldn't force myself to sleep, so I settled on making sure Sof was safe in her bedside closet until daybreak when she woke up.

Yesterday was a monotonous day. Kanan, Hera, Rex, and Ahsoka went to the market early to stock up on supplies for our trip to Haruun Kal and Glee Anselm. After the rest of us had lunch, Mrs. Wren declared that I needed to get a ring down at the market. I didn't even bother fighting her because I think Sabine might have lost it if I'd tried.

It took a few hours, plus advice from Mrs. Wren, Lux and helpful comments from Sophie but we finally settled on a sized ring for me made entirely of black ivory-rock.

What I wasn't expecting was that it's thrown my touch off with the Force. I accidentally sent cutlery all over the kitchen and dropped my suitcase right on my foot.

_I'm still getting used to it. But I don't like it right now._

"Well…" Kanan said quietly, then looks to Hera.

Hera smiles at him then turns to the Wren's. "Thank you for the hospitality."

"Glad to do it." Mr. Wren smiled. "Let us know when you're in the neighborhood again."

"We will." Kanan nods before stepping aside so Rex, Lux and Echo can shake Mr. Wren's hand and say thank you.

The girls and I all hang back as everyone else gets their goodbyes out of the way then start to the _Ghost._

"_Ad'ika…_" Mrs. Wren smiles at Sabine, prompting her to step forward and hug her mother while Mr. Wren slips towards Sof and I.

"I uploaded everything Fenn had on Haruun Kal and Glee Anselm to your datapad last night. It's not too much, but it should help you know what to expect."

I smile, then nod my head. "Thanks."

Mr. Wren smiled back, then clapped me on the shoulder. "It's the least I can do. Thank you again."

"Happy to do it." I shrug self-consciously before noticing Sabine sneaking towards us and allowing me to turn towards Mrs. Wren, who immediately wraps me up in a hug.

"Be careful. Don't bite off more than you can chew." She said softly while hugging me.

"I'll try."

She let go of me in time for Sabine to glance at me, balancing her helmet on her hip.

_This is always the worst part._

"If you guys ever need to come home…" Mrs. Wren trails off.

"You know where we put that extra key. Let yourselves in. Door is always open."

_Behind the drainage pipe by the grill in the backyard._

Sabine and I both smile. "Thanks." I say quietly before we all lapse into silence.

"Say goodbye for now Sophie." Her mother prods her along, as Sof doesn't look like she'll do so without being told.

Mournfully, Sof trudges over to Sabine as she crouches and hugs her. I don't hear what Sof says to her, only Sabine's response of "We'll be safe. You keep working on your homework and shooting with your bow. Okay?"

"Okay!" Sophie immediately replies, then turns to me for a hug.

I quickly crouch down and pull her into my arms. "See you soon Sof."

"Be careful…please." She asks me quietly, trying not to shake in my arms.

_I can barely feel it, like she's trying not to._

"Of course I will. But if I get a chance I'm going to try and take them out so everybody can be safe."

Sof nods attentively. "I know. I love you."

"Love you too." I answer, unable to hold back a smile before hugging Sof again. In response—

_Uhh…_

I feel my face go red as Sabine and her mother both laugh and her father smiles.

"Sof!" Her mother said with a smile. "You kissed Ezra on the cheek!"

"I thought you didn't kiss boys because they're gross!" Sabine asked, unable to keep a straight face.

Sophie smiles back at her family, then replies "Boys are gross. And icky. But Ezra's not gross or icky. Ezra's like Daddy. Daddy's not a boy."

_Uhh…_

I laugh to myself, which causes Sof to whip around and eye me. "What?"

"Nothing. I'll see you soon." I hug her then rise to my feet.

"Comm you guys when we have some news." Sabine says before we both start towards the _Ghost_.

"Sounds good _Sab'ika_." Her father says before I wave to all of them and walk onto the _Ghost._

Sabine and I walk right to our turret and drop our stuff off before mingling back to the crew cabin, where Ahsoka, Lux, Rex, and Kanan and all lingering.

"What took you all so long?" Lux asked.

"Nothing really." I shrug.

Sabine immediately shakes her head. "Sof kissed Ezra on the cheek."

"Awww…" Ahsoka beams, as Kanan smirks.

"Isn't she at that age that she thinks boys are gross?"

Sabine nods. "Very gross. One of her boyfriends gave her a card on her birthday and she was so grossed out about it that she tore it up.

The room quickly busts out into loud laughter as the _Ghost _rises into the air.

"That's mean. That poor kid!" Rex says, looking very bemused.

"She's going to be a heartbreaker." Lux prophesizes.

Sabine shakes her head. "Nah. I don't think so."

"In this case." Ahsoka speaks up, looking to Lux and Kanan. "I don't think your opinion can be trusted. You know Sof too well."

_I can't see Sof being a heart breaker at Sabine's age. She's super nice, thoughtful, nice, affectionate…_

Uh oh. Lux is right.

_Some poor guy is totally going to fool himself into thinking Sof likes her when that actually just who she is._

"See?" Lux speaks up, pointing to me. "He sees it."

Sabine turns to me, frowning. "Ezra!"

"What? I didn't say anything!" I defend myself.

"Oh no, here they go…" Rex sighs with a smirk.

Ahsoka adds "The young couple arguments…"

"Aren't we past this?" Lux teases us.

"Shut up." Sabine and I say simultaneously, then look over to each other just before everybody starts laughing even louder.

_Blast it._

_(End Flashback)_

"CLUNK!" "Shh…"

The _Ghost_ shakes as our ship and Prime's Mandalorian ship finishes docking before I hear people start drifting towards the bay doors.

"Their ship has more room so we should probably head that way…" I hear Sabine say to someone as I climb the stairs in time to join up with Hera and walk with her thru the loading bay and into a spotless ship.

_No excess dirt, nothing out of place. Brie's running this ship._

Voices picking up further ahead followed by warmth in the Force tells me that everybody's found each other.

"Not bad." Hera says to herself before we reach the end of a corridor and spot the girls, Will, Prime, Kal and Orir talking to primarily Kanan and Rex.

Rex nods to Kanan, who must have just finished speaking then adds "Your ship might cause a fuss on Haruun Kal, but don't worry about it."

"Did the Clone Wars get out that far?" Kal asks Rex and Echo.

"A battle or two. They never pushed for it due to its 'primitive' perception. They didn't view it as a potential asset."

"And they never tested a weapon there." Rex adds morbidly.

Lana turns to me and smiles, then frowns. "What happened to your neck?" She asks, causing everyone else to look and either wince or cringe.

_Oh, I've still got a bruise where I got clotheslined._

"I chased after somebody and got clotheslined." I sum it up.

"Who?" Prime asks.

"Is it that House Renless?" Darcy fires at me with a scowl.

Ahsoka steps in gracefully. "We got them. I don't think we'll be hearing from them again."

"What happened?" Will asks.

Kanan speaks up. "We got a tip that the Wren's house might be monitored, so as a precaution we had somebody in Sophe's room while she slept to ensure her safety and bet that we'd be able to react if somebody came after us. The second night there, Renless and her assassins snuck in from the top of the house somehow, set neural Disruptors to prevent us from hearing them go after Sophie."

"But Ezra ruined their plan. Stopped Renless from getting Sof, moved to pursue then got clotheslined." Ahsoka finishes the gallant tale.

"I'm fine." I add firmly, only for everybody to look unhappy.

"Should have been there." Kal says to Prime, who shrugs.

Aidan asks "But everybody's okay?"

"Yes." Ahsoka smiles.

"_Mand'alor_ has patrols for now until he thinks they're okay." Sabine tells them, which visibly calms them.

Rex and Echo glance at each other, then Ahsoka before Rex asks "Did you get the file we transmitted?"

Prime nods. "We put it on everybody's datapads and talked about it. It sounds like we're about to walk into hostile territory."

"No more hostile than any Imperial occupied planet." Kanan says reasonably.

_Decent point._

"So you all know the briefing well?" Ahsoka asked them tactfully.

"Yes General." Darcy answers.

"Well…" Ahsoka trails off. "Then Ezra, can you, Zeb and Sabine go grab everything for dinner?"

I nod as Sabine pipes up "Yeah, sure."

"Dinner?" Katiey asks.

Lux says "We all thought it'd be good to all eat together before we go chasing after the Inquisitors and who knows what else we find."

"Good point." Will says as Sabine, Zeb and I all start back to the _Ghost_ in relative silence.

"Well they cut that whole exchange short." Zeb jokes, getting Sabine and I to both laugh.

"Yeah." Sabine smirked. "They've done their job. Not surprising."

Zeb adds "Unprepared is not a fault they have very much."

"I think that's more Darcy than Prime. He was always a little unorganized." I counter Sabine.

"Fair enough." Sabine answers as we all slip into the _Ghost_ and where we all set the groceries we picked up on Mandalore.

_The calm before the storm._


	102. Haruun Kal

_Dustig Sector, Al'Har System. Landing in Pelak Baw. _

Lux won't be lingering due to some issue with electronics and the planet as a whole. Neither will whoever is piloting Prime's ship. We have to be able to leave as well as arrive.

Ahsoka says that the Force Sensitive in question should be quite obvious since they will be too young to control their Force Signature. It should be like a beacon, except for all the other people, which I assume also have Force Signatures but apparently _don't call it the Force._

_Idiots. It's a protracted civil war between the Korunnai and the Balawai that the Korunnai are winning handily._

We don't believe that the Empire has a significant presence on the planet, but Rex and Echo have told Sabine and I that our information can be wrong.

_Information can always be wrong. _

A "Beep…Beep…Bop." Sounds out from the holo off to my left, and I briefly glance at it as Sabine turns around to look as well.

_That signal means Darcy, Prime and the others have landed._

They're not "with us" officially. They're running support, filling in the gaps and helping if we do find ourselves in a fight.

The entire gun turret lights up a sickly green color, signaling that Hera has descended out of the clouds before Sabine gets up and puts her helmet on.

_Time to go._

"The comm array really didn't like those clouds! Chopper! Figure out what's the issue!" Hera calls out thru the open cockpit door as Sabine and I ascend the stairs only to find everyone crowded around the open door.

Chopper immediately replies, then rockets up to the _Phantom_ for access to the data port presumably.

"—one of us most likely won't like this atmosphere. Feel free to turn back and get back onboard if so." Echo says rationally as the rest of us are eying the disgusting looking planet.

Rex turns to Ahsoka and smirks. "Well Commander?"

"Follow my lead." Ahsoka says calmly, turning on her heels and striding back to the loading bay door. She arrives just as we land and without breaking stride exits the _Ghost_ and leads us all off the ship. Sabine and I fall into line behind Rex, Echo, Kanan, Hera and Zeb.

A musky, stale smell causes me to wrinkle my nose just before Rex turns to Echo and Echo reaches back and grabs onto my shoulder firmly.

_Whoa._

"Oh I should have thought of thattt…" Rex mutters as Echo's face is a picture of pain. "Echo. Get back on board."

Echo simply continues to look to be in pain before complying with Rex's order. "I'll be tactical support. Comm's on if you need me." He tells Sabine and I before taking three steps and boarding the _Ghost_ once again.

_Three steps, and he looked positively awful._

Without a word, Ahsoka glances at all of us then continues to walk into Pelak Baw, which looks to be a small town nestled into the hills. All the buildings have slanted roofs and a natural "dirty" look that actually is very nice. People mingle about, going about daily life, buying food from street vendors and walking into buildings with open doors.

"You don't look to be one of the Balawai. And we're not open to outsiders. State your business." A dark skinned man with short black hair and a no-nonsense expression says to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka bows reverently, then replies "My name is Ahsoka Tano. I'm not with the Empire or a political group. Lor San Tekka is a friend of mine and referred me here."

"Lor San Tekka…" The man muses, grabbing his chin. "That man was the only outside to properly respect our beliefs and culture. A friend of the Church of the Force is welcome, assuming you don't openly preach."

_Church of the Force? Never heard anything of it._

"We're here to speak with the family that he spoke with."

The man immediately begins leading us deeper into the town, and I feel both Kanan and Sabine become more confident. "Jeng's family is very protective. Lor San Tekka offered invulnerable protection to her and her family and she refused him. They might not be open to the concept of a secondary meeting."

"I'm not really here for a secondary meeting. We have reliable information that her and her family are in danger from the Empire." Ahsoka tells the man, who immediately picks up the pace.

"Danger? Because an Imperial group just landed at the small barracks we've permitted…follow me." He says before breaking into a jog.

A dull sound in my earpiece is followed by "I guess we've just going to go huh?" Echo says monotonously.

"What?" I hear Lux ask in the background.

"We're hot on the trail. I'm telling Prime and Darcy now Ezra, don't worry about it." Echo answers in one breath.

The man leads us down a narrow alley before the Force rings with warning, prompting me to probe out and feel an icy cool presence beside a small, bright signature.

_Oh boy…_

"Barriss." I mutter to Sabine, then bite my lip as voices start floating to us.

"—Counselor, the Empire has been quite fair and generous. More so than many other systems. A little cooperation and fairness isn't that much to ask I don't think." Barriss says to an unseen figure.

"I'm afraid your request is going to fall on deaf ears." A male voice replies as our guide signals us to enter a small building with low ceilings. "Sokka. I sent you to prevent that ship from disembarking."

Our guide bows his head respectfully, then replies "Councilor, they are associated with Lor San Tekka and the Church of the Force. We have cause to doubt these Imperials and their motives.

"Ahsoka." Barriss says, voice transfigured by her mask. "Let bygones be bygones. Our intentions here are pure and peaceful."

Ahsoka simply frowns at Barriss and the battalion of Stormtroopers. "I've heard that one before."

"Freeze. You're all under arrest, rebel scum." One of the Stormtroopers says as the others all raise their blasters in unison.

The Councilor turns to Barriss. "What did we tell you?"

"It's not my order." Barriss answers shortly.

"I said that you're not bringing your conflict with some smalltime Rebellion here! Order them to stand down."

Barriss expands her arms outward. "All I want is to speak with the girl's family. They have the right to refuse our offer, and if they do, we will leave."

"Stand down soldier." Rex calls out to the Stormtroopers, causing all of them to snap over to him.

"You're a clone." A man in the background, shielding his wife and young daughter from the scene in their foyer.

Rex nods his head respectfully. "That I am."

"A relic from another age." Barriss says dismissively.

"So are you." Kanan replies immediately.

"Hahaha!" Barriss laughs. "No, I think you're talking about her." She smiles, pointing to Ahsoka.

The Councilor steps forward, drawing everyone's eyes again. "Miss Offee, as I told you when you first arrived before Sokka interrupted. Until your Empire sends an official emissary that acknowledges that they lied to us about order 66 and the Empire's role in it, we have no interest in a partnership."

"We are being honest! We've sent you reports detailing what happened to Master Windu in exquisite detail."

"Those aren't truthful and you know it. I stand by my demand for a body and a bulletproof report. In person. Otherwise, you'll be going." The Councilor fires back.

"I'm not going."

The Councilor steps forward, looking furious. "You're LYING to me. That will get you nowhere here. The girl will not be going with you. Period!"

"Well that's a shame." I hear my voice say just off to my right, causing me to spin and

_Son of a…_

Sabine immediately raises her wrist to fire at the clone as the councilor, our guide and the family behind them all react to the clone.

"What? You have a twin?" The Councilor says to the clone then points at me. I ignore the Councilor, close the gap between the clone and I and scowl down at him.

_He's added a jacket that looks like mine. Same lightsaber._

"Easy to tell the difference this time. Shaving." Zeb says, even with my shoulder. The clone breaks off eye contact with me to look at Zeb as he glares down menacingly at the clone.

The sound of rapid typing fills my ear "I've got it Ezra…typing as fast as I can. Stall him for a minute, two minutes maybe and they'll be outside to help you deal with him." Echo says at top speed.

"I don't understand." Our guide, Sokka confesses.

"We have reason to believe that they—" Kanan pointed to Barriss and her battalion. "Are running an illegal cloning operation. Among other things."

Zeb and I don't move as the clone is still taking everything in while holding a glass of water from the kitchen.

_Poor guest._

"I resent that. I'm not a clone, he is!" My clone says adamantly.

"Find somebody that'll believe that, please." Rex says behind me, causing me to turn and see that everybody outside of the Imperial contingent are eying the clone suspiciously.

I smirk, then say quietly "He won't."

"Says you." The clone instantly bites at me, irritated.

"Says I." I pop back, then hear Echo and Lux in the back of my head.

"What is he doing?!" Lux asks, sounding nervous and incredulous.

Echo laughs, then says "He's messing with the clone's head."

Meanwhile, Barriss steps forward. "Get mad Ezra. I feel it."

"Be quiet." I order her dismissively. "You can't feel anything."

_I'm in control, I'm not mad._

Instantly, the Force rings with Sabine, Kanan, Zeb and Barriss' surprise at my insolence before Barriss snaps back "Touchy are we?"

"Don't speak to my apprentice like that." Ahsoka snaps at Barriss, clearly agitated.

"I'll do what I want, thanks. I'm legally here, you're not." Barriss points out.

Ahsoka sighs. "A myrnock in bantha's clothing."

_Huh?_

"I think you all should go. The Imperial contingent out the door they came." The Councilor asked kindly.

Rex graciously replies "We can do that."

"I'll see Barriss out. Ezra, please see your friend out." Ahsoka adds flatly.

I nod then smile at the clone, who immediately looks lost. "Why are you so happy? Psychopath."

_Not quite. I feel the room._

For once, I already know there's going to be a fight.

"In position." Echo says in my ear, as I start forward, causing the clone to back up appearing afraid with Sabine and Zeb at my back.

I calmly drive the clone back down to the doorway and one step outside before—

"CRSH!"

Glass flies everywhere and I shield my face before the clone stumbles back and to the left. Sabine doesn't hesitate and fires a wrist shot at the clone, causing him to spring back and fall on his wrist while exposing a blood red palm in the hand where he was holding the glass of water.

"Hold it right there!" A Stormtrooper says up, to a group on the roof.

_They must have called in reinforcements from the barracks._

A familiar voice answers. "No thanks. So by the book. We've read your book! It's a short one."

"That's my line…" Sabine grumbles as the clone gets to his feet and a black blur leaps out of the alley.

"HEADS!" Ahsoka yells to us as a warning before I pivot and see that the blur is Barriss. Barriss doesn't speak, instead igniting her lightsaber.

Ahsoka leaps into eyesight as I ignite mine then ignites her own with a flourish.

"Jedi!" A Stormtrooper says as my eyes float to the civilians that have stopped in the street and are watching our confrontation.

"Come with us. Peacefully." Barriss says to Ahsoka.

"Is that what this is about? Peace? I've heard that one before." Ahsoka snaps before the clone starts up his own lightsaber.

My comm crackles in my ear before I hear Darcy ask "Ezra, which one are you?"

"Closest to the building." I say, then slipping into the Sorensu guard and point my blade at the clone.

_NOW!_

I whirl back to see Barriss flying at me, then in one motion send her flying past me using her own momentum, then slice at the clone, who hastily blocks me and retreats down the street and toward the right, where the elevation rapidly increases.

Ahsoka leaps over me, closes the gap between her and Barriss and engages her as Kanan leaps into the fray of the battalion of Stormtroopers to distract them.

_Meaning the clone is mine. Sabine, Prime, Darcy and the others are my support. It's time to go._

The clone rises up and eyes me just before I jump forward and chop down at him, allowing him to block the blow before spinning back rapidly and eliminating the space between us.

"Ahh!" The clone yelps before scrambling away, feet sliding everywhere. Blaster bolts send the dirt all around his feet flying up before the Stormtroopers from inside the house pop up.

"BOOM!"

_Thanks Sabine._

The Stormtroopers crumple as a group, completely decimated from Sabine's precisely placed missile before I engage the clone again with a slice. He blocks, then riposte's me into a jab of his own which I move my head to avoid.

_He is a Makashi disciple. That's the first riposte I've ever seen live. I don't think he has the spatial awareness or balance you need though._

On a whim, I decide to put him thru the ringer as send a flurry of cuts on either side of him and forcing him to ramp up his speed to meet each blow before slicing at his neck.

"THWICK!"

Part of the clone's pauldron flies off, leaving it just looking odd before more shots from the left force another retreat from the clone.

"One of you, go get the ship! They're likely to have reinforcements coming." Echo says into my ear.

"What?" I ask, just before the clone leaps forward and locks me up.

_Strength? Really?_

"Not you! The girls." Echo says as I push the clone off me and Sabine fires a blast right over my ear and forces him to send the bolt skyward.

"Not as weak as I was when I was crippled now am I?" I taunt the clone, continuing to advance on him as we begin to reach where the land rises.

The clone can't reply before Sabine opens fire once more while retreating.

_He can't beat me with her at my back._

I smirk at the thought and press forward.

_I'll just have to keep her at my back then._

"Sabine, stick with me please."

She impatiently replies "Of course, you think I'm going to just—" More shots fly at the clone, causing him to dance away "—leave you with this…thing?!" She says, sounding angry.

"No, he can't beat me with you behind me. It's too much for him to handle." I smile at the clone, who immediately looks lived.

"SHUT UP!" He leaps at us in a fury. Calmly, I step aside as Sabine steps up, catches the clone with his head exposed and nails him with a kick that send him to the ground.

Feeling Prime, Will, Kal, Orir, Darcy and the girls triumphant and begin jumping off the rooftop, I back off the clone and allow him to get to his feet, disheveled and out of sorts.

"I've got you right where I want you." The clone says to me, voice uncertain. Sabine laughs, then raises her wrist behind me. "Yeah, I don't buy it. And you need us to buy it. I know how your mind games work."

The clone immediately changes tact, grabs a whole bunch of loose dust, dirt and debris before rearing back. Immediately Sabine goes from confident to anxious as I move to protect her.

The clone sends the cloud of dirt and debris at us in one massive wave. Instinctively I step back and attempt to catch and corral the wave.

_Got it._

The Force suddenly rings with Sabine, the clone and all the surrounding observers' unshakable surprise before I rear back and return the wave to its original sender.

The wind whips my hair around before I hear the clone yell in shock then land heavily a ways away. Immediately Sabine and I sprint into the hazy air to capitalize.

"SEE?!" I raise my voice. "I'm right! You can't beat me! You can barely keep up!"

A blue flash appears out of the corner of my eye before I calmly meet it, block it and advance on the clone.

_Let's try testing his center of gravity._

I start with a high cut, which the clone blocks before attempting to spin out of. I meet him at the end of his spin with a chop which pushes him back then purposely telegraph a slice at his waist that is blocked. The clone attempts to push me off my spot, but only succeeds in overextending himself in time for me to sweep at his ankles.

_OH NO YOU DON'T!_

I reach up into the air as he attempts to leap over me, then slam him back down so hard that he bounces before landing heavily.

"Ezra! Our ride's here! And we've got company!" Sabine says, voice rising.

_Down in the valley they've got a group taking potshots at our ship._

Undeterred, the clone fires off lightning in a fury, looking indescribably mad. Coolly, I block it skyward and causing the sky to darken ominously. "Go! I'll cover you!"

Sabine takes off without another thought as the clone leaps out at me, putting no space between us. I smirk then block the slices at both my right and left side before answering with another ankle sweep while retreating tactfully.

_Three more steps._

The clone barely gets the tip of his blade on my sweep before I continue backing up. Playing right into my hands, the clone tries taking away my space and I reply by cutting at the middle of his skull. He yelps in surprise before I back up more and slice at his waist.

_Two more steps._

The clone flinches, then tries once more to remove my airspace. I give him my space, which causes him to stutterstep.

_One more step._

"EZRA!" Prime yells at me in warning.

_One more step and I fall off this cliff._

The clone swings wildly at me, which I cooly block before turning my lightsaber in my hand, getting a reverse grip and cut at the clone, connecting at his wrist then follow thru all the way up his arm to his shoulder.

"AHHH!" The clone yells in agony as I flip back onto the thin loading ramp and finish with a Makashi salute.

"Should have listened! Next time, it'll be your head." I tell him ominously before spinning on my heel as we rapidly speed up to leave the planet.


	103. Requiem

"Thanks." I smile at Mira as she hands me a bowl filled with greens and nuna before moving to grab some salad dressing.

_We're all doing dinner together here since Sabine and I didn't get on the Ghost while escaping Haruun Kal._

"And you're sure it wasn't a lethal blow?" Aidan asks me before taking a bite of her bowl, seasoned with pepper and another spice.

I shake my head. "It was a cut. I don't want to kill people."

"Looked so smooth. Effortless." Orir says, voice obscured by the food in his mouth.

"Ezra, I don't mean to tell you how to fight. But haven't we past the point of just injuring? At least deal lasting damage by cutting off a limb."

_I could have done that. I was in control that entire fight._

I shrug. "I don't know. But I feel like that's the difference between what I do and what Dooku did in the Clone Wars."

"Your fights seem to be dependent on how the situation feels and what it requires. That wasn't life or death, so you didn't make it life or death." Darcy hypothesizes and I settle down on a bench by myself, with Sabine off to my right. Sabine immediately looks slightly hurt I didn't sit beside her but quickly disguises it.

_Did I mess up?_

I stall by taking a bite, allowing the flavors of the greens, nuna and peppercorn and oil based dressing to mix and match in my mouth while turning the thought over in my head. As I do that, Lana has pulled up a diagram of the circulatory system.

"Nope." Brie speaks up, using her fork to point to the right arm. "No major arteries of veins unfortunately."

Unfortunately.

The silence stretches on as I feel no desire to speak up and offer a defense for my actions on Haruun Kal.

_I thought I did very well. He can't beat me with Sabine behind me. That's obvious. So next time I should be able to put an end to him. Whatever that means._

"Let's change topics. Something…happier. After we beat that Inquisitor and Ezra's clone on Glee Anselm, what do you think we do then?" Darcy said cheerfully.

Lana and Katiey shrugged, and Will looks to Darcy rather helplessly. "I don't know."

"Easy, let's run things down." Sabine speaks up. "We could continue to chip away at the Empire's infrastructure. We could see what's left of the Rebellion. They could have ideas."

"That Death Star thing is a possibility." Kal proposes.

Aidan immediately shakes her head. "I don't think so. They know that we know now I'm pretty sure. Ezra's mom had to have told them that. She talked to us, and she is an Imperial."

_Mom. An Imperial._

"Since we're going after high ranking Imperials, why not a Moff or two?" Mira proposes.

Sabine rolls her eyes. "That's _your_ thing. We don't assassinate people!"

"Guerilla warfare tactics?" Prime throws out as an idea.

"We're already doing that. Secret base, hit and run tactics for supplies." I speak up, causing everyone to look at me.

…

"Why not aim for that Vader guy?" Lana asks before munching on a bite of her dinner.

"No." I bite back at her.

"Why not?" Lana argues.

Sabine butts in "You don't know who you're talking about. He's an idea to you. He's real to us." She emphasizes, pointing at me and herself.

"How many times have you faced him? Five times?" Will looks over at me.

I shake my head. "No. Fought against once. Fought with once. Spotted him twice."

Ord Mantell, Naboo, Mandalore, Mandalore.

"And when you were captured." Sabine reminds me gently.

_Oh yeah. That feels like ages ago now._

"So five times." Mira deduces.

I nod, before Prime speaks up. "He's a walking machine. Can't be all human."

"He must need that respiratory support really badly." Orir adds.

"That wheeze when that Zabrak choked him sounded feeble." Kal pipes up.

Katiey claps her hands together and smiles. "See! We're already getting somewhere! He has a weakness. His lungs."

"We…do have an in with him too." Darcy says quietly, before my eyes pop open.

_Oh crap I forgot about that._

Sabine blurts out "What?!" as my mind is clear exact for one thought.

_She has a friend stationed on the Executor._

"I have a couple of friends stationed on Vader's Super Star Destroyer, the Executor." Darcy explains.

Prime immediately asks "Are they big? High up?"

"One's a tech, the other is a small captain." Darcy explains.

"So an ensign and a Senior Lieutenant." Sabine clarifies.

Darcy nods. "In Imperial-ese, yeah."

"Can they spy for us?" Will asks Darcy, who is starting to look like she regrets bringing it up.

"They're loyal imperials."

"Do we know them?" Lana askes Katiey.

Sabine cuts across them "You don't know them?"

"We don't know everybody that we all know." Aidan looks at Sabine crossly. "And I don't think so."

"You don't. They don't know I'm with a Rebellion. They just think I quit my job." Darcy clarifies.

Will perks up and asks "Okay, does the Empire know you think?"

"No." Darcy shakes her head. "I'd be shocked. They don't have to. Everybody on that ship is terrified of Vader."

"Why?" Mira asks.

Darcy sighs before closing her eyes. "He grinds thru people. If you don't satisfy his expectations there isn't a second chance. You just die."

_You just die._

"he spoke to you. Cordially it seemed like to me." Prime says to me. "Any idea why?"

"I…" I sputter out, then stop.

"Prime." Sabine shuts him down.

"No, it's okay." I say to Sabine, then try to gather my thoughts.

_He wants me on his side. He likes that I can think. My awareness, how fast I'm improving._

He gave me tips the last time I saw him.

"He thinks he can get me to come to his side. Be his apprentice I think. Early on in my training, Kanan and Ahsoka both emphasized that I needed to know how to think while in a battle. And Vader really likes that." I speak up, then look to see Darcy looking slightly scared.

"He knows how valuable that is." Sabine pipes up.

"Is that how you beat that clone so easily the last two times?" Mira asks me.

I shrug. "Kind of, I guess. It's not even conscious for me at this point. I see something and use it to my advantage. Like with that last blow, I noticed his balance was off. So I got him turned around and landed the cut. Pretty simple really."

Sabine hangs her head. "But at that speed. That level of execution?" She says flatly. "Like I told you back home after you got captured. You're special because of what you do at the level you do it."

"It's not a talent thing then. It's a skill thing." Kal reads into Sabine's statement.

"Exactly." Sabine says.

_"Ezra, I don't mean this badly. But Dooku was a technical master first, and a Jedi second. His ability as a Jedi wasn't overwhelming. Masters Yoda, Kenobi, Skywalker, others were objectively better. But Dooku absolutely owned Form II. That's what you need to try and be." _

_"Are…you saying I'm not that strong?" _

_"Kind of. Kanan and I…just are stronger. Have more potential." Ahsoka said gently._

I'm the third of three. Ahsoka, Kanan, then myself. I have to rely on my knowledge, smarts and skill rather than raw talent. I'm no Kanan, who goes from Jedi to gunslinger back to Jedi to learning a whole new style.

I can't beat Vader.

_But Padmé wants Ahsoka and I to try._

I involuntarily gasp, causing everyone to look at me.

"What?" Prime asks me.

"Uhh…" I say blankly. "Nothing. Just remembered something Ahsoka said awhile back." I lie.

_Show him that things can still be changed._

…

Vader is the endgame here. In order to overthrow the Empire, we have to take down Vader, then Palpatine. However we can.

_Which means Vader can't be around. Either we turn him, or he has to die. Oh no._

"What'd she say?" Darcy asks me.

"…zero sum game." I say quietly.

It's one outcome or the other. I don't want to face Vader again as his enemy.

_I want to turn him back to the light. This…it's all one big misunderstanding. He's been lied to and mislead the entire time._

Without thinking, I stand up and walk out of the crew quarters and up to the cockpit before shutting the door.

_That's how this has to go at some point. It's stupid for me to deny it just because I don't want to face him._

We have to fight Vader again.

"Guys…I got him. He's been under a lot of stress and hasn't been sleeping much. Let me handle him." Sabine's voice floats under the door as I sit in the pilot's chair.

_I don't belong in this chair._

"Is he okay?" I hear Will ask, concern in his voice.

"He's got a lot on his plate."

"Sabine." Darcy says firmly.

"Just…let me talk to him. Finish eating." Sabine asks them gently, before the gentle sound of footsteps moving away from the door are immediately followed by Sabine slipping into the cockpit.

"Hey…" Sabine croons lovingly, then slides onto my lap. "What's wrong?"

I clear my throat as Sabine wraps her arms around me and rests her head on my shoulder. "Remember how I told you about what Padmé said to Ahsoka and I?"

"About Anakin and how he still has moments of good?" Sabine nods while keeping ahold of me.

"And what she wants Ahsoka and I to do." I clarify.

Sabine's head pops right off my shoulder. "Oh…"

"_Show him the light, that things can still be changed."_

"We're going to have to see him again." I tell her.

Sabine looks shocked for a moment, then coming back to me. "Okay… No, you're right. Yeah. Padmé is right. And if we can do it…"

"We're set. But I can't beat him."

Sabine frowns at me. "Why do you always say that? You fought with him! Held your own over a year ago at Ord Mantell!"

"Sabine." I shake my head. "There's another reason Kanan and Ahsoka had me choose my lightsaber form. It's not skill based."

"You're good enough Ezra! Have some confidence!" Sabine lovingly punches my shoulder in an attempt to get me fired up.

"No I'm not. He might be the strongest Force User of all time. Ever. He's conceived _by the Force_ to stop his Master. I'm just one guy." I tell her. "Both Ahsoka and Kanan have more natural talent with the Force."

Sabine shakes her head. "Not they don't. Ahsoka maybe, but not Kanan."

"Kanan's learned an entire new lightsaber style in months. He went from a gunslinger before he met me to a Jedi seamlessly. Without a hitch! Ahsoka herself called him a freak that way. That shouldn't be possible."

"Oh." Sabine answers.

…

"We've got to convert him. Or have all three of you attack Vader at the same time. Something." Sabine says in a rush.

"How?" I ask her. "We need him on our turf. We don't have turf, and he wouldn't come willingly."

Sabine nods. "Yeah. He wouldn't. You're right."

…

"I don't know how we're going to do this." I admit to her, then hang my head.

Sabine is silent for a moment then wraps me up in her arms. "We'll figure it out. We always do. And you're not alone. Everyone here will go fight for you."

"I don't want them to face Vader. They won't stand a chance."

Sabine laughs softly, then holds me closer. "I don't think you have a choice in the matter. They all love you and want to fight for you."

I don't reply, instead resting my head on her shoulder numbly.

_I have to face Vader again._


	104. The Last Battle of Glee Anselm

"GSHH…"

Smoke fills the loading bay before the ramp descends and I walk out onto it then down to the sandy beahc below.

"Hey." Zeb pokes his head out, as the _Ghost_ has parked directly next to us.

"Hi." Sabine says simply, right behind me. "Why didn't you guys give us a mission briefing?"

Rex's voice sounds out suddenly behind Rex "Because Chopper tried resetting all the fuses and rendered the holo and comms inoperable. That's why we waited up in the upper atmosphere for you guys."

"We were wondering about that." Prime quips as he departs the ship, the sound of footsteps behind him.

"What's the plan?" I ask Rex, who immediately turns to his right.

"The plan…" Ahsoka's voice sounds out before she appears, with Lux and Kanan right behind her. "is to wait for our greeting party."

"Greeting party? We're on a island by ourselves." Brie points out astutely.

Kanan smiles, then claps me on the shoulder as Echo and Hera disembark the _Ghost_. "Be patient. The way they reacted to our comm before we set out, they'll be here."

_Okay._

"You haven't truly spoken with them?" Sabine reads between the lines.

"Comms can be intercepted and listened in on." Kanan retorts.

Ahsoka smiles at Sabine's clear irritation. "I have faith."

"RUUUMMMMMMM…"

_What the…_

The ground immediately begins shaking gently before increasing steadily.

"Uhh…" Prime looks up at me/ I turn to Sabine, who has already slapped her helmet on and has her pistols out.

Suddenly, the ocean opens up in a ten foot…

_It's a ramp._

A delegation of creatures, features obscured by the darkness approaches us as the sea defies physics and logic, parting for Durasteel on three sides, two walls holding the water back and the floor of the…trench?

I feel Darcy, Prime and the other become disarmed as the creatures are revealed to have long headtails, eyes with no pupils, varying skin colors and smiles.

"Ahsoka. Kanan." A blue skinned Nautolan bows reverently then rises with a smile. "Thank you for coming."

"Thank you for having us Shon." Kanan replies. "You're looking well."

The Nautolan smiles before asking Ahsoka "Where is the new Jedi?"

"Ezra." Ahsoka calls me over, and I step forward and nod respectfully at the man.

All at once, the Nautolan delegation bow to me, holding their position for three or four seconds then rising back to their full height.

"Thanks?" I say nervously, not knowing what else to do.

"Follow me. They will cloak your ships in natural foliage while we descend to the city." Kanan's friend Shon tells us, the starts back into the trench.

"You're returned to the sea?" Ahsoka asks Shon as I step onto the Durasteel.

Shon inclines his head. "After we received your transmission, the Commission decided the most prudent move for the survival of as many of our people as possible is for us to return to our underwater cities."

"Underwater cities?" Darcy asks, causing the Nautolan to turn and look at her blankly.

"You're handing the land to the Anselmi?" Ahsoka asked, sounding taken aback before many lights pop on, revealing that the trench has become a tunnel.

"Better the Empire and the Anselmi ally and pollute the high-lands than for us to remain a day too long on those lands. As Zatt will tell you, it is the correct choice."

Kanan jumps in and says "And our comm prompted all of this?"

Shon's headtails twitch. "That is giving the comm too much gravitas. But it played a factor, as did the Empire's relentless persecution."

"Slavery?" Ahsoka asks.

"Naboo plasma mining primarily. Only our people can swim down low enough to set everything up after they slaughtered the entire Gungan species."

_Entire SPECIES!?_

The tunnel is filled with silence before Shon speaks up. "We are almost here. I do ask that you stay calm in the tubes."

"Tubes?" I ask anxiously.

"Yes." Shon instantly answers, turning to look at me directly. "Three or four to a tube. Four trips will get us all down to Pieralos."

_I don't know what part of his eye to focus on when he looks at me. It's nothing but black, staring right at me._

Ahsoka nods in affirmation as we reach four banks of oval looking pods. "Please." Shon gestures politely.

I step into the second pod, followed by Sabine, Will and Lux before Shon shuts us in the opaque structure.

We sit still for a moment, and the sound of us breathing fills the small space before—

"THUNK!"

My line of sight becomes a dark blue blur, and I'm pressed down, close to the front of the pod. The gravity of our pod's momentum forces Will to bend forward so far that he's leaning on my back. We rush blindly into the dark abyss for seemingly minutes on end before we level out, and lights appear nearby.

Lux laughs just before we pop up onto a slide and come to a halt.

"What are you laughing about?" Will asks as I open the pod then help pull Sabine out.

Lux takes Sabine's hand then grab Will to help him out of the pod. "There's very few moments that fighting feel noble or grandiose. Look." He says, pointing up.

_Whoa…_

It's a massive dome. Lights twinkle far above us before various fish and creatures reveal themselves going about their feeding habits and such.

"It's beautiful. How far down are we?" Sabine asks him.

Lux smiles in awe. "I have no clue."

"Crsshhh…"

I turn and see Ahsoka's arm push the pod door open before she steps out. "Whoa."

"Yeah." Lux quips at her, causing Ahsoka to glance over and smirk at him before helping Darcy out of her pod.

I glance around to see Rex and Kanan helping Hera out of their pod before doing a quick count.

_That's everyone. Except for Shon._

A "THUNK!" causes me to spin back and look past Will in time to see our pod disappear in a blur.

"Ingenious, isn't it?" A new Nautolan says warmly. "Completely power by the water around the bubble."

"Hey Zatt." Ahsoka smiles, before hugging him gently. "It's good to see you."

"Good to see you too, Master Tano."

Ahsoka laughs before shaking her head. "I never got to be a Master. You know that."

"But you're filling the role." Zatt says, while levitating multiple spears behind him effortlessly.

"You're a Jedi." Prime says.

"I was, once." Zatt replies before turning back to Ahsoka. "Where is your student?"

I raise my hand, then bow my head. "Ezra Bridger, it's an honor."

"Ezra Bridger, Zatt D'Qua'a at your dispose. If you'll all follow me, I can lead you to the boy."

Kanan speaks up. "The boy?"

Zatt nods before starting forward. "His name is Rin Remoda. His family has been some of our people's finest crafters of jewels. A patient group dedicated to their craft. I believe that he could become a fine Jedi, if given a fair chance."

"We'll give him the best shot we've got at giving him that chance if he and his family want to come with us." Ahsoka says to Zatt.

Zatt nods once. "He's going with you. The Commission notified his family of your impending arrival and have been packing their things and saying their goodbyes.

"My question is, which one of you is Ezra's actual Master? Because Rin will have to be the other's apprentice." Shon says out of nowhere as he quickly walks to catch up to us.

Kanan smiles, then briefly glances at me. "Ezra's past the point of needing a true master at this point."

_WHAT._

"In the old ways, he's a very young Jedi Knight. Kanan and I are Masters, but he isn't at that level yet." Ahsoka explains to Zatt and Shon. "We trained Ezra together, and it is our intention to train Rin just like we did Ezra."

Zatt looks at me, clearly deferential. "Most impressive."

"What's so impressive?" Zeb asks, causing me to turn and look at him and spot the shocked expressions of Prime, Will, Kal, Orir, Echo, Rex, Hera, Lux, Darcy, Aidan, Lana, Katiey, Brie and Mira.

_I'm not an apprentice anymore._

They think I can survive on my own.

_WHEN DID THIS HAPPEN?!_

"The first Jedi I have seen in 16 years…and he's already a Knight." Zatt answers, sounding awed and looking right at me, before bowing his head once more.

Shon looks to Kanan. "He'll have a say in the boy's training as well?"

"He deals in patience. Way more than I have in battle." Kanan smiles.

"Makashi." Zatt says.

I snap my eyes to him. "How'd you know?"

"He deals in patience." Zatt replies without a second thought.

Shon turns to Ahsoka. "Are the rumors true?"

"Rumors?" Ahsoka echoes him, her face a portrait of confusion.

"That there is a Rebellion bubbling under the surface, far out in the Outer Rim."

Ahsoka smiles, then looks down. "We're closer than you think."

I smile and Sabine looks over to me as we turn onto a wide avenue, complete with people milling about.

"We'd like to assist." Zatt tells Ahsoka.

"It's not simple. Or a half measure. You're either all in or out." Ahsoka says bluntly.

Zatt turns to Ahsoka solumnly. "We wouldn't offer our services if we weren't willing to sacrifice everything. Today, if need be."

Kanan nods. "You're putting one of your own on a track that got your finest killed. I think you've already proved your dedication."

"Huh?" I ask Kanan.

"There was a fine Jedi Master, in the Clone Wars that fell during Order 66." Ahsoka explains. "If I remember correctly he could have been royalty here."

Shon gently corrects Ahsoka. "He was royalty, even though he never accepted his place on the throne."

"Are we in?" Zatt asks Ahsoka point blank.

_Pushy._

Ahsoka grimaces. "It's not totally my call. But I'll get you in. It'll take some time."

"Understandable. Please let us know if you send an emissary on your behalf. Zatt requests.

"I won't send an emissary." Ahsoka tells him firmly before slowly cracking a smile. "You were once my charge. Don't think you're not still my charge."

"We're here." Shon speaks up. "I must ask that only you three come inside. I don't want to overwhelm them."

Prime nods. "We'll be fine out here."

"I'll start setting up a perimeter." Darcy says before starting to point people to locations.

Zatt says "Follow me." To Ahsoka, Kanan and I before leading us into a tall building. Instinctively I probe out and find a steady, bright Force Signature nearby.

_Yup._

"You seemed rather surprised that you're a Knight." Zatt says to me as we descend a flight of stairs.

"I didn't know." I admit.

Kanan smiles beside me. "Ahsoka and I have been debating it for a little while. There is little that we can teach you. We can always guide, but not teach. The next step is yours to take. We aren't Makashi experts like you."

_I'm not a Makashi expert. I'm just the only…_

Hold on. I guess I am a Makashi expert. I've mastered the basics are have moved onto focusing on incorporating other styles into my own.

"Mister and Miss Remoda?" Shon speaks up, walking into a doorway as Zatt has extended his arm to hold us back. "They're here."

"Please, bring them in." A male voice says and Zatt removes his arm, allowing Ahsoka to lead the way, with Kanan in front of me before Zatt slips behind me.

I step inside the room just as Ahsoka is bowing her head to two green skinned Nautolans. "My name is Ahsoka Tano. This is Kanan Jarrus, and Ezra Bridger. We understand that the situation has already been explained…?" Ahsoka trails off.

"Yes, it has. Although we would like to discuss it with you."

"Of course." Kanan says sympathetically.

The Nautolan looks away from Kanan to incline his head back. "Rin! We have company."

"Coming Father!" A soft voice says before a small boy bounds forward out of a back room, eyes twinkling. "Are they here?"

His father simply points to Kanan, Ahsoka and I. "You tell me."

The small boy turns, then freezes up and becomes silent.

"Hi Rin. I'm Ahsoka. How are you?" Ahsoka smiles, then crouches down to his eye level.

Rin looks at Ahsoka in amazement. "Hi."

Ahsoka smiles even wider, then points back. "That's Kanan and Ezra. You know what we are?"

"You…you're Jedi right?" Rin says, sounding unsure.

I nod and notice something in Rin's eyes lock onto me.

"The Empire is hunting you." Rin states the obvious. "That's what Councilman Zatt told Mother and Father."

Kanan nods. "Yes. And when they find out about what you can do, they'll hunt you too."

"We want to protect you. Help you learn." Ahsoka explains clearly.

_She's being very persuasive. I've never really seen her pitch somebody on an idea before. Usually if it comes from her that is the pitch, that it's coming from Ahsoka Tano._

Rin looks from Ahsoka, back to Kanan and I, then pivots to his parents. "Okay."

"What questions do you have?" Kanan asks Rin's parents.

"First, please sit." Rin's father gestures to Kana, Ahsoka, Shon, Zatt and I.

Zatt and Shon both visibly decline. "I'm fine." Zatt says as I slide onto a chair.

"What kind of parental structure would you be open to? From what Zatt told us, the Jedi way is rather…straightforward."

Zatt clarifies behind us. "I called it dogmatic, which I think is fair."

"It is fair, but that's not exactly how we run things." Ahsoka begins. "The group that we're with is very family friendly, accommodations for families and the like. I believe that at first, we can begin to train Rin without much day to day change. I assume you want him to be educated."

"Yes, we can do that if necessary." Rin's mother speaks up for the first time, looking to her husband.

Kanan looks to her and asks "Any cultural norms we should know? We don't want to step on any toes."

"The worst thing you could do is to prevent Rin from failure. Failure is how you learn. We can adapt to anything you need us to." Rin's father says.

Ahsoka nods. "Alright. Sounds good to me. What else would you like to know?"

"How directly affiliated are you with the rumored direct Rebellion?" he asks the three of us.

"Directly, but we have the option of always saying no to an assignment." Ahsoka explains, before my comm lights up.

"Beep Beep. Beep Beep."

I quickly pop to my feet and see Rin and his parents all look to me. "Excuse me, that's my girlfriend."

"Girlfriend?" Zatt echoes, sounding surprised.

"Fiancé." Kanan corrects me.

I shrug wearily, then slip back to the back of the dwelling. "Yeah?"

"Hey, it's me." Sabine's voice emits from the comm's speaker. "Got a minute?"

"Yeah." I reply. "What's up."

"We've got something weird out here. Darcy and Katiey spotted a dark craft way at the other end of this bubble thing, and there's been frantic movement away from there by some locals."

I bite my lip, then hang my head as I walk into a child's room. "Okay…I'm with the kid now. We've got him."

"Really?" Sabine asks in disbelief.

"Yup." I say, probing out then turning around to see Rin looking up at me in his room. "Hey Rin."

"…Hi." He mutters nervously. "Are you looking for something?"

I shake my head. "No, just talking to some friends."

"Ezra?" Sabine's voice emits from my comm. "Hello?"

"Did they jam him?" Prime's voice sounds out.

"No." I blurt out to ease their fears then smile at Rin. "Do you want to say hi?"

Rin simply looks at me blankly, then nods.

_Okay._

I smile warmly at him, then crouch down. "Hey Sabine? Prime?"

"Yeah?" Sabine answers.

"I've got Rin here. He wants to say hi."

Sabine's voice audibly changes. "Okay!"

"Put him on." Prime suggests.

I quickly change the speaker settings from 'push to talk' to 'audible' so that it'll pick up anything we both say then turn to Rin. "All you. Say hi."

"Hi." Rin says robotically.

"Hi!" Sabine's voice chimes cheerfully. "I'm Sabine. What's your name?"

Rin hesitated for a moment and glances up at me before answering "I'm Rin Remoda."

"Rin Remoda. I'm Sabine Wren. I'm Ezra's girlfriend up on your roof. You wanna come say hi in person instead of over the comm?"

_Good idea._

Rin nods silently, then eyes me anxiously.

"On our way." I say, then switch the comm back to 'push to talk' and lead Rin back to his parents. "We might have a suspicious craft on the other side of the bubble. I'm going to the roof so Rin can meet Sabine."

"Does Rin want to go?" Ahsoka asks me.

Rin immediately nods. "Yes ma'am."

"Hang on. Suspicious craft? How many klicks out?" Zatt asks me.

I shrug. "I just know it looks like the other side of this bubble."

"Alright. If things get weirder, comm me." Kanan tells me.

I nod, then turn to Rin. "Where's the stairs?"

Rin points to a small, skinny stairwell before rushing up them. I smile then follow, taking the steps two at a time to try and catch up to him.

_He's fast. Quick._

I hear a door bust open then the sound of Sabine' voice just as I round the final corner, then grab the door with the Force and hold it open in time to see Sabine crouch down and remove her helmet.

"—ou must be Rin." Sabine beams at him. "I'm Sabine."

Rin silently nods, then looks to Prime, Will, Aidan, Rex and Echo as they all drift over.

"Kal and Darcy are trying to get a visual now." Echo explains to me, prompting Prime to nod before looking back to Rin.

"Rin, I'm Will." Will crouches next to Sabine. "You ever have a problem with anything? Come talk to me. I'll get it fixed."

Rin lights up as the memory of Will greeting Sophie warmly floats across my brain.

_He's good with kids._

"Hey. He's on the move." Darcy's voice emits from Prime's comm.

"He?" Prime asks as Sabine, Rin and I all look to him.

"It's the clone. I don't know how he's here. But I'm betting his friend is hot on his heels."

Rin turns to look at me as the Force rings with his sudden fear.

"It's okay Rin. We got here first just in case this happened." I reassure him before hitting my comm. "Kanan."

"Yeah?"

"We think it's the clone. Barriss must be close behind."

Kanan's comm clicks off shortly, causing Sabine to look to me nervously. "Now we're going to get jammed?"

"Are you here to protect me?" Rin asks Rex.

Rex immediately nods and crouches down. "Yes. We're here to make sure nobody hurts you or your folks Rin. Don't you worry about that."

The door swings open behind us revealing Kanan looking grim. "Zatt and Shon are getting some soldiers to hold things down here."

"What about Rin?" Sabine asks him.

"He'll be okay as long as we keep them all as far away as possible. Meaning if you get a visual, go." Kanan says directly to me. "I assume the others are in position?"

"Kind of. We're in recon right now." Prime answers.

"Un-recon them. If he shows, Ezra needs to go get him." Kanan replies firmly.

I nod, then attempt to calm Rin's Force Signature, which is writhing nervously.

"Where's Ahsoka?" Rex asks Kanan.

"One of Shon's men mentioned a pier that receives goods. She thinks that how Barriss is going to get in."

"Prime." Darcy's voice sounds out. "Grab your electrbinoculars. You should have him."

I step to be equal with Prime and look out as Kanan's voice sounds out.

"We'll see you soon." Sabine says to him reassuringly.

Footsteps lead away from us before Prime says "I've got him. He thinks he's in the shadows."

"Exactly." Darcy adds. "Any word about the other Inquisitor?"

"Ahsoka thinks she knows where she's coming from." Prime answers her.

"Okay, how should we split our forces so that—" Darcy asks before Rex cuts her off.

"Don't split. Ahsoka, Kanan, Echo and I plus whatever soldiers we can get will hold Barriss off. That clone has to be dealt with by hook or by crook."

_They want the job done this time._

"Okay." Prime says before Wil looks to me.

"I guess go whenever you're ready."

_I can't go after him here. The other rooftops are close enough that I can jump and close the gap between us._

Silently, I point towards the other rooftops, then leap to the next one and taking everybody by surprise. Everybody tries to catch up as I probe out and locate the clone easily.

_He's angry. His Force Signature is hot._

I leap to another rooftop then come to a halt just in time to see a shadow dart behind some crates.

"You know." I laugh, unable to hold back a smile. "You suck at hiding."

…

_Fool._

I reach back and sweep all the crates to the side, taking the clone with them before he darts to his feet and starts sprinting away from me, farther up the street.

_Oh no you don't!_

I quickly leap off the rooftop, land on my feet and start chasing him down before shots begin ringing out from the rooftops parallel to us.

_The girls._

The clone expertly dodges each bolt, bobbing and weaving unpredictably before activating his lightsaber and sending a bolt my way. However, I have plenty of time to leap up and over the reflected bolt, then land four or five feet away from him.

"For a Jedi, you're awful cocky. Arrogant." The clone says to me.

I activate my own lightsaber and shrug. "Well, when you've seen what I've seen, done what I've done then have to deal with you? I kind of have to be cocky."

"I am your worst nightmare!"

A lithe figure leaps off the rooftop adjacent to me and lands beside me. "You're not even worth a bad dream, let alone a nightmare." Sabine says dismissively.

"Ahh, my fiancé." The clone smiles. "Looking deadly babe."

_Babe?_

"I don't call her babe." I roll my eyes at the clone.

"Call me babe one more time. I dare you." Sabine grounds out, raising her wrist to fire on him. "How do you know we're engaged?"

The clone smiles darkly. "Lord Vader's eyes are everywhere."

Oh.

"We didn't get all the trackers." I say, figuring it out.

"No, you and your friends did." The clone smiles at me. "It was obvious before you found them."

_Audio and Video._

Out of the corner of my eye, I see somebody raise a blaster before turning to see that it's Darcy, Kal, Orir, Lana,, Katiey, Mira, Brie…

_Everyone._

"You're outgunned." I look back to the clone. "Last chance to surrender."

"I'm not outgunned. The Force is on my side." The clone fires back.

"She's on mine too." I counter.

The clone suddenly cackles. "She? The Force isn't a girl! It's a power, meant to be bent to the strongest will for the right cause.

_He has no idea…_

"You have no idea how wrong you are." I say, as I feel the Force reach out to me.

Padmé telling Ahsoka and I a little about the true nature of the Force, along with her allowing Padmé to comfort me after I was captured tells me all I need to know.

Spontaneously, the clone unleashes a volley of Force Lightning toward Sabine before I flash my lightsaber towards her and catch its ruthless power.

_Gotcha._

"I'm afraid you're going to need to do something. Last time Ezra beat you with his lightsaber, and I'm pretty sure he's better than you with the Force!" Prime calls out to the clone. "It'd be smart of you to just come with us."

The clone eyes Prime disdainfully. "Lord Vader would kill me."

_He's already angry._

"Last time I heard that, I took out your predecessor. Fifth Brother." I tell the clone. "He's already mad I'm not dead, isn't he?"

"NO!" The clone scowls, looking livid out of nowhere. "He doesn't want ME! He wants YOU! I AM YOU!"

_He wants my brain. How I do things. Not a cheap imitation._

"No, you're not." I say bluntly.

The clone shrugs. "I'll become you after I spend the night with your girl. Do better than you there."

_WHAT?!_

My vision literally becomes red for a split second before I take one firm step before a yellow bolt disarms the clone and—

"WHAM!"

The clone lets out a yell before Sabine rears back and busts his head open on the side of the building. Quickly, I rush forward in time to see Sabine activate both blades on her wrists and level them with his throat.

"Give me one reason why I shouldn't." Sabine says, sounding angrier than I've ever heard her. "Just one."

"How about I give you one?" The clone asks airily before—

Prime recoils in horror beside me as the clone kisses Sabine who responds by violently bringing her amrs back and pulling away from the clone.

"SHING!"

The clone's eyes suddenly become wide just before a solid red strip of blood appears even with the clone's Adam's apple.

_Oh. She…_

The lights in the clone's eyes click off, his knees buckle and his whole body sways before crumpling to the ground, surrounded by crates. Immediately Sabine turns and throws up.

"BLEEEECCCHHH!"

"HEADS!" I hear Ahsoka's familiar voice yell out a warning before I instinctively pull the clone's lightsaber to me, activate it and turn in time to get a face full of Barriss.

_WHOA!_

"YOU!" She screams in fury as she connects with both of my blades then pushes them down and makes a break for it.

_NO YOU DON'T!_

I drop the clone's lightsaber and take off after her, quickly met by Kanan and Ahsoka before bolts begin whizzing by us, aimed to trip up Barriss.

"She realized that we spent most of our resources on the clone, then went to bail him out!" Kanan explains as we sprint after her.

"Is Sabine okay?" Ahsoka asks as Barriss throws more crates and general debris down in our path to slow us down.

"Yeah!" I call out then leap over the crates.

_Where is she going? She's running away from us…where?_

The pods. She's lost the clone. All she has now is herself.

"Tell your friends to send the pods away!" I tell Ahsoka and Kanan, who immediately go to their comms.

"—she's trying to make a break for it! Get those pods back to the surface, then get out of the way. I don't want our problem to get anybody hurt." Kanan says as Barriss cuts to everybody's right. Quickly I leap up onto the roof and move diagonally to cut her off before leaping out and flashing my blade at her.

Barriss pushes my blade away, then spins and slices at my head before rotating her blade to deal with dual strikes coming from Ahsoka. Kanan immediately wheels around and positions himself as Ahsoka's counter.

_She's going to push her right to him. Who will push her to me. Reducing her space until she has no more space._

I take three steps back and one to the left before Ahsoka pushes Barriss to Kanan, who immediately sends her my way. I copy Kanan's movement, blocking her defensive blow and send Barriss back to Ahsoka, who is determinedly closing the gap.

Ahsoka goes high with a cut, then low with a sweep causing Barriss to spin right into Kanan's slice which parries into a cut at the very last moment, forcing her to retreat in a panic in my direction. I jab at her while anticipating her spin and clock her right in the face with the armor on my left arm, sending her staggering back before Ahsoka flashes both of her lightsabers inside Barriss' and—

"BRSHH!"

Sparks fly everywhere as I duck, but keep my lightsaber at the ready as Barriss looks around in a panic.

_She's beaten. Three on one, and her lightsaber is ruined._

Barriss' eyes flash to Ahsoka, Kanan and I as Prime, Darcy, Rex and Echo all catch up, footsteps thundering behind us.

"Surrender Barriss. There's nowhere left to run." Rex orders her, leaving no room for error.

In response Barriss reaches up…and pulls off her helmet, revealing her long, dark hair before dropping the helmet heavily beside her. "Congratulations. You beat me. Us. All of us."

"After everything you've done, all the damage and pain you inflicted, you knew this is how it'd end." Ahsoka says without remorse, sounding distant.

"Either here, or at the hands of Lord Vader. If I didn't return with a youngling for him, he said he would kill me." Barriss tells Ahsoka.

_He told both of them different things._

"You don't have to die." Kanan reveals her other option.

Barriss scowls at Kanan. "I'm not surrendering. Ahsoka's right. This is how it ends."

"Put your hands where we can see them." Prime barks out.

Barriss raises her hands in acquiescence. "Here…my hands. But I'm not coming with you."

"You aren't getting away. Those are your only options." Ahsoka reminds her.

Kanan adds "What do you mean you beat us?"

"I'm the last Inquisitor. You've killed the rest of us. Even the clone, who wasn't even a full year old in reality." Barriss suddenly smiles at Ahsoka. "Remember what I told you back on Geonosis?"

_Huh?_

"You said a lot of things." Ahsoka states.

"It's not left. It's up."

What is she…

"No." Kanan says, as Barriss takes a half step towards a circular hole in the bubble.

_OH._

"Barriss…don't do this." Ahsoka says, a slight plea in her voice.

"I refuse to rot in some cell as you gallivant across the galaxy, spreading your weakness across the galaxy. And I won't let Lord Vader kill me either."

"Rex, block the vent." Kanan orders him, who takes one step towards the vent before Barriss steps next to it.

"Barriss…be rational about this. Your actions are understandable."

Barriss immediately fires back "You think they're wrong."

"But they are understandable." Ahsoka replies.

"Well that's the problem." Barriss says simply, then waves her hand—

"THUNK!" "SLIP!"

A dark mass flies thru a tube, before appearing outside the bubble.

…

Ahsoka hangs her head, then deactivates her lightsaber before Kanan does the same.

…

_We don't need it anymore._

Barriss is gone. And so is the clone.

"The last of the Inquisitors?" Echo asks Ahsoka, who looks remarkably down.

Ahsoka shrugs. "C'mon. I want everybody back to Rin's."

"But—" Darcy speaks up before Ahsoka raises her hand to silence her.

"Back to Rin's. C'mon."


	105. These Are Your First Steps

_(Flashback)_

"Hey Ezra." Kanan says cheerfully before I turn and see him and Ahsoka both approaching me holding plates of the bantha steaks and assorted potatoes and vegetables.

I smile and reply "Hi. How are you?"

"Good." Ahsoka says before she sits across from me and Kanan sits to my right.

"How are you holding up?" Kanan asks me.

I shrug. "I'm fine."

"Quiet day?" Ahsoka asks.

"Kind of. I went to the range then helped Sabine pick up our building."

Kanan swallows a bite of carrot and corn mix then asks "Where is Sabine?"

"She commed her parents."

"They're close. Always have been, even when she was a teenager."

Kanan rolls his eyes. "She's still a teenager."

"Not really." Ahsoka counters. "You know that."

"Yeah. But you didn't know that you found her until Lux freaked."

_Oh yeah._

Ahsoka hangs her head, then smiles. "Sabine's time on her own and with House Renless changed her a lot. When I knew her before, she was as straight laced as they came. It just didn't click that they both were one person."

I swallow a bite of potatoes doused in potatoes then ask "You didn't notice her art?"

"The art didn't stick out to me. Sabine didn't show Lux and I much of it. She's kind of an introvert unless you really know her."

Kanan nods, then busies himself with his food, prompting me to do the same and refocus on my Quor'sav-fried steak, potatoes and gravy.

_I didn't really want a vegetable today so I asked for more of everything else._

"How'd it go with Rin?" I ask after a moment, causing Ahsoka and Kanan to direct their attention back to me.

"Alright. We're starting from nothing, so it's going to be slow going for a long time." Ahsoka shrugs, then sips a dark brown drink.

Kanan adds "At your age, you were unknowingly tapping into your abilities which helped me a lot when I first started training you. He doesn't have that."

"He's a just a normal kid. We have to get him to start using abilities he doesn't even know he has yet."

I smile. "What do you have him doing?"

"A lot of explaining what we're doing." Kanan smiles, causing Ahsoka to laugh.

_Oh._

"So you're not getting much done."

Ahsoka smiles. "He's really young. It isn't his fault."

"Better or worse than Sof?" I ask her.

_That's the only point of comparison that I have._

"Close." Ahsoka shrugs.

Kanan's expression turns pensive "I don't know if it's because of how her parent's have raised her, but Sophie is more…in control, if that makes sense."

"It does, I agree. Sof knows when to stand her ground and when to run. She acts when Rin just sees, which isn't his fault." Ahsoka nods.

"But when we do get him corralled, he's really focused." Kanan smiles. "He loves the Force. He wants to be able to lift stuff and do things."

"So am I right in assuming that you're harnessing that interest into progress?"

Ahsoka smiles, fork in her mouth before Kanan claps me on the shoulder.

"We've got some ideas of things you can teach him too." Kanan smiles at me.

I can't help but stare briefly at him. "You want me to help already?"

"It's a group effort. And you're part of the group." Ahsoka smiles at me.

"I know." I smile while looking from Ahsoka to Kanan. "But he needs a base, a good foundation. Like what you guys gave me. And I've never taught anyone before."

Kanan smiles. "You'll do fine. We didn't set you free without having faith in you."

"Yeah. About that." I say seriously, causing Ahsoka to laugh and set her fork down.

"Yes?" Kanan asks sarcastically, smiling at me.

_They're trying to mess with me again._

"Why'd you do it? When did I become ready?"

Ahsoka smiles gently at me. "It's been coming for awhile Ezra. We've been running out of things to teach you."

"After we stopped having to harp on your footwork, you kind of blew thru our lesson plans." Kanan laughs.

"It's not so much a 'You're on your own' thing. But Kanan and I have taught you everything we are sure we should teach you. We may have more lessons, but the next step is your own."

_Okay._

"So it's kind of like my form." I speak up. "Don't look at things plainly. Look for any way to get better."

Kanan nods, then looks thrilled. "See? Not so hard!"

"Exactly. It hit us both when we all left Safe Zone, how you stepped up watching Sof, then you sealed it on Haruun Kal." Ahsoka explains.

"The clone never was in control. One of the final stages of your form according to Master Kenobi is total control of a fight. He said Dooku was a master at it, and how he kept the best the Jedi could throw at him at bay." Kanan elaborates. "And you did that multiple times."

"Just remember that you're never really done, and work on keeping your enemy in check and control. Everything else should fall into place." Ahsoka says finally, then goes back to her food.

_Okay._

So the responsibility is shifting from them to me. It'll be up to me to make sure that I continue to get better. And now I have the freedom to follow an idea I have in regards to the form.

"Do you guys have any idea what I can help Rin with any time soon?"

Kanan nods, mouth full before swallowing. "There's going to be a point soon that he stops listening to us and gets bored. We'll send him to you to work on his footwork."

"His footwork?!" I blurt out in shock.

"It'll be useful, and it'll tire him out." Ahsoka smiles.

_They were on me for so, so damn long about my footwork and now they're putting that to use for them._

"It may even help you." Kanan says. "Some of what I taught you has helped me."

"That makes sense. You probably notice things as you talk about them."

Ahsoka points her fork at me in a n aggressive manner. "Keep thinking like that, and you'll do fine."

"Don't stab me." I joke, cracking a smile before Kanan nearly chokes on his drink and Ahsoka's eyes widen.

"So quick to the joke." Ahsoka shakes her head, looking back to her food.

I smile, then announce "I'm going to go get more. Be right back."

"Berry juice please." Kanan says quickly before I get too far away.

_Wait…_

"That's Rin's job now." I smile.

It is, he's the apprentice.

"Yes, but you're here and you're my student still."

_Blast._

Ahsoka smiles at me as I take Kanan's glass then move towards the kitchen.

_(End Flashback)_

Nervously, I glance around before reaching out to try and find Rin.

_Ahsoka just commed me and said that she and Rin were coming to see me. Meaning Rin got bored today._

I've had some ideas pop into my head about how to make working on your footwork fun, and most of them involve dancing and keeping your feet moving.

The sound of a branch being pushed aside causes me to look up and find Ahsoka and Rin walking towards me.

"Hey. How's it going?" I smile cheerfully.

Ahsoka shrugs. "Not too bad."

"Hi." Rin smiles up at me before I quickly return it.

"Now Rin." Ahsoka says, then crouches down. "Tell Ezra what Kanan and I told you. You'll be done by dinner, alright?"

Rin nods attentively, then glances to me as Ahsoka bows, then slips away back in the direction of the main building.

"What'd they say?" I ask Rin, prompting him to look up at me.

"They want you to make me move better, or something like that." Rin looked up at me with his pupil less eyes.

_I'm starting to get used to it, but it's still jarring._

"Ahh." I smile, then crouch down. "They want you to move better huh?"

Rin nods raptly, but doesn't audibly reply.

"They want you to work on your footwork." I say before spotting a small circular object clipped to his brown cloth belt. "What's that?"

"Ooh!" Rin lights up. "It's a lightsaber!"

_Training saber._

Silently I pull it to me, then turn it over in my hands. "It's actually a training saber buddy." I explain with a smile.

"But it looks just like one." Rin counters. Unable to hold back a smile, I pull my lightsaber off my belt into my hands.

"How'd you do that." Rin demands, sounding enthusiastic.

"The right way to answer that, is by asking a question." I say, sounding sage even to myself.

_I don't cave to many demands. And that was a demand. A nice one, but still one nonetheless._

Rin eyes me, and again I see movement in his eyes before he caves and asks "How did you do that Master?"

"You don't have to call me Master Rin. I'm Ezra." I correct him gently.

"Okay." Rin nods. "How did you do that Ezra?"

"I pulled it to me. It took me awhile to learn how to do that."

"I wanna learn how to do that!" Rin beams.

I smile back, then drop my tone to become gently serious. "You will, eventually. But that's not what we're here to do, is it?"

Rin suddenly looks embarrassed. "No."

"Let's do that then okay? Then we can go get dinner with your Mom and Dad."

"Okay!" Rin says, then pulls his training saber out of my hand.

_All he's probably done is move with it. He doesn't know how to move without it._

"Okay Rin." I step back. "You're facing just one person. Show me what you would do."

Rin immediately asks. "They're moving too?"

I nod silently, then take another step back.

Rin lets out a breath, then steps up…

_And starts blindly chopping at empty air while his feet never stop moving, shuffling and dragging on the grass._

"Whoa, whoa. Okay." I stop him, causing Rin to stop and look guilty. "Maybe that wasn't the best idea. Try to get to me."

I quickly ensure that my lightsaber is in its training blade position before snapping my wrist, activating it and saluting him.

"YAAAHHH!" Rin yells, then starts blindly chopping at me again.

_No, no NO!_

I block the first two, then step around him and force him to turn completely around and take another whack at me.

_No._

I slide to my left and force him to turn around again, causing him to whiff on his hack then repeat the process.

_No._

No.

_No._

Rin suddenly stop, completely gassed. "I…I'm tired."

"Okay. I have some water over there." I smile, then point to where I set the pitcher of water I brought along with two glasses. Rin races over and pours himself one, then hands me both pitcher and glass.

"Thanks Rin." I say graciously as he gulps down his water before pouring him some more and taking a drink of my own.

Rin smiles, then asks "How did I do?"

_Blast._

"Well, now I know how to start helping you." I smile enthusiastically.

"Okay!" Rin says, then drains his glass.

I pour him more. "The first thing we're going to do is we're going to dance."

Rin's eyes quickly go from shining to completely dark. "Dancing?"

"Yes." I say, leaving no room for argument.

"Why am I going to dance?" Rin asks, tone warmer this time.

_He's picking up on my tone. Good._

"Because that's the best way to work on your footwork. That's how I beat you buddy. I just used my feet to move around you."

Rin shakes his head and counters. "But you blocked me."

"Did I block you more, or did you miss more?" I ask him, which immediately causes his face to fall.

"I missed more." He says very quietly before hanging his head.

Quickly, I crouch down and pick his chin up. "Hey. It's okay. That's what I meant to do. Don't be so hard on yourself. What is your worst thing in school?"

Rin quickly tilts his head. "Language. I sometimes get the words wrong and I feel dumb."

"It's okay. Sometimes I don't get the words right either and I'm 17 man. And this is just like languages. There's a lot too it."

"There's too much to it." Rin immediately counters.

"That's how it feels right now." I smirk at him. "It'll get better. This isn't something that you just get right away."

Rin immediately asks "Isn't that why you guys came and got me? So I could help right away?"

"No." I shake my head and tell him. "We know this is going to take awhile. It's taken me two years to get to this point. It takes time."

"So I'll be as good as you n two years?" Rin asks naively.

_No._

"Maybe." I smile encouragingly. "You never know."

Rin smile up at me, then sets his glass down next to the pitcher of water. "Okay. What do I need to do?"

I point at where we were just standing. "Stand over there." Rin obediently walks over, paces for a second then turns back to me, where I've already pulled out a small speaker system.

"Erza…" Rin says, sounding apprehensive.

"Yeah?" I ask, purposely not looking up from the speakers.

"This is embarrassing."

_He thinks he's too cool for school._

I cast my eyes up. "I run around here every single day. Sometimes I fall and embarrass myself. It's a part of it." I smile, then pull his training saber to me.

"Hey!"

I smile up at him. "You don't need it. All you need is your feet."

"But how am I going to learn how to fight without my lightsaber?"

"This isn't about learning to fight Rin." I explain. Rin doesn't reply, and I start playing the mix Darcy, Lana, Katiey, Mira, Brie and Aidan all picked out.

_All I said is "Pick stuff that makes you want to move"._

Rin lights up at the music, starts bobbing his head, but his feet remain still.

"Dance!" I call out, and immediately he starts forcibly dancing.

_He's stiffer than stone._

I watch him, then pretend to occupy myself by letting myself nod to the music and inspect Rin's training saber.

Gotcha.

_He's super nervous about not wanting to disappoint me. And he's embarrassed that he can't dance._

I raise my eyes gently to see him still dancing but looking just as uncomfortable. Confidently, I step forward and he immediately hesitates.

"Loosen up Rin. Nobody's here. I don't care that you can't quite dance. I can't either." I reassure him, then rub his shoulders. Immediately his feet start moving a little faster, but still forced.

"Good. Keep it up." I encourage him ,then go back to the speakers and change the song to a faster beat. "GO!"

Rin immediately just starts moving his feet without caring where they go, a frenzied tap dance of sorts.

"Focus. Focus on how exactly you want to dance. Don't just do it Rin." I remind him, and immediately he changes tact to a dance that I've never seen but looks like something he knows.

_Good._

I watch him for the rest of the song and smile to myself as I feel him start to enjoy himself. I almost repeat the song, wanting to capture that feeling, but opt to instead let it play on.

Rin immediately stiffens up, especially around his hips.

"Loosen those hips. Just be loose." I remind him before settling in and fall into a rhythm of my own of watching him, pretending not to watch him and probing to gauge his reaction.

Finally, we get another fast paced song and he reverts right back to the semi-graceful but clear dance.

"Yeah! Just ike that!" I call out, immediately followed by a wide smile from Rin which is backed up by his Force Signature.

Movement behind Rin and off to his left, my right causes me to glance up and see Sabine and Rin's parents looking on.

_Sabine in particular is smiling._

I keep quiet and we all watch until the song starts to taper off before I quickly repeat it.

_Now we try to repeat it._

Rin's Force Signature immediately leaps and he starts dancing even faster but keeps his hips loose and feet moving.

At the end of the song, I cut the music off but Rin's parents immediately fill the vacuum by cheering happily. Rin immediately jumps out of his skin, turns and goes slightly pale. "Hi." He says quietly.

I wave warmly to them all before stepping forward and meet everyone where Rin's standing and looking embarrassed again.

"You looked good. Smile." His father prodded him, causing Rin to smile.

"What does dancing have to do with being a Jedi?" Sabine asks, a glint in her eye.

I return her smile then explain to Rin's parents. "Footwork is the basis, the groundwork in order to be able to fight with a lightsaber. You have to have good footwork in order to be even okay at it. We started doing that today."

"Makes sense. Did he do okay?" Rin's mother asks me, looking serious.

"Oh yeah. He did good. We were about to call it a day and come meet you for dinner." I reply.

Rin immediately looks to Sabine and I. "Can we sit with you again?"

"Of course." I reply before Sabine crouches and smirks at him.

"You can _always_ sit with us."

Rin smiles, then takes his mother's hand before they start to lead us back to the main building. Sabine gently slips her hand in with mine before getting on her tiptoes and kisses my hair.

"Good job. He looked like he was having fun." She whispers to me before squeezing my hand. I squeeze her hand back before following Rin and his family all the way to the front door.

"Rin." I suddenly say, getting him and his parents to turn back to me. "You're forgetting something."

Rin blinks, then looks up agan at me. "I am?"

I nod, smirk then extend his training saber to him.

_He forgot all about it._

"Oh! Thanks!" He lights up, then smiles at me.

"You're welcome. Now let's go eat. I'm hungry." I tell him, then smile.

Sabine rolls her eyes beside me. "You're always hungry."

Rin's parents both laugh before I frown lovingly at Sabine. "Thaaaaanks."

"Any time." She smiles back before we slip inside the main building.


	106. The Trip

_(Flashback)_

"How's Rin coming along?" Prime asks me with Aidan beside him and Will brushing some dirt off his armor.

I shrug. "Slowly. I'm starting to wonder why Jedi use to take kids in so young."

"Why?" Will flicks his eyes up at me briefly before returning to the dirt stubbornly remaining on his armor.

"It's such slow going." I explain.

Aidan smiles. "He's a kid. A child. You can't expect him to be so disciplined."

"I know." I hastily reply. "Maybe I'm used to Sof."

Prime, Will and Aidan all smile before Prime says "Sof is really mature for a little kid."

"She's more focused than Rin is." Aidan states matter of factly. "When I first met her, all we had to do was frame blaster practice on a game and we had her for over an hour."

Will counters. "Look at her dad. He's the best shipbuilder outside of KDY. She gets the focus from him."

"And Sabine maybe. She idolizes her. Who does Rin have to look up to? His parents are relatively normal and he's an only child." Prime points out.

"Aren't both of his parents jewelry people?" Aidan asks.

I nod. "They make jewelry, some really high class stuff apparently."

"That takes patience." Prime nods.

"Maybe?" Will turns to him. "Jewelers as far as I know from the markets by the Wren's home are more salespeople. They have hundreds of products, and their goal is to get you to buy."

"Quick read of the situation." Aidan cuts to the chase.

_Maybe._

"We're talking in a circle." Will shakes his head.

Prime disagrees immediately. "I feel like we're getting somewhere."

"I don't." Aidan says morosely.

"EZRA!" My comm goes off suddenly, causing me to jump.

"Yeah?" I ask. "What's wrong?"

_Did I miss something?_

"Grab everybody you can and get them to the _Ghost_. We're scrambling everybody to get to the ships." Kanan says over the tumult in the background.

I glance up at Prime, Aidan and Will before asking. "Okay, why? Why are we scrambling?"

"We finally found where Leia went. She commed us saying the other half of the Rebellion is about to be basically invaded.

_Other half of the Rebellion? Invaded?_

They're compromised.

"Like Onderon?" I ask.

"No, more like Safe Zone. But they found out beforehand. Get everybody in gear! We're jumping to hyperspace as soon as everybody is on board." Kanan says abruptly, then cuts the transmission short.

Aidan looks to me. "Do we go in our ship…?"

"Yeah." I make the snap decision. "We'll have a better chance with more people in more ships."

"But a greater chance of something happening…" Will helpfully adds as I start leaking out towards the hangers while people begin sprinting towards various positions.

"Keep comms hot! I'm sure somebody will fill everybody in!" I say before we all begin running towards our ships.

_The Kom'rk and the Ghost are parked right next to each other. _

On the run, I hit the hotkey for Sabine's comm.

"Yeah?" She blurts out, sounding irritated.

"You heard?"

"Oh I heard! I'm not ready at all but I heard!" She bites at me before something heavily falls in the background. "_Haran!_" (A/N: Hell)

"Need help?" I ask before Sabine's comm hits something and a loud noise emits.

"No, I'm alright. I'm just going to have to prep all my stuff on the fly at lightspeed. Meet you at the _Ghost_."

I glance back and shrug at Prime, Aidan and Will before multiple X shaped ships start rising into the air in front of us.

"Where are those from?" Aidan asks, sounding frustrated.

"No clue! Looks useful though!" Prime adds.

"I think they're fighters!" Will speaks up. "Those foils can move, see the two foiled wings?"

"No?!" I say before the top of the building obscures my view of the X-Winged ship. The four of us run past the various engineers, pilots and various other staff before Echo's voice sounds out.

"Aidan! I'm with you guys! I'll get you guys pointed in the right direction!" Echo says, bouncing on the balls of his feet before they all split off.

"Keep 'em peeled!" Prime calls out to me before I juke around a crew pushing fuel then sprint towards the hanger the _Ghost _is in.

"Got him!" I hear Zeb say loudly as I sprint at top speed.

"Go! I'll jump!" I tell him, just before the _Ghost's_ engines fire and the blowback causes me to stumble.

_Whoa. Guess Hera has the comms hot._

I power thru the wind resistance, sprint at full speed then leap up onto the rising ramp of the _Ghost_, landing with both feet just as Lux makes a move to grab me and pull me in.

"You're getting better at that." He smiles at me.

I shrug. "Why the extra ships taking off ahead of us?"

"Because we can't take two crushing blows within such a short time. We're obviously not doing something right. So we're bringing the firepower for a counter punch."

"LUX!" Ahsoka raises her voice, sounding like she's near the holo.

Lux makes a frightened expression in my direction then hustles towards the sound of her voice.

_(End Flashback)_

_Jeez…_

"Clink! Clink! Clink!"

The amount of resources it looks like we're throwing at this…meeting with the Empire is comical and scary at the same time. Multiple cruisers, Squadrons of "X-Wing" class and "B-Wing" class ships, neither of which I have ever heard of before. We're apparently in the middle of a caravan of ships rushing to this cell's aid.

_How Ahsoka explained it to Sabine and I in 90 seconds was that they've very slowly begun putting cells together and making hubs for other cells to join._

The _Ghost_ cell joined with Ahsoka, Rex and Echo's half. The other half is run more by Admiral Ackbar, Mon Mothma and Princess Leia.

_They have the control in that cell that Ahsoka, Rex, Echo, Sato, Hera and Kanan have in our it's taken over 15 years, but we're apparently getting close to being able to putting the two large cells together._

And truly becoming a Rebellion.

"Clink! Clink! Clink! GSSH-POP!"

I glance up from the datapad loaded with raw information about the other cell and the planet we're going to named Metalorn, and see Sabine still intently focused on prepping her armor.

_Except for a 15 minute hasty briefing, that's all she's done. And I know she hates doing it at top speed._

She can do it, but she doesn't like having to do it so fast. It leaves the door open for a mistake.

"Stop looking at me like that Ezra." Sabine bites at me.

I turn back around. "Sorry."

"I know. Just…need my space right now."

"Sorry to disrupt that space." A familiar voice says sardonically as our turret is thrown into stark relief from the blue light of the holo.

_It's Sabine's parents and Sophie._

"Hi." I say, spinning back around as Sabine's head is focused on the holo.

Sof waves at Sabine, who thinly smiles before looking back to her armor before her mother asks me. "Ahsoka said you guys got no warning. Is she prepping?"

"Yeah." I reply.

"So sorry if I'm short." Sabine pipes up, focus back on her armor. "Not personal. This just looks like it could be a fun fight."

"Fun?" Sof lights up.

"Not actual fun _Ad'ika_." Mr. Wren calms Sof down before looking to me. "We won't linger son. We just wanted to hear from you two and see if we heard correctly."

"Heard correctly about what?" I reply.

"Rex commed us first, saying that the ship Sabine and Hera gave over to Carid is about to go into service with you guys." Mrs. Wren says.

Sabine asks without looking up from her armor. "Is that what the "B-Wing" is?"

"Yup." Her father replies without missing a beat.

"What is it? I haven't even seen one."

Mr. Wren shrugs. "Well there aren't many. 18-20 right now are flying, and all but three are with you. They're ideally bombers. Support ship. Heavy firepower. It's meant to be a blockade buster. The main advantages it has is its thin profile, gyroscopic cockpit and primary weapon."

_Huh?_

"I don't know that word sir, sorry." I admit sheepishly.

Mr. Wren smiles. "The cockpit can rotate. The entire ship is never meant to be completely stationary. It's a long ship. 16-18 meters overall, so the maneuverability of those 16-18 meters is important so it doesn't get torn to shreds."

"How about firing time?" Sabine asks without looking up. "And the primary weapon."

"It comes with multiple laser cannons, but it has a turbolaser and torpedoes enabled. You just have to spread the three foils out to be able to use it, which is the intent of the craft. The firing time is 1.387 seconds."

_Sounds fast._

"That slow?" Sabine immediately counters.

"It punches thru most armor and you have to shore up your deflector shield for a direct assault. Makes up for the time."

"This is over my head." I shrug helplessly to Mrs. Wren getting her to smirk as Sof is looking up at her father.

"How far out are you?" Mrs. Wren asks me.

"I don't know." I admit.

"Hopefully a little ways…I'd like to run a full diagnostic." Sabine says quietly.

Her mother answers. "A quick one can be done as you tinker."

"I'm reloading, not tinkering. And I've already run two. I'd just prefer a full. Get everything calibrated perfectly." Sabine fires back smoothly as she loads missile into her wrist.

_I've seen her do this before when she has time. It looks like a drum, but there's five missiles per little slot. I don't know how but the amount of missiles she can hold at one time is incredible._

She's a walking armory and fights like it.

_In a good way of course._

"Power packs?" Mrs. Wren asks.

"Mom." Sabine growls, clearly irritated.

Her father instantly jumps in as Sophie anxiously sips her juice. "She's just trying to help darling."

"I know. And you guys know I don't like being rushed." Sabine answers curtly.

"And you're rushed. Sorry. Love you." Mrs. Wren smiles.

"We're coming out of hyperspace!" I hear Rex call down to us before I turn to my turret and watch the blue of hyperspace get replaced by the sight of a large space battle in front of a green and black planet.

"Whoa." Mr. Wren says as Sophie looks even more anxious.

_Great…_

"Be ready on those guns!" Lux relays to us before I slip into the chair.

"We'll go. Be careful you two." Mrs. Wren says softly.

I turn in time to see Sabine smile at her parents and sister. "We will I'll comm when we're done and have some more time."

"Hope my ship saves you." Mr. Wren smiles, then waves.

"Bye!" Sof pipes up, waving before the comm is cut off.

_They're jamming us. Or more like anything around this planet._

I count three Star Destroyers exchanging red fire with foreign looking Capital ships returning with blue fire as Sabine changes over to hear Hera's comm.

"—came out on the wrong kriffing side…" Hera says, sounding thoroughly frustrated.

"We didn't know what side they'd pop up on." Kanan reassures her.

"We'll buzz the nearest Star Destroyer's bridge so they can't get a lock on us with their tractor beam unless they want to pull their bridge down."

I hear Lux laugh in the background. "Good idea."

"Not mine. Some Jedi did it… Did it during the…war!" Hera says as a TIE Fighter explodes off to the left and forces Sabine to avoid colliding with its debris. "Tell the kids that we've got 90 seconds until we buzz that Star Destroyer then we'll be on course to meet that ground battle head on."

"Got it. We put you on down here." Sabine says, putting her wrist plating back on her armor, now complete with missile fitting once again. "On our way."

_Some Jedi._

I'll have one guess.

Sabine and I sharing a knowing look as she hops to her feet then obscures her face with her helmet.

_It's go time._

TH Star Destroyer becomes a massive grey blur as we fly close enough to the bridge to breathe on it, then dive right down and make a run for the surface.

"So damn good…" Sabine mutters, climbing the ladder.

"Awesome flying Hera!" I call out just before jumping up to the crew quarters as the ship rocks ominously.

_We're good…_

"What's the plan?" Sabine blurts out to Kanan as he and Ahsoka walk out of the cockpit towards the loading bay door and ramp.

"Somebody's anxious to get going." Ahsoka immediately smiles.

"Well, I got rushed. I want to make somebody pay for it." Ahsoka reasons with her.

Kanan smirks. "Fair enough. We're here to buy them as much time as possible. The base is already lost, so it's about relieving pressure and mitigating damage."

"We've been on the horn with Echo and the others, so they know the plan." Rex says, popping up behind us.

"Which is…" Ahsoka smiles. "We have to get Leia, Ackbar and Mon Mothma out. We're going to try and land as close to the main building as possible without getting obliterated. But recon says that leia is helping lead the battle outside the base."

_LEIA!_

"Why…?" I groan.

"Don't know, don't care really. Your job Ezra is to get her and steer her back to us. Sabine, it's assumed you're going to be with him." Kanan explains.

Sabine nods in understanding just before Ahsoka says "We don't know what kind of forces are down there. We're assuming a small invasion force, maybe a AT-AT like what you saw on Mandalore. Prime, Darcy and the others are expecting that and are your support."

"It's basically a smash and grab, while holding back the Empire as long as we can." Rex smiles finally.

The bay door opens, allowing the wind to begin whipping around in the enclosed space.

_I'm going to need some high ground, both in order to see what I'm dealing with and so I'm in a good position to attack._

The ground is nothing but a green, grey and black blur that is slowly clearing up, but not by much.

"Give me a second…" I mutter as the ramp begins extending and I slowly inch down it.

_No…No…No…_

Yes!

Instinctively, I leap out of the Ghost, onto a plateau and pop to my feet before a wrecked battlefield comes into view.

_Multiple ships down, small fuel fires…one AT-AT down. Stormtroopers advancing on scattered Rebel soldiers. X-Wings and TIE's duke it out in the skies._

Are those…black Stormtroopers?

"We're behind enemy lines AND they didn't see you! Nice!" Sabine lands next to me. "Ideas?"

"Kind of. Use our natural surroundings to funnel as many as we can and make it easy for us." I say off the top of my head.

Sabine points across the way to another steep cliffside. "That looks like you can bring a landslide back and cause a line break between this wave and the next."

_Good idea._

"On it. You good?" I turn to her.

"Of course I am." She says, then points for me to bring down the Cliffside just before small arms fire from a portion of the Imperial line causes the _Ghost _to barely wobble.

_No. You don't do that._

How about I collapse both sides of the cliff? Let's do that!

I get a firm grip on the large mass of loose rocks, pebbles and gravel that make up the side of the cliff, then breathe thru my nose and start pushing it down.

_Go…move._

"Ezra, other side?" Sabine asks me.

"Hang on. Don't fire. They fired on the _Ghost_ and it'll complete the break in the line." I say, gritting my teeth as I feel the undercurrents of the rocks start moving, but nothing visib—

_Got it._

The mass slowly begins snaking down towards multiple Imperial battalions as an X-Wing and a TIE in a dogfight covers the noise.

"POP POP POP POP!" "WHIIIRRRRR! POPOPOPOPOPOP!"

A Stormtroopers finally notices the mass as it picks up speed and points it out to another, who freezes up.

_This landslide doesn't need me anymore._

I give it one final push as the ground begins shaking around Sabine and I, then turn my focus across the valley to the other cliff and begin exerting pressure on it.

"Whoa…" Sabine says, latching onto my arm before the ground beneath us cracks below our feet.

"This other side really wants to…move!" I say as it just breaks off and begins acting like a runaway speeder.

"Time to go then! I'm nearby!" She reminds me before firing up her jetpack and flying away at top speed.

_She's right._

I smile to myself, spot a cluster of soldiers moving to assist a trapped armored troop carrier that got stuck in the landslide and take off for them. They are completely oblivious and clearly in a panic as they stop and start trying to open the primary hatch, and I start picking them off one by one until—

"It's coming from behind that speeder! Take care of it!" A superior yells, just before I pop back up and blast the poor guy that happens to be the first to turn around. They immediately change tactics, sending three Stormtroopers toward my position.

I manage to blast one of them before getting bolts peppered at where my head was.

_Time to use the lightsaber. Three…Two…_

I pop to my feet, slice the Stormtrooper on my left in half then spin back and reflect the bolt fired at me right back to its owner, felling him heavily.

"WHOOOMMM! POP POP POP!"

The troop carrier in front of me is immediately engulfed in flame from the fire from the X-Wing which gives me time to spot Sabine picking a battalion apart with her wrist bolt before turning back.

"BOOM!"

An X-Wing with a blown out engine takes a steep dive, ploughs into the ground and explodes, taking out an entire battalion and leaving me in a patch of barren land with nobody to take on. I run to the top of a rise in the battlefield and see that the Rebel line isn't that far away.

_Which means I need to push them back._

Intent on doing just that, I take off and spot multiple figures in black engaged in fierce hand to hand combat.

"Heads up! There are Stormtroopers in black armor!" I say into my comm, running for the scrum.

_I hope my guys are winning._

As I arrive steps away, the figure of Prime comes into focus just before he ducks a punch and stabs a Stormtrooper in the neck, then kicks him away.

"Thank for the help!" Kal yells at me as I don't break stride and sprint past them towards a battalion equipped with a mounted chain gun.

"Anytime!" I say, causing the Stormtroopers to turn and see me just in time to get sliced up.

Heavy footsteps behind me get me to turn as Prime, Kal, Will, Orir and Katiey all reach me. "Where are the others?" I ask Katiey.

"They're fine. Running a group of Stormtroopers thru a minefield." Katiey shrugs.

"Huh?"

"They're good with grenades." Prime shakes his head. "What's the plan?"

The "WHIIIRRRR!" of a TIE fighter gets them all to glance up as I spot Sabine send a Stormtrooper flying back into his friends with two shots from her blasters.

_Nice._

"I need to find Leia!" I tell them.

"Okay. Uhh…" Prime begins, then stutters and points to the horizon.

_Oh blast it._

Another AT-AT. I don't think I can take that one down though. It's 30 feet in the air, and I don't think it comes down.

_In order to get it down, you have to go up._

Quickly, I change over to Rex's comm frequency. "AT-AT on the horizon. Do we have anything for it?" I ask.

"Working on that! You're all giving us breathing space! Keep it up!"

"Let's not worry about that. It gets here when it gets here." Will jumps in.

I nod. "Good idea."

"I'll get Darcy and the others to find Leia. You guys do work!" Katiey says, looping around us and taking off towards the Rebel lines.

_Okay._

"You want us?" Prime looks to me.

"I can do more on my own, but I'll be around. Don't get into any no-win spots. I'm your support."

"BOOM!" "WHI—WHI—WH—BANG!"

A TIE wing flies thru the air before heavily landing in a bar patch of grass.

"Birds are having fun!" Orir comments.

_Battalion. All alone firing on a medic._

I smile, then take off towards the despicable Stormtroopers. The din of th battle again covers my entrance and I take two down before they notice me and I have to activate my lightsaber in order to defend myself.

"You guys should know not to go after a medic!" I yell, irritated. "They're trying to help!"

"Rebel Scum!" One of the Stormtroopers yells back at me.

"SCUM?!" I exclaim in disbelief, then dismember the speaker and pull a lone dark suited Stormtrooper to me. "WHAT ARE YOU?"

"I'm a Deathtrooper, part of Director Krennic's organization."

_Krennic?_

"Deathtrooper huh? Fitting you're dead." I say before stabbing the "Deathtrooper" and looking ar—

"Ezra! Got Leia! Fall directly back! She's at the fallen AT-AT making a stand!" Prime tells me.

I let out a breath, deactivate my lightsaber as X-Wing's and TIE's duke it out in the air before turning and making a break for the Durasteel shell of an AT-AT.

_Making a stand?_

"What…are you DOING?!" I ask Leia as I arrive, causing multiple men to sit up and take notice.

"Ezra! You…how are you here?" She asks in disbelief as the chaos of battle surrounds us.

"We got your message! I was clearing a buffer for you all. You aren't a commander!" I tell her.

Leia frowns, then jabs me in the chest. "I'm the closest thing we've got! We aren't as militant as you!"

"Good thing I'm here then!" I quip at her, then sense a battalion approaching our position. Calmly, I take one step onto the AT-AT and lazily throw my lightsaber before watching it cut thru every Stormtrooper before impulsively yelling "I AM THE BADDEST _BUIRSHIKA _ON THIS PLANET!" (A/N: For all you guys saying certain words aren't "Star Wars words" or canon, here is my peace offering. Buirshika is "MotherF****er".)

"Whaaaatttt…" I hear a soldier say in awe. "You're a Jedi. An actual, real Jedi. Here." Another one says, looking younger than me as I hear Prime begin laughing over the comm.

"You have GOT to be kidding me!" he said giddily.

"What'd you say? What does Buirshika mean?" Leia asks insistently.

I smile and ignore her request. "Yeah, I'm a Jedi. And we're going to fall back to the hanger and get everybody out!"

"Ezra!" Leia snaps at me, causing everybody to look at her. "Tell me!"

"It's not polite." I smile.

"I can take it. I'm not that delicate." Leia frowns as a X-Wing buzzes us.

"BOOM!"

"No Leia. I wo—"

Suddenly the Force sounds out a quick warning just before Leia panics and screams "BEHIND YOU!"

_It's a blaster shot._

I flick my wrist, activate my lightsaber and block the bolt without looking.

_Hang on. That's not a bolt. That's pressure._

"GSSSSHHHH…"

I push the force exerting itself on my lightsaber back, spin on my heel and look in irritati—

_Oh._

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…"

"You are _not_ the baddest man on this planet. Let alone this battlefield, young Bridger." Vader snaps at me as his intimidating figure looms directly over Leia, the soldiers and I. "I am."

_He's got the high ground._

"Well if I'd know you were here, I wouldn't have said it." I reason with him, taking a step back while everyone else minus Leia flees for their lives.

"You still did. And it's still wrong." Vader growls.

_He's not in the mood to talk._

"THAT'S VADER!" I hear Prime yell over my comm, presumably to Darcy and the girls. "THE FIGURE IN ALL BLACK!"

"Retreat! Fall back!" I hear Sabine order everyone as I take another step back.

"I apologize." I say sincerely. "I don't want to fight you."

"What?" Leia blurts out in disbelief.

"Senator Organa, your contributions to this conversation need to end if you like to keep your head." Vader snaps at her.

"Is that a threat?" Leia fires right back.

"No." Vader says, marching forward with his lightsaber active. "That's a guarantee."

"I don't want to fight you. I want to talk to you!" I say, throwing as much insistence into my voice as I can.

"Talk to me? Why do you want to do that?" Vader replies.

_He is talking. Better than not I guess._

"You know why." I tell him.

I have to at least try and do what Padmé asked Ahsoka and I to do.

"I have no interest in discussing that any further young Bridger, unless you come with me."

_An offer?_

"Discuss what?!" Leia asks once more.

"_Senator Organa_, be SILENT!" Vader roars, then steps off the AT-AT onto level footing with Leia and I.

I push forward the conversation while taking another step back. "Don't listen to her. You and me. Ahsoka and I just want to talk."

Vader hesitates, then turns and looks me full in the face. "You…and Ahsoka?"

"You know Ahsoka?" Leia blurts out before Vader extends his hand coolly and grabs Leia by the throat with the Force.

"GAHH!" Leia gasps before blaster shots fly in from directly behind Leia and I, forcing Vader to drop Leia and send multiple bolts veering off course while deflecting the rest.

_That accuracy means…_

I probe while taking another step back and feel Prime, Kal, Will, Orir, Darcy, Katiey, Lana, Brie, Mira, Aidan and Sabine all pointing weapons at Vader.

Vader simply takes the space I handed him then takes in the sight of Sabine and the others all lined up behind me then looks back to me.

"I don't want to do this." I repeat myself one more time as Leia scrambles to the safety of the others behind me. Vader simply ignores me and heavily slices down at me.

_BLAST! I have to fight!_

I block the slice, take another step back and gather my thoughts.

_I have to just be faster than him. He's stronger and more experienced with both his lightsaber and the Force. I need to keep some space between him and I so that I can hold him off._

"Sabine! Call backup!" I say quickly as Vader transitions to a downward chop which I block then slip out from under, spin backwards and cut at his arm, forcing him to snap his wrists and deflect the cut.

"Already did!" Sabine says before another volley of blaster bolts fly all around me. Vader simply sends some aside, blocks some and levitates a piece of debris to take care of the rest.

I spin on my heel, grab part of a TIE wing and fling it at Vader.

_That'll hold him!_

It spins three or four times, then comes to an abrupt half before Vader burns a hole in the frame, then blows it apart and sending the parts flying with the Force.

"WHAT?!" I hear Mira exclaim in disbelief as Vader strikes down at me and I block, followed by another volley of shots allows me to slip away from Vader and for him to block and send the bolts aside.

_I've never thought of just sending the bolts aside with the Force with a wave of the hand._

"WHIIIIRRRR!" A TIE fighter buzzes us all as Vader continues his dogged pursuit of me.

I have to change the momentum somehow.

_Wait._

That's it. His lungs are his weakness.

_And his lungs are protected by his suit and the control box on his chest._

Another volley of shots occupies Vader long enough for me to duck and take a swing at his chest. In a panic, he exclaims something, then jumps back.

"YEAHH!" I hear Will yell enthusiastically.

I take advantage of the moment, spin and slice at his chest, only for Vader to deflect it with a lightning fast slice of his own, then Force Push me backwards, sending me skidding before Ahsoka leaps over me and lands in a three point stance.

"Hummm…"

"Good job Ezra. Get to the ship." Ahsoka says, leaving no room for error.

I turn and spot the _Ghost_ and _Kom'rk_ parked but seemingly untouched and surrounded by Kanan and Zeb as Rex gets Ackbar and Mothma on board.

_It's time to go._

"Go!" I yell at Prime, Darcy and the others.

"Only when you do!" Sabine replies hotly before blowing up a battalion which has appeared frm nowhere.

They all fall as one, except for a man in a grey uniform. "Get…to the ships men…" He says before falling as well.

I spin back and see Vader and Ahsoka duking it out for control. Ahsoka, going for his legs and his base whereas Vader is trying to swing down at Ahsoka.

_She's made herself as small as possible. Smart._

I grab a random piece of debris and throw it at Vader's head as Ahsoka swipes at his legs just before a TIE wing flies in and takes care of both assaults abruptly before the backwash of the _Ghost_ and _Kom'rk_'s engines both hit me.

_It's time to go._

A missile loops in around Ahsoka before Vader spikes it and walks thru the flame easily towards Ahsoka, who turns and makes a break for the _Ghost_.

"No…" I growl and slice at Vader as he tries to grab Ahsoka with the Force, forcing him to cut his motion short and swipe at my throat.

_WHOA!_

I bend over backwards, then—

_Uh oh! I did this last time and nearly got busted in half!_

BAD MOVE!

Pulling my lightsaber into my left hand, I ruthlessly bat Vader's outstretched hand away, swing downward to create space, then vault up to the _Ghost_'s ramp and salute him.

Vader simply looks up at our ship…then turns and spikes an X-Wing that decided to make a run at him.

_WHOA!_

He just…grabbed it and forced it into the ground.

I turn to Ahsoka, who is looking at me and say "I need to talk to you later."

"Yeah." She replies simply, then looks relieved.


	107. Decisions and Protocol

Rin's focus stays over on the birds as I finish talking. "—this exercise is all about being sure with what you're doing. Okay Rin?"

"Okay."

I take a step back. "Then show me what you've got."

Rin obediently activates the training saber, then takes a hard chop, then a hard chop and another hard step. Hard chop, spin on his toes before nearly falling over, hard jab, hard step."

_No._

He wasn't listening at all. He got distracted by the birds and is now doing what he thinks I want to see.

Hard chop, hard step, side step, hard chop, hard step…

I let my eyes and mind wander as Rin continues to do whatever it is that he's doing.

_I'm watching him while Kanan and Ahsoka are in the meeting with Leia, Admiral Ackbar and Mon Mothma. And we're getting nothing done. I had his attention briefly, but the moment I approved of how he quickly went and got his training saber from where I hid it he hasn't focused._

"Rin." I say randomly, causing him to stop what he's doing.

His eyes shine happily as he looks to me. "Yes?"

"What did I tell you to do with this exercise?"

"You want me to act like I'm fighting but to be sure of everything what I'm doing." He replies cheerfully, then smiles.

I keep my face neutral. "And why would I say that?"

"With a lightsaber, you can't take back anything. So you have to be sure and go at everything with everything you've got."

_That's an okay answer I guess._

He understands the gravity a lightsaber has.

"Keep going." I tell him simply, causing his eyes to cloud slightly before he resumes his hard steps and chops.

I made a little demonstration with a datapad about the basics of lightsaber combat complete with little animations and small clips about each move.

Cuts, Slices, parries. We're keeping it simple.

My hands find their way to my lightsaber, and I turn it over in my hand.

_He's not getting it and he's not trying._

"Hey Rin." I pipe up, causing him to stop once more. "Let me try."

"Okay. I'm kind of out of ideas."

I smile. "Open your mind. Just have fun. Now watch." I say as I flip my lightsaber into its safety mode, then activate it into a Makashi salute.

_Go._

I spring forward and slice downward at an invisible foe, then pivot into a block behind my back then raise my lightsaber right in front of me. Blocking a blow aimed at my neck, I adjust my grip and advance on thin air, slicing cutting and parrying before moving into a block, chop a slide backwards and glance at Rin out of the corner of my eye.

_He's still not paying attention. His head is turned to the side and is looking out into the forest._

Fine. He needs a show of force, a demonstration to shake him into focusing.

I pivot hard on the balls of my feet while glancing out into the forest for a large log, branch, something heavy before ducking under a cut, slicing down, spotting a large log then raise my hand and pull it towards me as I approach Rin. In a flourish, I spin, reverse grip and make a wide slash just as it arrives over Rin's head.

Rin pops his heads up just as I split it in two and the two halves land heavily on either side of him.

"That was all the basics Rin. Slices, cuts, parries." I say simply, then glancing above him to the opening in the path where…

_Leia's hovering in the background, watching with two soldiers._

"I think we've done enough for today Rin. The meeting is over anyway." I change tact, then motion towards the guards and Leia.

Rin glanced up at me innocently. "How do you know?"

"I just know." I snap in irritation, then wave for the two soldiers to come one. "Can you take him back to his parents?"

"Yes Commander." One of the soldiers says before Leia smiles at me.

"Hi." She says, sounding slightly nervous.

"Hi." I return her smile. "How'd the meeting go?"

Leia's expression falls. "It's not over yet. They're talking about next moves, future bases, that sort of thing."

"Shouldn't you be there for that?" I ask.

"No, my father's got it. He's better at that sort of thing anyway." Leia shrugs dismissively, followed by her Force Signature becoming erratic.

"You okay?" I ask, glancing over to see her visibly nervous.

"I…kinda."

_Okay._

"What's wrong?" I ask her.

"I…need to talk to you. Alone, for a minute."

_Oh no. She likes me. A lot._

But Padmé said that she'd never do anything about it since I'm with Sabine.

"Okay." I say, trailing off at the end as my heart starts to race.

I've never been in this situation before. I've always been the one chasing, not the one that's being chased.

Leia swallowed, then picks at the edge of her outfit before speaking up and saying "So…we finished the report on what exactly happened at Safe Zone."

_Huh? Official Report?_

"Okay. To figure out how we got to that point?"

Leia nods. "And so that we can prevent it from happening again."

"What'd you guys figure out? What does it say?"

Leia breaks off eye contact with me, and her Force Signature violently starts shaking again.

…

"Are you sure you're alright?" I ask her again. "Your Force Signature is going crazy."

"My Force Signature?" Leia asks me.

"Everybody has one. And it feels a certain way most of the time. And now it's not good." I explain.

Leia nods, then looks away from me. "The report's conclusion…was that one of your team gave the coordinates to the Empire. Likely one of the Mandalorians, but the—"

"WHAT?" I blurt out.

_WHAT!?_

"—girls could have given away the location just as well.

"No." I tell Leia strongly, leaving no room for questioning. "No. Your report is wrong."

Leia continues on, maintaining eye contact with the floor. "—as a result and precautionary measure for everyone safety, we have no choice but to remove them from the Rebellion."

"NO." I raise my voice just as Leia finally looks up at me. "Just…no."

"Ezra." Leia says lightly, looking nervous. "I know you don't like this."

"You're right." I cut her off once again. "It's wrong."

"Ezra…I'm afraid it's the only conclusion that makes sense." Leia replies.

"No, it's not. My mother, I don't know how, had a way of contacting the outside world. That has to be how she knew so much because the Empire was feeding her information. _That's_ how they found Safe Zone. We should have moved her right after I first spoke to her."

Leia frowns at me. "Ezra, she wasn't allowed any electronics outside of a locked down datapad that we had monitored."

"She knew how to get around things! That's what she and my father did! I'm sure the Empire taught her more about how to evade detection and smuggle information out!"

"We can't look for that because everything is GONE Ezra!" Leia counters, raising her voice out of nowhere. "GONE! And stop yelling at me!"

"I will when you do!" I counter hotly.

"Over nine years of work was lost in a single day Ezra! Nine years! More than half of our lives! We have to do something!"

I shake my head. "This is even more harmful! You're kicking out ten of the best fighters you have!"

"We don't need fighters right now Ezra! We can't oppose the Empire militarily right now!"

I spin on my heel. "Not this again…" before walking away from Leia for a moment.

"Can I explain the thinking behind the report?" Leia asks me gently, voice shaking ever so slightly.

I glance back at her. "Sure…"

"Okay." Leia says as her voice steadies. "We couldn't pin it on one specific person. It was split between the Mandalorians and the Imperials—"

_The Mandalorians and the Imperials…_

"—just after fleeing you on Lothal. The most satisfactory conclusion is that one of them had a tracker placed on them or betrayed the coordinates unwillingly. The other that had some traction is that one of your Mandalorian battalion that had gone thru the Imperial Academy and graduated still harbors a secret allegiance to the Empire."

I speak up, making sure to keep my voice firm yet calm. "That's absurd."

"They never left Safe Zone. You brought them in without getting proper clearance Ezra. And the Empire found Safe Zone somehow and knew enough to slip into that atrium and kill over fifty people! Loyal to us! Good people!"

"You're still hung up on the order of things. They got interrogated and cooperated fully, even though they were surprised by it. It doesn't matter that I got bust and didn't follow protocol. Make me pay for that! Don't kick them out because of a grudge!"

Leia frowns at me. "It's not a grudge Ezra!"

I return the frown and advance on her. "You know they fought for you. Yesterday on Metalorn. The plan was for them to locate you, and I would ensure your protection. And we all did that. Against the strongest Force in the galaxy!"

_AGAINST VADER!_

"The Emperor is the strongest force is the galaxy Ezra! He turned a form of government that had worked for over a thousand years into tyranny without firing a shot!"

I pop right back "What do you call the Clone Wars then?"

…

"See? No answer." I say savagely, then turn my back on Leia.

"Ezra…"

I spin around. "Why aren't you suspecting Sabine? She went to the Academy. She was on Lothal and at Safe Zone. Why is she not a suspect? Why am I not a suspect?"

"Because _that _is absurd Ezra, not the conclusion we all came to as a committee." Leia frowns at me. "I know doing things diplomatically isn't natural to you, but it's how things have to be done."

"But you're using martial force to remove the best chance at an armed rebellion before one even begins!" I snap at her.

_Talk about hypocrisy._

Leia doesn't meet my eye. "I'm sorry Ezra. I knew you wouldn't like it."

"You're damn right I don't like it. It's _wrong._" I tell her.

"Ezra, something has to be done. We cannot allow Safe Zone to fall and have there be no consequences for that. I'm sorry."

_Fine._

I let out a deep breath, then try to release my frustrations and fury into the Force, which accepts them both readily. "Fine."

"Fine?" Leia echoes me.

"Yeah. Fine. Let me go tell them personally."

Leia jumps in front of me just as I start to take a hard step towards the main complex. "Whoa. It's not final yet Ezra. The report isn't done yet. I wanted to let you know ahead of time what is going to happen!"

"If the final outcome is already decided, I'm sure they wouldn't like to overstay their welcome now that it's been worn out." I explain to Leia, then brush past her and start down the main path.

"Ezra." Leia pleads with me while hurrying to keep pace with me.

"Aren't you supposed to be a Senator?" I ask darkly, throwing all the implication I can into the question. "Why aren't you doing Senator things?"

Leia halts for just a moment, then runs to catch back up. "The Empire has me on unofficial probation. They can't admit that they believe that I'm a Rebel because officially, there isn't a Rebellion in their eyes. They don't want to legitimize us. So technically I'm still a serving Senator while a few friends of my fathers run my seat from behind the scenes. My father called in a few favors."

_We're here._

"Good to know." I say evenly while walking inside the main building.

_They like to be found on the fifth floor._

"Ezra." Leia says, voice pleading with me as I spot two soldiers eying our conversation wearily.

I wave them over. "Can you guys keep her retained in a side room while I go get my friends?"

"Sir?" One of them asks nervously as Leia looks up at the other one.

_They know who she is._

Fine, I'll play dirty.

"She's to stay here unless we want a bigger incident. If she gets away from you, expect a full court martial." I order them firmly, then spin on my heel and walk away from Leia and the two soldiers.

"Ezra!" Leia calls out to me as I start climbing the staris two at a time. "Ezra! Let's talk about this!" She begs me.

Around the third floor, Sabine sees me storming up the stairs. "Why's Leia yelling for you? We can hear her all the way in Prime's room."

"C'mon. Follow me." I say brusquely.

Sabine pauses, then follows. "Oh no. What'd she say now…"

"I'll tell you when I tell the others."

"How bad is it?" She asks me as Leia's pleading voice indeed keep carrying up the stairwell.

"EZRA!"

"About that bad." I gesture to the stairwell before spotting Prime's quarters.

Darcy meets me about halfway thru the entranceway. "is everything okay?"

I shake my head. "Is everyone here?"

Prime and Aidan both look to me. "Yeah…?"

"Do you know what this is about?" Darcy asks Sabine.

"No." Sabine replies. "He wouldn't tell me until he told you."

"The Rebellion is kicking you all out." I say simply.

A moment passes, then universal disbelief rings thru the Force, followed by anger.

"What?!" Darcy asks, eyes bulging.

"Why?" Will asks, getting to his feet.

"What happened at Safe Zone. They can't pin exactly what happened down, but one half of the 'acceptable scenarios' involve you." I gesture to Darcy. "And the other half involve you." I gesture to Prime.

"That's ridiculous." Sabine tells me.

"I know, but they don't have any evidence against anyone else and refuse to look elsewhere."

Kal speaks up, voice angry. "They've discriminated against us and suspected us from the start. This doesn't really surprise me."

"It's stupid! And it's wrong. Don't we have the right to a trial? Something?" Prime asks me.

I shake my head. "No. The only reason I know is because Leia wanted me to know before the official report blindsided you all."

…

"We should have thrown her to Vader when we had the chance. Let him have her." Mira says uthlessly to Brie beside her.

"What about us?" Aidan looks to me, thn Prime with terror in her eyes. "We have no home! We left everything we had on Denon to come fight for this Rebellion! What's going to happen to us?!"

"Nothing." Prime says, pulling Aidan tight. "Nothing is going to happen, to you or anyone else. You can come stay with us on Mandalore."

Orir looks to me. "When do they want us out?"

"I don't know." I tell him truthfully.

"I want to leave now." Will speaks up, voice shaking with anger. "If they don't want us, then I don't want to stay."

"What about your things?" Sabine asks him.

"Ship them to us." Will says as Prime looks down at Aidan…lovingly.

"Our place is a bit small, but you can stay as long as you want and need to get your feet under you."

_He does love her._

Prime and Aidan. Huh.

"Thank you." Aidan smiles softly.

"The _Kom'rk_ is ready to go right now. I think it's smart that we leave now before they try to hold us for treason or something." Will says to Prime.

"I'm coming with you." I tell them.

"Ezra!" Darcy whirls around to look at me. "You can't do that!"

"I don't support this. I refuse to. This is my protest, leaving with you. If you'll have me." I smile at the end.

_It's sort of my fault that they're even in this spot. They joined because of me._

"Of course you can." Prime smiles at me.

Sabine wraps her arm around me. "I'll be coming too. You're not going without me."

I smile, then turn to her. "I wouldn't' expect anything different."

"C'mon." Will says, getting to his feet. "We're leaving."

In silence, they all walk out of their room and start down the stairs as Sabine and I bring up the rear.

When we reach the ground floor, we're greeted by the sight of Kanan, Rex, Echo, Lux and Ahsoka waiting for us. "Whoa. Hold on." Ahsoka extends her arms for us all to stop.

"General, with all due respect, excuse us." Will says delicately to Ahsoka then blows right past her as Ahsoka back down.

"Hey!" Kanan snags my shoulder. "What happened?"

"Leia's in there, distraught, and all she'll say is your name!" Ahsoka tells me.

"My guys are all getting kicked out of the Rebellion. By her and her commission."

Rex tilts his head to the side and Kanan looks to me in confusion before Ahsoka asks "Why?"

"What happened at Safe Zone. The commission came to the conclusion that either Darcy's girls or my guys betrayed the Rebellion and gave Safe Zone's coordinates to the Empire."

Kanan scoffs. "That's ridiculous! What evidence is there?"

"It had to be your mother Ezra! Even you have to know that." Lux says to me gently.

I nod to Lux then look to Kanan. "They don't really have any. But "somebody has to pay." So they're leaving before Leia or somebody can hold them on some trumped up charge."

"And you?" Ahsoka asks, suddenly unsure.

"I'm protesting the decision by leaving with them. I'll be at Sabine's parents if you guys need me. But I'm not taking orders from the Rebellion for a while." I explain.

Sabine turns to me, shock ringing thru the Force.

_I've had it with Leia and her witch hunts._

"You're quitting?" Lux asks.

"No, I'm not quitting. But I'm making a statement and standing with my people. I'm here if you need me. You know how to get ahold of us."

Rex shakes his head. "This…this isn't going to work. It can't stand."

"That's not what this Rebellion is supposed to be. Just because they were former Imperials and Cadets in the past doesn't mean they're traitors now." Kanan says to Echo.

_Echo._

He's always suspected my guys of treachery.

My eyes find his, and I let my gaze bore into him as he returns my glance, but not with the withering gaze.

"I'm sorry Ezra. I didn't have anything to do with this. I agree with Rex. This isn't right." Echo tells me, looking very sympathetic.

"It probably is a good idea for you to leave though." Lux speaks up. "So that a bad situation can't become worse and this becomes a point of no return."

Ahsoka sighs. "We'll walk with you to the hanger."

"Okay." I nod, then start dragging my feet to the hanger.


	108. Project Insight

The ship lands heavily before Will and Prime hop to their feet, almost assisted by the momentum of our landing and open the door.

"Thank you for choosing our charter service. We hope to be your choice to fly again sometime soon!" An automated voice says as Sabine and I rise to our feet along with everyone else before exiting the shuttle to the site of a drab hanger.

Darcy, Brie, Lana, Katiey, Mira and Aidan all move in a group as Prime waves for everyone to follow him. "This way to the passport check, then we'll go straight home."

I follow them all along with Sabine by my side as we wind our way thru the spaceport and to the passport checkpoint.

_I was so scared last time I did this whole routine. I was scared that the administrator that Lux knew had set us up and nervous about Sabine's family that I didn't notice how efficient the whole process is._

It's kind of pretty when you think about it. Thousands, if not millions of people come thru here every day for work, travel, whatever. And they get in and out like we are now.

Our contingent doesn't even have to split into separate lines as we're quickly processed.

"BING!" "NEXT!"

I walk up confidently and extend the woman behind the kiosk my passport with a smile. "Hello."

"Somebody who has his stuff together…a welcome change."

"BING!"

I smile then rejoin Sabine and the girls, who are anxiously looking on.

"NEXT!"

_They really are scared. Prime and the guys have taken the news well, but all the girls are just…afraid._

I can't blame them. They don't have a safety net, they only have each other and us.

"Okay, we're not all going to be able to get to our place together." Will explains to the girls. "We're going to have to split up."

"I'll show everybody who can't make the first speeder." Prime volunteers, causing all the girls to look to him.

Sabine clears her throat beside me and says "We'll catch up later."

"Where are you going?" Mira asks her.

"To MandalMotors."

_Oh._

"Why?" Darcy asks.

"What's MandalMotors?" Aidan pipes up in addition.

Will smirks. "MandalMotors is the largest and most prestigious company on the planet. Her father is their top ship designer."

All the girls expressions change to that of surprise. "Oh." Says Brie succinctly as two speeders pull onto the landing pads beside the spaceport.

"See you soon." Prime salutes me with a smile before slipping his arm around Aidan and guiding her towards the speeder while the others allow Sabine and I to hop into the other speeder.

"MandalMotors please." Sabine says, tone chipper.

The driver nods once before we rise into the air. "Yes ma'am."

Sabine and I are both silent for a moment before I ask the question that's been eating at me a bit since we left Dxun. "Do you think your parents will be mad?"

"At the Rebellion?" Sabine asks while taking off her helmet. "Oh yeah. They messed up."

"No. At us." I clarify.

She shakes her head. "No, not at all. I can almost guarantee Mom's going to be really happy with you. Like I am."

"For sticking with my people?"

"Exactly." She smiles, then pecks my cheek as MandalMotors looms on the horizon.

_I don't know where her father's office is. When we landed here with the Ghost we didn't go to his office, be just hopped into a lift and went to her house._

Sabine and I spend the rest of the short ride in comfortable silence before the speeder loops its way to a speeder pad and Sabine hands the driver her credit stick before hopping out.

"Lead the way." I smile at Sabine when she turns back to me, helmet on her hip. She beams at me, then grabs me by the hand and leads me inside to a lift where she pressed '55'.

_That's near the top floor I think._

The lift rises smoothly, then open to a wall with hallways on both the right and the left. Sabine pulls me along as we take the right towards a large glass and metal door that looks worn in an intricate and cool looking way.

"Carid Wren, Experimental Designs Supervisor, Head Design Analyst, MandalMotors Board Member."

"Head Design Analyst." I mutter to myself.

Sabine smirks at me. "It means that anything Mandal puts their stamp on, Dad is at least consulted or he looks at it."

_Impressive._

I nod as she knocks on the metal door.

"Clunk Clunk."

"Come in!" Mr. Wren's voice calls out before Sabine and I slip past the door.

_It's heavy. Must be solid metal._

"As I was saying the design…hey! Look who it is!" Mr. Wren lights up, setting a cup of caf down and turning away from a man who is immaculately dressed.

Sabine smiles happily at her father. "Hey Dad. I'm Sabine." She introduces herself to the stranger her father was speaking to.

"It's a pleasure Sabine. Abus Voda." The gentleman shakes her hand, then moves to shake mine.

"Nice to meet you sir, Ezra." I smile, then shake his hand politely.

The man nods as Sabine hugs her father.

"Can we pick this up at a later date?" Mr. Wren asks Mr. Voda kindly, unable to keep a smile off his face.

"Absolutely. It was nice meeting you all." He acquiesces, waving then starting out of the room.

Mr. Wren watches him leave before turning to Sabine. "_Sab'ika_…it's such a nice surprise to see you. You've made my day. What brings you guys here?"

"Bad news unfortunately." Sabine frowns.

Her father counters. "I'm sure we can fix it."

"Not quite." I jump in. "Prime and everybody got the boot."

_I don't want to say too much, because I don't know if he's being monitored._

If Vader knows where they live, then he could have his office bugged.

"What." Mr. Wren eyes me intently.

"Are we bugged?" Sabine asks.

"No." Her father replies. "I do weekly checks. For corporate espionage reasons mostly, but I do have a conversation or two in here as well. They kicked them out?"

"My battalion, the girls from Denon. A committee came to the conclusion that one of them ratted out Safe Zone to the Empire."

Mr. Wren makes a face of disgust and disdain simultaneously. "And yet they fought Stormtroopers to get Sophie back then went into hiding. That's illogical."

"It's so stupid. But it's done."

"Well where'd they go?" Her father asks.

Sabine pipes up. "They're here. At Prime's."

"At Prime's?" Her father's eyebrows raise in surprise. "And you came too?"

"I'm protesting the decision. The official report got sent to Sabine and I on the way here today, and it's not much better." I explain.

To my surprise, Mr. Wren smiles. "Good on you. Damn good on you. Standing by your men when they need you to. That's impressive Ezra. I'm impressed."

I feel myself go red before smiling. "Thanks."

"So I'm assuming you're home for a bit." Mr. Wren asks Sabine and I.

Sabine smiles. "We are. I hope you don't mind."

"Absolutely not. It makes my day. I will however, put you both to work for the time being."

I laugh, and Sabine smiles. "Oh yeah?"

"Yeah." Her father returns the smile. "Ezra, you can go grab Sophine from school. I'll get you the address…"

"School?" I ask, as Sabine turns to her father.

"It's like the Academy. She's old for her class, but it's primarily for her to be social and have friends her own age. It's Mandalorian run and very parent friendly." Mr. Wren explains as he is writing an address on a scrap of paper. "If they give you trouble about picking Sophine up, comm me."

I nod while taking the slip of paper from him.

_I get to pick Sophie up from school._

"Sabine, darling. Before you go home, I'd like you to stop by your mother's 3 o'clock class and tell her you're here and why. I would imagine that she'll want to invite everyone for dinner. We were thinking of doing stir fry, but now we have more to cook for."

Sabine jumps ahead. "Market too?"

"Yup. Your mother will give you the ingredients and the credits. Do _not_ pay for it yourself." He says semi-sternly.

"I won't." Sabine nods.

"Stir fry?" I ask her father.

_I don't think I've ever had it before._

"It's a whole bunch of things. Vegetables, oils, various meats, usually quor'sav, bantha, something like that cooked over a fire and served with Corellian rice." Mr. Wren explains to me.

Sabine smiles. "It's really good. Flavorful. You'll like it."

"Cool." I smile. "I should probably get going. I would imagine Sof's getting out pretty soon."

_It's near 2, and Sabine has to duck out to her Mom's class. Her work isn't very far away though, and I don't know where Sof's at._

"That's a good idea. You should probably leave too Sabine." Her father says, turning back to his desk.

Sabine nods, then walks with me towards the door.

"It's good seeing you by the way." Mr. Wren suddenly calls out, causing Sabine and I to turn back around and see him smiling sheepishly. "I'm in work mode over here. My brain is still going at lightspeed. We'll talk later."

_Makes sense. I don't think he can exactly get by without his A game here._

"No problem. See you at home daddy." Sabine replies before her father brings up multiple screens on the three Holos he has set up.

Sabine grabs the door for us, then looks at the slip of paper from her father as we retrace our footsteps back down to the speeder pads.

"Two stops. _shuk'orok Mando'ad._ First please." Sabine smiled at our new driver as we climb into the speeder.

Our speeder takes off, and Sabine fiddles with her wrist projector before flashing something up. "Your stop is on the way. Comm me if you make it home before I do."

"I will." I reassure her.

The rest of the speeder ride is uneventful and we set down next to a nondescript building with a sign I can't read in Mandalorian.

"Bye. See you at home." Sabine calls out to me as I step out of the speeder. I give her a reassuring smile, then turn back towards the building.

_Easy Ezra…_

I can take on Inquisitors all day long, but somehow being normal and picking somebody up from school gets to my nerves.

Anxiously, I grab the door and slip inside before spotting the front desk, complete with a frizzy haired woman manning the desk.

"Can I help you sir?" She asks politely, adding on a smile at the end.

I swallow, then smile back. "Yeah, I'm here to pick up a student?"

_Why did I just say that like it's a question?_

"Okay. Who are you here to pick up?"

"Sophie Wren." I reply confidently.

The receptionist quickly types into her holoterminal then says "Okay…yeah it says here that her mother has always picked her up. Can I see some identification please?"

"Of course." I comply immediately, pulling out my passport.

"A passport?" The woman asks, taking it.

I smile shyly. "Yeah. I just landed a bit ago. Went to my finance's house and they said to come pick Sof up."

"Fiancé you say…" She says to herself as she scans my passport.

I nod. "Yup."

"She talks about her sister all the time. Says she's the best fighter in the galaxy." The receptionist says.

"She's pretty good." I laugh.

"What do you all do?" She asks me.

"We run security for a small company on Onderon." I say off the top of my head.

_Dxun is near Onderon._

"Okay…looks like everything is all set. Just put this badge on and all the kids waiting to be picked up are on the playground." The receptionist tells me, handing me a clip-on badge.

I clip on the badge before saying "Thank you." And walking away.

_Small talk saved me._

"Uh sir? Your blaster."

I look down and see that my lightsaber is still attached to my belt.

_They probably don't want people walking into a school armed. That's just asking for trouble._

"Sorry." I apologize to the receptionist. "Where would you like it?"

In response the woman extends a bin with multiple blasters. I put my blaster inside the bin then immediately feel exposed.

_If there's trouble, I mean I guess I could take it on in hand to hand combat. My only other option would be to reveal myself as a Jedi and use the Force._

Laughter starts floating to me the closer I get to a propped open too. I slip thru it, then see multiple multi-colored blurs.

"NO, Caiden! Run!" A high pitched voice says as multiple people advance on a single figure.

I smile at the sight, then lean up against a support pillar and spot Sof in a purple shirt and black pants dodging a boy's outstretched hand easily.

_Oh I get it. They're playing freeze tag. If you get touched you lose._

Before my eyes my hunch is confirmed as a girl gets touched and has to freeze in place, frozen after her getaway attempt. Her expression causes the parents sitting on benches to laugh.

"Three minutes!" Somebody calls out, and the kids jump into overdrive, running around in a frenzy.

_Looks like there's only five kids that—_

"HAH!"

_Four kids, now. Four kids that are left untagged and are still running around compared to the four kids freezing people._

The action continues as my eyes settle in on Sophie as she's bouncing on her feet and biting her lip anxiously before making a hard cut and evading a boy's outstretched hand once again. Sof ends up near a chalk line, and her eyes scan around.

"HAH!"

"Two more! 1:30 left!"

The kids freezing break off into two groups and double team the two remaining kids, both girls.

_C'mon Sof. Outlast the clock. It's your friend._

Whoa!

Sof gives her first pursuer a mean head fake, then simply outruns the other one before running at her teammate as she's starting to get cornered.

"Behind you!" One of the other kids yells, causing the two freezers to spin and for Sophie to hastily back up.

_No, don't—_

"One more! Thirty seconds!"

_Do that…_

She tried to take advantage of Sophie's distraction but ran right into Sof' pursuers. No Sophie's alone against four other people.

The other kids all bunch up as Sof lets out a breath, then puts her elbows on her knees, waits for them to come too close then just out runs them all.

_Huh. I never knew Sof was fast._

I guess comparing her little legs to those of Barriss and everyone else that's tried catching her gave me a bad comparison.

Sof slows down, but doesn't stop as the freezers doggedly pursue her. In a flash, Sof spins around a boy, ducks under a grab at her hair, then takes off.

"Ohhh…" Multiple parents gasp as Sof hits the brakes, sending all her pursuers flying past her and into each other.

"And…time!"

Multiple screams ring out as Sof's teammates all swamp her and hug her.

"Good job Sophie!"

"Queen Speed wins again!"

_Queen Speed?_

I smile as Sophie hugs her teammates then scans the parents for her mother. Quickly, I raise my hand and wave, which catches Sof's attention enough for her to freeze, then tilt her head before running for me.

"Ezra!"

"Hey. Nice moves." I say as she tackles me into a hug.

Sof lets me go and looks up at me. "Where's Mommy? Did she send you?"

"Your dad sent me. Sabine and I just got here a few hours ago."

"Why?" Sof asks me.

I smile down at her. "I'll explain on the way home. Do you have your stuff?"

_I assume she has a backpack or something._

"It's right over there." Sof points to a pile of backpacks off to the side as multiple parents eye us.

Specifically me.

"Well go grab it then we'll go home." I tell her. As Sof grabs her backpack I smile nervously at the parents giving me uneasy looks.

_Sophie sold it well. She know me and loves me._

I'm not a bad guy.

"Let's go home! Where's your blaster?" Sophie immediately asks, rushing back to me and snatching up my hand.

"The front desk lady took it."

Sof doesn't reply, instead keeping a blank look on her face as we walk inside, where the bin of weapons is waiting for us.

_Guess I wasn't the only one there armed._

I pick out my lightsaber and clip it to my belt as Sof and I walk back to our speeder before giving the driver the Wren's address.

"Why'd you come?" Sof asks, putting my backpack on my lap and looking up at me.

"Are you not happy I came?" I ask.

Sof immediately looked nervous. "No. But you have important things to do. Mommy and Daddy said that we probably wouldn't see you guys for awhile."

"How was school?" I change topics and try to loosen Sof back up.

"It was fun. We're still learning the shapes by drawing them and coloring them into faces and stuff!"

"Sounds fun." I say.

Sof continues on. "Recess we played a kind of Huttball that you could only kick it. If you touched it with your hands that was bad. Oh, and I got a report from a few of the teachers for Mommy."

"Report?"

"Yeah. It's sealed so I can't look at it."

_Uh oh._

"Okay. Anything else exciting?" I ask as the spaceport begins to come into focus on the horizon.

Sof shakes her head as she pulls her backpack to her then sticks her head inside, only to come out biting a meiloorun.

"Is that a meiloorun?" I ask, unable to hide a smile.

_Freaking Meilooruns._

Sof nods while taking a big bite. "Mommy packed it in my lunch. I was saving it for after school."

"Didn't know you liked meilooruns."" I smile, then eye the Wren's neighborhood.

"They're my favorite! So sweet but kind of…I forget the word."

The speeder sets down and I carry Sof's backpack as I disembark. "Tangy?"

"What's tangy mean?" Sof fires off at me, clambering out of the speeder as I pay the driver.

"Strong taste. A little different."

"Yeah!" Sof lights up. "I like that word. Tangy."

We both drift to the door as I carry her backpack before I test it.

_It's unlocked._

I push it open then call out. "Hello? We're home!"

"There you two are…" Sabine calls out, causing Sof to abandon me and dash to the sound of her voice.

By the time I slip my shoes off and walk into the kitchen, Sof has already hugged Sabine.

"It's so good to see you! How was school? You're going to school!" Sabine says cheerfully to her sister.

"It was fun! I won at ice tag after school Ezra got to watch!"

Sabine turns to me, still holding Sof. "Oh really."

"She's fast."

_It was her long legs and her quickness._

"We knew that. You've been running from stuff with us too much goob." Sabine sets Sof down before rubbing her hair.

"When's Mommy getting home?" Sof immediately questions Sabine.

Sabine shrugs. "In bit. She's still got a class to teach. She's covering for somebody. I'm starting dinner for her. Why?"

"I got a report from school for her and Daddy."

Sabine's eyes immediately dart to me and I nonchalantly shrug.

"Okay…go take your shoes off and wash your hands. Then you can help with dinner." Sabine pacifies her.

"Can I still have my meiloorun?" Sof fires back, causing Sabine to smirk at me.

_She remembers._

"Of course. Have I ever denied you food?" Sabine smiles at me before Sophie leaves to go wash up.

_(Three Hours Later)_

"GSSSHHH…" "CLANK!"

Sophie diligently scrubs away at the peppers as I chop the last one, being careful to avoid the seeds that Sabine and her mother both warned me about.

Sabine and her mother are both situated near the stove. Sabine is marinating some bantha and quor'sav in something intricate that her mother made right after she got home.

The sound of footsteps coming down the stairs are accompanied by Mr. Wren's voice. "Alright Sophine, let's see what this report says…"

"Daddy!" Sophie immediately protests the use of her real name.

"Force of habit darling." He immediately replies, popping up near the ledge and starts walking to where Mrs. Wren set the letter after she took it out of Sof's backpack. "Alright…"

The Force condenses around Sabine and her parents as well as myself as I probe, Mr. Wren rips open the letter and read and Sabine along with her mother work on dinner.

Sophie is pretending to help but really is just waiting.

_I don't think that she knows what is in the letter._

"Sophine Satine Wren." Mr. Wren says suddenly, causing Sophie to spin around in fright.

_Satine?_

They named her after her aunt.

"What'd it say Carid?" Mrs. Wren asks her husband.

"I'll just read." Mr. Wren says, then clears her throat. "I'd like to inform you of your daughter's progress over the last month. Sophie has really taken on the attitude and place of a leader amongst her peers. She consistently works hard on all her tasks, completing them to satisfaction every time before moving on to help her friends and classmates with the assignment. I can say with confidence that everyone likes her bubbly personality and 'team-first' attitude. If everyone's happy, then she is happy."

_SOPHIE!_

Sabine rushes over to Sophie, takes the pepper out of her hands and pulls her into a big hug. "I'm so proud of youuu…"

"My peppers! Mmph…Sabine!" Sophie squirms.

"NO! You stay still. This is a moment. Embrace it." Sabine tells her sister as Sof continues squirming.

I glance at Sof's Mom as she looks lovingly at Sabine attempt to love on her sister, and Sof's determined attempts to get away.

"I'm not done yet! Sabine!" Sof whines, pushing Sabine away.

Sabine lets go, still smiling widely. "Okay fine. Your teacher is right about completing your work."

"Humph." Sof grumbles moodily, then gets back to scrubbing her peppers.

"Knock knock knock."

I immediately probe, then turn to Mr. Wren. "That's them."

"I'll grab the door." Mr. Wren adds on, slipping past the island.

The kitchen is filled with the sounds of dinner prep before the door opens and Mr. Wren's voice joins the tumult.

I continue chopping peppers, knowing that Mrs. Wren needs them chopped so that when she can really start cooking she'll have everything she needs.

_Two peppers left after this one._

Sof places the next pepper on my cutting board, then moves right on to the last one without blinking.

"Prime, boys you all know the tour. I'll just show the girls here the house then we'll meet you in the kitchen." Mr. Wren says, voice floating thru the hallway and towards the stairs.

"Sounds good to me." Prime replies before he, Will, Orir and Kal all pop up by the stairs along with Darcy, Brie, Katiey, Lana, Mira and Aidan.

_That's a weird sight._

"Hi everybody." Will calls out cheerfully.

"Hi Will." Sabine smiles.

Mrs. Wren dumps a bunch of rice into a pot then glances back. "You've caught me at a bad time. Give me a second."

"No rush." Kal acquiesces. "Thank you for having us."

"Well…after hearing about the day you all have had, I feel obligated to do something." Mrs. Wren answers without looking back at Prime and the others.

"You didn't have to have us Mrs. Wren, but thank you anyway." Prime replies.

Mrs. Wren doesn't reply, instead making a face at the backdrop of the stove.

_She doesn't like their insistence that she didn't have to do this._

Prime drifts over to Sof, who turns and reached out for a hug. "How is my favorite girl?"

"I'm good! I'm glad you're here for dinner!" Sof pipes up happily.

"Favorite girl?" Sabine quips. "Aidan isn't going to like that."

"Aidan?" Mrs. Wren asks. "Why just Aidan?"

"They've finally admitted they're dating." I explain, before Prime frowns at me.

_He doesn't like everyone knowing that._

"Oh, congratulations!" Mrs. Wren says happily, then turns back and gives him a smile.

"Thanks." Prime replies, then looks back to Sabine. "Yeah, Sof's my favorite. But don't tell Ezra."

_HEY!_

Laughter bursts out on the stairs, revealing Mr. Wren and the girls all coming down the stairs.

"Harsh. I like it." Aidan quips.

"This is a really nice home." Darcy tells Sabine's father.

Mr. Wren nods in thanks. "Well thank you. Go sit, can I get you all a drink? "We have water, milk, juice, beer, wine, a mix of everything?"

Darcy looks to Aidan at the same time as Brie does. "Would it be in bad taste to say wine?" Darcy asks the room.

"Hell no." Mrs. Wren says. "After the day you girls have had, you deserve it."

"Agreed." Mr. Wren says, opening a lower cabinet and revealing a wine cooler.

Will asks Mrs. Wren. "Well if they're drinking can I grab a beer?"

"Absolutely." Mrs. Wren nods.

_This is…different._

"They're in the fridge Will. Help yourselves boys." Mr. Wren says while pulling the cork out of a bottle of wine.

Will and Kal walk over to the conservator before Will says "Oh wow, you have _a'sokai._ This is good stuff."

"Grab one. Feel free." Mr. Wren tells them while handing the wine and two glasses to Darcy.

_He's trying to help them feel at home._

Darcy begins pouring the wine as Katiey floats over to Sof. "hey you."

Sof silently hops off her stool and gives her a huge hug. "I'm sorry you guys got kicked out of the Rebellion."

"You told her that?" Darcy looks me, slightly angrily.

"We told Mom and Dad what happened with her in the room." Sabine explains.

Mr. Wren sighs. "I'm still looking over the report."

"You don't have to do that. It's not worth the effort." Will sighs, looking down.

"Not to you maybe. But it's revealed more about the writer than the subject. Like all texts do." Mr. Wren explains.

"Gsshhh…"

_That's the door._

We're not expecting visitors.

In a flash, I spin on the balls of my feet past Mrs. Wren, activate my lightsaber and point it at the intruder. "Stop, hands in the air."

A figure in green armor freezes. "I did it again. Damn. I'm sorry Ezra."

_Mand'alor_.

"Oh." I say, then deactivate my lightsaber. "My bad."

_Mand'alor_ removes his helmet, then claps me on my shoulder. "No, no. Better to be safe than sorry. Good job."

I turn and see Prime, Will Kal and Orir already bowing their heads, along with Sabine. "Haat, Ijaa, Haa'it." Prime said quietly.

"Thank you. I appreciate that Prime. Unfortunately I can't say the same for the circumstances."

"Fenn, it's good to see you." Mrs. Wren says, glancing up from sautéing the first of the peppers. "Did we miss a call saying you were coming for dinner?"

_Mand'alor_ shakes his head. "No, I'm not staying Bo. I just wanted to stop by and make sure I got all the details on what happened." He says, then turns to the Darcy. "Miss Ridley."

Darcy bows her head as the others are all looking at _Mand'alor_ in shock. "Sir."

"Pleasure. Ladies, nice to meet you." _Mand'alor_ says graciously. The girls simply look on, too nervous to reply.

"They're nervous, sorry sir." Prime smiles at him.

Darcy frowns at Prime. "Because he's the third most powerful man in the galaxy and he just _walked in thru the front door_!"

_Mand'alor_ laughs, then smiles reassuringly at the girls. "Bo and Carid are old, old friends of mine. They're used to me stopping by. But I do it regularly elsewhere too. I don't want to be unreachable due to my position."

He's so…normal!

"Grab a drink Fenn. I see you got my message." Mr. Wren tells him before drifting over to Sophie.

_Mand'alor _nods as Sof hands me the final pepper. "I did, and figured I should stop by. That report didn't load though."

"I'll get you a copy. It's a lot of evasive language and hot air." Mr. Wren tells him.

Will counters. "Some details though. They retraced all of our positions the day Safe Zone got compromised."

"It's ridiculous. You commit your services there with my word and backing, fight to save Sophie multiple times and at the first chance Bang! See ya." _Mand'alor_ frowns.

Mrs. Wren chimes in from the stove. "It's clear that they aren't ready to forgive and forget yet Fenn."

"Unfortunately." Mr. Wren shakes his head.

"Nothing we can do about it now. Although I plan on speaking with multiple members of the Rebellion's leadership soon. For now though, I want Sabine, Ezra, Prime and Miss Ridley at a meeting at Mandal in a few days' time."

_Oh._

"Okay." Sabine says, as Prime nods.

"Why me?" I ask him.

"Hmm. I don't know." _Mand'alor_ says sarcastically. "Maybe it has something to do with you helping fight for our independence?"

_Yeah…_

"I don't have to be there if you don't want me to. I won't be offended." I say. "Sounds like an internal matter to me."

Mrs. Wren suddenly speaks up, voice firm. "Ezra, you're a Mandalorian now. It's not something you commit to. It's an ideal, a way of life. And you're doing that an then some." She smiles. "Take a compliment."

"He's no good at that." Sabine adds, getting everyone to laugh.

Sophie moves to close her drawer after pulling out a towel to dry her hands then—

"MMMMmmPPHHH!" Sof whines, causing me to whip around and see her hopping up and down, clutching her finger.

"What? You okay?" her mother blurts out, turning back to Sophie.

Sophie dances around while holding her hand close.

"She pinched her finger. You okay _Soph'ika_?" Her father asks. Sof shakes her head and drifts over to her mother.

"Let me see…" She tells Sof, who opens her hand to reveal a pinched and red, but perfectly fine index finger. "You're ok. I think you'll live."

"It hurts." Sophie says simply.

Mr. Wren smiles. "What is pain Sof?"

"…temporary." Sof mumbles, looking to her father.

"Exactly. You'll be okay. Can you start setting the table for…" He says, then starts counting the room.

_Mand'alor_ speaks up. "Don't count me, I'm not staying."

"Yes you are. We cooked for leftovers." Mr. Wren replies right away.

"Carid."

"Fenn."

Sabine looks to me and grins as I finish chopping the peppers and extend my cutting board to Mrs. Wren.

"Sixteen. _Di'kutla_, I'll need to grab the other table. I didn't realize." Mr. Wren admits, then hops to his feet.

"Sixteen sets of silverware?" Sof blurts out, eyes wide.

_Mand'alor_ smiles, then gets to his feet. "I'll help _ad'ika_. Let's make this easy. What kind of pairs make 16?"

_Huh?_

"Eight." Sof tells him.

"Close…"_Mand'alor_ smiles. "What pair makes an eight?"

"Four."

"Exactly. Now let's make how many stacks of four to get to 16?"

Sof immediately begins starting to count on her fingers. "Four!"

"Bingo!" Sabine beams, causing Sof to turn and smile at her.

Behind them, Prime, Will, Darcy and the girls look on with smiles.

_This is how this house works. Everyone helps, everyone thinks, everyone learns._

You could not help, but that'd but just weird.

_And that's why I love the Wren's house._


	109. Final Offer

Flames lick the walls of the hanger as I'm roughly dropped to my knees and rapid blaster fire sounds out behind me.

"RATATATATATATATAT!"

"NO!" Sabine yells before—"GAH!"

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…"

"Choose…young Bridger."

_Choose?_

This op was going perfectly fine until we found out that we got dropped behind enemy lines on accident.

I glance up and see Sabine, lips bleeding scowling up at Vader with Sophie on her left holding onto Sabine's helmet with a blaster to the back of her head.

"No. I…what do you want?" I succumb before letting out a heavy breath.

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…I gave you more rope than any _being_ in the galaxy and you throw it away…for _love_."

I shake my head. "That's not quite how we all ended up here."

_Sof was on the Ghost with her parents._

If she here, then they're…

"You have two options. Become my apprentice and help my restore rightful order to the galaxy. Your friends, all of them will leave here unharmed. You have my word. Or choose your Wren."

Sabine strongly turns away from Vader while looking at me. "Ezra, don't do it." She says, sounding panicked. "Choose Sof and run for it."

_And lose Sabine? Let her die?_

I'd die before that happened.

_But she'd never forgive me if I let Sophie die._

Quickly, I glance to Sophie and see that her eyes are wide and she's silently crying.

_I can't lose either of them._

"No." I croak out, massive lump in my throat.

Vader pauses, and I feel a massive surge in the Force. "No?"

"Yeah…" I look up at him. "No."

In the blink of an eye and a flash of red Vader's lightsaber is between my eyes. "I could always alter the deal further."

_And kill them both anyway._

"Hummmmm…"

"If you really want to put an end to this cell, let them go and kill me." I tell him. "They won't bother you again."

"NO!" Sabine screams in horror.

"Ezra NOOOO!" Sophie wails, then chokes out a sob.

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…I could always do that." Vader says as Sophie sobs, then starts full on crying.

"Waaaahhh!...AAAAAHHH! DON'T—KILL EZRA PLEASE!"

_Sof…_

My heart freezes in my chest as Sophie is losing it.

Sabine attempts to advance on Vader, only to be violently pushed to the ground. "Don't listen to him…please."

"I don't listen to those who don't refer to me by name." Vader tells Sabine at his feet.

"Fine…my Lord. Please don't listen to him."

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…Why would I do that?"

Sophie sobs loudly as Sabine glances nervously at me. "Because he's wrong. If you kill him, I'll never stop coming after _you_."

Vader snaps his wrist and Sabine is pulled into his hand by the throat before Vader levels his lightsaber with her throat. "Is that a threat?"

"That's a promise." Sabine says boldly.

…

Vader drops her with a "THUNK!" before a flash of red flies at my—

"AHHH!" Sophie screams hysterically as a incredible pain leaps into my throat and my sight goes red.

"Ezra!"

My eyes fly open in a flash before being engulfed in darkness and I jackknife into a sitting position, breathing very heavily.

…

"Ezra…It's me." Sabine says gently before gently putting her hand on my back. "You with us?"

I continue to gasp, heart trying to escape my chest before I shakily nod. "…yeah."

_Goodness…_

I've never had a nightmare quite like that before.

Sabine gently but firmly rubs my back while scooting closer. "It was a nightmare. Who was in it?"

I gasp before pinching my nose and shaking my head while letting it hang down in exhaustion. "…Vader. You, Me, Sof."

"Oh." Sabine replies, before she falls silent.

"You both were at his mercy. He wanted me to join him and fall to the Dark Side in order for you guys to be set free." I explain. "I said no, he threatened to kill you and Sof anyway. I offered myself in exchange for you. And he killed me anyway."

"_NOOOO!"_

Sophie's screams rings in my ears before my hands continue to shake.

_I'm okay. We're all okay. We're in Keldabe._

Vader is far, far away.

"Did he make you try to choose?" Sabine asks, seemingly working thru it.

I nod wearily. "Choose, so I chose me for you two."

"No Ezra…Choose Sof." Sabine tells me gently.

I whip around. "NO!"

"Ezra…I'll be okay. But if I'm not there I know you'll take care of her for me, Mom, Dad, everybody."

"That's never going to happen. And I'm not letting you die!" I tell her strongly.

Sabine smiles before grabbing my hand. "I'm not afraid to die. If anybody ever got you…I'd dedicate every breath to avenging you. I'd get them. And then some more for good measure."

"_That's a promise. I'll come after you."_

I laugh shakily, then hang my head once more. "That pretty much what you said after I offered myself up."

"Good." She laughs once, then pulls me closer. "It was a dream. Okay?"

"Okay." I nod.

"Now c'mere." She pulled me in for a hug before the door suddenly is pushed open and I whip around…Only to see Sophie in her pajamas.

_She's been crying._

"Hey…why are you up? What's wrong?" Sabine asks as Sophie patters towards us, tear tracks clear as day.

"I had a nightmare…" Sophie says quietly before climbing onto our bed.

"Why not go to Mommy?" Sabine asks her before wiping away Sof's tears with her thumb.

Sophie hangs her head and scoots closer to me. "They told me that I should start going back to sleep after a nightmare…"

_But she's six?!_

I pull her into a hug gently, only for Sof to basically fall into my arms and Sabine to glance at me anxiously. "Well I'm always here Sof. Nightmares are no fun."

"Did you have one too?" She asks into my chest.

I nod. "Yup. It was scary. Bu now you're here so it's okay."

Sophie squeezes me tightly before Sabine asks her "Do you wanna talk about it?"

"…The guy in all black that breathes weird was there. Ezra was being told to choose us."

_WH…_

"What." I mumble as Sabine's eyes dart to me.

"Ezra…didn't want to choose. You told him to pick me and let you go. But Ezra didn't do that either…"

_And I volunteered me._

"Ezra…offered him to the guy, you threatened him, then Ezra died anywaaayyyy…" Sophie sobbed into my chest before blindly grabbing Sabine's nightshirt and pulling her close.

"It was _awfulll…_"

…

That's not a vision.

_No._

That was a dream, not a Force Vision.

_I can't choose between them. I'd rather die._

And I did.

"It was just a dream _Soph'ika_. C'mon. Let's all lie down and try to sleep okay?" Sabine asks her softly.

Sophie topples over, bringing me with her and she continues to cry while holding onto me. "Don't die Ezra…don't die!"

"I won't." I tell her as she cries. "I promise, I won't."

Sof sobs before Sabine slides beck under the covers and pulls us both closer. "C'mon…let's get some rest. Tomorrow's a big day. We're talking to Kanan and Hera and Ahsoka tomorrow after we meet with _Mand'alor_."

"And Choppy." Sophie reminds her.

"And Chopper. Now go to sleep. Shh…shhhshhhshhh…" Sabine whispers as we all lie down.

Sophie simply tightens her hold on me as her sobs start slowing down.

"I'm right here Sof." I whisper to her.

_I'm right here._

_(Eleven Hours Later)_

"Here are your identification badges, she's right thru those doors out on the playground!" The receptionist tells Sabine and I while handing us each our badges.

Sabine smiles warmly before replying. 'Thank you."

"You're welcome!"

_It really helped having Sabine come with me to come get Sof this time. Less hassle at the front desk, those parents won't be staring me down…_

I let Sabine lead us both out to the playground where this time instead of playing tag, the remaining children are scattered about on a slide and various other surfaces.

"Look at Sof on the verti-bars." Sabine nudges me, then points to where Sophie is holding, clinging really to a bar that is one in a sequence that stretches over about ten feet and is trying to cross.

"The what?" I ask Sabine.

Sabine smiles. "Verti-bars. I loved them as a kid, they're really hard to cross on your own when you're little."

"Looks dangerous." I comment as multiple parents spot us and begin whispering amongst themselves.

"Eh." Sabine shrugs. "I liked the challenge as a kid. It took me over a year, but I was the first kid my own age to cross those things."

_First one?_

"Doesn't surprise me." I say as Sophie swings back, forth, back then smoothly grabs onto the next bar with both hands causing Sabine to smile happily. "Looks like she's following in your footsteps."

Sabine bites her lip as Sophie continues forward, rocking, reaching then—

"Oh." I blurt out as Sof misses the next rung and her desperate grasp at it with her other hand fails before she falls three feet heavily to the ground with a "THUD!"

Sabine winces and slinks to me as a friend of Sof's asks "Are you okay?"

"Yeah…I just missed. It gets slippery." Sophie replies, then turns and looks for her mother while walking back to the verti-bars before spotting Sabine and I then doing a little hop then running to us.

"Sabine! Hi!" Sophie beams while running to her sister.

Sabine quickly crouches and hugs her back, then starts brushing Sophie off. "You okay? That looked like a long fall."

"I'm okay. I was doing perfectly fine until I got to that bar. It was slick right away when I grabbed it and slipped away from me." Sophie explains as Sabine straightens her jacket and brushes off her pants. "Stop…fussing with me."

"I'm not fussing." Sabine tells her. "You have dirt and dust all over you." before going right back to cleaning Sof up.

"Stooooppp." Sophie pushes Sabine's hands away. "I wanna go on the verti-bars one more time."

Sabine's expression quickly softens before she says "You can't. We've got to get you to Daddy's office."

"Please?" Sophie asks again, then adds a hopeful smile.

Sabine looks up at me for help and I helplessly shrug.

_I don't know if we can or not._

"Fine." Sabine sighs. "Be careful."

Sophie lights up then dashes away while saying "Thank you!" as Sabine sighs loud enough for only me to hear it before we both watch Sof talk to the group of kids clustered near the base of the verti-bars.

Sof steps to the front of the line as the remaining kids talk to each other before one of them point to Sabine and I, causing them to all look back at us and for Sabine to coolly wave.

"You're so much better than me at this." I tell Sabine as the kids stare briefly.

Sabine turns and smiles at me. "You're good at this kind of thing. You're great in a tight spot."

"With a lightsaber." I reply as a child falls and Sophie climbs to replace them. Fearlessly she leaps out, grabs the first bar and then snatches the second bar using the momentum of her jump.

_Smart._

Glancing down to see Sabine unconsciously biting her nails while watching Sof swing back, then advance to the third bar.

_How many are there? One, two, three…_

Sof moves onto the fourth verti-bar as I keep counting to fifteen.

_That's asking a lot of little kids._

"AHH! NO!" "WHOMP!"

Sabine cringes at how heavily Sof fell before she picks herself up with a frown and marches to us, covered once again in dirt and gravel. "Let's go." She says grumpily before grabbing her backpack and allowing Sabine and I to guide her to the awaiting speeder.

"Did you have a good day?" Sabine asks as we rise into the air.

"Yeah." Sophie nods.

"Anything special happen?"

Sophie shakes her head before plopping her backpack on my lap. "Nope. It was kind of boring."

"Meiloorun?" I question her with a smile. She responds by lighting up, then nodding while pulling out her meiloorun. Sabine laughs over her shoulder, then taps her wrist comm.

"Looks like we'll be right on time."

I nod and spot MandalMotors looming as large as ever on the horizon as Sophie snacks on her Meiloorun and Sabine fiddles with her wrist comm. When we land, I slip Sof's backpack and lead everyone inside to the lift before Sof vigorously slaps '55' and the lift shoots up.

"Ding…"

Sophie darts around me and right thru the cracked door of her father's office before Sabine and I can take three steps out of the lift.

"Mommy!" I hear Sophie pipe up happily as Sabine and I reach her father's office door before slipping inside to see Sof hugging her Mom.

"Hey _ad'ika_. How was school?"

"It was okay." Sophie says lightly as she drifts over to hug her father who scoops her up and kisses her cheek.

Mrs. Wren smiles, then turns and sees Sabine and I walking towards them. "Hello."

"Hi. Everything alright?" Sabine immediately asks, prompting her father to glance around Sof to Sabine.

"Yes. I changed my schedule today to fit in a stop here." Her mother replies coolly.

_Something's off._

The office door opens to Prime leading Darcy, Will and everyone else in as I probe and investigate my hunch.

_The meeting has to be up on a higher floor. They aren't going to use some random person's office._

Sof rushes past me as I find _Mand'alor's_ Force Signature…

"Tarkin." I speak up.

"Tarkin?" Sabine turns to look at me.

I nod. "Him, _Mand'alor_, and seven people that I don't know."

Mr. Wren speaks up. "The Prime Minister is here to meet Ezra along with an Imperial contingent from the Imperial outpost that's remained here under the terms of the ceasefire. The planet is currently neutral space, so diplomatically speaking they can't try to extradite Ezra."

"Yeah, because that would go so well for them." Mira immediately rolls her eyes, getting Mrs. Wren

"The Prime Minister is here?" Will asks.

Orir immediately frowns. "As long as that Atin Noux isn't here we'll be okay."

_Whoa._

I spin to face Orir in surprise as Aidan asks "Who?"

"Atin Noux. Academy brat that graduated a few years ago. Standard Imperial stock until he quit one day out of the blue. Family kicked him out over the family shame, and he's been around too much." Orir explains.

"Places he shouldn't be." Will emphasizes. "He has his hands in a lot of pots."

"And I'd watch how you speak about him boys." Mr. Wren speaks up calmly. "He's a family friend. He and Sabine went to the Academy together."

Orir, Will, Kal and Orir all take a slight step back. "I apologize." Orir says solemnly.

_If he says it, that means the rest of them think it. Orir…_

He's the quiet one. Sits back, plans, and lets you walk into his chain gun while Will and Prime do most of the talking.

Mrs. Wren turns back to her husband. "We'll head upstairs so you can contact Ahsoka freely."

"Sounds good." Mr. Wren smiles before Mrs. Wren gestures for Sabine, Prime, Darcy and I to start towards the door.

"What's the plan about…" Will asks Mr. Wren as we walk into the small hallway and to the lift.

Prime keeps his head down while turning to Mrs. Wren. "Sorry if we offended."

"You didn't." Mrs. Wren smiles while pressing '70'. "You bring an outsiders viewpoint to an insular problem. It's useful, but you unintentionally walked into a mine."

Darcy looks from Prime to Mrs. Wren as the lift rises upward. "As I said, apologies."

"It's appreciated, but not needed. I'll lead the way." Mrs. Wren replies before starting out of the lift followed by Sabine, Darcy, Prime and myself bringing up the rear.

By the time I've walked thru the door, everyone in the room is on their feet, including multiple Stormtroopers.

"Bo-Katan Kryze. What a pleasant surprise." An unfamiliar man greets her, shaking her hand with both of his.

"I'd be careful of her Prime Minister." Grand Moff Tarkin speaks up, loudly and clearly. "Her rap sheet is as long as her name along with being the former leader of the Nite Owls…" he trails off, leaving the implication behind.

Mrs. Wren takes one solid step forward. "I'm still the leader of the Nite Owls, thank you very much."

"Good to know." Tarkin blandly replies while eying the rest of us. "We'll put it in our records. And…oh dear."

_Still small for a Grand Moff, Tarkin._

"I had a suspicion that _Mand'alor_ would honor the Jedi by inviting him here today. And it's just who I thought it was." Tarkin pontificates airily as I close the gap.

"Tarkin." I say shortly, stopping a step away from him.

"You two know one another?" The Prime Minister asks.

Tarkin maintains steely eye contact with me. "I know him better than he knows me."

"Is that what you call torture now?" I fire back at him as Sabine slides beside me, also scowling at Tarkin.

"I'm sure our definitions would differ significantly." Tarkin says before turning his attention to Sabine. "This must be the infamous Mandalorian. Shame your armor hides such a pretty face."

"Well thank you sir." Prime immediately replies, sidling up on my right. "I dressed up just for you."

Tarkin looked Prime up and down before frowning. "Primus. You must have friends in high places. For all intents and purposes that's all we know you as."

"A Prime can't be divided or defeated." Prime scowls. "My parents gave me a fine name."

"One with a temper for sure." A clean shaven man speaks up, betraying his identity with a voice just like Echo and Rex's.

Prime's eyes shoot to me. "Uhh…"

"Clone." I explain seamlessly.

"Cody is the name. Although many _Jedi_ commanders didn't respect us clones."

_He says "us clones" just like Rex and Echo. But I've got a trump card that'll take him right out of this meeting._

"You were General Obi-Wan Kenobi's Commander." I smile to myself then watch as Tarkin and Cody both whip back to face me. "You failed."

"Hardly." Cody shakes his head.

"I met him in the flesh and he assisted me. You failed to do your part of Order 66." I tell him, then turn back to Tarkin. "Why'd you bring a clone that couldn't kill his charge?"

Tarkin's eyes shoot daggers at me as he coolly replies "His accomplishments outweigh his few failures, no matter how high profile."

"I'll tell Rex you said hello." I twist the knife, smiling at Cody.

"They wouldn't join you. Rex is a courageous man on a well earned retirement."

Both Sabine and Prime blanche at Cody's statement. "Boy have you got some bad information." Sabine tells him.

"Sir, we're ready to apprehend the Jedi." A Stormtrooper says at Tarkin's shoulder. Quickly I turn and see that there's multiple troopers with electric staffs.

_My "weakness" as well as a way to neutralize me._

I take a step back while pulling my lightsaber into my hand but don't activate it.

"Prime Minister, I was informed that this meeting would be considered neutral space. Which is why I invited them." _Mand'alor_ says impatiently.

The Prime Minister looks back to _Mand'alor_. "It is neutral space."

"Well then enforce it! Because our Imperial friends are about to attempt an arrest."

_Prime, Will, Kal and Orir was right. This guy has no spine. He is a pacifist. Mand'alor is having to prod him into preventing the Empire from walking all over him._

"Gentlemen, Grand Moff Tarkin…I believe that we agreed upon this face to face meeting partially because of the neutral space agreement?" The Prime Minister speaks up, walking towards Tarkin, Cody and the Stormtroopers.

"We made that agreement without the knowledge that criminals and suspected rebels to the Empire would show up." Tarkin says coolly as the Force tugs for my attention from the far corner of the room.

The conversation continues as I turn and see a chest with multiple valuable looking decorations sitting on top of the chest.

_Huh. What's going on…?_

I calmly probe out, and am immediately greeted with the Force Signature of a black hole that isn't actively pulling in energy.

_It's just there. Waiting. Observing._

"Ezra. What's wrong?" Sabine says, suddenly in between Tarkin, Cody and I and slipping her hand onto my chest.

I gently remove her hand, then stride to the chest.

"Prime Minister, what is he doing?" Tarkin asks him.

He responds by saying. "I don't know. I've never met the boy before."

"He's hardly a boy." Prime replies as I reach the chest and spot a wooden decoration with jewels for eyes and looks to be carved carefully out of a fine grained wood.

_One of the eyes isn't a jewel though._

"What are you—" _Mand'alor _demands of me as I pick up the decoration, only for the bottom to fall out, followed by the contents inside. "That was a gift from a highly respected Clan here." He says angrily before seeing what's in my hand. "What is that?"

Cody adds "What's what?"

I eye the object in my hand, then let out a quiet breath. "It's a transmitter. Audio, video, and it was inside that decoration."

"Ohhh…" Sabine and her mother both say in understanding before I turn to Tarkin.

"And I know who had it put here." I call out, seeing Tarkin forcibly looking at me and walking right back to where he, Sabine, Prime, Mrs. Wren and the Stormtroopers are, with Darcy slightly off to the side.

_She doesn't know where she fits in._

Tarkin swallows lightly, then says "And since you are so prescient, who is it?"

"I am so prescient because I am a Jedi. Grand Moff Tarkin." I tell him bluntly. "It's Lord Vader."

Cody shakes his head. "I've seen real Jedi in action, and you're hardly a Jedi boy. Right sir?"

"I've seen the Order's greatest in action. Anakin Skywalker, heard of him?" Tarkin asks me.

Mrs. Wren interjects. "Why does the name of a dead Jedi have anything to do with the conversation at hand and that _monster_ who once walked right into this very building mere months ago?"

"Because Skywalker was the Order's finest, and the only one who could have survived in the Empire." Tarkin comes full circle.

"Anakin Skywalker never would have worked for the Empire. Lord Vader ensured that personally. Now would you care to explain why there was a recording device that traces back to the Empire already here before this meeting?" I ask him. "Or are we already done here?"

Tarkin frowns. "We are not done. Don't let the actions of one upset the whole boy."

"Just because this "_Vader_" put something here, it means nothing. He's a mystic, a relic of another age." Cody says, before finding me with fire in his eyes. "Just like you."

I let out a breath thru my nose, glance down at where I know the camera is before taking a step back, setting the transmitter on the ground before activating my lightsaber and destroying it. "Alright then. Let's get started."

"Lets." The Prime Minster adds lamely before Sabine, Prime, Darcy and Mrs. Wren all move towards empty seats.

I follow shortly behind, leaving the Stormtroopers on the other side of the table then look to the Prime Minister and _Mand'alor_.

"Alright…let's begin with the agreed upon topics. The trade agreement?" The PM says, looking towards Tarkin and _Mand'alor_.

_Mand'alor_ nods. "Everyone is onboard on this end. We agree that reparations need to be paid for damage done to Imperial equipment and property. A 3% flat tax on all goods, services and items planetside will be put towards those reparations."

"It's very good to hear that _Mand'alor_. The Imperial Senate will be happy to comply with that action and the Empire appreciates your forthright desire to make things right."

The Prime Minister turns to Tarkin and Cody. "And what of the Imperial presence that has slowly seeped back onto the planet that has been discovered, despite your promises to the contrary?"

"The Imperials that are here are not authorized and have been ordered to return to their posts. Those that remain know that they may be imprisoned under sovereign Mandalorian law and face justice here without the hope of an Empire intervention."

_Mand'alor_ speaks up. "Just so we are clear, I will begin acting on those that remain swiftly, now that all the cards are on the table."

"I wouldn't expect anything less from you _Mand'alor_." Tarkin replies before looking back to the Prime Minister. "Now…what of the Jedi and Rebels presence? That was not mentioned in any treaty we have negotiated."

Sabine, Prime and Mrs. Wren physically react to the comment, causing Darcy to glance at me. I shrug as the Prime Minister begins to speak.

"Yes, you are correct, the Jedi and Rebels weren't included in the deal because we had assurances that their presnese here was an altruistic one as well as a temporary one."

"It is temporary." Sabine adds pointendly.

Cody shakes his head. "I would disagree, since you have one of Mandalore's finest warriors that lives here in your contingent.

_That's not Mrs. Wren…Prime?_

He's really handy in a tight spot, but one of the planet's best?

"Unfortunately I must agree with you Cody. And as a result, I must draft legislation that will prevent the Jedi and Rebel friends from remaining on the planet."

My brain goes blank in shock before Sabine jumps to her feet. "WHAT!?"

"You have got to be _KIDDING ME!_" Prime yells at the Prime Minister. "You're just going to bend to their desires like that?"

The Prime Minister waves for Sabine and Prime to sit back down. "What you two don't understand, is that I have no choice or desire to back you. Your intentions are an unknown to me. And the Empire would come and reclaim the planet if I hinted at harboring you."

"The Jedi and their fellow co-conspirators are still considered threats to the Empire and are to be either arrested on site or killed." Tarkin says silkily. "I have no doubt that Lord Vader himself would come to reclaim the planet."

_He's already made that promise._

"Mandalore is too beautiful a planet with a storied history and I will not allow it to become a hive of criminal and illicit activity like that of Nar Shaadaa. I'll allow us to disagree with my friends in the Empire, but no further." The Prime Minister tells the room.

"You have no spine, _sir_." Mrs. Wren shakes her head. "As many of us stated in the election, a return to pacifist politics would simply lead us back into the death grip of the Empire."

"My intentions are far from rejoining the Empire Mrs. Kryze." The Prime Minister replies. "I have a mandate from the people of this world and many others that we are to be free at any cost. That is a responsibility that I don't take lightly."

"And yet you bow to them when they put the slightest pressure on you." Darcy says quietly from her seat, causing the entire room to look to her.

_Nice shot Darcy. _

She's exactly right.

"Ahh, Miss Ridley. I was waiting for you to speak up." Tarkin said, a…smile spreading onto his face. I, on behalf of the Imperial Security Force and Offworld Operations division, an offer for you and your team."

Darcy sat up straighter. "I don't work for Offworld Operations anymore sir."

"I know, and I know why. However, for your actions back on Denon, we are willing to look past the charges of 'Leaving your stated post without permission'. As well as desertion and are willing to have you back."

_What._

Darcy slowly turns to face Tarkin. "Excuse me?"

Tarkin smiles, looking triumphant. "The Empire is willing to have you in her employ once more as long as you sever all ties and never contact these suspected Rebels again."

"That's a uncommonly kind offer Grand Moff sir." Prime speaks up.

Cody jumps in, looking to Prime. "The same goes for you and your battalion Primus. A full, unquestioned pardon and a place within Imperial ranks."

_They're trying to take my team away from me._

"Thanks, but I'll pass." Prime replies coolly. "I chose to seek out other endeavors here on Mandalore and I plan to continue doing just that."

I let out a shaky breath and look to Darcy, still in shock from what's going on here.

Cody presses on, undeterred. "While I respect your decision, I must press on Primus. You know how dishonorable it is to fight with an outsider, and that is certainly what this Jedi is."

"I'd watch how you speak about my commanding officer in my presence." Prime growls out, looking angry. "_Sir_."

"The honor factor is something to be discussed between Mandalorians and us alone Commander. You've overstepped your bounds by bringing that into play." Mrs. Wren tells Cody.

Cody raises his hands in acquiescence. "I apologize if I've overstepped my bounds."

"Well Miss. Ridley?" Tarkin turns and asks her.

_Uh oh._

That offer has to be tempting because they were Imperials to begin with, and damn good ones at that. Now they've been kicked out of the Rebellion and don't really have anywhere to go.

"My team and I will think it over." Darcy says, after I moment of silence. "Where can I go to notify you of my decision."

"ISF Headquarters here on the planet." Tarkin says delicately.

Mrs. Wren suddenly gets to her feet. "I believe it's time for us to be going. Moff, sir."

"It has been a honor and a pleasure Mrs. Kryze." Grand Moff Tarkin says reverently as I get to my feet as well as Prime, Sabine and Darcy.

_Oh wait._

"Prime Minister." I call out as everyone has started to the door.

The Prime Minister looks to me respectfully. "Yes my boy?"

"I hope you know that your actions here today mean that the next time the Empire comes marching…I won't be there to save the day." I warn him.

_If he refuses to stand up for what is right, then he is of no use to anyone._

The Prime Minsiter goes slightly pale, then nods. "Noted. Thank you."

_Fool._

I turn on my heels and walk out.

"—can't come to the meeting." Mrs. Wren says into her comm while hitting the button for the lift.

"Why not?" Her husband asks, sounding concerned. "Bo, we're 25 floors below you."

"yes, but we've been made up here. It isn't safe. We'll all meet you back at home later." Mrs. Wren says before Sabine steps into the lift and punches the side wall.

"You let HIM be Prime Minister?!" Sabine asks Prime and her Mom.

Prime shakes his head. "It's not about letting anything happen. Our ideals were outvoted by the people."

"He's useless. An Imperial puppet." Sabine says angrily.

"See why we were so angry about it when we came back?" Prime says to me.

I sigh, then nod. "Yeah. I can."

(A/N: Sorry about the brief hiatus guys. Darth RL came up and bit me hard, plus this chapter changed shapes about five times during the course of writing it. The plan is to get back to the Monday/Friday update schedule immediately. But the good news is that I'm back, and more importantly, Season 3 starts tomorrow! –James)


	110. Holochess

I pull on the lever and a blue drink flows from the tap of the cooler that's stationed while everyone is lingering around where Sophie is shooting.

"FWISSS!" causes me to turn and see a bolt miss the target completely. Undeterred, Sophie pulls back and lets another shot fly.

"FWISSS!"

_She missed by even more that time trying to compensate._

"Don't get frustrated. Do it again. Don't try." Darcy says soothingly. "Just shoot."

Sophie obeys without a word and—"FWISSS!"

The bolt nicks the very bottom right edge of the circular target, only for Sophie to let out a unpleased groan.

"_Parji, juri,_ _nyni, atiniir ta'raysholandaru, ad'ika_." Mrs. Wren gently sticks her thumb in Sof's back and pushes, causing her whole body to loosen up. (A/N: To win, to act, to strike you must endure one thousand days, my daughter.)

Aidan turns to Prime and whispers something in his ear just before Sof rears back and fires off another shot, hitting the top left of her target.

"Good adjustment." Sabine tells Sof as her Mom encourages her, coaxing a smile out of Sof. Meanwhile, Mira, Lana and Will are helping Sabine's father with the holo.

"This should help…" I hear Mr. Wren say before typing something rapidly.

I glance at Sof before asking Katiey "What are they working on?"

Katiey shrugs before Darcy says "I do not know."

"That's kinda scary." Prime jokes, getting Sabine, her mother, Sof and I to laugh just as Sof lets a shot fly and for the shot to miss by multiple feet.

_Ooh…_

Sophie turns in my direction to sip her water, revealing a ugly frown only for Sabine to smile and laugh.

"Why are you laughing?" I ask.

"She's getting competitive." She replies before her father's voice rises up behind us.

"Bo, hang on a minute."

Mrs. Wren turns back to her husband. "Okay, why?"

Sabine and I glance back in time to see that they have the holo on, but aren't talking to anyone yet.

"Now." Mr. Wren tells Mira before the outline of seven figures pop up on the holo.

_Oh…_

Sabine light up as Darcy, Aidan, Mrs. Wren and everyone gathered around Sof start towards the holo.

"Looking good on our end. How about yours?" Mr. Wren asks.

Kanan replies "Looks fine to me. Echo?"

"Nothing on my sensor right now. I'll let you know if anyone tries slipping in."

Mr. Wren smiles at Mira and Lana. "Thank you girls."

"No problem." Lana smiles back.

"I thought the holo was a no go. Too much danger of being interfered with." Sabine tells Kanan and Ahsoka simply, causing Lux, Hera, Zeb and Rex to look her way.

"We'll be keeping this short Sabine. Don't worry." Rex smiles.

"Exactly. But we wanted to contact you so we don't just show up and have you all in the dark." Ahsoka adds helpfully.

Prime speaks up. "Sounds like you have a mission."

"We do." Ahsoka says lightly, before Hera's eyes go from eye level to the floor.

_Uh oh._

"What sort of mission is it?" I ask.

Kanan and Ahsoka share a knowing look before Kanan smirks at me. "You can't protest. We've already got th ball rolling on this. And it can't exactly stop."

"Fine." I raise my hands in concession. "What is it?"

"We're going after Vader." Ahsoka proclaims.

…

"What." Brie says in a monotone, as she and all the girls are shocked.

Sabine immediately shakes her head. "That is a terrible idea. Why? Why now?"

"We can't say why over the holo. We're going to be coming down planetside in the next few days to pick up Ezra, Sabine and, if they'll have us Prime's battalion and Darcy's company." Rex says, then graciously nods in the girls' direction.

"I'm in, but I'll need some explanation as to why we're doing this." Will tells Rex, causing Ahsoka to nod.

"We'll fully brief everyone. But we heard some of the details from that meeting and think it's time to act." Echo says, looking up from something off screen.

Ahsoka meanwhile, turns to Darcy. "Darcy…are you with us?"

"How'd you hear about what happened at that meeting?" Sabine buts in, causing her to get disdainful looks from both of her parents.

Darcy bites her lip and glances at Lana and Katiey before Rex jumps in. "An old friend contacted me, said he was at the meeting. Gave us a lot of detail."

_Cody…_

In shock, I turn to Sabine. She looks just as shocked as I feel, and Prime behind her glances in surprise at me.

"Darcy?" Hera says evenly, but with some weight behind it.

Darcy nods, then clears her throat. "Yes. We're with you. They're expecting an answer in three days time. I don't know how to handle that."

"That's alright, we'll help you handle that." Ahsoka reassures her.

"It's good that you're with us Darcy, because we can't do this without you." Kanan smiles.

Darcy fires back "Why?"

"Because Cody said that you have a connection to somebody on Vader's ship." Rex connects the dots.

Sabine's jaw drop and the Force surges with the girl's fear along with Prime, Will, Kal, Orir, Sophie and her parent's surprise.

"What?!" Prime blurts out, sounding angry.

"How's that out?" Aidan demands. "If he knew, then a lot of people know. She isn't safe!"

I glance over at Darcy, only to find that she's already looking at me.

"Did…he…convert to us? Or did he simply give you the details of the meeting?" Mrs. Wren changes tune slightly, asking Rex.

"We'll be making a slight detour when everyone else comes to meet you." Rex explains….kind of.

_I must have rattled him pretty good._

Huh. Sure didn't seem like I did at the time.

"How'd he know about my friend on the _Executor_?" Darcy asks Rex.

"Tarkin knew and told Cody. I believe they were going to use the knowledge as a weapon to hurt you."

Will takes a step forward. "Then we have to do something."

"We have a plan. Darcy, do you still have the ability to comm her?" Kanan asks her.

Darcy's eyebrows snap down. "Yeahhh?"

"This part of the plan is simple, but…dangerous for her." Lux says coolly.

"Tell her to deliver a message to Vader. That Ezra and I want to speak to him. Alone. On the planet Tibrin." Ahsoka tells Darcy.

Sabine interjects. "No way, she'll die before she finishes the sentence."

_There's no chance…_

"Why would she agree to do that?" Kal asks.

Hera replies. "We offer her personal protection. She can fly to Mandalore and we'll protect her."

"I…I can try. I guess. No promises though." Darcy says unsteadily. "This sounds like a one way mission."

_I don't really like it._

But going off what Ahsoka said, that's the only way to get access to Vader.

"Hopefully it isn't. We're choosing optimism right now. Will you comm her?" Kanan asks.

Darcy shakily looks to Brie, Katiey, Aidan, Lana and Mira. "Yeah. I'll…go do that now." She says before sliding out of the room.

_Now?_

"Did you mean now?" Mr. Wren asks Ahsoka.

"Unfortunately." Ahsoka nods. "The timing is imperative."

Mrs. Wren adds. "You're serious. Going after that monster."

Again, Ahsoka nods before Lux speaks up. "Carid…the Organa's are concerned about your safety."

"Senator Organa?" he replies as I barely restrain an eye roll.

_Here we go…_

Leia is going to shelter them as an attempt to get back into my good graces.

Prime shoots me a dubious look as Lux nods.

"We're fine Lux. Tell them that. Besides, after knowing the role that the dear Senator played in kicking out Prime and the others, I'm inclined to pass."

Lux suddenly smirks. "I'll make it sound a little more dignified and gracious."

"If you must. But I think he'd like the tone kept in." Mrs. Wren interjects then turns to her husband "Am I right?"

"You are."

The conversation continues as my eyes find Ahsoka's and I notice the forced optimism on her face along with concern.

_This is her way of following Padmé's request._

Find the good. Show him that things can still be changed.

_And we're essentially sacrificing our only in to Vader, Darcy's friend in order to do it. I don't like that._

The Force gently makes its presense noticeable, and I feel the Wren's concern, Sophie's confusion, the girls worry and…

_Darcy?_

I turn back just as the door opens again, to Darcy looking composed. "She…agreed to do it. The promise of protection really helped. Apparently Vader has been on a power trip recently."

_Wow._

"About what?" Will asked.

In response, Darcy pointed at me. "Ezra."

"The bug in _Mand'alor_'s office…" Mrs. Wren says quietly.

"What? Bug? The office was bugged?" Mr. Wren's eyes bulge.

Prime simply turns to me. "He must really want at you."

"I told him we wanted to talk when we saved Leia." I tell him. "But Leia couldn't keep her mouth shut so we could talk."

"Not surprised…"Mira says as Orir whistles cheerfully, causing to me smile before turning back to see Kanan talking to Ahsoka in a serious manner, with Hera looking on in concern.

"We'll comm you later. The plan is to land in two days. Hopefully we have good news then." Hera tells Mr. Wren.

Mr. Wren nods. "We'll let you know if anything happens on this end." Before the holo shuts off.

"Click!"


	111. Proxy

…

…

My eyes snap open to the sight of pitch darkness and the feeling of the cold wood floor as my feet are dragging helplessly.

_Why am I standing? I don't sleepwalk…_

"Keep walking kid. Now!" A voice growls into my ear, causing me to spin and see a battered Mandalorian visor before the figure yanks on my arm towards the open door.

_Uhh…Am I being kidnapped?_

Without thinking I slip out of Sabine and I's bedroom, wearing only shorts before looking down to see that my hands and feet are bound.

_This isn't good._

I open my mouth to ask the figure what he wants, only to find that my lips are clamped together with a metal something.

_I'm literally muzzled._

The figure shoves me towards the stairs, then grabs onto my arm with a ruthless grip while forcing me to descend the stairs.

_Okay. Think Ezra. You don't want to be kidnapped. You need to get this whole house's attention._

I could try to fight my way out of this, despite the restraints on my arms and legs. Can't scream because of the muzzle.

_I'll run out of air fighting since I can only breathe thru my nose._

So I've only got one shot at trying to wake everyone up or I'm in trouble. Too bad I can't use the Force or I'd…

_I'm an idiot._

I smile to myself then look over at my captor who is clad head to toe in Mandalorian armor that is battered and beaten but looks as deadly as Sabine's armor on her best day.

_She just chooses to hide it._

Together we continue down the final four stairs and my kidnapper grabs onto my wrist forcefully.

_Meaning no funny business. Too late for that._

I take a deep breath, then snap my wrists and sent the decorative vase on the kitchen table flying thru the air before hitting the living room wall. My assailant goes stiff with surprise before turning to me and making a movement towards his waist.

_Sabine's parents are up._

The kidnapper makes a snatching grab at me which I quickly duck before rearing back and headbutt the ma—

_OWWWWW!_

BAD…idea.

My vision goes foggy and I rock back on my heels as my head pounds before hurried footsteps rush towards the stairs. "Sop—" Mr. Wren calls out before he and his wife stop in a rush.

"Freeze Wren. I only want the boy." My kidnapper growls while pulling out a thin blaster pistol.

Mr. Wren quickly looks taken aback, then takes a literal step forward. "For what?"

"It's best that you don't know that." The male sounding voice replies.

_Wait, Sabine's Mom is gone. She has a plan. _

And she needs time.

Quickly I slam my elbow into the Mandalorian's armor before it bounces back, but not before I hear the air come out of my captor's helmet.

_DUCK!_

I drop down just before a cutting board connects with the Mandalorian's helmet, causing it to snap back before Mrs. Wren comes at him with a huge knife and heavy footsteps fly down the stairs.

"Ezra!" "Ezra!"

I spin left and see Sophie in her pajamas, eyes full of fear before spotting Sabine rushing downstairs carrying a blaster—

"WHAM!"

A metal elbow connects with the top of my chest, sending me stumbling before the knife clatters to the floor and Sabine's Mom and my captor are in hand to hand combat.

Sophie rushes to me, prompting her father to yell "Sophie, NO!" before Sabine kicks the Mandalorian, only to get spun around and shoved at her mother.

"BZZZZTTTT!"

_AAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH!_

Electricity flows from my restraints right into my body, and I can't hold back a muffled grunt of pain as my whole body spasms and clenches up. "Stop…or he gets more. I know that's his weakness." The Mandalorian warns Sabine and her mother, holding a remote.

Both Sabine and her mother freeze as Sophie is one step away, hand partially outstretched to me.

"NO!" I yell angrily thru my muzzle at Sabine and Mrs. Wren, snapping them back into action. My captor responds by wheeling around and catching me in the jaw with a punch before sending more electricity thru me.

"BZZZZTTTT!"

_AAAAHHHHHHHHH!_

NO.

I throw my eyes back open and see that I've fallen to the floor on my back as Sabine and her mother tag-team my kidnapper before shaking hands loop around my elbow and start pulling me up.

_Sof._

I glance toward her just before I get hit with more electricity, sending Sophie back with a terrified scream.

"BZZZZTTTT!"

_NO._

It's going to take a lot more than this to get me down.

I take a deep breath thru my nose then heavily slam my elbows into the ground and start leveraging myself to my feet using my knees and elbows before Mr. Wren pulls me to my feet.

"FWISH!" A missed punch my the kidnapper due to Sabine ducking followed by Mrs. Wren looking to me causes my captor to turn back around.

"Stay down kid!" He growls before moving for the remote.

_Oh no you don't!_

I quickly inhale, then jump, go horizontal and use my feet to Force Push him right past Sabine and her mother, straight into the wall of the bar in the kitchen.

"WHACK!"

"WHAM!"

My vision goes foggy again as my head hits the coffee table just before Sophie rushes to me and cradles my head and Mrs. Wren moves to apprehend the kidnapper.

Sabine flips the living room light on, revealing that the captor has dark green armor before Mr. Wren asks me. "How'd you do that?"

_The Force._

I smile to myself as Sophie whines and pulls me closer before I lean closer to her.

_I'm fine._

My captor's helmet is ripped off and tossed aside before Mrs. Wren blurts out. "Fett?!"

He's a clone.

"FETT?!" Mr. Wren says in indignation. "You're one of us!"

_Boba Fett?_

"Boba Fett?" Sabine asks.

Fett doesn't vocally reply, but he doesn't have to.

_It is him._

The original clone.

"Why'd you do this?!" Mrs. Wren demands of him. "You attempted kidnapping on your own soil of one of your own!"

"He isn't one of us! Are you kidding me?" Fett replies.

"I created the best missile system in the galaxy for you, when I don't like making weapons…and this is how you repay me." Mr. Wren says, sounding furious.

Fett frowns. "It isn't personal Carid. It's a job."

"Who is your employer?" Sabine levels her blaster with the back of his head as her mother ties him to a chair.

"Didn't that Darth Vader contract him out?" Mr. Wren asks his wife, who freezes up…then nods.

Fett simply replies "He and his friends are playing a very dangerous game Carid. They're trying to fight something that cannot be beat."

"I disagree with that." Sabine immediately answers him, pushing the barrel of her blaster into his head again as Sophie pulls me closer.

"He calls himself a Jedi but the power of what they're fighting is stronger than anything this galaxy has ever SEEN." Fett tells Mr. Wren before Sophie jolts beside me, then dashes past her mother and Fett into the kitchen.

_Vader used Fett to get at me._

I'm getting close.

_The transmission worked. It got to him._

That poor girl…

Sophie hustles back to me, dull knife in her hand before she gently grabs my wrist and starts trying to pop the bracers off me.

Fett simply laughs. "That's really sweet. But it's going to take a little more than that to free him _ad'ika_."

"HOW DARE YOU—" Mrs. Wren roars before her foot connects with Fett's jaw and sends him to the floor like a stone.

Beside me, Sophie scowls and makes the loudest and angriest noise I've ever heard from her before shoving the knife back into the bracers and keeps trying to desperately free me.

"She's going to need just a little more juice than a butter knife." Fett tells us.

"Then what do we need?" Sabine asks forcefully.

Before Fett can reply Mr. Wren interjects. "More juice. It's a voltage based restraint."

_Oh…_

Well that's not a problem.

I smile to myself before wiggling away from Sophie, causing her to freeze up.

_Vader…defied my request to leave Sabine and her family out of it, as well as his own promise . That should be enough anger to…_

I extend my fingertips and lightning immediately flies out, connects with the restraints on my feet, causing them to pop off and fall to the floor.

_Got it._

Fett's eyes widen as he freezes up before I get to my feet.

You can't keep me down.

"BZZT!" "POP!"

Forcefully I send my wrist restraints flying off while glaring at him before pulling my muzzle off of and out of my mouth.

"You can't keep me down, Fett." I spit out at him, flinging my muzzle aside.

"That wasn't the goal. I was just trying to get you out of here." He replies.

I shake my head. "I thought you were a decent man. I told Vader to leave them OUT of this!"

"And then you sent him that little message. You cannot expect him to just take that and do nothing. He's a Sith Lord!"

"He's out of line!" I yell. "For somebody so focused on family you think he'd understand that! I left them here so that they were out of the way! He knows that!"

"Huh?" Mr. Wren asks as Sabine eyes me warily.

_I'm getting close to the line._

Fett simply responds. "Then why are you here if you moved them out of the way?! You turned out of bounds into right back in bounds Bridger."

"No!" Mrs. Wren answers loudly, voice rising. "They came back due to a situation that's out of their control. That's not rebellion. That's family Boba! Not some threat to this Darth Vader."

Fett quips "Some family."

"Like you'd know family. Your father was a bounty hunter for the worst in the galaxy." Mr. Wren acidically replies.

"Say one more word…about my father. I dare you Wren. And it won't be a mission anymore. It'll be personal." Fett growls, getting to his knees. Sabine responds by kicking him in the ribs and forcing him to the ground.

I slide a step closer to Sophie before Mr. Wren hesitates to reply.

"I…I'm calling Fenn. He'll deal with your betrayal."

Fett replies. "He'll let me go. I'm one of his best fighters."

"Not as an Imperial slave you're not." Mrs. Wren replies before I look to Sabine.

"You need a shirt. C'mon." She tells me, then starts up the stairs.

…

…

_(Hours later)_

The heavy silence that's hung inside the house since Fett was unmasked still lingers as I walk down the stairs to the living room where Prime, Aiden, Lana, Orir and Katiey are lingering, watching over Sof. Prime pops to his feet as I reach the end of the stairs.

"Thanks for coming so early. Sorry about the timing." I smile thinly at him before glancing over at Sabine, who is mid bite of her yogurt.

Prime frowns before shrugging. "Sorry you nearly got kidnapped."

"I didn't, which is the important thing."

"Got a nice knot on your head though." Darcy quips, which gets several laughs from the living room.

I smile at Darcy before turning back to the living room as Sof continues watching the program.

_It's a show about how things are made around the galaxy. Her Mom saw it, thought Sophie would like it and was right._

Speaking of her Mom, she went upstairs a while back and hasn't come down.

"Anything?" Lana calls out before I turn and see Will walk into the room. Silently, Orir moves to replace him.

_They refuse to leave Fett alone and decided as a group to have two of them in that room with him at a time. Right now it's Kal and now Orir._

"_Mand'alor_ isn't happy. But he's sort of talking now." Will answers Lana.

"He assaulted Mandalorians on Mandalore. I would hope he's not happy." Prime puts it bluntly.

Aidan turns to Prime. "That's like grounds for banishment or something right?"

"Banishment isn't the right word." Will tells Aidan before continuing. "He didn't know what Fett's mission was. But Fett's telling him what Vader had him doing, or the threat of excommunication from House and Clan."

"What's he been doing?" Sabine asks, still in the kitchen.

Will turns back. "Political dirty work. Anybody that the Emperor doesn't like or has opened their mouth once too much and…" He trails off before miming executing someone.

"The Emperor?" Katiey asks.

Darcy's eyebrows drop in concern. "That high up? That's enough to certainly connect Vader to him."

"Vader is contracting out the Emperor's dirty work to him." Prime connects the dots seriously before asking me "What exactly did he tell you again?"

I parrot back "He and his friends are playing a very dangerous game Carid. They're trying to fight something that cannot be beat. The power of what they're fighting is stronger than anything this galaxy has ever seen."

"We're in direct opposition of the one man who silenced the Republic without firing a shot. Great." Aidan throws up her hands as the sound of descending footsteps cause me to turn back to the stairs.

_Uh oh._

Mrs. Wren is carrying Sof's bag as well as Sabine's bag, both of which are visibly full.

"Mom." Sabine speaks up while advancing on her.

Her mother motions for Sabine to calm down as I feel Sophie's anxiety spike behind me. "It's nothing to worry about _ad'ika._"

Sabine immediately fires back "You packed Ezra and I a bag, we're going somewhere?"

"After listening to what Fenn said initially about Fett, we're going to take Senator Organa up on their offer."

Whoa.

"I'm sorry." I quickly say, not knowing what else to say.

_This wouldn't be happening if I hadn't come back._

I am glad I came back to back up Prime and the others but it has opened up the chance for a bunch of problems.

"Don't be. This is Vader's choice and Fett's fault. They'll get it returned to them soon enough." Mrs. Wren smiles at me.

"Mom." Sabine interjects.

Her mother smiles at Sabine before telling us "I'm going to tell Carid and Fenn. We might head straight out."

_Whoa._

"I'll grab my stuff." I tell Sabine as Mrs. Wren slips off towards the office.

She replies "Grab my blasters please."

_Got it._

I take the steps three at a time all the way to Sabine's room before lowering my hand and pull my lightsaber off Sabine's comforter to me. As it approaches I spin so that the magnet on my belt grabs it and automatically clips while simultaneously grabbing Sabine's blasters off the dresser before taking the stairs three at a time back down to Sabine.

"We're coming with you." Prime tells me once I reappear.

I nod. "Thanks. I appreciate that."

"Not literally. We're coming with you to the spaceport so nothing weird happens." Will edits Prime. "We'll pass on seeing Organa. I don't trust myself to see her and not make a fool of myself."

Darcy replies. "You wouldn't make a fool of yourself. She deserves it."

"Well…regardless." Will shrugs as everyone gets to their feet, most of the girls sticking to Sophie.

Sabine turns to Aidan. "You too?"

Aidan nods. "Darcy has to make it look good that she isn't leaving the planet, and we're all in this together. We'll meet up with you."

"I'll ask Ahsoka or Hera about a rendezvous." Prime says confidently as Sabine slips into the hallway.

"—is this a doubt about the protection Carid? Because I'll double the guard like I did with House Renless." _Mand'alor_'s voice floats into the hall.

"No, that isn't necessary. I'm just taking a necessary precaution." Mr. Wren replies.

Mrs. Wren adds "And it's obvious that they're staking us out. Things are still tense here Fenn. You can't even account for that Imperial Shuttle just hanging out in the atmosphere!"

"If you doubt my ability to protect you and your daughter, I don't take that personally or begrudge you that Bo. It deeply concerns me. But you don't have to leave." _Mand'alor_ says firmly.

"Regardless, either you and your men can leave and we'll lock up behnd you. Or you have a key Fenn." Mr. Wren says, shutting the conversation down.

Beside me Orir's eyebrows shoot up in surprise before we all hear a heavy sigh before "Fine. We'll lock up. I think your ship just got here. I had men on standby to inform me when that style of freighter requested permission to land."

"Thank you Fenn. I appreciate that." Mr. Wren says before his wife steps into the hall and grabs the door. Sabine slips thru it before Will takes it from her.

The girls, Sof and I slide thru before Mr. Wren appears in the office foyer then joins everyone on the front porch.

"We have everyone?" Mrs. Wren asks, causing her husband, Prime, Katiey and I to nod. "Alrighty."

We all start down the street towards the gate before Prime turns to Mr. Wren. "There's a unknown Imperial shuttle in the air?"

"Yes, and we don't know why. It's been there for over an hour now. _Mand'alor_ gave it an hour then petitioned to shoot it down but Bralor said no."

"Sounds like Bralor." Prime rolls his eyes.

Sabine silently looks back at me. "You don't think that's _him_, right?"

_No._

"No. If he was here he'd announced himself with that massive Star Destroyer." I say as I recall the sight of the _Executor_ above MandalMotors.

"You've seen it?" Mira asks me, then looks to Sabine.

Mrs. Wren nods. "Biggest thing I think I've ever seen. Blocked out half the sky."

I hear Prime say something before Mr. Wren's hand causes me to slow a full step and for him to lower his voice. "Son, I don't know what you're doing. But it caused Vader to send the best Mandalorian assassin after you in an attempt to kidnap you. I have to ask…You know what you're doing right?"

_Yeah. I have to do this._

I nod. "Ahsoka has a plan. This has been in the works for a little bit, despite the fact that I don't really want to do it."

"Bo said you're going after Vader, but didn't know specifics. That sounds like a very dangerous game to be playing, like Boba said."

I bite my lip while ignoring the sudden silence from everyone else. "We kind of have to do this. An old friend of hers gave us some new information that might help us."

Silently Sophie bounces from Sabine to Orir to Darcy then to my hip as her father frowns. "It sounds like the sort of thing that might be better left alone son."

_Maybe. Maybe I owe it to him to tell him a little bit of why we have to do this._

"Maybe." I say before leaning in then whisper "We know who Vader actually is." Into Mr. Wren's ear, then lean away and smile.

Mr. Wren quickly goes pale, eyes wide. "Well…then I guess that explains that and changes some things."

"Changes and explains what?" Darcy turns to look at me.

Sophie simply tugs on my shirt to get my attention. "Ezra."

I ignore Sof and nod at her father. "It makes some sense to me why he sent Fett after he contracted him out to himself."

Sophie forcibly tugs on my shirt again as I see the wheels in Sabine's father's head turn at light speed.

_Fett. Vader. The Force. His identity._

And that's not even the juicy details. It's enough to get him killed right there.

"It makes logical sense. Most of it does at least." Mr. Wren concedes as we reach the spaceport.

_The part about me doesn't. Vader knows that I know, that Ahsoka knows, that Sabine knows and has chosen not to kill me._

Mrs. Wren says a few words to the staff at the security lines before they part for us to enter the spaceport and we walk straight to a hanger.

_Where the Ghost is parked._

"Zeb." I hear Sabine say before he spots us and yells something then starts towards us.

"What happened? We literally just landed and _Mand'alor_ told Hera that you were already on your way. Something about some assassin?" Zeb says in a rush as Kanan, Rex, Lux and Echo all exit the _Ghost._

"We're going to take the Organa's up on their offer." Mrs. Wren tells Kanan as Ahsoka appears behind them on the ramp to the _Ghost_.

Lux turns to Mrs. Wren as Rex and Echo look everyone over. "What happened to make you change your mind?"

"Boba Fett." Sabine says simply.

"Jango's son?" Echo asks.

"The original clone…and contracted out to Vader. I see where this is going." Rex says, tone dark.

Mr. Wren nods. "Bo and Sabine barely had a handle on him until Ezra somehow, I don't know how used his feet to push him down hard enough to daze him and give us time to subdue him.

Kanan smirks as Ahsoka walks within earshot. "It isn't my idea. I learned it from Ahsoka."

"Good thinking unconventionally Ezra. Did I hear right? Another attack inside your house?" Ahsoka asks Mr. and Mrs. Wren.

Mrs. Wren nods. "Slight change of plans."

Ahsoka barely smiles. "Good, because if not I was going to have to insist."

"Let's get everyone on board." Kanan says calmly before turning to Prime and Will. "Are you following us or do you want to catch up?"

"We'll catch up." Will replies.

Prime adds. "Where do you want to meet up?"

To my surprise Lux steps up and extends a datachip to him. "Way ahead of you."

"Nice." Darcy smirks before a shadow falls over all of us and I glance up.

_Uhh…_

There's that shuttle _Mand'alor_ mentioned right over our heads.

"Ezra." Sabine turns to me as I reach out to the shuttle, expecting to find Vader.

"Everyone get on board. We'll drop you somewhere else." Kanan takes charge.

_Skeleton crew. Pilots, and three other signatures._

"Skeleton crew." I say just before Rex kindly but firmly pushes me towards to _Ghost_.

"Gssshhh…"

The shuttle lands and the back hatch opens as Rex's voice floats to me as he tells Ahsoka "Echo and I'll untangle this mess. Get in the air."

I hang back with Darcy as the girls, Prime, the guys, Sabine and her family all get onboard the _Ghost_.

"Clone." I hear the stilted voice of a Stormtrooper.

"Is there an issue? Our permits are all up to date and our landing is authorized." Rex asked politely.

The Stormtrooper shakes his head. "No issue, we have a package for you."

"Package?" Echo asks.

"We aren't expecting a package." Rex frowns.

The Stormtrooper shakes his head before turning and gesturing to another Stormtrooper near the door of the shuttle before a woman dressed as an Imperial officer FLIES thru the air and lands heavily.

Darcy gasps, then is by me in a blur. "Hey!" I call out to her before chasing after her.

Prime, Will and Sabine follow me as I chase down Darcy who is making a run for the woman.

"Misha?" Darcy calls out, and the woman jerks up.

_What?_

"Darcy!" The woman replies before scrambling to her feet. "Don't let them get me."

"What?" Darcy asks as I force myself to a halt.

Sabine asks. "Who is this?" as Darcy pulls the woman into a hug and I see that she looks completely terrified.

"—didn't say anything. He just loaded me up in this shuttle and sent me here. Darcy, you have to go!" The woman rants.

I feel something get shoved into my chest before I turn and see that it's a Stormtrooper. "For you kid."

_It's…a two way comm with a holographic projector._

Huh?

The Stormtroopers march right back to their shuttle without further incident, then fire up the shuttle's engines.

"That's it?" Will asks as Prime looks at the scene between Darcy and the woman.

"Darcy. Who is this?" Ahsoka says firmly behind me.

Darcy pulls her friend closer before turning to Ahsoka.

_Whoa. She's gone pale._

"This is Misha. She was who I commed on the _Executor_."

WHAT?!

I freeze up, then look to Sabine. Sabine looks to me briefly before looking to Kanan. Kanan's eyebrows drop and he looks to Ahsoka.

_Vader's two steps ahead of us._

He was waiting for us to leave. Only for him to drop her here.

_Uh oh._


	112. After The Foul

"Okay…let's all take a breath." Ahsoka says calmly as Darcy, Katiey, Lana, Brie, Aidan and Mira all huddle around Misha beside the ramp to the _Ghost_.

_I don't like this. I don't like this at all._

Silently I glance down at the holoprojector in my hand, warm from my palm.

_Not good._

"Darcy, ladies…all due respect, but I don't think you should stay. You aren't citizens and the Empire has shown that they don't care about how things are being run here on Mandalore." Rex says firmly.

Kanan adds "This is clearly a message to scare us off."

"No, I think that's what _that_ is." Sabine disagrees, pointing at the holocommunicator.

"Vader gave that to those men." Misha blurts out in a rush. "Don't start it."

_It's meant for me._

"Fett said something about playing a dangerous game. This is one of his moves." Mrs. Wren states.

Misha lets out a ragged, scared breath causing Sophie to slink closer to her parents.

"I think we have to think of the Empire and Vader as two separate things. That, that was a message from Vader, those Stormtroopers were just vessels. We know that the Empire probably has eyes on all of us right now, somehow. So whether we like it or not, we have to do something." Kanan says strongly, pulling everyone's attention. "Prime, how soon can you be ready?"

"An hour, hour and a half tops." Prime replies.

"Do it. We'll send you coordinates that will run you thru a few separate waypoints to throw any eyes off the scent." Kanan continues, as Hera and Chopper start down the ramp then stop.

Hera surveys the scene, then turns back around. "I'll start gathering potential sights."

"Thank you." Kanan adds gently.

_He's got to appease her. She accidentally walked into a tense situation._

"I really think that you all should just come with us. But at least Darcy and…Misha, right?" Ahsoka asks Darcy's friend.

"Yes ma'am." She says, a tremor in her voice.

_She is spooked man. Completely shook._

The girls all look amongst each other before Katiey says. "I'll go with Prime and Will and grab some of our stuff."

"I'll come too." Aidan adds. "Everyone else can be safe here."

Will immediately frowns. "You'll be safe with us."

"Okay." Lux smiles. "Prime, Will, Katiey, Aidan, we'll see you and the _Kom'rk _soon."

Prime nods and turns away without a further word while Will gives me a Lux-esque salute before he and the girls follow. In response, Darcy and Misha move together towards the _Ghost_.

I step back and allow Katiey and the other access to the ramp before doing the same for Sabine's parents and Sophie.

"What do you think is on there?" Sabine asks me quietly.

_I don't know, but I can take a guess._

"I…don't know?"

"Your Mom?" She throws out there.

I shrug. "Maybe."

_I hope not. I don't want to watch her die._

"C'mon you two. To your turret." Ahsoka says, sounding out of place and jolting me out of my thoughts. Nodding, I follow Sabine down to our turret and plop heavily in my chair.

"We're good!" Ahsoka calls out to Hera.

The sound of footsteps cause me to turn back and see Sabine pulling her helmet off as Sophie's feet appear on the ladder.

_Okay. Easy Ezra…we're going to get out of here and go to Alderaan._

I let out a shaky breath before a hand slips onto my shoulder, causing me to jump out of my skin and spin back and see Sabine.

"It's just me…you're okay." She says reassuring, squeezing my shoulder before looking down at my hand. "You ready?"

_I need to hear what Vader has to say._

I nod, then press the silver button on the side and watch as blue light appears.

…

Nothing, just blue light so far.

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…"

_Oh no._

The blue light shifts from formless to the visual of Darth Vader with his head down before raising it. "I see you received my message."

_It's a direct holo._

"Yeah. That girl's pretty shook up." Sabine says firmly in my place as my mind is blank from shock.

"She's lucky to be alive after the stunt you all pulled Miss Wren. Or should I say Mrs. Bridger." Vader replies coolly.

Sabine frowns. "Wren's fine."

"I take it you survived the brush with the clone."

"Otherwise we wouldn't be here." I finally find my voice with a scowl. "I told you to leave them alone."

"And yet you went back after dispatching the last of my Inquisitors." Vader calmly replied while rising to his feet.

Sabine crouches and grabs onto my shoulder for support. "It wasn't something we were expecting."

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…A disagreement with your higher-ups Mrs. Wren?" Vader asks.

"Not quite." Ahsoka quips while appearing behind my chair causing me to spin back and see her holding onto my chair with one hand and her other hand on Sophie's shoulder as Sof peeking out behind my chair. "You're doing a lot of scheming just to talk to Ezra."

Vader barely turns his head before taking in Ahsoka for a moment. "I wouldn't expend a resource just to contact him."

The _Ghost_ shakes as we rise into the air. "So there's even more to it. After an attempted kidnapping, and staging a random battalion to dump off a political prisoner you're still not done."

"That isn't some random battalion, those were my personal troops."

_Oh._

"Oh." Sabine says blankly.

"Believe it or not, I'm trying to keep your machinations, crude as they may be quiet. I am far more merciful to them than my Master would be."

Ahsoka replies. "We appreciate the discretion. Ezra and I just want to talk, nothing more."

"He told me as such before Bail Organa's daughter rudely refused to stay silent."

"She's good at that." I smile, getting multiple laughs behind me before turning back to see Sabine's parents along with Rex, Lux and Kanan standing near the ladder.

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…"

Lux steps forward and crouches near Sof. "C'mon, you don't need to hear this."

"Good idea Bontiri. This isn't the place for a child."

"No! I don't want to go!" Sophie squeaks and hides from Lux, starting toward the left of my seat. Lux simply stops and turns his attention to Vader, staring him down briefly.

"Ahsoka's right. It's almost too much to bear to see that you've become the thing you once fought against."

"Gusshhh… Shhhh…I would watch your tone, and I'll let your words slide, Bontiri."

Lux shrugs, while trying to grab Sophie. "I've said my piece."

"So does that mean that you'll meet us?" Ahsoka turns back to Vader.

Vader nods. "There is an abandoned armory, not unlike the one that we met for the first time on Ord Mantell. You and young Bridger are the only two I want to see. If more show up, then things will not be as cordial."

"Noted." Ahsoka replies with a nod. "Glad you'll give us the time. You'll be glad you did."

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…We shall see. But in the meantime, I'll be seeing you and your friends soon." Vader says coolly.

"Huh?" I blurt out in confusion before a Star Destroyer appears right in front of us between us and Concordia.

_REALLY?!_

Everyone, including me sits in shock before a shout from up above gets Ahsoka to leap to the ladder, quickly followed by Kanan, Rex and the Wren's.

_Oh this is going to be fun._

"Sof, back up he's going to have to drop the turret before I get in there." Sabine tells Sabine.

"No!" I pop back, slapping the button for the turret. "It's my turret!"

Sabine immediately whips back around, Sophie in her hands and replies "I outrank you on the guns!"

"I'm already in the seat!" I counter hotly as the turret lowers itself as the first wave of TIE's appear off on the horizon.

"I don't care!" Sabine answers. "Out!"

"Don't FIGHT!" Sophie raises her voice before shoving Sabine, then connecting with my head.

"Sof!" Sabine and I both say at the same time before the internal comm crackles to life.

"Sabine! Need you and Chopper in the Phantom now!" Hera orders her before killing the comm. Sabine immediately forgets about Sof and leaps to and onto the ladder before disappearing from view.

I look to Sof as her face contorts in terror before she yells "Sabine!" and starts towards the ladder.

"Sof! No! She's going to the Phantom!" I tell her as I see the TIE's begin closing in out of the corner of my eye.

I spin back around and see what must be 20 TIE's coming right at us. "I'm going to the Phantom too!" Sophie pipes up.

"No…" I growl before opening fire on the nearest TIE and blasting it into shavings. "You can't Sof! She's got a job to do!"

"WHIRRRR!" "POPOPOP!"

"I can help! SABINE!" Sophie yells before the ship rocks and causing her to stumble away from the ladder.

"Sof!" I say, starting to get annoyed.

"WHIRRRR!"

_We don't have time for this….I'm not even strapped in to fire back!_

Green fire flies all around before being answered by red fire as I let out a breath.

"POP POP POP POP POP!"

_Missed!_

"NO! SABIIIINEEE!" Sophie yells even louder before I glance back and see her with both hands on the ladder.

"SOF!" I yell at her before the entire ship shakes again.

_Not good!_

"Sophine, what are you yelling about?" I hear Mrs. Wren's voice ask.

"I wanna help Sabine! I can help!" Sof replies.

"WHIRRRR!"

"Hang on down there!" I hear Hera say over the internal comm.

"BOOM!"

Debris explodes right in front of me and I spin back to see Sof more than halfway up the ladder.

"What are you—you get back down that ladder right now!" I hear Mrs. Wren tell Sof.

Sof's voice pitches up. "But I can HELP!"

Out of nowhere, the _Ghost_ pitches into a barrel roll, sending me right out of my seat.

_SOF! She's going to go flying!_

As I'm falling out of my seat I see the _Ghost's _momentum send Sof horizontal, clinging to the ladder before losing her grip and flying towards the far wall.

_NO!_

I flash my hands up and create a bubble of air with the Force to catch Sof before my head gets turned around and I see nothing but the hard metal wall of my turret.

_Blast i_—

"WHACK!"

"Uhh!" I hear Sof gasp as the middle of my face erupts into nothing but pain.

Loud steps hurry down the ladder. "Sophine? _Ad'ika?_"

"I'm okay!" Sof replies as I pick myself off the floor, gritting my teeth the entire time.

ENOUGH!

_The headset is all the way across the room that'll activate the targeting computer. I'll need it in order to beat back this Imperial assault._

As I rise back up to find my seat I pull the headset to me on a line, slip it on and watch the targeting display appear the moment my hands find the triggers.

"WHIRRRR!" A TIE buzzes us, opening itself up to crossfire at the same time.

_Gotcha._

"POP POP POP!"

The TIE explodes into a cloud of debris that the _Ghost_ punches thru.

"Chop! I need those shields shaded slightly towards the engines! We can't be dead in space!" I hear Sabine tell Chop in my ear.

"WOMP WAHHH!"

Ahsoka's voice adds. "Stay close, don't let them get you astray!"

Flippantly I pull the safety belts down with a flick of my hand so I don't go flying in the event of another barrel roll, then open fire on a TIE.

"POP POP POP!"

"WHIRRRR!"

"Sophie Wren! If Ezra tells you to do something, you listen!" Mrs. Wren says as my computer lights up again.

"POP POP POP!" "BANG!"

"But Sabine—"

"WHIIIIRRRR!"

Mrs. Wren replies. "It doesn't matter! This isn't a game! Ezra's done this before! If he tells you to do something, _you do it!_"

In response, the _Ghost_ pitches again, this time to a counter clockwise barrel roll. My seat swivels right to where Sof starts falling back again.

_I. Said. NO!_

I snap my wrists and grab Sof with the Force before glancing back to my computer and seeing it light up.

"WHIIIIRRRR!" "POP POP POP!" "BOOM!"

The Force surges with Mrs. Wren's incredulation as the _Ghost_ levels out and I let Sophie go before my seat snaps back to the sight of TIE debris.

_I think we're close._

"Hey! You okay?" I ask, reaching out and hitting the comm with the Force.

A small click reaches my ear before Sabine replies. "Yeah! Just having to do a lot of dancing. You strapped in?"

"Had to! There's too much to wing it!"

Sabine laughs. "Good! I've got somebody on my tail. Clear 'em for me?"

"Go now!" I tell her, then pitch my gun up.

_C'mon…_

The _Phantom_ almost hits the cockpit before buzzing my turret and revealing the TIE right behind her.

"POP POP!" "BANG!"

"Thank you!" Sabine replies happily before disappearing to the left. "The herd is starting to thin, I think if we punch a hole we can jump!"

I remind her. "Gotta get you back here first!"

"I can jump too you know!"

"You don't have the coordinates." I snap at her.

"Chop! Get me the coordinates."

"WAAHHH!"

_He's a little busy right now._

"WHIRRRR!"

"Ezra!" I hear Kanan say before I reach out with the Force, spin to my right and obliterate the TIE.

"BOOOOMMM!"

"Great shot Ezra!" Lux tells me followed by Hera banking to the left, clearing the way for Sabine to shoot the gap, hitting a lone TIE and clearing space for our final target.

_The Star Destroyer. Which has to have more guns than they know what to do with._

"Hang on back there!" Hera tells everyone, followed by a small hand grabbing onto me for support.

"And watch the crossfire from the cannons! Take out as many as we can!" Ahsoka adds over the comm.

Sabine's voice pops into my ear. "We've got this. I'm on your left."

I smirk as I hear Darcy ask "We're actually doing this head on?!"

"Only way to, we have a massive mobility advantage." Mr. Wren replies as green bolts fly out from all directions and Hera sends us into a spin.

_Cannon._

"POP POP POP!"

Debris falls from the hull of the Star Destroyer as I don't let up, simply moving from target to target.

"BOOM! BOOM! POP POP POP BOOM! POP POP POP!"

The _Ghost_ does another barrel roll then dives towards the underbelly of the Star Destroyer and I vaguely feel Sophie grab onto me for dear life before multiple heavy thuds sound out.

_Can't look back. Got my hands full over here._

"POP POP POP! BOOM! POP! BOOM!"

The hull changes from nothing but guns to Imperial white.

"SABINE!" I hear Hera yell at her.

"Here!" She replies, just before I hear the click of the _Phantom_ somewhere up above.

"GSSHHH!"

_She's back._

"NOW!"

The _Ghost_ lurches forward, then the Imperial Star Destroyer disappears, replaced by the flash of white and blue of hyperspace.

_YES!_

I feel a smile creep onto my face before I release the safety belts and slap my controls with a open palm.

_YES YES YES!_

Smiling, I hop out of my seat and start right towards where Kal, Orir, Lana and Brie are all lingering.

"Damn good shooting." Kal smirked, extending his hand. Impulsively I slap it before starting toward the ladder and leaping up in time to get a face full of Chopper's backwash.

_Oh bad timing!_

I raise my hand to shield myself from some of the heat before he lands heavily, spins around and makes a loud, high pitched noise.

_Like a scream._

"Sorry to scare you Chop. Bad timing for me." I smile thru my apology.

Chopper shakes one of his mechanical arms at me, then turns and wheels away before I hear Sabine's laugh.

I take two steps forward before I feel Sabine land behind me, then hop right onto my back.

"You always find new ways to get us into trouble. Then you get us out of them." She whispers in my ear, then kisses my cheek.

"I try." I smile at her while slipping my arms under her legs so I can carry her.

She laughs, then hangs her head on my shoulder. "You hit more TIEs than everybody else combined I think. You should have seen it."

Together, we walk towards the holo, where Ahsoka is looking towards Darcy.

"—you'll be safe Misha. You have our protection." Ahsoka reassures Misha, as Darcy is still holding her close.

Darcy glances over, then points at me to Misha. "You'll want his protection."

Misha turns, then freezes up. "That's…he had pictures of him on his holo." She tells Darcy.

"We know." Ahsoka reassures her as Kal appears in the hallways from our turret and I hop onto a crate, still holding Sabine. "There's a plan."

"I take it I'll be informed on Alderaan of the plan?" Kanan says flippantly, popping out of the cockpit.

Ahsoka turns and Sabine freezes up behind me before Ahsoka replies. "Of course."

_Kanan's mad he hasn't been kept in the loop._

That's not great.

A soft "Tap tap." Causes me to look down and see Sophie looking up at me, eyes wide.

_Scared._

I quickly let Sabine go, slide off the crate and crouch down. "Hey. What's up?"

"Mommy wanted me to say sorry…" She whispers, looking down at the floor.

_For not listening to me again._

I smile "Hey, it's okay. You were worried about Sabine. I understand."

"But Mommy's right. I need to listen to you. I'm sorry." She whispers, finally looking up at me.

_Sof…_

I sigh, then pull her in for a hug. "It's alright. I'm not mad. Promise."

Sof gives me a squeeze, then lets me go and starts scrambling onto the crate.

_(Twenty Hours Later)_

…

…

"Ezra."

…

…

"Ezraaaa…."

_Huh?_

A small hand gently shakes my waist. "Ezraaa…wake up. We're here."

"Any luck _ad'ika_?" Mrs. Wren's voice floats to me.

"I'm trying, but he's still asleep." Sophie tells her mother, sounding down.

_Kind of._

I'm too comfy here in my blankets. I don't want to get up.

_Please don't make me get up. I'll sleep here tonight._

"Ezra…wake up. We're here." Sof shakes me gently once again. "Ezra?"

A voice sarcastically asks "You think he's dead?"

Sophie and her mother both laugh. "No, but I think this is what happens when he pushes himself too far. He needs to rest more."

"Good luck convincing him of that Bo." Mr. Wren answers.

Undeterred. Sophie gives me a more firm shake. "Wake up Ezra."

_Fine, I guess I'll play along._

I can't help but groan, then stretch and open my eyes to the sight of Sophie smiling next to me, with her mother sitting on the edge of the turret and her father behind her. "What'd I miss?"

"Another Imperial attack." Mrs. Wren says sarcastically.

Sophie simply smiles. "Hi."

"Hi." I yawn. "Are we here?"

"Yes _ad'ika_. Got here about ten minutes ago." Mrs. Wren answers me.

Mr. Wren jokes. "We've been trying to wake you, but you were too stubborn to see the Organa's greeting party."

I groan and roll away from them to the sight of snow capped mountain peaks off in the distance while a palace is a short stroll away.

_If the Organa's were here, they probably would have seen me passed out here._

"They saw you though, thought it was funny." Sophie adds.

Mrs. Wren turns around "Carid, what's that saying your father loved to say. The one that was from Coruscant millennia ago?"

"You don't tug on Superman's cape. You don't spit into the wind. You don't pull the mask off that old lone ranger. And you don't mess with a Jedi." Mr. Wren rattles off immediately before smiling.

"Especially a sleeping Jedi. We all let you sleep as we unloaded, but we can't have you sleep here _ad'ika_." Mrs. Wren tells me gently.

"Thanks…" I say, then yawn and sit up. "Guess I was more tired than I thought."

"You should really rest just a little more Ezra. At the rate you're going you'll drop out of sheer exhaustion." Mrs. Wren says, sounding concerned.

I smile, then shakily get to my feet. "Thanks Mrs. Wren. I'll try, but no promises. I sleep when I can."

"Did you have any nightmares?" Sophie asks innocently, sounding concerned as well.

I shake my head as her parents look to each other instantly.

"Nightmares?" Mrs. Wren asks.

"No big deal. Sof and I had the same one a bit ago. I'm okay."

Mr. Wren immediately frowns. "That doesn't sound okay to me."

"Why didn't you tell us?" Mrs. Wren asks Sof and I. "Both of you!"

"Because you told me not to come to you anymore when I had a nightmare!" Sophie's voice pitches up. "So I went to Ezra and Sabine!"

"That's not what we meant _Soph'ika_. We both were tired that night and wanted to get back to sleep. You should still come to us if you have a nightmare." Her father tells her.

I ignore the discussion that's heating up and start towards the ladder. "You're just saying that Daddy." Sof replies.

_Whoa._

"Ezra, seriously honey. How many have you had?" Mrs. Wren questions insistently.

I stop, one hand on the ladder. "Two, three a month? I end up alright, Sabine's there when I wake up."

"Ezra…" I hear Mr. Wren groan before I start up the ladder. Sof follows behind, then her parents.

"You've seen a lot of stuff Ezra. It's okay. We're just concerned for you." Mrs. Wren explains to me.

_She does look worried._

"Ahsoka's mentioned that nightmares are something to watch for." Mr. Wren speaks up.

_Oh great._

"I'm alright. They happen, then they're over with." I try again to reassure them as Sophie latches onto my hand.

"Do they have like a theme? Something in common?" Mrs. Wren asks.

I shake my head. "No, not really."

_Shark Bait, Barriss, Lothal, Mom screaming, Vader…_

I guess the unifying theme is the Dark Side.

We all disembark the _Ghost_ as the Wren's continue picking up speed in regards to me.

"Ezra, you need your sleep. You have to get your rest. We can get you an appointment no problem to get this fixed soon." Mrs. Wren tells me.

_She's Mom-ing me._

I smile to myself at the thought.

_I need to gently reassure her, she means well. I can't go by my instincts and just shut her down, that won't go over well._

"I don't think I need an appointment, really." I smile. "They happen, I wake up, then they're over with." I reply, then smile.

Mr. Wren replies. "Ahsoka's mentioned that dreams used to give her Master trouble years ago and that she wishes he would have talked to someone. She said they were like visions."

Sophie instantly gives my hand a hard squeeze and her fear level skyrockets.

"Have you had any dreams like that?" Mrs. Wren asks me intently.

I shake my head. "No."

Sophie immediately looks down shyly.

"_Soph'ika…_" her father calls out to her.

"That dream is impossible. Can't happen. You guys will be here. The nightmare I had we were all together." I counter quickly.

"Not…all of us." Sophie shakes her head.

Mrs. Wren immediately looks to me, not mad, more concerned than anything. "I don't understand."

"It was Sabine, Sophie, Vader and I. You guys weren't there. That dream cannot happen because you all will be here, and not with us on this mission." I explain wearily.

"Sounds like a nightmare to me." Mr. Wren states.

Sophie nods. "It was scary…"

Her mother immediately crouches and spins her around. "You come to us next time okay? You understand me?"

"Uh huh…" Sof says quietly, then turns back to me as up ahead, Leia, Kal, Orir and Lana all walk towards us and the _Ghost_.

Leia opens her mouth to speak before Mr. Wren continues, full speed ahead. "It sounds to me like you need some medication or something for a good night's sleep Ezra."

"You need your rest." His wife adds.

_OH COME ON!_

"I'm really alright. You guys know my biggest issue, which is not getting enough sleep overall. These nightmares aren't that big of a deal."

Instantly, Leia, Lana, Kal and Orir abandon their intentions of saying hello and just walk right on by, clearly realizing that it's a bad time.

"That stuff's expensive, and I get paid a little by the rebellion. Not much though. Usually Sabine and I pool our credits together." I counter.

_That's the truth. I don't do it for the money. I can't really afford a doctor and some top of the line medicine. Which I know that they'll get me because they love me and want the best for me._

Somehow, Mr. Wren laughs. "Son, there's ways to help with that. Bo, Sof, Sabine and I are all on the same insurance. I could easily get you something that'd cover something like this."

"I don't know if I could cover that. That stuff is expensive." I reply firmly.

_I don't want to get to talking about credits and stuff. Way too serious right now._

"We'd love to help Ezra. You don't even have to ask. We want to help." Mrs. Wren tells me softly.

I smile. "I know, but technically I'm an adult. I like taking care of my own stuff."

_And things like medical expenses and insurance I just can't do right now._

I don't even think about it they're so out of my league.

"You can't do everything alone son." Mr. Wren reminds me.

"I know." I smile as Sabine appears thru a door, about 20 feet away.

Mrs. Wren's tone takes a sudden turn. "Carid."

"I see her." He replies coolly.

"What?" Sophie asks as Sabine quickly approaches us.

"Hey, you finally woke up." Sabine smiles, at me, then looks to her parents. "What's up? Something wrong?"

Her father gently answers. "Your sister let slip that Ezra's been having more nightmares."

Sabine quickly winces before her mother tells her. "You said that he hadn't had any nightmares since he left Mandalore months back."

"Because we both knew you'd worry." Sabine explains.

"Sabine." Her father says simply.

"He's okay Dad." Sabine reassures her parents. "Ezra…he won't admit it, but being parent-ed isn't easy for him. I'm sure he's trying, but we're taking care of it."

I smile nervously at her parents as they both frown at me.

_We've both talked about this a lot. Sabine wants me to think of her parents as there for me, just like they're there for her and Sof. And she knows that my instincts are to push back and block everyone out. I'm trying not to over here._

"We're just concerned, that all. If there's something we can do to prevent these nightmares, we want to do it." Her father tells Sabine.

Mrs. Wren adds. "We've mentioned a doctor and medication, but Ezra didn't seem to think he can afford it."

"Not on his own, yeah. But we pool our money together." Sabine explains, suddenly looking tired. "Is this really the time for this conversation?"

Undeterred, her father presses on. "It's not my business, but whose account has all the credits? Yours or Ezra's?"

_Sabine's._

"Mine." Sabine replies without a hesitation. "We both settled on it."

_Kind of. We argued for multiple days about what account. I wanted hers, she wanted mine. In the end we ended up looking it up, and if I died, she got everything if it's in her account. If it's in mine, then she only gets half and half basically vanishes. If it's the other way around, I get it all no matter what._

Kind of shows you how messed up that sort of thing is.

_I hate serious subjects._

"Because all of the money could go to you if something happens to him?" Mr. Wren reads right into it.

"How'd you—" I start, before Mrs. Wren interrupts me.

"Because Carid and I have had this same conversation. You two are too young for it."

He adds. "You're too young to do estate planning Sabine. That sort of thing is best left to a professional."

Sabine hotly replies "Dad! He's a Jedi! Every time he goes out he's in danger. I think it's too important not to do it. I'd be doing him a disservice!"

"When all this settles down, I think we all need to sit down and work this out." Mrs. Wren tells Sabine.

Mr. Wren adds. "Just to make sure that all of our bases are covered. Ezra's family now, after all."

"He was family before." Sabine frowns.

"But now it's legal and everything." Her father coolly replies.

Sabine frowns, then sighs. "Our room is just down here. Can we pick this up another time?"

Both of her parents look to each other, as Sophie looks up at me, still holding my hand. "Fine." Her mother finally concedes.

"Get some rest alright? Both of you, please." Her father wearily asks us as Sabine crouches down to hug Sof.

"We will." I smile, then hug Sof.

"Night." Sophie tiredly waves at us.

We both wave back, then Sabine gently starts guiding me towards our room. "I'm sorry." She immediately apologizes.

"Not your fault." I smile.

"But I know how much you hate that stuff. It stresses you out more than Vader or any of them have, which is saying something."

_Ehhh…_

"Maybe not Shark Bait, but that was because he was so close to you guys." I reply. "Things were just so much easier when I was on my own. Getting in that spot is the last thing I want to do."

Sabine shimmies right up to me and rests her head on my shoulder. "I know. It's a spot you weren't in for years, and now you're back in it."

"I just don't want to make them mad and lose them." I confess.

Sabine lifts her head off me, then pauses. "They're not…you can't lose them Ezra. They love you. We all love you. They know you're not good at that kind of thing. It's kind of a running joke. We'll get it someday. We all just have to learn how to do it."

_I have to learn how to be somebody's son again?_

Okay, I guess…

"C'mon, let's get to bed. I'm tired, and I know you are. You slept for six hours coming here." Sabine smiles at me.

"I didn't mean to." I sheepishly smile.

Sabine smiles back. "I knew you were going to pass out the moment you got out that blanket and curled up in your spot. You always do."

I laugh, then hang my head. "Sounds like I'm predictable."

Sabine giggles, then pecks my cheek. "Kind of. Only to me."


	113. Penultimatum

The weight on my chest shifts slightly as I droop my arms over the banister and look out at the moonlit horizon.

_We're seeing Vader in two days. Leaving tomorrow for Tibrin._

Things have been oddly static here. Everyone had essentially rested, with the exception for Leia's father's discussion with Prime, Will and Sabine's parents about their involvement in the Rebellion going forward.

To my complete surprise, he immediately apologized for the findings of the report on the falling of Safe Zone, saying that in truth the findings were highly circumstantial at best and that the committee violated the key tenants that the rebellion was founded on in the waning days of the Republic.

_I didn't even know that the Rebellion was founded at the end of the Republic. From how I understood it, Organa, Mon Mothma and others stumbled into each other, Ahsoka found her way to them and together they started creating the Rebellion._

Sabine's Mom did most of the talking, and replied that unfortunately that was something that they'd figured out already. She said that the events during and immediately proceeding the Siege of Mandalore were chaotic and the shockwaves are still being felt today. The consensus that the remaining Mandalorians came to is that they cannot help anyone unless they first help themselves.

"_That selfish decision, while not unlike your own, has tainted us in the years following."_

Organa claimed to understand the decision, agreeing that the Rebellion did the same thing by lying completely dormant during the founding years of the Empire while they got their feet. Then, to my shock Will spoke up and said that the Rebellion is holding Mandalorians everywhere to a standard that they themselves can't meet.

_Beside me, Sabine's jaw dropped and she numbly looked to me._

Organa agreed completely, adding that this is a point that he brought up to the other Rebel leaders and that they, in his opinion had either never realized that or blocked that fact out. In the end, he offered Prime, Will, Darcy, all of them a full pardon along with an apology.

_Then came the awkward part._

Mrs. Wren immediately took up the cause of Darcy and the girls, pointing out that the Rebellion has kicked them to the curb once and asking what should change the current arrangement. Organa admitted that would involve a leap of faith. Prime followed up by saying that he understands that it is a complicated issue, but the situation is a tenuous one.

_Prime's with the Rebellion, but I'm the one he follows. Not them. His loyalties lie with me, but he'll still fight if called upon alongside me._

Basically, we'll find out where the girls go from here, but my guys are with me. If I'm here, they're here. If I'm not then they're on Mandalore.

"Enjoying the view?" A male voice asks me, causing me to jump out of my skin then turn and see Bail Organa walking towards me with a smile.

I quickly nod sheepishly. "Yeah, it's beautiful."

"I came out here a lot in the year after Empire Day. After seeing Order 66 being executed I avoided Coruscant like the Balmorran Flu." Organa smiles wistfully, sidling up next to me before extending a cup of tea for me. "I was in your position quite a few times."

"You were there for Order 66?" I ask.

_He was a Senator, not a Jedi._

Organa nodded simply. "Yes. The flames from the Temple were visible from the Senate and I'd always had the privilege of knowing multiple Jedi. So I flew my personal speeder down to see what was going on."

"What'd they say? How'd they justify it?" I ask.

"Just that there had been a Rebellion before ordering me back to my speeder. I complied, then a Padawan, a youngling really came flying by. He killed the clones I had just spoken to and was clearly thinking of taking my speeder and fleeing for safety. But before he could, another clone squadron opened fire on him, and cut him down. Even after he fell, they kept firing."

_Even after he was already dead. That's a slaughter._

"It was my worst fears come to life. The temple was ablaze and bodies were everywhere. The war had finally come to the cradle of the Republic and claimed it." Organa says solemnly.

"So you weren't just there. You saw it." I reply.

Organa nods. "The way the Temple was attacked, it was clear that it had been premeditated. Every secret entrance led to a blaster, hallways were funneled, gunships on standby."

_Anakin._

"Ahsoka told me that you know the truth…about what really happened." Organa trails off, looking to me before copying my stance, slightly slumped over the banister.

"Yeah." I say quietly. "What else did she say about it?"

Organa let out a short laugh. "That you were too stubborn for your own good and ignored her requests for you to stop digging into the matter."

"That's…fair. I guess." I admit.

"It propels you to a place of higher importance though. You're a Jedi, and somebody who knows the truth. You're as valuable as Ahsoka and Master Kenobi."

"I don't know about that…" I wince.

Organa shakes his head. "Ahsoka said that Vader has taken something of a liking to you. That multiple situations that he would have killed men for much less, he has allowed you to walk away. You have more rope than anyone else in the galaxy to him."

"Because I think." I explain. "On Mandalore he explained it to me. He said that Ahsoka and Kanan have taught me to think, and that is something that he learned after he fell to the dark side."

"Did he say it like that?" Organa fires at me.

"Yeah." I nod. "Sabine thinks that I wasn't talking to Vader then."

"You were speaking to Anakin but didn't know it." Organa fills in the gaps.

Again, I nod before Organa and I both fall silent for a moment.

"I didn't know Anakin very well. I only spoke to him a few times, on good terms. But I did know Padmé." Organa speaks quietly before revealing a miniature holocomm not unlike the one Vader had sent to me. "This…was just before Order 66."

(A/N: All rights to this scene belong to LucasFilm, and Disney. All I have is YouTube and memory. For those who want to watch, it is listed under "A Stirring In The Senate - Deleted Scene 2 - Revenge of the Sith")

The holo pops on to the sight of a lavish office, and the sound of Organa's voice. "Now that he has control of the Jedi Counsel, the Chancellor has appointed Governors to oversee all star systems in the Republic."

_Control of WHAT!?_

"When did this happen?" A male voice asks, unfamiliar.

"Oh, that decree was posted this morning." Organa says, clearly disgusted as beside him, Padmé looks on nervously.

"You think he'll dismantle the Senate?" Padmé asks Organa.

Mon Mothma replies "Why bother? As a practical matter the Senate no longer exists."

"The constitution is in shreds. "A dark skinned man says firmly. "Amendment after amendment."

"We cannot allow a thousand years of democracy disappear…without a fight." Organa states.

"What are you suggesting?" A woman says flatly.

_Oh I don't trust her. Just her tone tips her off as a spy._

Put some spice into it! At least try to hide the fact that you're a Palpatine plant!

Organa immediately goes into full defensive mode, raising his hands in acquiescence. "Suggesting? I apologize, I don't mean to sound like a Separatist."

"We are not Separatists trying to leave the Republic." Mon Mothma jumps in, voice soft. "We are Loyalists trying to preserve democracy in the Republic."

"I can't believe that it's come to this." Padmé says, anxiety written all over her face. "Chancellor Palpatine is one of my oldest advisors, he served as my ambassador when I was Queen!"

The dark skinned man speaks over her coolly. "Senator, I fear you underestimate the amount of corruption that has taken hold in the Senate."

"The Chancellor has played the Senators well. They know where the power lies, and they will do whatever it takes to share in it." Mon Mothma says wisely.

"And we cannot continue debating about this any longer." Organa says firmly, rising from his seat and walking away before turning back. "We have decided to do what we can to stop it. Senator Mon Mothma and I are putting together an organization—"

"Say no more Senator I understand." Padmé jumps in. "At this point some things are better left unsaid."

_Whoa. She's in. Her, Organa and Mon Mothma. The other three…I've never seen before. _

What happened to them?

"Agreed." Organa relents. "And so we will not discuss this with anyone…without everyone in this room agreeing."

The man on the far right strokes him massive beard while the other two sit still.

"That means those closest to you." Mon Mothma warns. "Even family."

_Padmé…_

My eyes snap over to her looking guilty.

"No one can be told." Mon Mothma warns.

Finally, Padmé nods. "Agreed."

The holo automatically shuts off and Organa extends it to me. "I made a copy, so this is yours."

"Thanks." I say while taking the holo. "Was that your office?"

"In the Senate Tower? Yes, it was." Organa nods. "I recorded it in case something were ever to happen. Now I go back and look at them when I wonder what Padmé, Terr and Fang would say when presented with the problems we face today."

"The three people on the other side of the room. Did they all die?"

Organa shakes his head. "Two. The clean shaven man is named Ok and he helps keep our network of spies out of sight while maintaining his cover as a Senator."

_Makes sense._

"You probably need all the connections you can get." I say, then look to Organa.

He nods. "Yes, but some things have never changed. The Senate is still a powerless body, Palpatine uses it only when he wants to look like he has the will of the body or needs to demonstrate the power the body is supposed to have. People like Ok could be more valuable if in other powerful places, but we take who we can get."

Suddenly Organa lifts himself up and claps me on the back. "I take it I'll see you in the meeting?"

"Absolutely." I smile, then turn and see Prime, Sabine, Will and Darcy walking towards us.

"Good, I'll leave you to your friends. I'm glad we spoke Ezra." Organa claps me on the shoulder supportively before walking away as Sabine approaches.

Sabine's expression falls as she approaches. "He didn't have to leave. We came to grab you before we go to the meeting."

_We?I didn't know Prime and Darcy were invited._

Actually…I think I want them to come.

_I need allies that I can trust thru thick and thin. Prime and Darcy have proven that they're willing to do that._

"I want you guys to come to the meeting." I speak up, causing them all to turn to me quickly.

"What?" Sabine blurts out. "Ezra, you know—"

I nod. "I know." Before I turn to Prime. "If you all come, there's going to be some information that you'll die for because you know."

Prime shrugs. "Can't be anything worse than aligning myself with you."

Both Sabine and I shake my head. "This is a lot worse." I say.

"The moment they find out you know…he'll kill you." Sabine says before turning back to me. "You sure? I think they're coming on this mission, and if he figures out Prime knows, he may slaughter everyone."

"He?" Will questions.

I bite my lip, then hang my head. "We know who Vader is."

Both Prime and Will freeze up. "I don't believe you." Darcy whispers.

"The moment he finds out you know, he won't stop until you are dead." Sabine tells him.

Will looks to me. "Does he know that you know?"

"Yeah." I reply.

"Then how are you not dead?" Darcy asks in awe. "That doesn't happen."

"Remember what the clone said on Glee Anselm?" I ask her.

Darcy, Prime and Will all shake their heads before Sabine says ""NO! He doesn't want ME! He wants YOU! I AM YOU!"

"Vader admires how I fight and think at the same time." I explain. "The clone never understood that. I can fight and strategize at the same. Vader couldn't do that until he was in that suit."

"So he really thinks that if you join him he could be more powerful." Will figures it out.

I nod. "When I was captured he had already figured that out about me. Shark Bait, Fifth Brother, Vader treated him like garbage. In his eyes, I was stronger already. The plan was for me to replace him."

Turning away from Will I see Darcy look slightly sick.

_She was there for the terrible ordeal that led to that point._

"You think that he's still got that in his head about this meeting?" Prime asks me.

Sabine jumps in. "Probably. But we've got information he wants."

"On what? What could we have that he would want?" Will counters.

"I…It's hard to explain without blowing the secret, and that's not mine to divulge." I confess, then look to everyone. "I'm not going to be hurt if you turn back now. You'd be saving your lives. But if you go in, there isn't a coming back."

"I'm with you." Prime tells me firmly.

Will shakes his head. "I thought we were past this point Ezra? Why…I don't understand why you're hesitating now."

"I'm hesitating because…" I say, then activate the holo of Mon Mothma, Bail Organa and Padmé.

Sabine gasps, then covers her mouth. "Padmé."

"Who?" Prime asks.

"Amidala? Former Queen of Naboo?" Darcy answers, eyebrows dropping down.

"She was one of the original founders of the Rebellion. And she died. That's why I hesitate, because by giving you this information I'm getting blood on my hands."

Sabine turns to me. "Where'd you get this?"

"Leia's father." I reply. "He gave it to me so that I could see right when the Rebellion was founded. He thought I've earned the right to see and hear it for myself."

Will and Prime exchange looks before Darcy speaks up again. "She's a martyr to the Empire. One of the few to stand up to the Jedi Rebellion. We…When I worked for the Empire, we used to get a little packet based on her life, depicting her as somebody that laid her life down rather than bow down to the forces of darkness and evil."

"That's not what happened." I say simply, then turn to Sabine. "We should probably get going."

Sabine nods, and we both start forward as I feel Prime, Will and Darcy exchange looks behind my back. As a group we walk for about 5 minutes until we reach the communications room where Kanan, Hera Ahsoka, Lux, Rex, Echo, Sabine's parents and Leia's father are all talking amongst themselves.

"Hey Ezra." Ahsoka smiles warmly at me, causing everyone else to turn and see us.

Behind her, Lux smiles thinly. "Prime, Will, Darcy, I'm afraid this isn't a meeting for you. The knowledge…isn't for everyone."

"Ezra thinks they deserve to know, especially if they're coming with us tomorrow." Sabine covers for me as my eyes linger on the holo.

_This is about to get so bad. How is Kanan going to take this? The Wren's?_

Rex and Echo are about to be crushed.

"Ezra?" Ahsoka turns to me calmly. In response, I nod.

"I think they deserve to know, and they know the consequences."

Hera's head immediately pops up. "Consequences?"

"You know what we're talking about? Because we don't." Rex adds bluntly.

"Yeah. How do you know?" Echo asks me simply.

I lower my eyes to look at the floor before Sabine walks away and Ahsoka speaks up "Because Ezra cannot leave well enough alone."

_That's fair._

"What do you mean?" Mrs. Wren asks.

Lux smiles wistfully. "It's a very long story."

"Way ahead of you." Sabine says cheerfully, and I turn to her and see that she's got water ready for everyone.

"Thanks." Ahsoka smiles before Sabine takes two cups and starts back to me.

Rex calmly turns to Ahsoka. "How long have you kept this from me?"

"Over a year. It's…not good." Ahsoka sighs.

"Ahsoka." Rex says quickly, before Ahsoka raises her hand to silence him.

"Remember when I told everyone to stop digging into Order 66 after Ezra and Sabine found where Anakin was during it?" Ahsoka asks him, before Sabine's parents snap to us.

Echo replies. "Of course."

"I've never heard you that mad." Hera adds.

Ahsoka smiles thinly. "Because I knew Ezra and Sabine had pushed too far. They'd opened up the wound again. Really…it goes back all the way to Ord Mantell."

"Ord Mantell? " Sabine's father asks.

"That's where you fought Vader the first time you said." Her mother adds.

Ahsoka nods. "Yes, and it went very poorly. We weren't prepared to face him, he was only a rumor to me. Ezra tried losing, Kanan was outmatched and he beat me mentally."

"How?" Rex asks pointedly. "You've seen so much that it's hard to break your focus."

"How'd Ezra try losing?" Will asks as well.

I smile to myself then say "Everything I did, with little exceptions was the wrong thing to do. It was a very bad fight."

_It was._

"Anyway, Vader said something that tipped me off to his identity. Afterward, I avoided everyone and spoke to Bail, who finally told me where Master Obi-Wan was, after I badgered him for years. Obi-Wan confirmed my worst fears."

"What'd he say?" Echo asks.

"He said that I live." Ahsoka simply replies, and right away Rex goes stiff.

"Wait…" Rex says slowly. "On Mandalore…after Coruscant and the trial the first thing Anakin said to you was "Hey there, you live after all.'"

Ahsoka nods sadly before the Force heaves with realization from Rex and Echo.

"Wait…you figured out who he is?" Kanan asks, voice rising. "Who?"

"Kanan…please calm down." Organa asks quietly.

Kanan turns to Organa hotly. "Why? This is the guy that orchestrated Order 66! He killed my Master! I…he doesn't deserve to live."

"You don't know the entire story. Ahsoka's not done yet." Organa replies.

"Why do you think Ezra didn't tell you?" Ahsoka adds pointedly. "Out of everyone in this room, you were the one most affected by Order 66."

"Hey!" Rex and Echo both object.

Ahsoka winces. "Sorry…You know what I mean. The entire Jedi Order was cut down by men they called friends."

"By my brothers! Our brothers! We weren't given a choice Ahsoka!" Rex counters angrily. "The choice was taken away because if we would have had a choice, _ti wouldn't have happened!_"

_Whoa._

Sabine turns to me, looking shocked.

"We're missing a lot of context." Darcy says quietly.

"Order 66 was an inside job." Rex says quickly. "There is…was a chip inside mine and every clone's head. When a Order with a number was given, the chip was activated and free will was taken from us until the Order was completed. That's how Order 66 happened. Us Clones fought the entire war for the Republic and the Jedi, we never, ever would have executed Order 66. Ever!" He finishes, looking at Kanan.

"I know that Rex." Kanan smiles softly. "Thank you."

Rex nods before Bail organa speaks up again. "We're getting off track."

"Are we?" Mrs. Wren asks.

"It all fits together." Lux says sadly. "Too well."

Ahsoka nods. "I went to Ta—to see Master Obi-Wan right away. He very reluctantly told me about what happened during the final day of the Clone Wars."

_Here we go._

I pinch my nose and hang my head. Immediately Sabine pulls me closer to her.

"I asked the group on Ramordia to use their slicers to find a clip from that day." Ahsoka tells the room.

My head pops up. "No way."

Ahsoka nods at me. "I have the other half of the story. The first part of the conversation."

_She has the moment when Anakin found out that Palpatine was actually Sidious._

Ahsoka fires up the holo as everyone looks on. After a brief moment of blue, Anakin walks into Palpatine's office. "Chancellor, we have just received a report from Master Kenobi. He has engaged General Grievous."

"We can only hope that Master Kenobi is up to the challenge." Palpatine replies coolly, looking distracted.

Anakin takes in what Palpatine says, then starts pacing. "I should be there with him."

"It is upsetting to me to see that the Council doesn't seem to fully appreciate your talents. Don't you wonder why they won't make you a Jedi Master?" Palpatine asks him.

"I wish I knew. More and more I get the feeling that I am being excluded from the Council. I know there are things about the Force that they are not telling me." Anakin says, pacing still.

"They don't trust you, Anakin." Palpatine states simply, in a matter of fact tone before getting ot hs feet and starting down the hallway, Anakin following. "They see your future. They know your power will be too strong to control. Anakin, you must break through the fog of lies the Jedi have created around you. Let me help you to know the subtleties of the Force."

"How do you know the ways of the Force?"

"My mentor taught me everything about the Force . . . even the nature of the dark side." Paptatine tells Anakin, who stops in his tracks.

"You know the dark side?!" He asks, sounding stunned.

"Anakin, if one is to understand the great mystery, one must study all its aspects, not just the dogmatic, narrow view of the Jedi. If you wish to become a complete and wise leader, you must embrace a larger view of the Force. Be careful of the Jedi, Only through me can you achieve a power greater than any Jedi. Learn to know the dark side of the Force, Anakin, and you will be able to save your wife from certain death."

_Oh man._

Beside me, Sabine goes still and I instinctively pull her closer.

"What did you say?" Anakin asks, lowering his voice and clearly controlling his tone.

"Use my knowledge, I beg you."

Anger flashes onto Anakin's face before he activates his lightsaber and declares "You're the Sith Lord!"

"I know what has been troubling you . . . Listen to me. Don't continue to be a pawn of the Jedi Council! Ever since I've known you, you've been searching for a life greater than that of an ordinary Jedi . . . a life of significance, of conscience." Palpatine says evenly as Anakin's lightsaber is just below his throat.

Palpatine moves to turn away from Anakin, and he replies by aggressively moving his lightsaber to keep up with Palpatine's head.

"Are you going to kill me?" Palpatine asks Anakin.

Anakin bares his teeth in fury. "I would certainly like to."

"I know you would. I can feel your anger. It gives you focus, makes you stronger." Palpatine breathes, looking satisfied.

Anakin shoots Palpatine a filthy look before deactivating his lightsaber." I am going to turn you over to the Jedi Council."

"Of course you should. But you're not sure of their intentions, are you? What if I am right and they are plotting to take over the Republic?" Palpatine first agrees, then questions Anakin.

Anakin replies immediately. "I will quickly discover the truth of all this."

"You have great wisdom, Anakin. Know the power of the dark side. The power to save Padme." Palpatine says, before Anakin leaves the frame and the holo freezes.

The room stays silent for what feels like forever, then Ahsoka speaks up. "Anakin indeed went right to the Temple and found Master Windu and told him the terrible truth. In response, Windu tasked him with the protection of the Temple while they immediately went to arrest the Chancellor."

"By that didn't happen." Echo says.

"The official story…given by the Chancellor justifying Order 66 was that he was attacked by a group of Jedi intending to take control of the Republic." Hera says quietly.

I glance over at Prime, Will and Darcy only to see them all looking shaken, if not horrified.

"Padmé…the Senator. Ahsoka, no. It can't be." Rex asks Ahsoka, almost begging.

_Now he knows._

"Can't be what?" Mrs. Wren asks. "Skywalker died protecting that Temple."

Ahsoka first hangs her head, then shakes it. "That…isn't what happened."

The room is completely silent for a long time before Ahsoka finds the strength to speak again. "Palpatine pressed the right buttons. Anakin had nightmares that Padmé was going to die. He used that fear to drive Anakin back to the Senate Tower where he and Windu were dueling. In a moment of…Anakin broke the stalemate and allowed Palpatine to throw Windu to his death."

…

"After that, Anakin Skywalker…became Darth Vader." Ahsoka says, voice almost a whisper.

"No." Kanan shakes his head. "That's impossible."

Ahsoka frowns sharply at him. "If it wasn't true, I wouldn't defile his name like this Kanan. I'm honoring his memory by telling you the whole truth."

Kanan quietly quiets down, then Ahsoka continues. "As I said, Ezra dug too far. Anakin became Vader, and has committed unspeakable atrocities ever since then."

"I…don't understand. You've kept this from us for so long. Why tell us now?" Echo asks, as Rex looks too shaken to speak beside him.

"Because that's what this mission is all about. Ezra…and I are going to try and convert Vader back to the light. We have reason to believe that there is a chance, that there is still some good in him." Ahsoka says finally.

Again, the room is silent for awhile. "Okay." Prime says quietly.

"Ezra seems to have Vader's ear. I don't know how, but I have a suspicion." Ahsoka says, then turns to me.

I smile. "It's how you and Kanan taught me. "I can think while fighting. He told me that he wasn't able to do that until he was a Sith. He wants me on his side."

"That's…that's not happening. Right?" Mrs. Wren asks, looking nervously at me.

I shake my head. "No. It isn't happening."

"We've primed him to fall." Kanan interjects. "He and Sabine…he won't let her die. Maybe she shouldn't come along."

Sabine can't get to her feet fast enough. "No! I'm coming Kanan! Nothing you can say will stop me. We've talked about this."

"And what, he's just supposed to let you die?" Lux asks coldly. "I'm not going because that's Ahsoka's weakness."

Ahsoka adds. "Not my only one."

"Ezra knows that I'd rather die than have him join Vader." Sabine tells him, then looks to her parents who both clearly are shook.

_The stakes have risen once more._

"You're not going to die. I'll fight Vader to the death before I join him. If for nothing else than for the man he used to be. He was the strongest Jedi potentially of all time."

Rex finally speaks up. "That's why you let them be together."

"Huh?" Echo says beside him.

Ahsoka beams, then nods at Rex. "Padmé was Anakin's weakness. Sabine is not Ezra's, she is his greatest strength." I can't hold back a smile before Sabine peaks my cheek.

"So you're using Vader's desire for Ezra to try and turn him back?" Mrs. Wren asks.

"Exactly." Ahsoka nods. "The details will pull him in further."

"Details?" Rex asks.

"What details? Why stop now Ahsoka?" Hera asks her.

Ahsoka hangs her head. "Because unlike Obi-Wan and Yoda, I believe that Anakin is still in there somewhere."

"Who?" I ask.

_Yoda?_

"Master Yoda lived?!" Echo blurts out in disbelief.

"Yes. I assisted him in his exile." Organa speaks for the first time in a long time.

_Exile._

"So there's actually five Jedi, not four." Mr. Wren clarifies.

Ahsoka shrugs. "Kind of. I've attempted to contact Yoda, but I haven't heard anything."

"He always was a little…different." Rex concedes.

"And what if you're wrong?" Wil speaks up quietly in the corner of the room. "What if he can't become good again?"

…

"Then we have a shot." Ahsoka answers, then pulls up a diagram of Vader on the holo. "When Ezra and he fought together on Mandalore, Maul went after Vader's respiratory functions, which are severely damaged. I just recently spoke to Master Obi-Wan, who watched the footage and observed multiple things. Everything Vader does defensively is centered around his chest and lungs."

Ahsoka quickly shows a clip of Maul snaking around Vader, trying to get at Vader's chest controls. "That's a strong defense." Kanan says simply.

"If it was that easy to get at it, he'd be dead. From what I've heard, Vader's not even well liked in the Empire." Ahsoka shrugs.

"They all fear for their lives." Darcy speaks for the first time in forever.

_This mission is a death wish if we can't convince him._

Padmé will do it though. If he ever truly loved her, her words and request will turn him back from the brink.

"If Ezra and I can't convince him, it's likely that he lashes out. I'll signal for everyone else to come and try and subdue Vader, and we'll go from there." Ahsoka says. "That's the plan."

_The plan._

"How do you know that it's even possible to subdue him?" Mrs. Wren asks. "You've already faced him once and lost handily. How is this time going to be any different?"

"Ezra is much better, as is Kanan. I held my own, which is how we got out as it is. The three of us should be able to eventually get to his chest plate and deactivate it or something, allowing us to get him on the _Ghost_ and to Polis Massa."

_Polis Massa._

It'll begin again where it ended last time. He'll return where she died.

_Maybe she'll…_

I take that back, that probably wouldn't go well.

"I know this is a lot to take in. But I couldn't ask anyone else to risk their lives without knowing the full story. I'm not going to be offended if anyone backs out now." Ahsoka says wearily.

Instinctively, I look to Prime, Will and Darcy, Darcy is nibbling on her nails while Prime and Will simply look on silently.

"When we get him…I want to speak with him." Rex tells Ahsoka firmly.

Ahsoka smiles. "I know. You will."

"Thank you."

"So when you said in the past that it all goes back to the Clone Wars, this is what you meant." Kanan asks her.

"Unfortunately…yeah." Ahsoka nods.


	114. The Beginning In The End

(A/N: I wanted to do it right, and wasn't going to post until it was. And now it is. –James)

Sabine slides towards the door as I sweep my eyes over our room one final time before spinning to follow Sabine, duffel bag bouncing on my shoulder.

_Nope, I think we've got everything._

I catch up to Sabine within five steps before reaching out and calming down her Force Signature as best I can.

_She's been a mess all day, everyone has. The cleaning staff, which was very chipper every other day was very somber today. Everyone's been quiet and even the sky is a dull, unexciting grey._

"I'm okay Choppy." Sophie's voice echoes thru the hall, causing Sabine to stumble slightly before I turn back and see the shadow of Chopper and Sophie coming towards us down the hall. "No, I'm not shaking! Hera needs to check on you."

"Womp."

Sabine's anxiety rises again before I reach out and squeeze her wrist before Chop and Sof's shadow becomes the sight of Sof riding Chopper.

"I'm not lying Choppy. Maybe I'm a little scared for Ezra and Sabine though." Sophie dances around before spotting Sabine and I then lighting up. "Hi!"

"Hey. Why aren't you with Mom and Dad?" Sabine asks gently.

Sophie blinks and replies "I went to tell Prime and everyone else goodbye. Mommy and Daddy were down at the _Ghost_."

"Did that go okay?" I ask for conversation's sake, drawing Sabine's eyes.

Sof nods. "Yeah, it was kind of weird. They were more worried about me being safe here. We're gonna be fine. Nobody's gonna come here."

"Yeah, you'll all be fine." Sabine says dismissively, then turns to keep walking. Sophie meanwhile, hops off Chopper and grabs my left hand before starting to walk with me, Chopper behind us.

_Huh. She's never done this before. She always rides Chopper._

We all walk down together, taking a left and two rights before I notice Sophie's hand barely shaking.

_Blast it._

Calmly, I squeeze her hand and reach out to ease her jitters thru the Force before we make another turn and the sight of the _Ghost_ on the landing pad, surrounded by maintenance people with Kanan, Hera, and the Wren's talking near the loading bay.

I feel Sabine's spirits rise slightly as we navigate past the controlled chaos and walk to the _Ghost_ and see that everyone is talking over cups of caf.

"There you three are." Kanan smiles and waves warmly at us.

Hera smiles as well before turning to Kanan and Mr. Wren. "I'm going to go do final checks." The Wren's nod before Hera retreats into the _Ghost._

Sabine's parents both instinctively turn to Sabine, Sof and I before Kanan eyes all of us and silently follows Hera.

"So…" Mr. Wren starts before trailing off awkwardly.

Sabine smiles at her parents. "We're going to be fine."

Both of her parents' faces fall before her mother wraps Sabine up in a hug. I take a silent step back before getting my arm yanked on by Sophie, who is looking up at me. Quickly, I crouch down and smile at her. "Hey. We'll be back sooner than you know it."

Sophie's eyes swim with tears before she squeezes my hand. "Not soon enough though."

"It'll be soon." I smile reassuringly before I wipe a rogue tear away that's fallen. "Please don't cry, you're gonna make me cry."

That gets a stuffy giggle out of her before she pulls a tissue out of her pocket and wipes her nose. "Now don't go off throwing that away okay?" I tell her with a wide smile. Sof, to my relief remembers and lights up, beaming.

"There's that smile…" Ahsoka's voice says behind her, causing Sof to whip around and for me to look up and see Ahsoka peering down at us.

Sophie waves for Ahsoka to come over, and Ahsoka crouches down. "They're going to be okay. I know you're scared, and you should be. He's a scary guy. But there's a good person there too. There's good in everyone. We're going to bring that good person home."

Sophie's expression turns to one of pained confusion. "But…I don't understand."

"You will when you're older." Ahsoka tells her quietly, yet firmly. "I promise."

"Please make sure they're okay. You too, and Kanan and everyone." Sophie rambles.

Ahsoka lets slip a smile. "I'll make sure everyone is okay Sof." Sophie beams in response, before Ahsoka kisses her forehead, rises and walks into the _Ghost_.

Sof turns back to me, anxiety creeping back. "Hey…it'll be okay. Have I ever lied to you?"

"No." Sof shakes her head.

"Then it'll be fine." I tell her firmly.

Sof seems to accept that. "Please don't die…I need you."

I smile and shake my head. "I'm not going to die."

"But you could…" Sof shrinks towards me.

"Then you know what?" I ask her.

Sof looks up as I hug her. "What?"

"I'll never leave you. There's a saying I heard from Master Kenobi. 'There is no death, there is only the Force.'" I tell her, smiling.

"I thought the Force was an energy field." Sophie immediately fires at me.

"That's an easy explanation Sof. It's a lot more than that. But what I'm saying, is even if something happens, I'll be right behind you. Always. Promise." I smirk at her.

Sophie lets out a slight smile. "Then you'll never leave."

"Exactly." I smile, and Sof hugs me. I hold her for a minute, then kiss her forehead.

_It's got to be about that time._

I let her go, and Sof quickly plants a kiss on my cheek before stepping back. "See you soon Sof." Sof smiles back before turning to Sabine, who has slid beside me.

I turn back to see Sabine's parents looking lovingly at me before Mrs. Wren wraps me up in a hug just like she did to Sabine. "I'll be okay."

"You don't know that." Mrs. Wren immediately replies. "These kinds of missions, the stakes can't get higher and weird things happen."

_I know. I've been in this game before. I never would have believed you the night that we went to show Sophie the fighting that she'd end up distracting Shark Bait and I'd end up butchering him in the mud._

"I know. We'll find a way." I reassure her as she keeps hugging me.

Mr. Wren looks on before commenting. "I don't have anything to add really. But if you get separated, get back to Mandalore. Get home. We'll meet up there again."

"Okay." I nod.

Mrs. Wren reluctantly lets me go, then smooths out my jacket before looking up at me. "Don't be afraid to retreat. Fight another day."

"I won't." I try to reassure her again, before she turns and finds Sabine and Sof looking at us.

"It'll work out Mom. We'll be right back here tomorrow or the day after." Sabine tells her calmly.

Mrs. Wren nods, then swallows a lump in her throat and takes a step back. "Time to depart." Her husband adds.

Sabine nods, then slips her arm around my waist. "See you guys soon."

"Bye!" Sophie says, waving both hands with red looking eyes.

I wave and smile at her and her parents before letting Sabine guide me up the ramp and into the _Ghost_.

_(12 Hours Later)_

The _Ghost_ rattles around me as I sit here in my turret, fully extended just in case something happens.

_Okay…_

We've got this.

I open my eyes up and see the expected sight of Tibrin, which apparently is a quaint, normal looking planet. Multiple continents, massive oceans, deserts, a diverse ecosystem... everything you would want from a planet.

"Hey." I hear behind me, and smile to myself.

_Sabine._

Silently she walks over, hops down into the turret and wordlessly wraps herself around me. "Not you too." I joke, which gets her to laugh and hang her head on my shoulder.

"I'm going to be fine." I say.

Sabine replies "I don't know if this is a good idea."

"Sabine—"

"I know why we're doing it. But that doesn't mean it's a good idea."

I smile, then pull her closer. "Here's a thought I had while we were in hyperspace. What if we do turn him back. Adding Anakin Skywalker, in whatever capacity is huge. I can learn so much from him. Nobody has seen more than him. He'd be such an asset to us."

"I'd never even thought of that." Sabine admits in a whisper. "You're right. He'd be…he'd help a lot. And I think he'd be loyal to you and Ahsoka only. Not the Rebellion."

"Well, I'm not even loyal to the Rebellion right now, so…" I laugh before Sabine joins in. Together, we sit here for another moment before Sabine lifts her head and kisses me deeply.

After a moment, we separate and she whispers "I love you. Never forget that. No matter what happens."

"Now you sound like your parents." I tease her, getting one short laugh before she replies. "I'm serious."

I smile. "I know. Love you too."

"Please be careful. I'll be right there, but…still."

_I know._

"If things get tight, I want you behind me like on Haruun Kal." I reassure her.

Sabine smiles, eyeing me happily. "You don't think he can handle both of us?"

"I really don't think anyone can." I smile at her.

Sabine laughs, then lifts herself off me. "Now that's the attitude. I think you should go hug Hera beforehand though."

_Absolutely._

I nod, then reach over and raise the turret before slipping out of my seat and up the ladder to the cockpit.

"Yeah, I agree…" Ahsoka says as the cockpit doors open and she, Kanan, Rex, Echo, Zeb and Hera all turn and look at us.

Hera immediately pops to her feet, and Kanan takes control of the _Ghost_ seamlessly as we begin inching towards the atmosphere. "So proud of you." She tells me, looking up. "I remember the little kid that walked onto this ship and could fit into the ducts.

Rex, Echo and Kanan all laugh before I sheepishly smile. "Yeah, I'm a little too big for that now."

"A little." Hera smiles before tucking a strand of hair behind my ear. "I know everyone's told you to be careful, stay safe all of that. Just get him here. Let's go with that, alright?"

I smile, then shrug. "Fair enough."

Hera smiles back, then hugs me firmly. Quickly, I hug her back before she lets go. "You'd better get ready. We're about to land."

"About three minutes." Kanan states seamlessly before Ahsoka gets to her feet and slips thru the door, leaving me to follow.

Halfway to the loading ramp she calls back "You got a plan? Everyone is already here, landed and everything."

"Yup." I nod, then pull out my earpiece out of my pocket. "Comm check as soon as we land."

Ahsoka smirks and nods. "Don't freak out when I take a sharp right when we land. You just act normal, get thru customs and go from there. Okay?"

"Got it." I smile, causing Ahsoka to look almost sheepish.

"Sorry, you know what you're doing. I know that."

"You're just making sure. It's cool." I smile at her.

"CLUNK!"

_We're here._

The _Ghost _rocks before the reassuring "Hissssshhhh…" sounds out, followed by the ramp lowering. I follow Ahsoka off, who immediately…takes a sharp right turn.

_Okay then. We're off._

I mentally go over myself to make sure I've got everything: lightsaber, credit stick, backup comm, flare and portable shield from Denon.

"Next!"

_Just like on Mandalore_.

I can't keep the smile off my face as I hand the woman my passport, she scans it then I walk into the city center, complete with a small markets and people both lingering and doing business. Keeping my footsteps at the same pace as everyone around me I probe out for Vader and any warning signs before hitting my comm. "Comm check…1, 2."

_I don't feel Vader, but that doesn't mean he's a no-show._

"Gotcha up top Ezra." Prime's voice responds in my ear strongly.

I subtly nod. "I've got you in my ear, want to keep the details in house."

"Figured." He replies. "We've got a visual on you. Do you have your credit stick?"

"Yeah, in case something happens." I respond.

"Well humor Darcy, Mira and I. Go buy a drink, we want to make sure you're not being followed."

_But I just got off the Ghost?!_

I open my mouth to disagree because I really don't think I need to, then change my mind. "Alright."

"Great. Comm channels are open, so everybody can chime in whenever." Prime adds as I slip into the market and look for a place that piques my eye enough to spend a few credits on a drink there.

_Refreshments Unlimited…why not?_

"Dammit Ezra, I was betting the very next stall." Lana's voice slips into my ear as I start sliding towards Refreshments Unlimited.

"You're betting on me now?" I ask, walking right to the next stall before Lana and Kal's pleased laughter floats to my ears.

Brie hisses "Really? Gotta be kidding me…"

"It's just two credits per person at least." Will calms her down as I examine the drink menu.

"Now for the second part of the bet." Prime smiles.

The comm goes silent as I step to the front of the line and the barista asks "Hi! What can I get for you?"

"Lemonade please."

"AWWW!" Katiey groans.

Orir quietly says "Thank you very much…dinner is on you guys."

"Sure, we can do that sir. Four credits." She smiles at me, and I hand over my credit stick.

As she runs it, the comm goes quiet before Darcy asks "Do you guys see that too?"

"What?" I hiss quietly, inclining my head.

"Keep your head up front. Don't turn." Darcy bites at me.

_Oops. Sorry._

"Yeah, I see it. The woman with the head covering. Looks like a balaclava." Will says.

Darcy quietly says "We got it. Aidan, Brie, with me please."

"Here you go sir." The barista hands me back my credit stick. "We'll have your drink out shortly."

I smile and nod. "Thanks." then slip a few feet away and probe out again.

"I'm getting a few jitters." I tell everyone.

"Hanger's clear." Kal responds.

_He's already there?!_

"You're already there?" I hiss.

Prime answers "We're spread out along the rooftops."

"And the ship?" I counter.

"_Mand'alor_ gave us a droid that'll pilot the ship to us. We need all our resources here for now."

"Autopilot." I deduce.

"Exactly." Will nods, before I see him move on a roof just to my left.

Lana hisses "Easy…somebody with good eyes could have seen that."

"I did." I admit quietly, watching the drink stand operating smoothly.

_Two baristas, three people in the back making drinks, many happy customers. It's actually quite impressive._

My mind floats back to the drink stand on Onderon that Sabine and I went to.

_Bad idea. Bad precedent._

"Lemonade!" One of the workers in the back calls out, and I step forward with a smile.

"Thanks."

"You too, have a good day!"

I walk away with a smile, then sip on my lemonade to find it sweet, but just tart enough.

"Ooh, this is good." I say just loud enough for everyone to pick up.

"Oh stop rubbing it in." Lana chastises me before Darcy's voice cuts across.

"Guys I think that the she is a he, and that he is a changling."

_Oh blast it._

Do we have more than two players here?

"Renless?" Prime asks.

"Don't know. I was more thinking Fett, but maybe." Darcy says.

Aidan adds "We've got this piece of work. Ezra, the hanger is just a little ways down. I think you should get going."

"Probably right." Kal says gruffly.

I nod, then gulp down more lemonade. "On my way." before starting down the main road happily and probing out every few steps.

_There really isn't any signs of trouble, outside of that prickling sensation caused by that changling. Vader's either not here yet or concealing hims—_

"Got him." I smirk.

"Good." Prime adds.

Darcy gasps "How'd…you know?"

"I feel almost everything." I counter.

"Knife to the neck, so you must have felt him leave." She bites back.

I nod. "That's what tipped me off."

"He's within four blocks. We all need to move up." Will says to us all as a large, blaster color gray structure looms on the horizon, normal in every way except for the subtle arch that defines the roof of the structure.

_It's actually kind of pretty, in a under the radar way._

The closer I get to the structure, the more I start regulating my breaths and probe.

_This is actually happening. Can't go back now._

I think Ahsoka will do most of the talking. But in case of a fight I have to, have to, have to remember the basics.

_If I do my job, then that will open him up to Ahsoka and Kanan._

"We're going quiet on this end Ezra. Good luck, we'll be up and to your right if you need us." Prime tells me.

I nod, then hear the comm click off.

_Okay._

Rounding a corner, the full scope of the structure comes into view, revealing what is at least a ten story building complete with roof and an open door. Stacks of crates and discarded ships stick out to me as I continue walking.

About ten steps away from the entrance, the sheer power of the Force hits me head on.

_Whoa._

I'm not alone anymore…that's for sure.

_I wonder if it's past Jedi, Padmé, somebody I don't know or what. It's not a malevolent presence though, so that's good._

I walk into the dimly lit hanger, with nothing but the outside sun to illuminate the hanger. Probing again while I meander around some crates, I feel the Force move, but not willingly. Subtly I walk to the middle of the hanger and fall to one knee.

_I need him to come to me. And this is the best way I could think of._

Probing out once more, I feel Kal off to my right with Darcy, Aidan, Brie, Katiey, Mira and Will as well as Sabine just behind me, also high up.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

_Here we go._

I close my eyes and try to release all of my anxiety and nerves into the Force as I vaguely feel Vader's presence coming closer.

"Gushh…Shhhh…Gushh…Shhhh…"

I feel the temperature drop slowly as Vader's footsteps come closer and closer before I hear the "Clomp." of his feet.

"Gushh…Shhhh…"

_He's stopped right in front of me._

Out of nowhere, he bends down and helps pick me up. "Rise. You bow to no one."

_Whoa._

I can't hold back a smile. "Thanks. That…means a lot."

"I'm glad you know that, young Bridger. And that you held up your end of the bargain. I was expecting more resistance though." Vader muses, almost to himself.

_I know he can feel them._

"As I said My Lord, we just wanted to talk." I say simply as Vader is looking off to my left, the complete wrong direction.

"Then are your men and wife here under your orders, or of their own accord?" Vader suddenly cuts to the chase, first pointing above my head then off to my right. Immediately I feel them all panic thru the Force.

_Easy…_

"Of their own accord. They're not going to intervene, but they also refused to let me just walk in here alone."

Vader stays silent for a moment, seemingly considering my statement. "You have built a strong, but more importantly a loyal power base Ezra. I commend you on that."

_He said my name._

I'm dealing with Anakin again.

"Thank you. It sounds like I'm not speaking with Lord Vader, but with somebody else." I smile.

_I'm not going to say it quite yet._

Vader peers down at me before saying "Perhaps. Take pride in the fact that you are the only being in the galaxy that could get me here, now."

"Good to know."

_Ahsoka._

Vader pivots to look behind him just before Ahsoka pops out from behind a shipping crate. "I was wondering when you might appear." He comments.

"I didn't want to interrupt things at the start." Ahsoka shrugs before smiling. "It's good to see you Master."

"I'm not your Master anymore." Vader says coldly.

Ahsoka simply frowns for a moment. "That was out of both of our control. And you know that."

"You left." Vader fires back right away.

"I…followed my instincts, which were installed by you. The Will of the Force guided me thru, and I'm very thankful for that." Ahsoka says, finishing with a smile.

_Anakin installed her instincts, and Ahsoka and Kanan have installed mine._

There's probably some overlap.

"It is very resourceful of you to evade the Purge for all these years. Before we met on Ord Mantell, I believed you to be dead." Vader admits.

"Really?" I ask, causing both of them to look to me. "You didn't feel her?"

Vader shakes his head. "Ah—She did a very good job of faking her death on Mandalore, in Sundari. The only tip, beside the fact that I had already seen you…was your Padawan braid. It wasn't there."

Ahsoka frowns. "I wanted to have something left. I couldn't leave it _all_ behind."

"I understand. But these…are yours." Vader replies, moving to his belt and grabbing a full length lightsaber and a smaller one.

_NO. WAY._

Ahsoka's jaw drops. "You…"

"You left your life there, only to return to it later and train young Bridger here. I thought you might want them back. They are yours." Vader extends her lightsabers to her.

Ahsoka takes her old lightsabers back, looking quite small in her hands before clipping them to her belt. "Thank you Anakin."

_Anakin._

He's here, and this isn't Vader right now.

"He's dead Ahsoka. You know that." Vader responds.

"I'm going to have to disagree, simply because you just gave me my lightsabers back, _again_." Ahsoka counters. "And you wouldn't be here if Ezra hadn't found the good left in you."

Vader simply peers down at her. "I believe you have information for me? Something you have to speak to me about?"

_Whoa. That's a tone shift._

Ahsoka frowns at Vader as he turns his back to us. "Yeah…Ezra and I got a visit."

"And I'm to assume that I know who visited you?" Vader replies.

Ahsoka nods. "She's why we're here right now. Why you are in that suit."

Vader immediately goes stiff. "That…is a road I wouldn't tread down."

"I'm going to Anakin, for her memory."

Vader whips around, clearly getting worked up. "She's DEAD Ahsoka! And she wasn't Force Sensitive. What you speak of is impossible."

"You know that isn't true." Ahsoka shakes her head as Vader glares down at her. "Nothing is impossible with the Force as your ally."

"And you never met Master Qui-Gon." Vader fires back.

"I did. On Mandalore. He came to me just before I buried myself and Rex."

_And Rex?_

Vader says nothing, before Ahsoka jumps in "You used to count nothing out, be open to everything. Reach out, you can feel her presence. She's here, and she's why we are here."

I feel Vader fire off a probe into the Force, which…

_WHOA._

Nervously, I glance back at Ahsoka who is keeping an even face.

_That was the strongest response I've ever felt from the Force. Ever. Like it was both rebelling against his will and sending a message._

Vader stays still for a moment. "What you speak of is impossible. And if it was, My Master would have told me it was."

"Your Master keeps you in chains so he can control you. That's what it's all about Anakin. Palpatine is controlling you just like he did all of us."

"LIES!" Vader roars. "Say what she told you and be done with it!"

Ahsoka takes a step back cautiously. "She believes there is still good in you. She said what I now believe. The Dark Side consumes you due to your hate, except for precious few moments. Like right now."

"And you are dangerously close to stepping over that line." Vader warns her.

"Hey!" I jump in, getting both Vader and Ahsoka to turn to me before I turn to Vader. "You came all this way, let us finish before you say no. Alright?!"

Vader simply eyes me, then visibly relaxes. "Alright then. But no more of this Force apparition nonsense."

"It's not nonsense." I tell him strongly.

"As I was saying…" Ahsoka jumps in. "There is still good in you. She pleaded with us to come to you. To show you that there is still time to turn back and undo everything you've done."

"That isn't possible. It is too late for me now." Vader responds.

I frown "And how do you know that?"

"HOW?!" Vader roars. "That Force probe is how! I started down this path to make things right. To save Padmé…"

"I know. I saw the footage. Ezra told me that you knew that." Ahsoka says gently.

"Your last theft was very smooth, nobody had an idea." Vader tells her.

Ahsoka sighs to herself. "Why…what makes you do this? The Republic you loved changed to the Empire before your eyes."

"The reason I want young Bridger as my apprentice is so that I can right my wrongs, Ahsoka."

"I understand, he's a great student. But what I don't understand is how you can do all of this, come this far down the dark path when you know the truth!" Ahsoka asks, pleading with him.

"Because of me!" Vader spits at her. "I never asked to be this Chosen One, all of the pressure of saving the galaxy on my shoulders, to be The Hero Without Fear, for the Jedi, Obi-Wan and Padmé to all turn their back on me when all I wanted _was to make things right Ahsoka!_" He roars, getting worked up again. "I want peace!"

I simply gape in shock at Vader and Ahsoka.

_That's what happened. It all blew up in his face._

"You can still do the right thing Anakin. Please…have some faith in me. In the Force. In yourself, who you used to be." Ahsoka reasons with him. "You were the best of the Jedi, the ideal we all should have strived to."

"And yet they didn't trust me!"

"They were wrong." Ahsoka counters. "The Jedi's loss is a great loss to the galaxy, but the Order's ideals aren't a loss. I firmly believe that."

Vader shakes his head. "You speak as if the two are separable."

"They are."

"General Skywalker." Rex's voice sounds out suddenly, causing Vader to turn and see Rex in full clone armor, with helmet.

Vader hesitates. "It is you."

Rex takes off his helmet and eyes Vader. "In this case, I have to insist that Commander Tano's right. It's time to make things right. We can do that. But not without you."

"You said you'd protect her Rex." Vader says, sounding unhappy.

"And I have to the best of my ability."

"If you had done that, she would not be here!" Vader retorts.

Rex shakes his head. "General."

"I'm no General anymore Rex."

"You'll always be my General sir. The finest one I fought under." Rex tells him.

Vader shakes his head. "Gushh…Shhh…I appreciate that, but that's not who I am."

"That's not something I can accept sir. I'm going to have to ask for more from you."

_Whoa. He's treating him like a soldier that he needs more from._

He's given me this speech.

"Look at me!" Vader spins back to Rex. "I have nothing left to give. I have given my body, sold my soul."

Rex replies. "We know that. You've been burning the holo at both ends for years sir. We want to help you stop it."

"What you ask for…is impossible." Vader says simply. "What you say is also impossible. I'm indulging in your delusions. Both of you."

Ahsoka shakes her head. "You think we would send a girl on your own ship to potentially her death for a delusion? You felt it! If you reach out, she's still here."

Vader takes a very hard step towards Ahsoka. "Stop." Instantly I feel everyone behind me jolt and train their weapons on Vader. Vader then turns and takes in everyone. "Well…if they're going to, take the shot."

"That's not why we're here." I say.

Vader spins back, grabs me by the collar and lifts me into the air. "What you want me to do is impossible! None has come back from the dark side. No one."

Meanwhile, everyone freaks out and they scatter into what I assume is positions as I look into the red lenses of Vader's mask.

"You've made the impossible happen before." I challenge him, changing tact. "Embrace the challenge."

"There's nothing left for me there." Vader tells me simply, sounding defeated before a blur falls from high above then lands with a thud.

"Let him go." Kanan orders Vader.

I can almost feel Vader roll his eyes before replying "You know, I'd choose your words more carefully."

Ahsoka reaches out to keep Kanan quiet before speaking herself. "Please…put him down. You said it yourself, he's the reason you are here."

"You're not going to stop, are you?" Vader asks her.

"Would you?" She replies.

_MOVE!_

I feel Vader's out of nowhere jab at my ribs with his lightsaber before he even makes a move and manage to evade it completely before the force of my dodge rips my collar and I fall to the ground heavily. Quickly, I scramble to my feet and take a step away from Vader.

He…

_He tried incapacitating me so he can have me after beating everyone back. Or killing them. They're not going to stop coming._

I think we're done talking.

"Don't…come on Anakin. We don't want to do this." Ahsoka pleads with him.

Vader replies "You're going to have to, because as I've said, what you ask for is impossible." Rex quickly takes a few hurried steps back before jumping straight in the air.

"He brought Stormtroopers." He tells all of us.

_No…_

Vader simply replies. "You never know when an assassination attempt is coming."

"This isn't…you know what?" Ahsoka stops herself. "You're not going to listen. You never really did. So if you want a fight, I'll give you one. For Anakin."

Impulsively, yet instinctually I pull my own lightsaber to me and hit my comm. "He brought Stormtroopers."

"Looks like things have fallen thru." Prime says shortly.

Vader meanwhile, is eying me. "Escalating, are we?"

"All the cards are on the table." I shrug at him. "Might as well give us the best chance we'll have."

"You fight for your own destruction." Vader tells me, then jumps out at me and attempts to incapacitate me again. I anticipate his move, spin on my heels and Vader's strike hits the permacrete floor harmlessly. In response, Sabine falls to the ground and immediately fires off a bolt from her wrist at Vader, which he flicks away at the last moment.

_He saw it late._

I finally activate my lightsaber and slip it into the Form V guard before letting out a breath as I feel absolute chaos break out off to my right where Prime and the others are.

"You will pay for that Wren." Vader tells her.

She replies "You could compliment the shot. It should have got you." Vader doesn't reply, instead attempting to Force Push me away in order to get to her. I snap my wrists and push back, sliding back maybe a foot but negating Vader's advance before Kanan slides around me and in front of Sabine.

_To protect her._

Vader doesn't say anything, instead slicing down at me. I quickly block and see Ahsoka slithering around him before an idea pops into my head and I snap my wrists once more and push him away.

Box him in.

Vader makes a shocked noise just as Ahsoka strikes at him with one lightsaber and at his leg with the other. He somehow contorts himself around Ahsoka and her blades then strikes at her, causing her to block with both lightsabers.

Kanan quickly gets into position and strikes down at him, angle changing at the very last moment, but Vader blocks and locks him up, pushing him back.

_My turn._

I run back just in time to anticipate Kanan's push just before he sends Vader spinning towards me, and I swing down at him, meaning to take off part of his mask and his chest panel. Instead, Vader gets his lightsaber in front to block, then pushes me several feet back,

NO!

Just as Vader lifts his head to march back towards Sabine I leap back onto him, flashing a quick cut on his left before he blocks it and I transition into a spin and slash on his right. Vader gets a blade on it, then slams his hand into my chest and physically moves me backwards.

_I'm too close for comfort._

Ahsoka slides to move in on Vader, but before she has a chance I leap at him again while switching hands with my lightsaber and grabbing a shipping crate at the same time. As I land, I slash, then send the crate at him with as much force as I can get on it. Vader's shock reverberates thru the Force as he blocks me and backs up while managing to stop the crate.

Vader continues to falls back and I duck past my own crate before it falls loudly and heavily and he spots multiple Stormtroopers on the ground, dead.

_We're winning, at least on that front. And our strategy is working perfectly so far._

He has to get tired. He HAS to. He's still human.

"Yah!" Ahsoka pops out of nowhere, slicing at Vader and causing him to abandon his battle with me to engage her, blocking two strikes before slicing at her. Ahsoka ducks under the slice just as Kanan replaces her, only for Vader to instead take the offensive and chop down at Kanan, causing Kanan to back off and Ahsoka to slip down and away from both of them.

I begin to slide around him and get back into possession so Kanan can get Vader off him before he can do something.

_A one on one fight is only going to win one way._

Just as I start getting near where I feel I should be, Vader's hand pops off his lightsaber as he's locked up with Kanan and I'm slammed into the hard Durasteel container.

_BLAST!_

WHAM!

A black blur flashes in front of my face before I fall, face throbbing.

_OWW!_

"Rebel scum, I don't know why Lord Vader doesn't-GAH!" He says, looking down at me before I jump to my feet and put my lightsaber thru his neck, causing him to go limp and prompting me to look back and see both Ahsoka and Kanan fighting Vader tooth and nail.

_Maybe we have to change strategy slightly. He seems to know what we're trying to do, but can't stop it._

I can use that to get an advantage. Baiting his knowledge and using against him.

Without further thought, I jump forward, to Vader's left as Sabine pops up to Ahsoka's left and nails a Stormtrooper that apparently saw his comrade go down, and slide into where I think he wants me. Vader immediately swipes at Kanan and Ahsoka, slides back and moves to neutralize me again.

_Bring it._

I hang back long enough for Vader to start toward me with a slice, then move before he's even close to me, slip behind him and slide my lightsaber into my reverse grip and swipe at Vader, hitting the base of his neck before moving up and splitting the cowl of his helmet and half all the way to the top of his head.

Ahsoka, Kanan and Sabine all freeze, faces expressions of disbelief and shock before I yell. "STOP!" at Vader. "ENOUGH!"

"Hssssshhhiiiiisssss…Gusssshhh…whirrr…"

_I messed up his suit, just like Maul did. Same sound._

Vader stops, falls to a knee then breathes again. "Gusssshhh…whirrr…" as the hanger is silent other than the sound of intense fighting on the other side of the hanger.

Game over. His suit's broken.

Ahsoka takes a tentative step forward, lightsaber still activated before Vader gets back on his feet then goes for his mask…and pulls the top right off.

_He can do that?_

"Hisss…"

Immediately white bone comes into view from the back of Vader's head before he discards the top of his helmet and goes for the rest of it.

Ahsoka nearly screams, holding it back enough so that it's only a yelp as Kanan takes a step back and I hear Sabine say something in Mando'a, sounding…

_Sad?_

"You know why I respect Ezra? Why I want him on my side?" The voice of Anakin Skywalker softly floats to me.

_Wait, the white bone I saw…is his head?!_

He's as pale as…I don't know.

Ahsoka just looks at Vader and shakes her head. "Anakin…"

Vader pivots, and I finally see his face, the same face of Ahsoka's master only scarred and left open on the right along with sunken eyes.

_Oh my…what happened during that fight with Kenobi?_

How can he look like this?!

"The move he made…to kill the Fifth Brother, weak as he was, is the same move _Obi-Wan_ used to put me in this suit."

_Mou Kei. I got all but his left arm._

My eyes immediately snap to Vader's left arm asAhsoka simply bites her lip. "He…he wants you too Anakin. He mourns you every day. Every time I see him, he can't hide his sadness about what happened. He's mourned you for 17 years." She pleads with him.

Vader shakes his head, glaring at me. "You've taught him well, both of you have. But now it is time to either give him up and allow me to set things right…or die."

The bottom drops out of my stomach just before a massive shockwave flows thru the Force and I look back to see Prime, Darcy and a few of the girls looking in our direction, at the unmasked Vader.

_He's never going to come back. We…_

He's either going to kill us, or we kill him. Anakin's gone. He's dead.

"Anakin…please." Ahsoka begs him.

"Anakin Skywalker is _dead_…he was weak. And I made him strong." Vader responds.

Kanan's face falls into one of determination before Ahsoka suddenly scowls. "Then I…will avenge his death. We all will."

Vader turns away from all of us, to the sight of Prime and Darcy getting into position to fire on Vader.

_They beat the 501__st__. They beat his men._

"Fine then. I'm surrounded by liars…and dead men." Vader states before wildly jumping at Sabine and attempting to cut her in half. Instantly, Kanan and Ahsoka move to stop him, and Sabine hits her jet pack.

"FIRE!" She screams at Prime, then the air is filled with precise shots sending everyone either scattering or diving for cover. Vader does the latter, then moves t advance on where he's being fired on.

_NO!_

I quickly pursue Vader, running past him and getting to a grouping of storage crates and containers before him, then push them haphazardly to stop his advances and hop on top of the pile. "You'll have to go thru me to get to them.

Vader freezes briefly, then looks right at me.

_And chops at my head._

I block it easily then give ground, uneven as it may be and wait for Vader to catch up.

_I'm so much faster than him it's not even funny._

Vader instead blasts the crates out of his way, destabilizing the crates Prime and the others are standing on before advancing on me blindly.

He wants me. I have to use my form and my speed to beat him.

_I have to get to his chest._

Vader chops down at me and I block it with both hands again before spinning away and slicing at his shoulder. He bats my slice away and jabs at my neck, which I duck away from before switching into my Form and cutting at him.

_I saw that jab coming._

I can beat him.

Immediately I smile as Vader blocks me, bearing his teeth before I ditch the cut and slice at his left side, forcing Vader to slide around me and begin retreating.

"GET HIM!" Prime yells at me, further emboldening me as I chase Vader down and cut at his right and grabbing a rogue piece of debris. Vader ruthlessly rips it out of my hands and throw it and me.

_Blow it up._

In the blick of an eye, I go from cutting at Vader to slicing to crate it half and pushing it around me like I blew it up, causing Vader's eyes to widen.

"Didn't think I could do that, did ya?" I smile, feeling myself fall into a groove.

_I've got him._

Quickly I slice, duck, cut and dodge a panicked Vader jab as he tries keeping me away from his middle and his chest panel. I quickly spin and cut at the panel, only for Vader to slightly dodge and for my lightsaber to connect with Vader's midsection.

"Ahh…" He gasps in pain, gritting his teeth again.

"And here I thought you were all machine. No, she was right. More machine than man."

Vader's face contorts into one of pure rage. "Don't you SAY ANYTHING!" He screams at me, blindly slashing at me. "ABOUT HER! YOU KNOW NOTHING!"

_Fifth brother. I worked into his head. I can do the same to Vader._

Vader's just a better version of him. Stronger.

_I can beat that. I'm ten times better now than I was on Mandalore._

"I know more than you think. And you like me for that." I smile, causing Vader to roar in fury and telegraphs chop at me which I easily block then duck under, rise up and clear space by slamming the plate of armor on my arm right into his face, sending Vader sprawling back. "You haven't actually been hit in the face in awhile, have you?"

Nobody likes getting hit in the face. It hurts.

"Be quiet…" Vader spits at me. "Before I decide that you should die too."

"I'll die before I serve what you've become. Anakin." I tell him.

Vader roars again and chops at me. I block, spin away and twirl my lightsaber before reengaging, slicing at his legs. He flashes his blade down to block me before telegraphing his counter and I beat him to his own spot, grabbing my lightsaber with both hands and dig in.

"You can't beat me. You're nothing more than a better version of Fifth Brother." I tell him.

Vader glares at me, anger clear in his eyes. "I…am so much more. Then you will ever know."

I shake my head, break off the saber lock and cut at his chest panel. Vader bats it away, then I feel my throat get crushed before I make a gagging noise.

_BLAST IT!_

Lightning!

I flash my left arm out and begin to shock Vader's system before all the feeling in my hand disappears and I involuntarily gasp out a breath, suddenly feeling sick to my stomach.

_Huh?_

Numbly, I look to my hand and see the red of Vader's blade on the followthrough…before my wrist and hand falls away from the rest of my body, Sophie's wristband and Sabine's wedding ring slowly falling away from me.

I'm shocked out of my stupor by the feeling of Vader physically grabbing me by the neck. "That lightning isn't part of your style. It isn't who you truly are…young Bridger." Vader growls before his eyes go from blue to a sickly, ugly orange and red before the world becomes a blur.

_Huh? His eyes! What'd that_—_WALL!_

I tense up and brace for impact with the wall of the hang—

WHAM!

…

…

…

…

_Oww…_

The first thing I feel is a constant pain from my left arm before I look around and realize that I'm buried under something. Impulsively, I kick it and it's revealed to be duracrete before debris starts falling in on me.

_NO!_

I flash my hands to stop it, only for it to partially work and for the debris to fall right onto my chest and face.

"Ahh!" I gasp out.

_Not good, not good!_

How'd I even get here? Did Vader destroy the entire hanger? Did they bomb it? What happened?

"Kid?!" I hear Zeb's panicked voice. "Kid?!"

"Here!" I gasp out, slab on duracrete on my chest. "Can't…move!"

Voices and shouts ringing around the hanger tell me that it's not destroyed yet before Zeb says "Okay! I'm gonna dig you out. Can you help me?"

"Not really! I tried but…my arm…" I gasp as it finally hits me.

_My arm…_

"Okay, I'm digging, Do what you can and tell me if it hurts!"

I nod. "Okay!" then plop back helplessly as the sound of debris moving around reaches my ears. After thirty or so seconds, sunlight flashes near my face. "Light!" Zeb's arm immediately fills the gap and he starts forcibly moving debris, patting around for me. I panic and grab onto his arm "Zeb!" I say in a gasp.

"I gotcha…hang on!" he says, before grabbing onto me and tugging. I pop out of the debris with one tug, before a silver flash catches my eye. "Your lightsaber!" Zeb breathes, then sticks his arm back in before it can be buried and pulls my lightsaber out, dusty but looking no worse for the wear. "Here kid…oh." Zeb extends my lightsaber to me, on my left side before stopping.

"Yeah…Vader." I gasp. "Zeb, I'm not right." I say, the words coming straight off the top of my head. "I feel weak."

_I can barely stand on my feet._

"Okay, I gotcha." He says, lifting me up over his shoulders. "I gotcha kid. Just protect my back okay?"

I nod then gasp out another breath.

_I can't hold a breath. _

Zeb starts hurrying away from where I was buried and I look over his shoulder to see Ahsoka and Kanan feverishly fighting Vader, who has visibly taken things to another level.

_No…no…don't lose. Come on._

"Ezra!" I hear Sabine yell, and I look back to see her on the ramp of the _Ghost_.

_Get in the ship!_

"Go! I got him!" Zeb tells her, and she immediately disappears into the ship.

Vader spots Zeb and I hustling toward the ship and begins angling to get at us, only for Kanan and Ahsoka to both shift into Sorensu so they can halt his advances or at least corral him in a different direction. Thankfully, Zeb gets to the ship quickly, followed by Kanan who yells something and disappears.

Ahsoka and Vader keep fighting in the hanger as we rise into the air, which is completely torn up now. The scaffolding is everywhere, the catwalks are broken, debris everywhere…

It all disappears as Zeb puts me down gently. "NO!" I yell in a panic. "Ahsoka!"

_NO!_

I try and crawl to the ramp to see what's going on just before Ahsoka leaps up onto the ramp and runs away.

"Hit it!" She yells, then runs away as I look out over the ramp to see Vader, who has stopped…and is looking at us.

_At me._

The ramp retreats into the hull and the door shuts, leaving me sprawled on the floor without an ounce of strength in my body.

I…

_We lost._

I…had him. I had him beat. And I lost.

_I caused us to lose._

I…

The moment hits me harder than that wall did, and I feel my heart break.

_Vader won. Anakin's dead…he's never coming back. I failed hm, I failed Padmé…_

I failed everyone.

Defeated, I drop my head onto the floor and just let the pain flow thru me unabated.

_I…I wasn't ready. And I could have gotten everyone killed._

I…

_I have to get up. I can't just lie here forever. And nobody's going to come and pick me up. I have to GET. UP!_

I haven't worked out and killed myself physically all for this to beat me. All those long hours?

_NO!_

I roll over, right onto my arm and send a rocket of pain right thru my nerves before it starts abating and I force myself to my feet.

_I need to get to my turret, make sure Sabine's okay…then go from there._

I nod to myself shakily, then stumble into the cabin and see Prime, Will, Kal, Orir, Darcy, Katiey, Brie, Mira and Aidan all huddled around a down figure.

_Wait, where's Lana?_

If she's not there, where…

…

Darcy is the first to see me in the doorway, tears falling down her face unabated.

No…

_Not Lana…_

I look to where the downed figure's face is…and see blonde hair.

_NOOOO!_

The strength evaporates from my knees and I immediately hit the wall then start slowly sliding down it.

NO! Lana…

_NO!_

I keep sliding down the wall, feeling my open jaw and tears falling down my face before roughly hitting the ground.

_LANA!_

She can't be…

I blink and see that everyone's looking at me, a mixture of shock and horror on their faces.

"Your…arm." Will gasps.

I disregard his comment and keep looking at Lana's face, eyes pitched up towards a ceiling that she'll never see.

_NOOOOO!_

I helplessly fall forward, catching my head with my right hand and can't stop the tears as the _Ghost_ is silent around me except for others crying.


	115. Polis

The nurse continues to measure my left arm at all conceivable angles while trying to be careful to avoid where my open arm is just…there.

"Got it." Sabine's voice speaks up at the door quietly, and I drag my eyes away from the nurses hands to where Sabine is holding…my severed hand and wrist.

The nurse smiles and lights up. "Good. The doctor will want that when he operates in order to assure a perfect fit.

Sabine barely smiles. "And you can't reattach it? You're sure?"

"Unfortunately no. The nature of the damage to the veins and arteries that has been done in the hours since it was cut off is irreparable. And even if we could, the infection rate is very high. I'm afraid that you won't find anybody here that would even attempt such a procedure." The nurse says, sympathetically.

_Okay. That makes sense to me._

"Thank you." I say quietly, which causes the nurse to turn back to me.

"You're welcome. Are the painkillers working?" She replied.

I nod. "It feels a lot better, thanks."

The nurse silently nodded then turned back to Sabine. "The documents you requested arrived as well. Master Che is the best healer and prosthesis expert we have."

_Master._

"Thank you." Sabine says to the nurse.

She replies "It will take some time to perfect the prosthesis and get everything ready. Expect us in an hour, hour and a half tops."

Sabine and I both nod before the nurse takes my…severed hand and removes both the ring and bracelet, setting them both on the small tray beside my bed then takes her datapad and my hand with her, leaving Sabine and I in silence for a few minutes.

"And you're not in pain?" She asks me.

I shake my head. "Not at all. If you need to go that's fine."

"I'm not going anywhere…" She shakes her head. "Not yet at least."

"And nobody's commed back yet?" I ask her.

Sabine drops her head. "No. it's just now a decent hour so they'll get the message Ahsoka sent them soon I hope."

"Make sure they know I'm not dying. And they don't have to pay for all this." I say quietly.

She frowns. "Then who will?"

"I…don't know." I admit. "I just imagine that this is going to be very expensive."

Irritation and frustration flash across Sabine's face before she angrily bites her bottom lip and her entire face relaxes. "We'll figure it out."

Suddenly, a soldier appears in the doorway. "Uhm, apologies for the interruption, but there is a holocall from Alderaan on hold for Sabine Wren and Ezra Bridger."

Before I can even attempt to get up, Sabine sticks her hand out to stop me. "He can't come unfortunately. Where is it?"

The soldier nods. "First conf…erence room Miss." He says, eyes finding my arms before his entire expression turns to one of discomfort.

_Blast._

I nervously smile, not knowing what else to do and the soldier smiles thinly before nodding back and making room for Sabine to leave, then follows her.

…

…

_Still awkward. I don't think she knows quite what to do._

She found me on the _Ghost_ slumped on the wall crying my eyes out before anybody else could do anything or was still holding Lana. The trip here to Polis Massa was action packed believe it or not. Hera kept everyone on the guns until we could jump to hyperspace, then Lux contacted the slicers on Ramordia in order to get a holo on the fight so Kanan and Ahsoka can figure out exactly what happened. At the same time, Rex and Echo got in contact with the Dxun base as well as the Dantooine compound and reported what happened as well as recommending that all cells go underground for a time.

All this time I was confined to my turret after being yelled at by Kanan and Hera for moving around after being seriously injured. I guess they're right, but they know I hate feeling worthless, and right now I feel like a one armed Jedi, which is almost as useless as it gets.

_The only productive thing I got done was blackmailing Chopper into getting the footage from the fight and…_

Lana dying is my fault. I told her, Darcy and the girls that the best way to win a fight against somebody like Vader is to ugly it up. Get down in the dirt and turn it into a fistfight. The Safe Zone fight went just like that, further backing up my claim, so that this time I didn't even have to tell them anything about it.

_They knew what to do._

But after I got my arm cut off then tossed across the entire hanger, hitting the wall so hard that a portion of duracrete higher up buried me alive everyone freaked out. Kanan and Ahsoka essentially jumped Vader and forced him back while Prime, Darcy and the others absolutely crushed the remnants of Vader's men before advancing on Vader. To their credit, they pulled no punches. Will got him with a grenade that sent Vader flying back and the cover fire looks spot on to me. But that was the end of it because Lana thought she had an opening to get at Vader's chest and bull rushed him. Vader was in a saber lock with Ahsoka until he saw Lana then spun his lightsaber and got her right in the chest.

_Her whole plan was to get to Vader, and she literally never touched him. She died inches from his feet._

Things got even crazier after that, with all the girls completely freezing up in shock and the guys calling for both ships to come extract us. Kal and Orir ditched the fight completely and started firing on Vader's shuttle, which was tucked away near where Vader and I were fighting before the _Ghost_ came from behind the hanger and blew Vader's shuttle to pieces and took off a chunk of the roof as well causing the damage that I remember to the catwalks and scaffolding. From there, the _Ghost_ landed and Zeb came sprinting out, got directed to me then I remember the rest.

Vader completely won. Lana died, I got crippled and we were sent packing handily.

_If I hadn't gotten so cocky, I think I could have done it. All the moves I did were right, the stab to his midsection, hitting him in the face to clear space, attempting to get at his chest panel. But I made two mistakes and that's all he needed._

I drop my head, then sigh to myself before reaching to my left and grabbing the holo of the fight, still paused on the spot where Lana fell. My eyes fall on the documents Sabine asked for about the doctor who is going o be operating on me soon.

_I have no desire to read them though, even though I probably should. I have to figure out a way to beat Vader._

I have to.

Without another thought, I rewind the holo and start watching the second part of it, after Vader was unmasked.

_There has to be something here I can use._

I watch the sequence multiple times, see my own arm getting severed, watching Lana fall heavily again and again before a female voice calls out to me. "It's time."

_Huh?_

Turning, I see multiple people in scrubs along with my nurse and Sabine in the doorway. "Ezra…you shouldn't be watching that."

I shake my head but comply putting the holo on my nightstand as the people in scrubs grab my bed and start pushing me into the hall.

_(Ten Hours Later)_

A nudge in the Force wakes me up, and my stomach turns over in disagreement.

"Click Click."

_Huh?_

I try to pry my eyes open, despite the strange resistance before hearing Sabine ask "What the—?"

_My arm._

Forcibly, I blink a couple of times to ensure that I'm actually seeing this gold and black arm attached on my left arm.

"Hey…did I wake you up?" Sabine gently asks me, reaching over and squeezing my right above my elbow.

"No." I shake my head, still looking at my arm.

_They had to cut more of my arm off. There's something farther above the original cut that's attatched to my arm directly in whch the metal part is inserted into. It's mostly gold with the black being mostly protective plating in order to preserve the delicate electronics._ (A/N: It's a modified version of Anakin's mechno-arm. Wookiepedia has a good visual.)

My stomach roils as I tentatively try to turn my wrist over, and the arm complies right away, turning my wrist. Self consciously I bring my right arm up next to my left and start opening and closing both hands.

_The timing is the same. They're perfectly synced. The interface must connect to my nerves and my brain._

Wow.

I change tactics to grabbing the bars of my bed, which I know are cold and immediately I feel the cold bars in my fingertips and palm.

_What?! It's just like my hand, but metal end electronics._

Numb and in disbelief I turn to Sabine. "is it okay?" She asks quietly.

"Yeah." I nod. "I feel the cold of the bars and it reacts just like my good hand."

Sabine smiles, then reaches over and grabs my left hand, sending warmth right to me and cuasing my stomach to somersault. "Feel that?"

I nod, then try to combat my queasy stomach.

_That's weird. I still feel sick._

"They tried putting syntheskin on you, but you had another allergic reaction." Sabine tells me quietly. "Just like after you got captured. You started having convulsions and stuff, so they knocked you out and took it off. Otherwise it'd look just like your hand."

_Oh no._

"Was it bad?" I ask her quietly. "Is that why I feel sick to my stomach?"

Sabine nods. "Master Che said that your body is resisting the sensation that your arm got cut off. It's still trying to support the limb even though it's not there and the cut was cauterized. That resistance feels like a queasy stomach apparently. He said usually that it stops after a day or two, but that attaching your new hand would cause the same reaction. Your body won't accept the arm at first, so you're on a couple of stims and stuff."

_Makes sense I guess._

"By the way, he's a Jedi. I think. He dresses just like a Jedi." She adds.

"Really?" I reply.

Sabine nods. "He said that he's going to come and talk to you here in a bit. You weren't supposed to wake up this early though. You need your rest."

"Not your fault." I shake my head. "I felt something in the Force that woke me up."

Sabine's eyebrows drop. "Bad?"

"I don't know." I shrug. "My stomach treated like it was bad, but it hasn't stopped so I don't know."

Sabine replies, but I miss it completely as the Force tugs for my attention of to my left near the door and I turn to look.

"What are you—?"

_Padmé. In the doorway._

She smiles at me warmly, then waves.

Sabine insistently grabs me by the shoulder and tries turning me toward her. "Ezra! What is it?"

"I…" I say blankly, keeping my eyes on Padmé.

"What? Is it bad?"

Padmé beams, then says "Have her grab your good hand."

"Grab my hand and look by the door." I tell Sabine, who gives me a skeptical look, then complies and jumps in her seat.

"Wha…No way." Sabine says quietly.

Padmé simply smiled. "It worked."

"She's not force sensitive. How can she see you?" I ask her, trying to be polite.

"You are her conduit Ezra. In rare occasions a non-Force sensitive can have the abilities of a Force wielder. And you know why." She smirks knowingly at me.

_Nothing is impossible with the Force as your ally._

"It's…it's actually you. Padmé Amidala." Sabine says quietly.

Padmé nods. "It's nice to meet you Sabine."

"I, uhm, I don't know where Ahsoka is." I tell her sadly. "Sorry."

"I can go get her really quick." Sabine volunteers, then starts getting to her feet before being sat back down by…nothing.

_The Force._

Padmé smiles. "No Ezra, I'm not looking for Ahsoka. I came for you and Sabine."

"What can we do?" I ask her.

_She's here for a reason, and has to get it done, by the will of the Force._

"I came for a few things. I wanted to check on you and how you're recovering." Padmé says before walking over and lifting up my hand, enveloping it in a warm sensation.

I smile. "I'm okay."

"You know I could hear everything you were saying beforehand. I was here, just not visible." Padmé shakes her head, turning over my hand in hers.

"How?" Sabine asks.

Padmé lets out a tired sigh. "Since I…died here, I have an easier time coming here than anywhere else in the galaxy. I still need her blessing to come down, but it's much easier. As opposed to a place like that hanger."

"You were there."

_I felt her._

"But I was forbidden to intervene." Padmé adds. "I wanted to so badly, to show Anakin the error of his ways. But she said that if I showed my face, I would appear hideous to him, then be banished to the Second World until I evened out my ledger."

"That's harsh. And now he's out there almost unopposed." I shake my head.

Padmé smiles. "Not unopposed."

_Luke and Leia._

"So you wanted to come down, but couldn't." Sabine puts it all together.

Padmé nods somberly. "I'm sorry I couldn't. I'm afraid that Anakin…or Vader, I should say has given up on the dream of making you his apprentice."

"Really?" Sabine replies. "Seems to me like he's going to just keep coming, and just gave Ezra a taste of his own pain."

Padmé shook her head. "No, he's done. If you see him again, he'll be trying to send you to join me."

"I might have said some things I shouldn't have." I say sheepishly, getting Padmé to laugh and sending my spirits soaring.

_I got her to laugh._

"He deserved them Ezra. I have a message from, well many Jedi Masters that were rooting you on in the First World."

I nod, then wait for her to continue.

"They said that you need to go faster. You had that part right. Your mistakes were that you got into a battle of strength with him and abandoned your strengths. That, and you made him mad."

Sabine asks me. "What'd you say?"

"The truth, which he's actively avoided for 17 years now." Padmé says glumly. "The path right now is a difficult one, but the strides the Rebellion has made in the last few years are welcome."

"We try." I smile, getting Sabine to shake her head.

"I have one other message, then I'll get to it." Padmé said, still sitting to my left. "It's about the nature of the Dark Side."

_Nature?_

"Okay." I say, as Sabine looks totally lost.

"It's not about being evil Ezra. It's about disobeying the Force's will. That is the Dark Side. Not a moral battle, but the will of the Force."

_I think I get it._

I nod. "So if you listen to her will and obey, you're on the light side of the Force. Diobey, and you're following the Dark Side."

"You're assuming that there's sides. Which may or may not be correct."Padmé smiles.

_Unifying Force._

"Anyway, enough on that." Padmé smiles at Sabine and I. "I believe…you know her?" Padmé asks us then gestures towards the door.

_LANA._

Sabine lets out a scream and jumps in her chair away from the door but keeps a grip on my hand as I simply gape at the sight in the doorway. Lana drops her head and smiles. "I scared you."

"You're…" I start, but can't get the words out.

Lana looks up, right at me. "I'm dead."

"How? I…I know I don't understand. And I probably never will. But can you try?" Sabine looks to Padmé.

Padmé smiles. "Nobody fully understands the Force except herself. But this time it's simple. It wasn't her time to go. Vader completely disobeyed the Force. She was supposed to live thru that fight and many more by both of your sides."

_She still went though._

"To be fair, it was stupid to just blindly charge him." Lana shrugs sefl deprecatingly.

"Don't…" I start, but Lana stops me.

"It was the first thing I heard when I reached the First World. I was greeted by many, many people. Including Padmé here. They all said that I shouldn't have charged him."

Padmé soothingly says "It was one mistake."

_And she paid with her life._

"I'm fine though." Lana smiles at Sabine and I. "I barely felt it, didn't even know it until I wasn't there anymore. You guys have had a much worse time."

_Darcy, Brie, everyone._

I stay silent before Lana continues. "I have a message for them. And you, everyone really." She rambles before putting a data stick on my bedside table.

"What?" I blurt out as Sabine is looking at the materialized data stick in disbelief.

Padmé smiles. "It wasn't her time, so the Force has made an exception. She gets to say goodbye and put some things in order."

"It's all on there, everything I want." Lana picks up where Padmé stopped. "Sabine?"

Sabine perks up and turns to her. "Yeah?"

"You probably won't like what I did, but…please, please do it. Okay? And try to not let Sof forget about me."

_What'd she do?_

Sabine nods, looking choked up. "She won't. She has tons of pictures, and…she won't."

"My family's crest is in there too. If you could slip that onto like a ship or something that'd be great." Lana smiles, getting Padmé to laugh.

"Striking from the Second World are we?"

"Second World?" I blurt out.

Lana nods. "I, well, we did some not so great things Ezra. You know that. I have to balance things out."

"She's coming with me to the Second World." Padmé adds. "I've seen more than enough out of Vader and I don't want to see more. I'm going down to try and help there."

A hollow pit forms in my stomach before I choke out "So I'm never going to see you again?"

Padmé smiles, then closes my hand, then clovers it with both of her own. "We'll see each other again Ezra. Just not like this. Next time, I'll see you both and actually be able to give you a hug and say thank you. You both have done so much and asked for nothing in return."

I feel myself go red then Sabine says "I don't know about that. We've just tried fighting the Empire as best we can."

"You've done a wonderful job. All of you." Padmé smiles as Sabine, Lana and I. "It will pay off one day, I promise."

I smile to myself before Padmé lets my hand go.

"But for now, both of you need to rest." Padmé says firmly.

_It's over already?_

"Thanks." I smile at her as she rises and Lana takes a step back.

Padmé smiles at me, then Sabine before reaching out and pressing her thumb against my forehead. "Now go to sleep." Before everything goes dark in a flash. 


	116. Sidelined

…

…

Black slowly turns into the red of lights hitting my eyelids right before I realize I'm awake and let out a groan.

_That was an awesome nap._

Completely dreamless, and I feel completely exhausted afterwards.

_Those are the best naps._

I let out a yawn and stretch out before opening my eyes and see Sabine glancing at me, datapad in her hand with a blank look. "Welcome back."

"How…long was I out?" I ask, yawning in the middle of my question.

"Eight hours." She replies.

_Really?_

I can't stop another yawn from coming out, getting Sabine to giggle. "You still seem sleepy."

"I am." I say honestly.

_My entire body's exhausted and tired._

My eyes drift back to my arm, where the gold and matte black glint in the overhead lights.

_Still real._

"Have you heard anything from your family?" I turn and ask her.

Sabine nods. "They want to see you. They didn't take the news well. The Organa's got a ship and they're already on their way."

_Blast. I'm not really in a shape to see anyone. And I want to figure out what's up with my arm and the syntheskin._

Maybe there's a glove or I can get it put on before they get here. My hand will scare the crap out of Sof for sure.

_I don't want them to see me so…incomplete._

"Is there something we can do for my arm?" I ask her. "It's kind of scary right now."

Sabine bites her lip. "I don't know. Maybe?"

"Can you ask?" I ask her, causing her to nod and hit the small red button on the side of my bed.

"Nurse's Station, what can I do for you?" A female voice asks cheerfully.

"Uhm, yeah. Is there a possibility of doing something for my husband's arm? He just got his mechanical arm a few hours ago." Sabine says matter of factly, then depressing the button.

A brief moment passes. "We can have Master Che bring a few protective gloves that he's recommended to people in the past when he comes to check in?"

Sabine turns to me. "Good?"

"Are your folks close?"

"No." She shakes her head. "They should still be a hour or two away."

I smile. "Can you ask if you can go get it so that I've put it on and got it comfortable on my hand before they arrive?"

Sabine bites her lip, and I see her eyes change slightly before nodding and hitting the button. "Is it possible for me to come and get one? Just so he can break it in?"

"Yes ma'am, but it won't be cut for him."

"That's fine." I say.

_It's at least something._

"Alright, I'll notify Master Che and grab the gloves." The nurse says.

"Thank you." Sabine tells her, smiling at me.

"You're welcome." The nurse replies before the comm clicks off.

Sabine simply moves from the button to squeezing my arm. "Do you feel any better?"

"Yeah." I reply. "Stomach feel better."

"Good."

"How are you?" I ask, trying to turn my left wrist without looking at it for a change.

_I need to use it like normal._

Sabine gives me a weak smile. "I'm getting better. Glad you're okay. Lana…"

_Yeah._

I break eye contact and turn to my hands.

"Hey." Sabine says before using two fingers to turn my head towards her. "She's in a better place. You heard what she said. It didn't hurt, and we've got her datastick."

"Did you look at it?" I ask.

She shakes her head immediately. "I was thinking we'd give it to Darcy in a bit then go from there."

"I feel like we should look, especially since Lana gave it to us." I tell her, followed by my stomach immediately turning.

_Ow._

Sabine frowns gently. "It's not ours though."

She gave it to us!

Sabine leans back before biting her lip. "You can look if you want. But I'm not going to."

_Did my face, did I react or something?_

She immediately backpedaled.

"it's just my opinion." I shrug before Sabine gets to her feet.

"I'm going to go check on Master Che and those gloves. Okay?" She smiles, then squeezes my leg affectionately.

I nod in response, then watch her start to the door before saying "Sorry."

"I know. I'm not mad. Rest." Sabine stops in the doorway and smiles softly at me before opening the door and slipping thru it, closing it behind her.

_Dammit. I need her. I didn't mean to visibly react to her idea, even though I don't agree._

I'm clearly not on my A game right now.

Wearily I slump back onto my pillows and close my eyes.

_I need to try and relax. I'm all pent up and anxious after fighting Vader. I can feel how tense I am._

I take a breath and try to let all my tensions out thru the Force, only for them to not budge at all, staying with me.

_Great! That's never happened like that before._

Biting my lip, I move to try again, only for raised voices to drift thru the sliding door spereating me from the hallway and the rest of the medical facility. One voice in particular yells again, then the door is suddenly pulled open and footsteps fly in followed by a mane of straight brown hair. "Ezra!?"

_Sof._

I freeze up as she looks around the room, spots me then leaps over the guardrail and into a huge hug just before starting to cry.

_Sophie._

I slip my arms around her as she breaks down on my shoulder. "You're okay…Thank goodness…"

"Yeah. I'm okay." I say numbly, still shocked she's here just before Mrs. Wren and Sabine slide thru the door and find me.

Quickly I drop my left hand off Sof as she squeezes me tightly and her father walks into the room.

"Don't strangle him _Soph'ika_." Her mother says gently, causing Sof to let go, sit in my lap and pull my right arm to her.

"Huh?" She says, squeezing my forearm and hand, then looking up at me.

"The other one." I weakly smile at her.

Immediately Sof pushes my arm back so that it's not shielded behind her, spots the connection point between arm and mechanical replacement, then gently lifts it and sets it down before looking at it.

"That's bigger than I was expecting it to be. More shielding." Mr. Wren says quietly as he and his wife sit off to my right.

"Does it work?" Sof asks, lifting up the hand part. "What does it feel like?"

"Sophine." Her mother chastises her.

"I don't really know how to describe it. But it works." I shrug then smile and lift my hand up to tuck a strand of Sof's hair behind her ear, causing her to giggle and for her parents to smile.

"It works." Sof grabs my hand as I lower it then slips her hand into mine. "Do you feel my hand?"

I nod. "It works just like my good hand."

"They usually apply syntheskin to a prosthetic." Mr. Wren jumps in. "Did you decline?"

Sabine shakes her head and jumps in, thankfully. "No, remember how I told you how after he got captured the syntheskin they used to heal him didn't really work?" Both of her parents nod before she continues. "This time he had a worse reaction to it, and they took it off."

"We'll talk to the doctor about that." Mrs. Wren says, looking at Sabine then me as Sof stops holdng my hand and starts playing with it.

"We didn't mean to interrupt what you were going to _ad'ika_." Sabine's father turns to her. Sabine replies with a light smile.

"Oh, I wasn't doing anything big. Ezra wanted to get a glove for his hand before you guys got here." She replies.

Sophie continues to play with my hand by rubbing her thumb along the finger pads of each finger and causing me to shiver slightly. "Sophie, stop that." Her mother orders her.

"Why?" Sof asks.

"He shivered, stop." Was her mother's reply as I reach out thru the Force and feel both Hera and Kanan walking down the hall with a neutral presence in the Force.

_It's sort of hidden, but I can feel them anyway._

"Ezra?" Sabine asks me gently, and I turn to see them all looking at me.

"You're feeling something." Mrs. Wren tells me.

_Blast. She read my tell. I don't even know when I'm doing it._

I cave before nodding and turning back to Sabine. "Hera and Kanan are coming down the hall. Can you tell them I'd like them in here when Master Che comes?"

Sabine beams then nods, getting to her feet. "Yeah, sure."

_She knows that they won't come in here because of Sabine's family. So we'll just have to insist._

"Oh!" Sabine says as she cracks the door, then steps aside. "Sorry."

"No trouble at all Miss." A soft spoken man says as he walks thru the door in fitted robes while carrying a small bag and a clipboard.

I feel Kanan take a step away from the door just before Sabine reaches out. "Wait, Kanan. Ezra wants you in here too. I was just coming to get you and Hera."

"We don't want to interrupt. We're down the hall." Kanan's reply floats to me. I immediately roll my eyes and make a face to Sof, who giggles.

"GET IN HERE!" I call out simply. "PLEASE!"

Right away, Hera walks thru the door as Master Che watches the exchange with a smile before approaching my left side. "Ezra?"

"Hi Master Che." I smile, then extend my good hand for him to shake. He shakes, then turns his attention to Sabine's parents.

"Pleasure to meet you both. I'm Che and I'm kind of the resident cybernetics expert for the Rebellion." Master Che says, then shakes Mr. Wren's hand.

"Carid Wren." He nods. "Kind of?"

Master Che smiles as Kanan and Hera find chairs and Sabine navigates her way back to my chair. "It's an unofficial designation. Now, Ezra…"

I smile, then laugh and look in my lap sheepishly at his tone, causing everyone else minus Master Che to laugh along with me. "I've done it this time haven't I?"

"Yes, I have to say you have." He smiles. "I came to check earlier and you were both so I haven't gotten to ask. Have you had any discomfort or pain since you woke up from the surgery?"

I shake my head. "No, not really. Just the same stomach issue she mentioned."

"Which is?" Mrs. Wren asks.

"Anytime a limb is lost your body goes thru stages of realization. One of the most common, happening for 99% of patients is a unsettled stomach or worse. Sabine here mentioned that he'd felt those symptoms both before he got here and after we attached his new arm to him."

Hera speaks up. "So it isn't anything to worry about in the long run?"

"No no." Master Che shakes his head. "It's just the body initially rejecting both the reality of losing the original limb, then rejecting the replacement. It will pass, and until then we have him on a anti-rejection cocktail until his body accepts the limb and adjusts."

_Makes sense. And I kind of knew that already._

"What isn't good in the long run…is Ezra's body rejecting the syntheskin we initially planned to apply to him." Master Che sighs, as Sabine, Hera and Kanan all go slightly pale.

_Oh no._

"You were there too?" I ask Kanan, who is holding Hera's hand on his knee.

Kanan nods calmly before I sigh and lean back. "What happened? Why did it reject the syntheskin?"Mr. Wren asks.

"It appears, after running multiple tests, checking Ezra's medicals and rereading the reports from last time he was here that he is allergic to the base ingredient of the syntheskin, a combination of carbon and proteins."

_Allergic?!_

"It explains why the skin peeled so continuously last time, despite multiple measures to prevent it and all the applications the technicians did." Master Che finishes.

Sabine asks "So…Ezra isn't going to be able to use syntheskin?"

"I'm afraid so." Master Che nods. "I've contacted a lab that will start looking into potential solutions, but I'm afraid that will take years."

"Okay." I nod.

_This is fine for now._

"The benefit is that all of the components of the arm are hydrophobic, which means water will not apply to any of the electronics, gloved or ungloved."

Mrs. Wren speaks up and asks "In your experience, is it common for somebody in Ezra's position to wear a glove?"

"Yes." Master Che nods. "I've got a few samples here for you to try on. If you find one you like, it's yours. But feel free to go out and find one you do like if these don't feel or look right."

I take the bag from Master Che and set it in between Sophie and I, who immediately sticks her hand in and pulls out a brown glove.

_Ehh…I don't quite think so. It wouldn't go with my jacket, even though it's ruined because of the sleeve._

We'll deal with that later.

"The other pressing matter, is rehabilitation and getting you back in full working form Ezra. After speaking with Sabine, Hera, Kanan and Ahsoka they all have spoken towars your work ethic and know that you'll want to get right back out there. But this is unlike anything you've dealt with before." Master Che explains. "I've only had one patient undergo the procedure you did and be functional within six to eight months."

"As a Jedi or a person?" Mr. Wren fires at him.

_Six to eight months…Master Che._

My gut says that the person in question cut my arm off.

Master Che turns to Mr. Wren. "As a Jedi. The arm is fully functional right now, but it will take some time to adjust to it for day to day tasks."

"Did you work during the Clone Wars Master Che?" I ask, causing everyone to turn to us.

Master Che smirks. "Yes. Ahsoka thought you'd put the pieces together. She complimented your brain."

"Figure out what?" Sabine asks.

"I was a member of the Jedi Order before the fall of the Republic. Specifically the Medical Corps, and because of that I was not in the Temple at the time it was brought down. I was with a maimed Padawan, who I regret to admit did not make it." Master Che tells everyone.

_It's totally Anakin._

Kanan smiles. "I knew you were a Jedi, but figured there was a story."

"We all have one." Master Che coyly replies to Kanan. "Anyway, as I said there is quite a lot of rehabilitation and required use to be able to use the arm as well as your organic limb Ezra. Force rehabilitation."

_I doubt that. It's just an arm, he didn't mess with my ability to use the Force._

"What do you mean?" I ask politely.

Master Che sighs heavily. "You will have to begin from scratch with your arm. All the beginner exercises you did in order to learn to push, pull, move things with the Force, you will need to do it all over again."

_WHAT!?_

That has to be IMPOSSIBLE! That took me months! I can't be on the sidelines that long!

Impulsively and angrily, I move my right arm and grab the plastic cup with the Force, then start moving it around the room quickly.

_Up, down, left right. I can do literally anything with it that I want to. _

I finish by turning it upside down and setting it on top of Sophie's head, causing her to beam and giggle. Master Che on the other hand looks on with a blank expression.

_Fine. Be a spoilsport._

I take the cup off Sof's head and set it back on my table then reach out with my new arm and…

_Huh?_

Initially it doesn't respond at all, despite the fact that I'm concentrating as well as ever.

_FINE!_

I let out a breath, then really dial in and block out everything and everyone so I can focus on _only_ the cup. After a moment it barely starts quivering.

_Got it._

I maintain my focus on the cup, trying to visualize simply lifting it, moving it. The basics. The quivering continues, increasing in speed until it squirts away in a flash, only for Kanan to catch it while looking grim.

"That…was the air around the cup. Ezra was concentrating so hard that the air around the cup collapsed before the cup could be moved." Master Che explains to Sabine, her family and Hera. Frustrated, I collapse into my pillows and breathe thru my nose.

_I can't get mad, BUT YOU HAVE TO BE KIDDING ME!_

"What is your recommendation?" Kanan asks Master Che as I simply look at the ceiling and try to block out the Wren's fear.

_They're all afraid of the fact that I can't move a plastic cup. And I can't blame them._

"I'm afraid the standard six month off period from any potential combat situation. Just rest, rehabilitation and focus on getting better. Lightsaber practice is good, would encourage that. But he's got a long way to go."

_Dammit!_

I glance up in time to see Hera motion for me to sit up immediately before Master Che speaks up again. "He can stay where he is. I'm used to this reaction. I've had patients try to fight me after that diagnosis, and usually end up extending it due to straining something in the arm."

"Sorry." I apologize. "I'm just trying not to be too angry."

Master Che smiles. "And I appreciate it. It's not directed right at me, I'm just the easy scapegoat. You have a right to be angry about your situation. But you need to try and let go of that anger. It isn't the way of a Jedi like yourself."

"Yes Master." I say simply, followed by the room falling into silence.

_It isn't the way of the Jedi to use anger. That's how I got here. I got mad at Vader and in a panic threw lightning at Vader. He sliced my hand off and here I am._

Hold on.

_That's it._

"I hate to change the topic to such a depressing one, but what do we owe you?" Mr. Wren asks Master Che.

"Sir." I pop up into a sitting position, causing Sof to jump.

He can't do that!

"We'll take care of it. Thank you though." Kanan extends his arms outward while looking to Mr. Wren.

Master Che smirks. "I'm afraid all three of you are wrong. It's already been taken care of in full."

"What?!" I blurt out in disbelief.

_This arm has to be super expensive, not to mention the surgery. This can't happen._

"By who?" Mrs. Wren asks as Sabine, Mr. Wren, Kanan and Hera all look on.

"Senator Organa and her father."

_You…_

Have GOT to be kidding me. I didn't speak to her the entire time I was on Alderaan out of principle.

_And now she's paid for my entire arm IN FULL!_

"No way. She came with us here." Mr. Wren frowns.

Master Che shrugs helplessly. "It was worked out shortly after they were notified of what had occurred."

_GREAT._

"I gotta go find her. Say thank you or…something." I mutter while grabbing the datastick off my table, then swinging my legs over the edge of my bed, bringing Sof with me before she reacts by grabbing onto my shoulder, then slipping her arms around me. Easily I stand up, bringing Sof with me and move to grab some shoes before.

_OW!_

Sof's weight…hurts the arm? What?

I frown, bend back down and set Sof down. "That hurt?" I ask Master Che.

"It'll take time for weight bearing. I understand you do a fair amount of training." He says evenly.

I nod, then sigh and slip on some shoes then double check my fashion forward combination of black shorts and white shirt before standing up again.

"Thanks." I smile slightly at Master Che, then shake his hand again.

"You're welcome. Time is in your favor my boy. Don't be afraid to use it." He replies, then claps my shoulder and slips out of the room.

_Blast it._

Hera gently smiles at me as she and Kanan lead the way out of the room, followed by Sof and I.

"What did he say?" A female voice asks.

_Leia._

Kanan inclines his head toward me as I slip thru the door and spot Leia, who sees me and slightly freezes up but manages a smile.

_What's with the white flowers beside her?_

"Hi. Why the flowers?" I ask her.

Leia smiles. "Not mine."

"Those are ours for Darcy." Mr. Wren says smoothly as Sof slips thru all of us and grabs the flowers looking sad.

_Oh yeah._

"We'll meet you two down there." Mrs. Wren smiles at us before the other all start down the hall.

Great.

"Are you okay?" Leia asks nervously looking up at me.

I shrug. "Yeah, I guess."

She starts down the adjacent hall, leaving me to follow before asking "How about your arm?"

"Leia." I reply simply.

She quickly holds up a hand to stop me. "No, answer the question first. I heard you might be down for a while. Something about adjusting to the arm itself."

"Yeah…" I sigh. "Master Che said six months downtime. I can't…"

Leia's eyes immediately widen. "Can't what? Can't what Ezra?"

"I can't move a plastic cup with the Force with the arm. I collapsed the air around it before I moved the actual cup."

_The quivering I saw was probably the air too._

Leia somehow laughs. "How'd you manage that?" She asks with a smile.

"I don't know." I shake my head angrily. "I…don't know."

_I can't believe this._

"You shouldn't have paid for my arm and the surgery Leia." I add pointedly.

"I didn't. The Rebellion did. Consider it a payment for the debt we owe you for your service. It's not at all what you deserve." Leia says matter of factly.

"Leia!" I counter.

She spins on her heel and shakes her finger at me. "No. My father and I made an easy decision. You risked your _life_ to fight Vader. You've fought other people like him too, almost too many to count. That's not even counting the supply mission, rescues, intel, personal investment time. The arm isn't even a dent in what you deserve." Leia says forcefully. "Don't fight me on it. It was easy."

"Fine. I won't." I reply coolly.

_I appreciate what she said, but I still don't like it._

Leia barely smiles, then keeps walking. "The layoff might be good."

"Why?" I ask, unable to keep my frustration out of my voice.

"Because." Leia smirks at me. "I flew here with Sabine's family. Who were all worried sick. Sophie cried half the way she was so worried. I think, for right now at least it's best that you go home."

_No. We're not done yet. The Empire's as strong as ever._

I frown skeptically at Leia just before she continues. "We've taken a step back in direct opposition of the Empire. You and Sabine maybe sitting on the sidelines and being Sof's sister and brother in law, her parents children, living a normal life for a bit could be just what we need so that we can use you as our secret weapon when the time arises."

Oh.

"Because I saw the fight. You." Leia scowls then jabs me in the chest with her index finger. "Had". She jabs me again. "Him." She jabs me one final time. "You had his ass, pardon me. And in the blink of an eye it was over. Okay, fine. You'll get fixed up and come back better with the best hand credits can buy. You'll beat him."

I smile numbly, looking down at her.

_Leia swore._

"I believe in you. So you better. Room's that way." She smirks, then points to the left.

"Room?" I parrot back to her.

Leia's expression falls. "Where Darcy and everyone else is. I don't want to keep you from them any longer. I…I'm very sorry for your loss."

…

"Thanks." I say quietly, glancing at the floor.

"Let me know if I can help with anything. Okay?" She asks me.

I nod, she smiles in return before turning and walking away.

_Okay then. Well…_

I guess I have to do this.

_Again._

I let out a sigh, then turn toward the room and the door that I feel Sabine, Sophie, her family in along with Darcy and Prime. Quickly, I knock twice then take a step back. Immediately I feel Darcy come to the door just before it opens.

"Oh." She blurts out, spotting me before taking in my arm.

"Hi." I say nervously as behind her, I see Katiey, Will and Aiden eying us.

"Hey." She replies, sounding equally nervous before tears start forming in her eyes.

_Dang it._

"I'm sorry." I say quietly, looking at the floor before extending the datastick to her. "This is for you."

Darcy takes one look at the datastick, then looks up to me before choking out a sob and collapsing into a hug.

"Me too."

(A/N: No Friday update this week due to Thanksgiving here in the USA. Hope you all have a wonderful, safe holiday that involves eating too much and naps. –James)


	117. Candy Cloud

"GSSSSHHHHHH…"

I let a few drops of water drip off my hand and into the squirt of shampoo that I've poured for myself before I rub it into a lather and run my hands thru my hair.

_This arm is absolutely amazing._

I double checked the eighty page manual that came with my arm after I woke up this morning before I hopped in the shower to make sure that I can actually use it to clean up without ruining it. I don't know how, but I can put shampoo in my hand, let water run all the way down my arm and use it to check the temperature of the water before I get in.

_Amazing._

Blindly I duck my head under the water and start scrubbing my scalp before reaching up and partially blocking the flow of water and wipe my eyes clear of any shampoo then start finishing up, running my hair thru the water again, wash down one more time then final hit the water.

"Shhh…drip." "Drip…drip."

A quick glance up tells me that my shower was a little too hot this time because I steamed up the bathroom.

_Don't want to run up the water bill._

Sabine always steams up the bathroom with her showers, so much that it seeps underneath the door and mixes in with her voice as she sings in the shower.

"Drip."

I draw back the curtain, pull my towel to me and quickly dry off then start trying to dry my hair.

_This is the only time I hate my long hair. It takes forever to dry and irritates me until it's dry. All of my collars are wet and…UGH! Annoying. At least the bathroom is warm from the steam._

I dress quickly, slipping on shorts and a warm, thick long sleeved shirt with a hood that Mrs. Wren bought for me while we were done awhile back. She never thinks I have enough cold weather clothes, that everything I have is for warm temperatures.

Slipping downstairs, I see the early morning light slip thru the blinds by the sliding door before I walk into the kitchen and grab my cookbook.

_Well, it's kind of mine. The cooks at Polis Massa hears somehow that I'm down for the count for a little bit and gave me a cookbook of some of their personal favorite recipes as well as my personal favorites like fried bantha steak with gravy, omelet, etc._

I flip to the page that I tabbed where the omelet is, then bend down and grab my favorite cutting board, the small wooden one with the burn on the side of it before moving to grab ingrediants.

_Hmm…Ham, green peppers, spinach, tomatoes…and the hot cheese. Sure, why not? Whatever the name of it is. Oh, and I need to grab the bacon for Mr. Wren. He's going to work in a hour or two._

I carry my ingredients over to my normal spot then start chopping while trying to using my new arm normally and letting my mind wander.

Kanan and Hera dropped off Sabine, her family and I here yesterday but didn't stay. They decided while I was asleep the Empire still has eyes on us, particularly me. So they are going to come back in a week so that Sabine and I can get everything off the _Ghost_ that we want since we're taking an extended vacation. Prime, Darcy and everyone else left a few days before we did and have laid low, haven't stopped by or anything. Mrs. Wren mentioned that they need to find a "cover" for their skills.

_Nobody else knows if they're going to stay in the Rebellion or not. I thought Alderaan was the end of it, but Lana…_

Lana.

I sigh to myself then push my peppers off to the side and shake my head.

_(Flashback)_

_Ezra,_

_I hope you're not mad about what happened. It wasn't your fault in the least, I was just doing what I learned was the best way to counter somebody like Vader from experience. It worked on Safe Zone, remember? Really, really well. Please don't let my death linger and turn you into something different._

_Whenever I met you on Denon and you started talking to Darcy (you pulled her the moment you saw her btw) I thought you were just another guy. But now that I know more, I couldn't have been more wrong. If anything, it's worth putting my life on the line in order to see you do some of the things you can do._

_I know I can trust you to get everyone's personal letters off this data stick and distribute them. Hopefully they're taken the right way and not orders to do some things. I just don't want my family to do something stupid after I left home or for Sof to forget me._

_Thank you for fighting by my side._

_Love,_

_Lana_

_(End Flashback)_

I gather up the spinach and make a small pile to I can chop it into small pieces as the sun peeks above the fence.

_I never knew she left home. I knew Darcy did because she told me on that date to the Alderaanian place on Denon, but not Lana. The only person who has ever mentioned a family is Brie because she called her Mom over the holo just before I arrived at Darcy's on Denon._

_I really hope that the Empire didn't create Darcy's entire group out of Imperials that left their families._

Blindly I push my now chopped spinach into their place next to my peppers while grabbing the ham and wiping off my knife with a towel before refocusing on…

_Blast, too much pressure._

I smushed my own spinach with my hand. I thought I had a decent amount of pressure, but not enough to smush it. Nope.

_I smushed it. Oh well._

Sliding the leftover ham from a few nights ago I start cutting by cutting off what I want, then cut that into strips. From there I'll cube it.

"Pat pat pat pat…"

_Sof's up._

I smile to myself then reach up and grab one of her juice glasses so I can fill it.

"Morning." Sophie calls out to me, sounding barely awake as I open the conservator to pull out her juice.

"Morning Sof." I smile as I take out the juice and set it on the island before glancing up and seeing her walk towards me, hair sticking up in all directions. She patiently waits for me to fill up her cup of juice, then takes it from me.

"Thanks…" She says contently before slurping it.

I smile at her as she clearly is barely awake before walking back to my cutting board. "Did you sleep okay?"

"Uh huh. Just woke…up though." She answers, yawning halfway through.

I smile to myself as I continue slicing the ham and Sof sips her juice. "You started Daddy's breakfast?"

_The bacon._

"Yup. Already in the cooker in the oven." I reply, lining up my ham.

Sof walks over to me, then peers up. "What are you doing?"

"Cutting up the stuff for my omelet."

"Omelet?" Sof parrots, surprised. "You can make one?"

"I'm going to try." I smile at her.

Sophie quicks sets her juice on the counter beside me then races to grab her stepstool and sets it next to me and hops up. "When'd you learn to make an omelet?"

_She perked up fast._

"I asked the cooks at Polis Massa?" I smile at her while cubing my ham.

"What's that?" Sof asks.

I laugh quietly before answering "That's where I got my new arm."

"So that's the name of it? Pole Mass."

"Polis Massa." I smirk at Sophie.

_Pole Mass._

"Oh. Sorry." She apologizes.

"You're fine." I say while setting my ham off to the side and grabbing the tomato.

_Blast it. I suck at cutting tomatoes. But it's the last ingredient and I do want it in my omelet. Gives it a nice texture change as well as taste._

I stare at it for a moment before Sof turns to me. "Do you want me to cut it?" I open my mouth to reply 'No.' but cut myself off, followed by Sophie hopping off her stool, dragging it to the sink then starts washing her hands.

_Guess she's cutting it._

Once she's done and is drying her hands on a dish towel I smile and say "Thanks Sof."

"You're welcome!" Sof smiles back, then grabs a small, thin knife and hops back onto her stool.

"Please be careful." I ask her quietly. "Your mom will be mad at me if you cut yourself."

Sophie turns around, looking offended. "I'm not gonna cut myself! And why would Mommy be mad at you?"

"She just will be." I placate her, causing Sof to shake her head, let out a breath then make a cut around the stem and starts rotating the tomato in her hand.

_Six years old. Blows my mind._

Maybe what _Mand'alor_ meant by Sof being a game changer is growing up around so much action she'll have a leg up on everyone and be able to make an impact on whatever she decides to do.

_Hopefully we have defeated the Empire by then. I don't want her fighting._

Meanwhile, in front of me Sophie gently tips the tomato over and the stem falls out onto my cutting board. "Thank you Sof." I turn to her.

"You're welcome. Can you get me more juice?" She replies, waving her cup to show it's almost empty.

_Sure_.

"Yup. Do you want an omelet?" I ask her, glass in hand while walking over to the conservator. "What do you want?"

"I want an omelet! But I don't want spinach or everything you have." Sof replies.

I smile to myself. "What do you want?"

"Ham…and cheese."

"What kind of cheese?" I ask without looking back.

"Normal please."

_Normal cheese. Sounds like the standard cheese her parents always give her._

I grab the block and the ham after setting her juice back then walk back to my spot and give Sof her juice back. "I can do that." In response Sof gets onto her tiptoes…

_Sof!_

"What?" She asks innocently, still perched up on the counter after kissing my cheek.

"Nothing." I smile. "Love you."

_You didn't have to kiss my cheek goob._

"Love you too." Sof smiles back, then turns back to see me starting to slice her ham. We both stand there, me chopping and her watching while sipping on her juice before soft footsteps off to my right cause Sophie to peek around me.

"Hi Mommy." Sophie calls out to her mother warmly.

"_Ad'ika_, you're already up?" Mrs. Wren replies.

Sof nods. "Ezra's making omelets." I glance up in time to see both of them smile at me.

"Look at you Ezra. We're rubbing off on you." Mrs. Wren smiles at me. "Coffee honey?"

"Sure." I answer as I finish chopping Sof's ham then bend down and grab the pan.

_Now I need to melt some butter and toss the ham in so it can cook just a little bit according to the cookbook._

"_Soph'ika_, can you please go run a brush thru your hair?" Her mom asks gently.

Sof nods then hops off her stool. "Yes Mommy." Before rushing out of the room past her father, who is already dressed for work.

"Don't run!" He bites softly at his daughter.

"Sorry!" Sof replies.

Mr. Wren walks past the table then sniffs the air. "Did you start my breakfast already Bo?"

"No." She shakes her head. "Ezra did. I'm starting your toast now."

"Should be ready in a few minutes." I turn back and tell him.

Mr. Wren smiles as I slip past Mrs. Wren and grab a slice of bantha butter then deposit it on the pan and turn on the heat. "Thank you Ezra."

"You're welcome. No problem." I reply, then smile just before Mrs. Wren comes over and sets a cups of coffee in my hand then hugs me briefly. I then watch the butter melt and sprinkle Sof's ham in before lifting it and tilt the pan slightly to get the butter to cover evenly.

Mrs. Wren glances over to check on me, then spots my cutting board full of ingredients. "Ezra. Don't make hers before yours."

_Too late._

"It's fine." I placate her.

"But." She counters me. "We're trying to teach her that patience is good. She can't have everything she wants right after she asks."

"Makes sense, but I volunteered. I'll have her wait next time." I compromise.

Mrs. Wren considers it, then turns to her husband. "Fair enough. Can't ask much more from him Bo." He tells her.

"Guess so. You forgot something." Mrs. Wren smiles at me, then pushes a bowl of eggs to me. "Half of that is Sof's the rest is yours."

_I forgot the eggs._

My jaw involuntarily drops as my mistake hits me, then I laugh and hang my head. "Oops."

"Yea. Oops." She smiles, then ruffles my hair before grabbing hot pads and pulling out the bacon as Sophie rounds the island and takes her spot back.

"Hang on, important part Sof." I tell her just before I start pouring the egg into the pan. Sof paitiently stays silent as I try to pour half the egg in to the pan.

"What smells so good?" Sabine's voice calls out on the stairs, causing Sof to abandon me.

Mrs. Wren smirks at me then calls out. "Ezra is cooking!"

A moment passes before Sabine pokes her head around the wall by the sink. "Really? Oh! Cool Ezra."

"Our training is paying off." Mr. Wren says without looking up from his datapad, catching up on the news before going to work.

_I think I'm getting close here._

I grab a spatula out of a drawer then start making sure that the egg isn't sticking to the pan as clinking behind me tells me that Sabine's grabbing silverware for everyone. Meanwhile, the toast pops up out of the toaster.

_Everything is happening at the same time. I think it's time to flip._

"Be firm Ezra." Mrs. Wren tells me as she preps her husband's breakfast then walks towards the table.

_Okay._

I let out a breath, then take the pan off the burner, tilt it down then flick my wrist, flipping the egg and causing it to plop right back down.

"Yayyy!" Sof claps giddily. "That was so awesome!"

"Good job." Sabine compliments me before drifting over and wrapping her arms around my waist.

_She's not as disheveled as Sof was when she woke up. Sabine at least bothered to comb her hair and wash her face._

"Morning." I smile at her before grabbing a plate and sliding Sof's omelet onto the plate then sprinkle a touch of cheese on top and slip it to her around her sister. Sabine smiles warmly and pushes my hair to one side before sliding to the conservator and taking out a yogurt.

_She's not all that hungry._

"What's the plan for today?" Mrs. Wren asks, returning to the stove as I begin melting more butter.

Sabine is the first to speak. "I want to go talk to an artist downtown. That's all I've got."

_I'm thinking of going to the market. Mrs. Wren talked to a custom glove maker for me, and I think he wants to talk to me._

"Ezra, if you could go down and talk to my friend today about your glove today that'd be good." Mrs. Wren turns to me. "And wait a little to put in the spinach."

"I will." I nod before putting all my ingredients except for the tomato and spinach into my pan.

"I'm boring." Mr. Wren monotones in between bites of breakfast.

Mrs. Wren adds. "Me too. Ezra, can you take _Soph'ika_?"

"Yeah, of course." I turn and nod to her before everyone falls into silence, either making breakfast or eating. I add the tomatoes, spinach and egg before flipping it, but not as well as last time.

_Had to do a quick save._

"Everything okay?" Mrs. Wren asks, gesturing with a dull knife towards my arm.

I nod. "Yeah, it's fine."

_She noticed I flipped it in the other hand. I don't trust it quite yet to flip my food._

I need reps.

"I would imagine he just need time do things with the hand Bo." Mr. Wren tells his wife.

"I wasn't confident doing that with it yet, so I went with my other hand." I explain, turning back in time to see Sophie frown at me.

Mrs. Wren is undeterred and turns back to me. "Any luck practicing with it?"

_No. And I don't need to mention how I spiked it on the concrete floor._

"I feel like…" I pause, sliding my omelet onto my plate. "I grabbed the book I was practicing on, but it didn't go anywhere."

Sophie looks crestfallen as I sit next to her and start eating.

_Ooh. This is really good._

I keep to myself as Sabine and her parents debate what dinner should be when Kanan, Hera, Ahsoka and everyone stop by with Rin and his family.

_Haven't seen him in a while. I haven't exactly been a good Master. Part of me thinks Ahsoka and Kanan might be better suited to handling him and helping him learn. I did forget that Sof's out of school for a little bit. Something about a holiday for instructors and appreciating them._

Once I finish my omelet, Sabine takes it and starts on the dishes before Sophie races to her room for her jacket and I slip towards the hallway where my boots and jacket are.

_Mrs. Wren bought it awhile back and planned to surprise me with it. It's a nice, kind of dulled brown jacket with a zipper in the middle so I can connect it._

It'll make due until I get a new one.

Sof happily bounces to me and I look her over before grabbing the door and opening it for her, then slip thru myself. "Hold the door!" Mr. Wren calls out to me. Reflexively I extend my arm and lightly Force Push the door so that it stays open. Immediately, he freezes and Sophie lights up.

_That was with my left arm._

_Whoa._

"Nice." Mr. Wren smiles at me as Sof hugs my waist. "Maybe you're starting in the wrong spot. Trying to lift things when you should just push and pull."

I shrug as Mr. Wren's speeder appears above us and he starts otwards it. "You kids want a lift to the market?"

"Sure." I reply as Sophie nods happily.

_That push was…easy. I didn't try._

Huh.

Mr. Wren relays our destinations to the driver before we rise into the air and start towards the market, which really isn't all that far away.

"Have a good day Daddy!" Sophie pipes up, then kisses her father's cheek as we land.

"Thank you _ad'ika_. I'll see you at home." He smiles, then waves to me. I return it before the speeder flies away and the crowds of the market starts surrounding us.

_Now where is this glove maker?_

I make sure Sof is latched onto my hand before starting into the crowds, letting my eyes scan while probing out for danger and the glove maker.

We walk for about a minute aimlessly before Sof pipes up "Ezra, can I get a candy cloud?"

_A candy cloud?! That's literally nothing but sugar._

I stop in my tracks and frown at her. "We just ate breakfast."

"But I want a candy cloud."

"Ezra!" A friendly hour sounds out behind me, and I turn and see Prime and Aidan walking towards us, both holding coffee cups. Sof races over to them and hugs Aidan.

I smile and reply. "Hey. What brings you guys down here?"

"Breakfast." Aidan says, showing me his cup. "You're up early."

"Ezra cooked me breakfast!" Sof brags on me.

Prime immediately shakes his head. "Did he burn it?"

"No!" Sof frowns pointedly, causing Aidan and Prime to laugh.

"It's a joke Sof."

Sof doesn't respond, instead looking back to me. "Please?"

"No. As I said, we just ate."

Aidan looks from Sof to I. "What?"

"Sof wants a candy cloud." I frown. "It's too early."

"It's never too early for a candy cloud. Good idea Sof. Let's go." Prime says happily, then starts off towards a sweets stand with Sof racing to catch him.

"Really?" I say quietly.

Aidan laughs beside me. "He means well. Why are you here?"

"Glove for my arm."

"Ahh. I think I know where you're going. They can catch up with their sugar too early in the morning." Aidan smiles.

I laugh, then follow her deeper into the market.


	118. Houses

_Can't believe I'm back here._

I turn the curved hilted sword over in my left hand before splashing some water on my face and turning back to my waiting sparring opponent.

"Ready?" Mr. Straunch asks me as the kid in front of me clearly steels his nerves before shakily nodding. I return the nod and wait for him to make the first move.

_Mand'alor and Mr. Wren both had to come down and talk Mr. Straunch into letting me work out here. He's exactly what I was afraid of in terms of a proud Mandalorian. I've tried to be very humble and listen to everything he says so that I don't blow my second chance._

Leverage.

Quickly I drop my arm angle slightly and stop his well thought out advance on me before I flick my blade at him and he backs up.

_We're going fast enough that I'm getting a useful workout but slow enough that I'm on autopilot, or at least trying._

I'm all left arm right now. It's going well, especially since this is the first live action that I've done with another person. I've practiced most night on blaster deflection in Mr. Wren's office once everyone's gone to bed but this is totally different.

The sounds of our swords clattering and him letting out short yells fills the room before I duck and spin away just before he slices at where I was.

_Nope._

"Alright…I think that's enough for this session. Wio, good work competing and honoring somebody above your skill level. Dismissed." Mr. Straunch tells my opponent, who bows to me, then him, then walks away.

_Kanan._

I turn back with a smile and see Kanan looking on along with Mr. Wren, Ahsoka, Lux and Zeb. Mr. Straunch suddenly calls out "You going to explain who he is? Or at least tell me who taught him?"

"I'm afraid I'm not at the liberty to divulge that." Mr. Wren replies coyly. "Vredth, this is Kanan, Garazeb, Lux and his wife Ahsoka."

"Pleasure." Mr. Straunch shakes Kanan's hand before nodding to everyone else. "You know I could always change my mind."

_On having me here._

Mr. Wren pauses for a split second. "You wouldn't do that. You're too intrigued by his talents." Immediately, Mr. Straunch blanches and takes a step back.

"Nothing wrong with an eye for natural talent." He replies.

"Nice place you have here. An academy for melee weapons. A rarity nowadays." Lux says quietly.

Mr. Straunch bluntly says "It's helped me find a lot of talent. It's been nice meeting you all."

"Thanks for having me." I say politely, pulling on my hooded jacket.

_He's done with this conversation._

He waves simply before slipping into the back room and Mr. Wren starts guiding us all towards the stairs and the exit.

"Cheery fellow." Zeb says quietly.

Ahsoka smiles at me warmly. "Maybe it's good for Ezra to hear a different voice."

"You looked good Ezra. Bo mentioned that you have been deflecting blasters in secret?" Kanan asks me, getting everyone minus Mr. Wren to look at me wearily.

Feeling my face go red I reply "Not secret. Just when everyone's gone to bed."

"But that's your first sparring since…" Zeb trails off, and I nod.

"Looked good." Kanan comments.

Ahsoka adds "How'd it feel?"

"Good, for the most part. It was slow enough that I could think my way thru everything but fast enough that it was useful."

We all climb the stairs before I turn to Mr. Wren. "I asked for somebody to comm me when they landed. I was going to meet you guys in the market."

_We're shopping before Rin's family gets here and we all have dinner together._

"We decided it'd be better for you to start getting back on your feet. It's been bugging you." Mr. Wren answers.

"You noticed?" Ahsoka smiles.

_What?_

Mr. Wren nods then smiles at me as we approach the exit. "I don't think Ezra does it on purpose."

"What do I do?" I ask, completely lost.

"You become much more by the book when you don't have your full abilities. Happened on Dxun, sounds like it's happening here." Kanan looks to Ahsoka, who nods.

"I don't mean it. Sorry."

Mr. Wren gestures for us all to hop in the speeder. "We know, it's completely unconscious. Can't be mad at you for your nature."

"You can, but not for this. " Zeb muses, immediately drawing a glare from Kanan as they all hop into the waiting speeder which then takes off to the market.

"We were thinking of grilling out, a local dish that was on that list we asked you to forward to the Remoda's." Mr. Wren turns back to Kanan, with me in the backseat.

Ahsoka nods. "Sounds good. Are we picking up everything here?"

"Yes. And NO." Mr. Wren nods to Ahsoka then looks to Lux sternly.

_I know that look._

"I wasn't going to do anything." Lux says, face blank as Zeb chuckles.

Our speeder gracefully starts descending to the market, packed as usual during the late afternoon rush before landing and we all pile out. As I follow Kanan out I reach out and feel Sabine and Sof's signatures over by the produce stands.

"Over there." I point out for Mr. Wren as Ahsoka's eyes scan the crowd. Kanan and Zeb easily start drifting over in the general direction before I laugh to myself.

_Sof's riding Chopper again. I didn't think she'd do that in public._

"Ahh, there you all are." Mrs. Wren spots us, causing Sabine to turn and coolly wave.

"Ezra!" Sophie beams, then hops off Chopper and runs to me.

I quickly crouch and hug her. "Boo."

"How'd it go? Feel okay?" She immediately asks, looking concerned.

I smile, then rub her hair. "Went awesome."

"Good." Sabine says, causing me to glance up and see her smile softly at us.

Sof snatches up my hand as I stand and Ahsoka asks "How can we help?"

"Well, we just got here. I could always send people to grab some things and make this quick." Mrs. Wren says, almost to herself.

"Where we going?" Lux asks.

Mrs. Wren bites her lower lip. "You and Ahsoka can grab the fish. Sabine, can you take Kanan and Hera to the household area and pick up what we need?"

"Of course." Sabine smiles, then waves for Kanan and Hera to follow her.

"What about us?" Sophie pipes up happily.

"You and Ezra can go grab some of the greens." She says before I glance down.

_Acid beets, covadoes, native grown celery, two kinds of lettuce, avedame and some kind of "sea grass". I've never bought most of this stuff before._

"C'mon…" I say to Sof, looking down at my section of the list before slipping away from the others back into the crowds of the market.

_I think I know where to go find this stuff._

"Do you know where you're going?" Sof asks, as if she's read my mind.

I bite my lip. "I think so."

"I think so too. So if we're wrong we're both wrong." Sof says simply while keeping up with me.

"Maybe. We might be thinking of different places." I say to her, glancing around.

Sof shakes her head. "No, we're almost there. Right?"

"Right." I nod, looking around and spotting the stall in question, an old fashioned, wooden framed one. Sof seems to perk up and bounce on her feet as we walk over.

"Hi!" Sophie says enthusiastically, getting the merchant's attention. He smiles warmly at her.

"Why hello there. How can I help you two?"

"Well, we're looking for a few different things, hopefully you can help us." I smile at the gruff, unshaven man before looking at my datapad.

He replies. "That's fine, but I won't serve you."

_Let's start with covadoes._

"Covadoes?" I glance away from the datapad.

"No."

_Blast._

"Okay, what about ac—"

"Did you hear what I said?"

Sheepishly, I lower my datapad and shake my head. "No sir, I apologize. What'd you say?" I ask, giving him my full attention.

"I said I won't serve you." The man says coldly but evenly.

"Huh?" I blurt out in shock.

"What?" Sof asks, sounding completely surprised.

The merchant simply points to my ungloved left hand. "You're a mech. A cyber. I don't serve your kind."

Anger drops over my vision like a red haze. "My _what?_"

"Read the sign." The merchant says meekly.

_Coward. I challenge you and you back down._

Nevertheless I glance over and read the sign at the edge of the counter that reads "This stand reserves the right to refuse service to any and all it deems so".

"Why?" I ask the man, as Sof is still reading the sign. "My hand got crushed, it was an accident. I'm fine."

"Can you not read _mech_? Don't care, any and all means any and all. Beat it."

Sof innocently turns to me, completely ignoring the horrible merchant. "What's that mean Ezra?"

"Means we'll have to go somewhere else and get our groceries." I say quietly, glancing and memorizing the stall number.

_1478\. Good to know._

"Why?" Sof questions me.

I sigh. "Doesn't matter Sof. C'mon." then start to walk away from the stand with a sick feeling to my stomach.

_I didn't know people were so…awful. This stupid arm isn't even my fault!_

"Yeah it does! Why not? Ezra's just the same as everyone else!" Sophie shakes her head, turns to the merchant and digs in her heels.

"I'm sorry Miss. Rules are rules."

"Your rules are _hut'uunla_!" Sof says loudly, looking very angry.

_Wait, I think I know that word. Did she just call him a coward?_ (A/N: _hut'uunla_ = Cowardly)

"Goodbye, little Manda."

Sophie huffs out a breath just like Sabine does when she gets mad. "NO! I'm not going goodbye! NO!"

"Sophie!" I say firmly before I start feeling eyes on the back of my neck.

_She's making a scene._

Sophie whips around to face me. "No Ezra! You're exactly the same as me or him or anybody else. His hand doesn't matter!The same!

"You don't know anything little girl, now toddle along."

Sof seems to inflate then screams "HE'S THE SAME! IT DOESN'T MATTER!"

_Whoa!_

I take one step forward and forcibly grab Sophie's arm. "We're leaving." I take one step forward before Sophie starts trying to get away from me and return to her fight.

"What's the problem here?" I hear the unmistakable sound of Kal's voice.

_He's mad. _

I turn and see that he and Orir are in their armor, arms crossed and interrogating the merchant who says "No problem. They were just leaving boys. Can I help you?"

Sophie lets out an outraged noise, bordering on a squeal just before Orir turns around and puts his hand on Sof's mouth, silencing her.

"MHHMMMMPH!" Sof protests, swinging her arms around and stomping her feet in a heated fury.

_I have never seen her this mad about anything. EVER._

"I asked you what's the problem. Fine. Ezra, why's Sophie so mad?" Kal turns around, looking cold but dead serious. I simply point at my arm numbly.

_I didn't even know it was that big a deal to people…__Wait. Noticing Darcy and I's waitress on Denon at the Alderranian place with her cybernetic eyes…and how I recoiled from them in horror. She was just trying to work and I was…terrible. _

"HUMMPH. EZWAH MPHHPH!" Sophie continues yelling into Orir's hand angrily.

"Oh, so you're refusing service on the account of a mechanical hand. That's it then." Orir says coolly.

The merchant simply says "Sign."

Kal and Orir look at the sign for a brief moment, then Kal grab it and—

"SNAP!"

"Hey!" The merchant protests, as Kal glances at the two pieces of the wooden sign that he broke with his bare hands before sticking one half under his arm and "SNAP!"

_Three pieces._

"SNAP!"

_Strike that, four pieces._

Disrespectfully, Kal throws the man's sign onto his counter. "I'm going to tell you this right now. When _Mand'alor_ says buy Mandalorian, it's a two way street. He buys, you sell. Ezra's doing his part, and you're hurting the entire planet, our whole society by your own ugly prejudices."

"If you're here to lecture me, don't. I have the right to sell my wares the way I want."

Orir spits out "Yeah, and once this gets out? You're going to have so many loyal customers."

_He's done. Sof's scene and once it gets out why this guy's going to sink beneath the waves._

Good riddance.

"Just as well too, this is a good market stall. I know five people that'd do twice as well here. I hope you don't book up next week, _sir_."Kal says sarcastically.

The merchant shrugs before Kal turns to Orir and I. "C'mon. We're done here."

"MPFGGHHH!"

"Eww! Sof!" Orir cringes and takes his hand off her mouth to reveal that she's spit all over it.

_Gross Sof._

Sof sticks her tongue out at the man just before Kal roughly spins her around and pushes her forward. "Walk Sof. Don't fight me on this. Walk."

"But—" She pipes up, confused as we all start walking.

_Everyone's staring at us._

"No big deal, go back to your shopping." Orir diffuses the crowd easily, which quickly complies.

Kal sighs before turning to me. "Sorry you had to see that Ezra. That's the ugly side of Mandalore." I nod shakily, pit still in my stomach.

"I want to comm _Mand'alor_. He needs to go." Orir glances back at Kal just before Sophie squeezes my hand so hard my index and middle fingers on my right hand howl with pain.

"Ahh! Sof, easy!" I wince immediately and pull my hand away from her.

"You better have a _damn good reason for making such a scene Sophine Wren. How dare you embarrass Ezra in front of a crowd like this! You understand me?!_" Mrs. Wren says, voice bitterly low as she flies in from nowhere, wrenching Sof's hand out of mine so fast and so hard Sof is lifted into the air by the momentum of it.

_Oh she's furious._

"Mrs. Wren." I open my mouth, only to get an angry look back that silences me immediately.

"Mommy! Sophie starts to protest.

"Quiet!" Mrs. Wren orders Sof. "Be _silent_!"

_NOPE! I need to shut up!_

"What'd he say, is what I want to know." _Mand'alor_'s voice, cooler than ever sounds out behind me, causing me to spin back. "Don't bow." He adds to Kal and Orir. "I'm a normal citizen right now. Talk."

_He's angry too. And dressed normally._

Out of his armor.

"He refused to serve Ezra and Sophie because of Ezra's arm. Sophie got worked up about it and yelled at him that Ezra's just the same as everyone else about the time we noticed." Kal begins.

Orir picks up right where he leaves off. "The merchant leaned on the sign, saying he reserves the right to refuse service to any and all for whatever reason."

"That's garbage." Mrs. Wren says angrily as we keep weaving thru the crowd.

"See!" Sophie says desperately, trying to get out of the doghouse.

Instead, her mother turns and towers over Sof. "_What__ did I tell you Sophine?!"_

_Be silent. Not a word._

Sof claps her free hand over her mouth, looking afraid as everyone pops into sight, looking concerned.

_Blast it…_

"I broke his sign, which you'll hear about I'm sure…" Kal rolls his eyes before _Mand'alor _cuts him off.

"Don't care, I would have broken his face. Good self-control."

Kal sheepishly shrugged. "Don't give me too much credit. I was just mad."

"It's bantha_osik_." Orir shakes his head. (A/N: I've used this one before. If you don't remember it, think about what you'd say in this spot.)

_Mand'alor_ adds "It is, I agree. Do you know the stall number?"

"1478." I say quickly as Mr. Wren marches up to Sophie.

"We're going home. March."

"But—" Sof looks up into the stern faces of her parents, then abandons her defense and picks up the pace.

Lux looks to me. "What's wrong? What happened?"

"Sof yelled about something?" Hera asks as Sabine looks to me wearily.

_Mand'alor_ motions for everyone to keep walking. "Let's keep moving and make this less of a scene."

"Ezra got a taste of anti-prosthetic discrimination." Kal tells Kanan, Ahsoka and the others who are hovering around us while continuing forward.

Sabine makes a move to start back into the market but immediately is spun and shoved toward her sister by her mother. "Not you too Sabine, we've had enough shame for one day."

"Okay, okay…" Sabine immediately relents, then drifts back to me and smiles weakly.

_She didn't do anything wrong. It was probably an accident. That poor girl might have even been born without eyes and got incredibly lucky. A chance at a somewhat normal life and I went and was repulsed by it._

I was no better then than that merchant was today.

"—you said stall 1478. I'll have a forensic accountant glance at his records, compare them against reputable dealers in that area of the market. He's going to lose his stall, lifetime suspension from the main market along with a fine of the difference between him and his competitors. I'll call it a debt to Mandalore."

I immediately blurt out "Sir!"

_He doesn't have to do that!_

"He's harming Mandalore and railing against my spoken word. When you do that, I am not merciful." _Mand'alor _ says bluntly, waving a finger at me. "If I was merciful, we'd be under Imperial flags and in uniform. Zero tolerance is the only way of the free."

Ahsoka frowns. "In some times, maybe."

"We're going to agree to disagree, and I understand that." _Mand'alor_ immediately softens his stance and nods respectfully towards Ahsoka and Kanan. "But I'm _Mand'alor_, and I cannot get pushed around. My word must be law. My will is that of the people and that has to be enforced."

I glance away from _Mand'alor_ and see that we're almost at the gates to the Wren's neighborhood.

"You allowed Fett to leave the planet. That's defiance of the people's will, trampling on millennia of honor and reneging on a debt to Mandalore Fenn." Mr. Wren says effortlessly.

_WHOAAAA!_

I immediately stiffen up at same time as Sabine does. Hera whips around as Kanan, Hera, everyone looks to _Mand'alor_ in disbelief.

He did WHAT?!

"You did…._WHAT?!"_ Orir scowls at _Mand'alor._

Kal has the same look he had when talking to the merchant. "You said he'd be held accountable. He attacked Mandalorians on our soil! Attempted kidnapping for an _outside agent!_"

"Boys, you don't understand the complexity of that situation. I didn't have much of a choice."

"I don't care, that's a terrible decision sir." Kal fires back.

_Mand'alor_ frowns. "Tone, Kala. Watch the tone." He says disapprovingly.

"I don't give a _damn_ about my tone sir. I have loyalties, and I'm going to stand by them."

"Over me?!" _Mand'alor_ says, a disapproving look on his face.

Orir suddenly smirks. "You said it yourself that it might happen."

_Mand'alor_ sputters before Sabine says acidically "You bowed to Bralor."

"Fenn." Mrs. Wren says softly, as if in disbelief.

_I can't believe it. He's Mand'alor. And he's the one that caved._

_Mand'alor_ looks to Mr. Wren. "You had to say that now Carid?"

"I disagree vehemently with the decision, and you know that." Mr. Wren says without looking away from swiping his keycard to get into his neighborhood.

"There's a time, a place and a forum to say that." _Mand'alor_ says, almost pleading.

Mr. Wren turns around calmly as everyone else has taken a step back to witness the battle of wills. "I am fully aware of that. I just chose to air my opinion publically and have accountability. Also, it felt right to break with tradition."

_OW._

Numbly, I look to Sabine as her jaw is open in shock, taking in the scene.

_I can't believe this. Mr. Wren is full force in opposition. To Mand'alor. MAND'ALOR!_

"I—" _Mand'alor_ opens his mouth to respond, only for Mr. Wren to silence him.

"At this point, I will comply with decorum and take this up with you in private at another time. We're expecting guests, and I'm afraid you aren't invited." Immediately _Mand'alor _goes stiff with shock.

"I…Alright. Have a good night." He says quietly, then turns and walks away. Numbly I turn back towards the gate and Sabine just before Mr. Wren opens the gate and starts ushering everyone thru it.

_Everyone's completely shocked._

We all walk to the Wren's house in silence only for Mrs. Wren to be the first to speak. "To your room Sophine."

"But—" Sophie speaks up, desperation in her voice just before her mother's expression turns from calm to anger and immediately Sof sprints for her room.

She sighs heavily as Ahsoka, Lux, Kanan and I all slip off our shoes. "Sorry about this."

"No no, we get it." Lux pacifies her.

"Gotta be a parent, and not just sometimes." Hera adds.

_Great point. The rules have to always apply at all times. Just because we have guests doesn't mean that Sof can make a scene in front of the entire market._

Even though she was right.

"Hi, by the way. Sorry about the circumstances." Kal says in an effort to clear the tension in the room as Orir sheepishly smiles.

Mr. Wren waves everyone deeper into the house. "No problem boys. Sorry we interrupted your shopping."

"Oh, wasn't anything important really. Just an errand or two. Just glad we were there." Kal smiles as everyone begins filing into the kitchen except for Chopper, who starts to Sophie's room.

"Chopper!" Mrs. Wren raises her voice.

_She doesn't want Sophie to have any entertainment._

"WOMP! WAH WAH WOMP! WHIRRR!" Chopper flies into the kitchen before jabbing Mrs. Wren in the leg pointedly with one of his arms before spinning back around and rolling away.

_And apparently Chop doesn't listen to her. Sophie ranks above her parents in Chop's mind._

He isn't going to listen. Chopper barely listens to me.

"Drinks? Anyone?" Mr. Wren asks just before Mrs. Wren turns to me.

"Ezra, I need you to start chopping and working on the salad."

Quickly, I nod and start pulling out salad ingredients out of the baskets we brought as the silence is replaced by everyone getting drinks.

"Kal, Orir?" Mr. Wren asks them.

Orir immediately raises his hands to decline. "Thank you sir, but we're not staying. We don't want to intrude."

"You won't be." Hera immediately tells him.

"Yeah, stay. Please." Mrs. Wren says kindly, cracking a smile for the first time in what feels like forever.

Kal shakes his head. "You all have guests, it's not the time. Can we maybe take a rain check? Reschedule?"

Immediately Mr. Wren laughs. "You want those leftovers again."

"And you're saying you wouldn't want her leftovers. It's enough for all of us for a week!" Kal smiles, getting multiple laughs.

Mrs. Wren bends down, grabbing a large pan. "Well thank you. I'm glad you like my cooking. Of course we can do that."

"We need to make it a regular thing." Mr. Wren adds, causing both Kal and Orir to smile.

"Sounds like a plan." Kal says before taking a step before the door.

"Hold on." Mrs. Wren gets back to her feet. "One thing…Kala."

_Oh. That's Kal's actual name. Like Prime and Primus._

Orir immediately beams and Kal goes red, causing Zeb, Ahsoka and Kanan to laugh. "I don't get it. You fight so much with Ezra and barely blink. But you blush at your real name." Ahsoka points out.

"In _mando'a_ it means knife. Like…" Mrs. Wren explains, waving a sharp knife in the air for a second. "Unless it's a girl's name."

Orir hits Kal in the ribs with a elbow. "Gonna have to tell them. She isn't going to take no for an answer." Kal immediately shakes his head.

"You know '_Systa Agol_'?" Kal asks the Wren's.

"Kind of." Sabine jumps in. "Best farmers and ranchers in Mandalore's history."

"Started out as just one family, but expanded out. They weren't heard from for a few hundred years. Used to hold quite a bit of influence." Mr. Wren adds. "The quiet word at work is that their last few kids are something. Might even step back into the culture."

"Oh they're still around. Their youngest son? Well…" Orir looks to Kal, who has gone even more red.

_He doesn't want any special treatment._

"Shut up. You're in _'Systa Agol'_?" Mrs. Wren spins to him.

"Their prodigal son!" Orir adds brightly before Kal turns to him.

"Shut up!"

Lux takes a step forward. "Hang on, you said that family were the Best farmers and ranchers in Mandalore's history Sabine?"

"Yeah." Sabine nods, starting to work on salad stuff as well.

"Then why are you a fighter and not following in your family's business? I'm a politician, partially because my mother was." Lux asks.

"I fly because my father fought. Natural extension, as opposed to fighting and being a warrior."

"And pardon me if I'm reading this wrong, but isn't Mandalorian society kind of strict on this sort of thing?" Kanan asks.

Kal frowns at Orir once more. "Because my brothers and sister can continue what they do best and I don't have to pretend to enjoy it as much as them."

"I try to buy all my meat from _Agol_, when the price is right. What's your House?" Mr. Wren asks Kal.

"Cadera." Kal says, causing Sabine and her mother to whip around.

"You're _kidding._" Sabine says before Kal shakes his head.

Zeb helpfully asks "What's the big deal?"

"That's one of our oldest and most distinguished Houses." Mrs. Wren explains, looking to Kal as he is looking to Mr. Wren.

"I appreciate you trying to do that. I'll talk to my father later, maybe I can get you a negotiated rate cut." He smiles.

Mr. Wren immediately protests. "Son…" before Kal smiles and silences him.

"No promises, my folks can be cutthroat." He adds. "But worth a try at least."

"How do you two know each other?" Ahsoka asks Kal and Orir.

Kal suddenly lights up. "Oh! He's House Cadera. Us, Prime and Will all are. Prime's dad is the Clan head."

_Whoa!_

"Whoa. Okay. So let me get this straight." Mr. Wren stops unloading groceries and directs his full attention to Kal. "So when Fenn said that he'd get Ezra a battalion to help him fight the Fifth Brother here, he went to our oldest family and grabbed their best warriors?"

Orir shakes his head. "Not best, youngest. And believe me, it wasn't something that went over well."

_They didn't take the assignment well at first._

"I remember that." Sabine laughs lightly, causing Kal and Orir to shyly smile at her and I before her mother clears her throat.

"SOPHINE!"

Immediately Sof's door opens, and hurried footsteps come to the kitchen. "Yes Mommy." She says raptly.

"What do you have to say to everyone?" Her mother asks simply.

"I…I'm sorry I yelled at that man in the middle of the market. I should have listened to Ezra and Mommy." Sophie says meekly, ducking her head and looking at the floor.

"Apology accepted Sof." Ahsoka softly speaks up. "There's ways of making your point without yelling."

Sophie immediately nods raptly. "Okay."

"_Ad'ika,_ can you take Ezra's place on the salad? He needs to start on the potatoes. He's behind." Mr. Wren asks her.

_Hey!_

Sophie slips past Sabine towards, Kal, Orir and I so she can grab her stool to wash her hands before Kal bends down. "Hey."

"Hi." Sof stops and hugs Kal, then Orir.

"Knock Knock."

Quickly, I probe out and feel the familiar signatures of Rex, Echo and the Remoda's. "It's the Remoda's."

"Oh good." Mr. Wren abandons his drink and starts to the door before slightly stopping himself.

_He asked me how to handle their arrival since they've never met Rin, his family or even his species. I tried to reassure hjim but volunteered to open the door and get things started to break the ice._

I smile just before I open the door to the sight of Rex, Echo, Rin and his parents. "Hey!"

"Hey Ezra! Good to see ya kid." Rex smiles, clapping me on the back just before Echo grabs onto my shoulder protectively.

_They haven't seen me since the Vader fight._

"C'mon in guys, we're working on dinner right now." I wave everyone inside towards Mr. Wren while probing out and feeling his anxiety.

Rin takes a couple of steps, then stops and bows his head. "Master Ezra." Quickly, I stifle a laugh and crouch down to his height.

"Just Ezra Rin. Glad you're here." I smile, then pull Rin into a hug. Rin stiffens up for a split second before quickly embracing me back. I hug him for a moment then rise back up and smile at Rin's parents. "Hi! Welcome."

"Ezra, it's too good to see you. We feared the worst after your trip went sideward." Mr. Remoda steps forward and grasps both of my shoulders.

_Sideward?_

I smile reassuringly at Mr. Remoda and his wife before waving them in and taking a step back. "This here is Carid Wren, my wife's father."

_Man that's awkward to say._

"Carid Wren. Welcome to my home." Mr. Wren says with a smile while extending to shake Mr. Remoda's hand.

"Loric sir. Thank you for inviting us." Mr. Remoda shakes Mr. Wren's hand. "This is my wife, Leeha."

Mr. Wren smiles, then shakes her hand. "Pleasure. If you don't mind taking off your shoes at the door, I can show you the rest of the house."

"Sure." Mr. Remoda says just before Rin slips past Mr. Wren to Sabine.

"Were you not going to say hi?" Sabine asks, crouching down and hugging him while beaming.

"I just got here." Rin says simply.

Sabine smiles again before standing up. "I know, but I still wanted my hug."

_She's warmed to him already. That's awesome._

Mr. Wren patiently waits for the Remoda's to follow up the stairs before I slip back to the kitchen and for most everyone's eyes to fall on me.

"I told him not to be so nervous…" Mrs. Wren says loud enough for everyone to hear and for Hera, Kanan and Zeb to laugh while Ahsoka simply smiles.

"It's always good to have a positive first impression." Lux says sagely. "Plus, he's welcoming them into your home."

Hera calls out to me "Ezra, do you always help with dinner?"

I nod, starting to peel potatoes before Mrs. Wren adds "He's always helped. Well, after he started coming more regularly. Not your first trip."

"He was a guest then." Sabine chimes helpfully.

_I offered to help, but they refused at the time. Now it's not weird at all for me to be here for dinner._

"Well now you're always helping when we cook on the _Ghost_." Hera tells me.

"Sure." I shrug then smile. "Fine with me.

"Did he not help?" Mrs. Wren asks Hera.

"He did, but not really willingly."

"He's grown up a little bit since we first scooped him up." Kanan explains.

Zeb chuckles, then says "When he means scoop, he literally means _scoop_." Causing the room to burst into laughter.

"Zeb!" I turn in sarcastic dismay.

_C'mon!_

I turn back to my potatoes and keep slicing before Mr. Wren's voice drifts back down to us. "—free to use the entirety of the house while you're here."

"Thank you. This is quite the home." Mr. Remoda comments before Mr. Wren appears at the foot of the stairs.

"Why thank you."

Mrts. Wren quickly abandons what she's doing and slides around her daughters to the Remoda's. "Hi, I'm Bo, Carid's wife." I hear the Remoda's greet Mrs. Wren but keep my eyes on Rin, who has drifted to Kanan and Ahsoka, then bows.

"Thank you Rin. How has your training been that we left for you?" Ahsoka asks.

Rin stares for a second then replies. "Hard. I can't really move anything."

"That's okay. We'll be coming with you so you won't have to work alone anymore." Kanan reassures him before Rin turns to Kal and Orir.

"I, uhh…You look familiar but I don't remember your names." Rin states simply, causing both Kal and Orir to crack smiles and crouch down.

"I'm Kal and that's Orir. You've only seen us a couple of times, so don't worry about it bud." Kal smiles at Rin.

Rin warmly smiles. "Okay, I'll try to remember. I'm not good with names, and I've got a lot of new ones lately."

"Don't worry at all about it." Kal reassures him.

Unfortunately Rin doesn't see this and instead is gawking at Sophie. "Who are you?"

Sophie suddenly straightens up, then turns to her left and spots Rin. "My Mommy and Daddy told me not to talk to strangers. And I'm helping with dinner. Choppy, can you bring the trash compactor to me?"

_SOPHIE._

I quickly try to stop a laugh before Kal and Orir do the same, then stuff their hands in front of their mouths to stifle their laughter. Chopper meanwhile simply moves around Rin, who is standing in the middle of the kitchen and pushes the trash compactor to her while Hera, Lux, Kanan and Zeb all look highly amused.

_She has a point…but SOF!_

"My parents told me not to talk to rude people. And that was rude." Rin replies.

"Rin!" His father snaps at him. "Apologize."

Sophie beats him to it, hopping off her stool and pushing her scraps into the garbage. "I'm okay. I'm just going to keep helping with dinner. It's nice to meet you!" Sof chimes, then waves to Rin's parents. "I'm Sophie!"

"Are you going to tell your daughter to apologize?" Mrs. Remoda asks Mrs. Wren.

"No." Mrs. Wren shakes her head while walking back to the stove. "We did tell her not to speak with strangers."

_OH!_

Hera looks to me, highly amused at the ongoing conversation before Kal and Orir tap me on the shoulder. "We're going to go."

"I'll walk you out." I say, unable to keep the smile off my face then follow Orir and Kal out the door. Once we're all outside they both bust into laughter.

"Sophie…hahahaha!" Kal gasps as Orir just keeps laughing.

"That sense of humor is killer!" Orir wipes his eyes.

"She's so quick to the punch you barely see it!" Kal adds before straightening up.

I smile. "I didn't see it coming."

"And you live with her! Man…" Orir shakes his head.

_I need to say thank you._

"Hey. Seriously though. Thank you. For the market." I say seriously.

Kal and Orir both quickly sober up. "Hey, no problem. When we say we're going to be there, doesn't just mean the battlefield." Orir replies.

"Sorry you got your trip ruined." Kal adds.

"Didn't know it was a big deal at all." I admit, then shrug.

"To some it is, but they're very humanocentric in general. If you ever want to depress yourself for an hour."

I smile. "Pass, thanks though. I'd rather look up House Cadera."

Both of them wince. "Please don't. It's not a big deal." Kal asks me.

"They seemed to think it was important." I counter, then gesture to the house.

"We used to as well. But meeting you, meeting everyone in there really changed how we think of things. It's not about House and Clan all the time. There's a bigger game being played." Kal explains.

Orir nods. "Prime's dad really wants to know who you are."

_Really?_

"Really?" I ask, causing them both to nod.

"You are the Jedi that came down and changed the tide of the fight against the Empire after all. Not just the Empire wants to know who you are. A lot of people wan tto say thank you."

I shake my head. "I don't need thank you."

"And that's the difference between you and us Ezra. You don't want it, but we take it anyway. Either way, it's a duty to fight and help." Kal tells me.

"Besides, now you know where we all come from. And why Prime is definitely the next _Mand'alor_." Orir smirks.

_Oh…yeah._

"I guess I do." I admit, then stop as the gate opens for us all.

Both Kal and Orir smile. "Well, thanks for having us. We're around, and if not we'll see you at dinner!" Kal tells me.

"Lucky." Orir smiles ta me before they both wave then start off towards the market and the setting sun.

(A/N: First off, my apologies about the brief hiatus. I went job hunting for a bit, followed by my laptop refusing to charge. It's still dead, but I managed to rewrite this chapter in its entirety for you guys and even threw in the House Cadera bit I figured out when making everyone's backstory to hopefully make the wait worth it.. Updates should be more regular after this Tuesday, but the holidays are always busy and I'll get chapters out as fast as I can. Last note: The gaps in time are going to start to widen a bit as Ezra heals and relaxes at the Wren's. There's many things I want to write before I start my next story. Happy Holidays, and Thank You for reading!) 


	119. Moment

_(Flashback)_

I open the door, quickly slip inside then shut the door behind me as Mrs. Wren's voice floats into the hall. "No, Ezra's been in good spirits. He's kept his training to himself, but he's always done that." Quickly, I force a smile onto my face as I walk into the kitchen and pull everyone's attention, causing the room to go silent.

"Hi." I say nervously, then wave to the Remoda's who are eying me in particular.

"We were just talking about your hand." Sabine says as I drift back to my spot next to Sophie and grab my half peeled potato.

I nod, then focus in on my potato and try to block out everyone's eyes on me. "I know. It's fine. The Force stuff is my main problem right now. It'll get fixed."

"What do you mean 'Force Stuff?'" Rin pipes up just before Mr. Wren hands him a glass of what I assume is juice.

"I can't really use the Force with my new hand." I tell him. "The only time I did was by accident."

Ahsoka turns to the Remoda's and says "The Master who worked on Ezra said that it would take months for him to return to the level that we're all used to him being at." Ahsoka pauses, then eyes me. "Unfortunately, no amount of work can change that."

"Doesn't mean I can't try." I shake my head while slicing my potat—

_Ow!_

I cringe and bite my lip as the leather thumb on my glove is peeled back, revealing my undamaged hand beneath. Immediately both Mrs. Wren and Sabine zoom right to me, Sabine grabbing the knife while Mrs. Wren grabs my wrist and immediately spots where I sliced the glove instead of slicing the potato.

"Lux? Do you mind?" Mrs. Wren asks him as Sabine sets the knife next to Sophie and eyes me.

"I'm fine. I missed." I tell Mrs. Wren.

She shakes her head as Lux says "Sure, absolutely. Did he…?"

"He hit the glove." Mrs. Wren says before turning back to me. "Go sit down. Grab a drink."

"But—" I start before Mrs. Wren frowns at me. "I'm fine, really! I missed once."

"Sit. We'll comm. for a new glove tomorrow." She tells me as Lux walks over to take my place. I slip past him, yank my glove off my hand then throw it to the couch in frustration.

_Stupid hand. Stupid glove._

"You okay?" Kanan asks me, as the Remoda's continue eying me anxiously.

I shrug, then shake my head. "I'm just frustrated. I missed with the knife once. It's just the tip of the glove."

"Next time it could be worse and damage your hand. Carid, get the boy a drink so he has something in his hands." Mrs. Wren calls out to her husband.

"Already on it." Mr. Wren replies, sliding up to me and handing me a glass of what looks like wine.

I try to smile at Mr. Wren and he claps me on the shoulder. "Try to be normal. I know it's hard."

_I'm not normal. I want to be doing something. I can't stand just sitting around._

It's my job to be helping with dinner anyway!

"We've always told you not to go so fast…" Sabine tells me as I move to sip my wine then freeze and scowl at her.

_Not helping._

"I missed once." I tell her coldly, then sip the wine and am greeted with a bitter taste.

_I don't get the appeal._

Mr. Remoda gets to his feet and retrieves my glove as Rin slinks over, looking at my hand. "Does it hurt?"

_My hand._

"No." I shake my head. "It works like a normal hand, that's how I knew I missed. My thumb hurt."

"But does the arm hurt?" Rin asks me innocently.

I try to smile and calm his fears. "Not anymore Rin."

"This is a nice glove. Custom fitted for him?" Mr. Remoda asks the room as he holds my glove in his hands. Mr. Wren nods as dinner preparations continue.

"We'll get a new one. Maybe even turn it into a date for him and Sabine."

_Doubtful._

"Still trying to turn them into a normal couple Bo?" Rex asks her with a sly smile.

Mrs. Wren nods. "Of course I am. We've told them that while they're here they can do whatever they want really. They can have date night, see holo-flicks, take day trips to see some sights, be normal."

"But they stay here. Why, I don't know." Mr. Wren deadpans.

"We plan on doing date night. But we came here to be more involved too!" Sabine sticks up for me. "Which means helping Sof get to and from her Academy, running errands, letting Ezra get back to his old self and maybe exploring some stuff too."

Her father replies. "Well good _ad'ika_. Because there's a wedding we've all been invited to, and attendance is sort of mandatory."

"Wedding?" Hera smiles.

"A work friend of Carid's daughter is getting married. And Mandalorian weddings are excuses for a lot of people to get together and have a good time, all in the name of the dearly betrothed." Mrs. Wren explains.

_Great. More clothes they're buying me._

"Oh! Which reminds me. There's a holiday we have here called _raan'ika_ coming up, and I'd like you all to come. It's been over a year since Sabine came back home, and the first _raan'ika _since then." Mr. Wren says.

Kanan, Hera and Ahsoka all look to each other before Kanan shrugs. "Sure, we'll be here."

"Only if they're more normal." Hera stipulates. "This is supposed to be a time for you to enjoy and rest. Not just rest and be responsible."

"Normal is overrated…" Lux says while peeling potatoes and towering over Sophie, who is tearing lettuce. Sabine wearily peers over at me before turning back to her cutting board.

_(End Flashback)_

Chopper leads the way onto the _Ghost_, followed by the Wren's and Kanan. Sabine, Sophie and I all are in the back, sabine and I holding bags over our shoulders.

_We're taking our stuff off the Ghost. Even if it's temporary…this is big. When the Ghost takes off again, we won't be on it for awhile. And it's not really home anymore. We've got a new home now._

My mind flashes back to just after I brought Kanan his hologram back and they told me I'd be staying with Zeb in his room.

_I was so mad. I wanted my own room, but decided to suck it up. And immediately regretted it due to what Zeb and Chop put me thru for the next few weeks._

When we all reach the crew quarters, Sabine slips off to her room, allowing me to slide off into Zeb and I's old room, that I haven't spent much time in for awhile now.

_Mustafar and meeting Ahsoka changed things. Our cell got serious and stopped just affecting Lothal._

The sound of Kanan and Mr. Wren talking drifts away from me just before the door shuts and I'm greeted with the familiar sights of the YT-1300 advertisment that Zeb picked up somewhere along with the way as well as the topless dancer that I hung up, thinking I was being edgy.

_Zeb just laughed at me. Thankfully Sabine's never seen it or said anything._

I let out a heavy breath as I look around the beat up yet cozy room that Zeb hasn't really changed much. Granted, he's turned into much more of a leader and hasn't been with us as much as he was.

Quickly I set my bag down, crouch down to the lowest shelf beside my bed and roll it out, revealing my stash of stuff from Lothal.

_Mom's jewelry, Dad's shirt and some clothes to cover it up so it'd look normal._

I grab everything in one scoop and slip it into my bag as the door behind me swishes open.

"Hey." Hera smiles at me before I turn back and confirm her smile.

I glance up and smile back. "Hi."

"Just so you know, if you want to keep a little bit of stuff here, that's fine with me." She smiles weakly at me.

_Oh._

I stand up and hug her as quick as I can. "Sorry. I forgot this is hard for you."

Hera makes a quiet noise before wrapping her arms around me. "I don't want you thinking about me. I'll be fine."

I shake my head and pull away enough to see Hera trying to fight back tears. "Hera." She responds by burying her head into my shoulder.

"Maybe it's hitting me just now that you're leaving."

"I'm not leaving."

Heralets out a breath, then smiles. "Yes, you are. I heard you and Sabine talking about chores or something 'at home'."

_She thinks this isn't my home anymore._

"I know this'll always be home for me." I try to cheer Hera up.

She shakes her head. "Yes, but this isn't _home_ anymore. That's on Mandalore now."

_It is, but…I don't know. That hurts Hera and I don't want that._

"Kanan and I are thinking of getting some sort of temporary residence maybe on Onderon or Ramordia. That way we aren't far away."

"Settling down?" I ask nervously. "You're not slowing down are you?"

Hera shakes her head. "Not really, but between everyone it seems like a good time to lay low, network, maybe even catch our breath."

"Not because of me right?" I ask her, then point to my arm.

_Sabine and I didn't sleep the other night simply because she didn't want to risk losing me again. That and her parents keep mentioning life planning and insurance whenever they get an opening._

Hera shakes her head again. "Not you, the fight with Vader. I know I need a break and everyone else, Lux and Ahsoka, Kanan and I seem to feel the same. The Rebellion isn't ready yet. We're starting to get somewhere, but not yet."

"So it's all about time."

"Kind of." Hera smiles then looks to my bag. "Is that your parents things?"

"You knew about that?" I ask her in shock.

_She never pokes around. That was one of the first things that I loved about Hera, the fact that she didn't hover._

"I didn't notice at first, but eventually I noticed how you only used the top two shelves. I wondered if something was wrong, checked and saw the jewelry and just kind of knew."

_That's Hera._

I can't hold back a smile, then hug her. "Thank you. You're the best. Love you."

"Love you too. You're always welcome here. You know that. And if you need us while you're recovering or just need Kanan, call."

"I will." I promise.

"Good boy." Hera smiles, then kisses my forehead. "I'll let you continue packing. No rush."

I shake my head quickly. "I'm really done in here. Everything is downstairs really. You can come with me if you want."

"Sure." Hera smiles, then leads me out of the room and towards the ladder. "One thing though."

"Yeah?" I ask.

"Your pictures stay." She says simply.

_On the wall?_

"The ones I taped?"

Hera nods. "Those stay. I'm sure you've got other copies."

"Of course. You have some right?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "Bo's getting me a bunch of holos with pictures you all have taken. But I think those should stay."

_Okay._

I nod silently then let Hera walk down the ladder and follow behind her, only to see Sabine with half of the bulkhead open.

"I didn't know you had so much down here." Hera says just as I turn back.

Sabine shrugs. "I didn't either. It must have just accumulated over time."

"My bad." I joke, which gets Sabine to laugh and Hera to shake her head.

Ultimately, Sabine turns back to putting folded clothes into the duffel before asking Hera "You're not in a rush I hope? This is going to take a little bit."

"No, no." Hera says quickly. "I was just telling Ezra that you guys can keep some stuff here if you want. That's fine with Kanan and I."

Sabine immediately hesitates in grabbing her next armful of clothes. "Oh. Okay. You and Kanan?" She smirks.

"It's not as easy for him as for you two." Hera immediately starts explaining. "The Jedi taught him, taught Ahsoka values that it's hard to get around. Ahsoka worked her way thru it, and Kanan's taking his time. It can't be easy."

Sabine immediately asks. "But he is doing it?"

"yes." Hera nods.

"Congrats." I smile at Hera, who gives me a slight smile back.

"About time. You tow have been here since before Lux and Ahsoka got together."

"No, that's not true."

_WHAT?!_

I stop, then turn to Hera in shock. "But I thought that—"

"Yeah. That—" Sabine adds, glancing at me.

"That's not what happened. Ahsoka told me the tale awhile back. I'll say this: They've always had chemistry."

_Chemistry._

Sabine's face turns to one of slight disgust before her thoughts hit me.

_She and Lux did what Sabine and I did after I fought Shak Bait the first time here. But after Order 66._

Gross. Nope, no. Nope.

I shake my head and sigh before Hera blushes. "Oh you two. Don't take it there."

"I'm not taking anything anywhere." Sabine counters quickly.

"Yes you are. And you two better not do anything dumb in this off time. I mean it."

_Hey!_

"No." I say before Sabine cuts me off.

"Things are in order. No more need be said." Sabine tells Hera. "Just like last time."

The sound of my comm going off causes me to jump straight up into the air.

_Oh thank goodness, a distraction._

"Hello?" I call out as Hera and Sabine both look to me.

"Ezra, it's Prime."

Sabine smiles. "Oh, hi Prime."

"Hi." Prime says brusquely. "Are you free? I hate to ask a favor of you but we kind of need it."

"Need what?" I ask him as Hera quickly looks concerned.

"We need you on the far half of Keldabe. The Office of _Mand'alor_ is under siege and about to fall. That can't happen."

"Under siege by who?" Sabine asks Prime just before I see Hera scowl.

"He can't do that Prime. Medical orders." Hera frowns at him. "Sabine can help."

"I'm sorry to say no ma'am, but no. We need Ezra. Sabine doesn't have the power to stop this many companies of plain clothed Imperials. And what orders? Ezra?"

_I never got to tell him._

"He's…" Hera mutters, then reaches over and redirects my call to the holo near the gunnery and seat. Immediately Prime's visual pops up, and he freezes.

"Whoa. Hi, yeah. Orders? I missed that." He tells Hera, looking slightly helpless and beaten down.

_Where is he?_

"Where are you?" I ask, just before Hera whacks my arm.

"Don't listen to him. He can't go because he's barely started rehabilitating his arm." Hera snaps at Prime.

Prime immediately back off. "I wouldn't have called if I'd known. So he's totally out?"

"Yes, he can't do anything for six months."

"Where." I ask Prime firmly. "I'm fine, I can go."

Hera's eyes bulge. "NO! No you can't."

"Can't what Hera?" Kanan's voice floats down.

"Get down here Kanan! Hell, bring everyone else too. Ezra…get down here!" Hera says in pure frustration.

Prime immediately looks like he regrets even calling before Kanan and Rex slide down the ladder. "What is it Hera?" Kanan asks before he and Rex see Prime, who waves meekly.

"Prime called Ezra and wants him to stop an Imperial siege of an important building. Tell Ezra he can't go." Hera explains to Kanan at lightspeed.

"He's not medically cleared, what building?" Ahsoka asks, clambering down, followed by Sof.

"I don't know." Hera shrugs.

"The Office of _Mand'alor_. It's a lot of very sensitive information about all sorts of things. Companies on companies of plain clothed Imperials have surrounded the building." Prime explains again.

Sophie's eyes widen just before her mother asks "How do you know they're plain clothed Imperials?"

"Their fighting tactics. Straight out of the Academy." Prime explains.

"Wait, are you there?" Ahsoka speaks up over Hera.

Prime nods. "Pinned down. The guys and I all were among the first to respond."

"You look beat up." Rex says simply.

Prime smiles. "I'm fine. I'm sorry for making a scene."

"No, you're fine." I jump in. "Prime, I'm fine. Where are you?"

"You are not fine. You can't do anything with the Force with your left arm. You'd be fighting one handed!" Mrs. Wren says bluntly.

"Simple, lightsaber in the left, Force Powers with my right. I've been training." I insist just before Sophie drifts over and grabs my left arm.

Kanan shakes his head. "Not at live fire speed. Prime, so you need somebody more than a normal soldier? That's why you need Ezra, am I correct?"

Prime nervously nods. "Yeah, kind of. I've seen him overcome these numbers before, that's why I called him."

"I'll go." Kanan volunteers. "I need an address and Chopper can fly me there."

"Won't work. If the Empire gets even a man out, they're tell their superiors that there's another Jedi here." Prime shakes his head.

_Then Vader will come before I'm even close to ready._

"I can go." I say firmly once again.

"No, you can't!" Mrs. Wren bites at me.

"He called me! It's a favor!" I tell her, not backing down. "Sabine can come with me and cover me." Immediately everyone looks to Sabine, who is in a tank top and a light jacket over it.

"I'm going home. In the very least, they'll need me." Sabine says, brushing past me and walking to the ladder. Nobody protests before she disappears.

"Ezra, this is a bad idea." Lux tells me.

Echo adds. "We can't really stop you, but you need to listen to our advice at least."

"Oh I'll stop him." Hera glares at me.

"You're not ready. Not in fighting shape. Think of how bad you felt immediately after your surgery. It's been less than a month since then!" Rex insists. "You're not ready."

_I'm going._

"I'm going." I repeat myself.

"Sir." Prime sighs.

"You said yourself that you need me. They're going to get in there and most likely try to start something." I counter him.

_They're going to kill a lot of people in there. I have to go._

"They are going to start something." Mr. Wren muses. "Otherwise, why go?"

"The valuable information." Ahsoka replies flatly. "Ezra, Echo's right."

I smile at everyone. "I know. And I am listening. But I don't see much of a choice. I'll be careful."

_They can't really stop me. The whole 'out six months' part is dependent on me listening._

Hera whacks me in the chest before storming off. "CHOPPER! Get to the Phantom!"

"Fine. If we're doing this, we're going to hang back in case he can't do it. Damn the consequences." Kanan says, gesturing to Ahsoka and himself.

"That'll be bad." Mr. Wren tells him.

"How are the stakes just as high now and this is supposed to be a break?!" I hear Hera exclaim in frustration as Chopper wheels to the Phantom.

"You owe her dinner and a gift. And Sabine's parents too." Kanan sighs.

Mr. Wren frowns. "No he doesn't. Just…play your game."

_When I don't I lose._

I smile, then nod as Mrs. Wren is frowning at me and Sophie is clinging to me. "You don't even have a new glove." Mrs. Wren says.

"There is a possibility for damage." Rex admits.

"I'm telling your Master guy." Sophie says, looking up at me.

_I'm going to be in trouble._

I smile at her, then look back to Prime who is speaking to somebody off screen. "Prime, how's the situation there?" Mr. Wren asks him.

"Calm. They've stopped to get enough explosives and siege breakers to take the building." Prime says.

_I need to go._

I slip out of Sof's grip and start to the ladder. "I need an address."

"_Alor'ad_. It's an entire block. I'm the biggest building." Prime tells me before I nod, then climb the ladder and start up towards the _Phantom._

"Hey, how's it going?" I hit my comm halfway up the ladder.

"FWISSSSHHHHH—Almost back! On a speeder bike right now!"

"Back?" I blurt out. "How?"

"Speeder bike!" Sabine tells me as the wind whips around in the background. "You almost ready?"

"Yeah. Do you know where _Alor'ad_ or something like that is?"

The wind suddenly dies down before she answers "Yeah, that's in an old part of town. Give me just a second and I'll be up there with you." Sabine tells me, then cuts the comm.

_She must have gunned it._

"How are you already back?" I hear Echo ask somebody.

"Floored a speeder. Is he already in the Phantom?" Sabine's voice floats to me.

"Yeah. Be careful. Keep an eye on him." Ahsoka asks Sabine.

"I'll do my best. Hey…it's going to be okay." Sabine lowers her voice as it drifts away barely.

"I'm scared…Ezra didn't listen!" Sophie's voice pitches up.

_Blast…_

I take a half step back towards the ladder as I hear "Hey, he cares about Prime and wants to help. He's going to be fine. I'm gonna make sure of it. Okay?"

…

"Good. We'll see you later." Sabine says, voice farther away. After a moment, I hear Sabine taking the ladder two rungs at a time.

"You better know what you're doing…Chop! Let's go!" Sabine appears, then darts to the pilot's chair. Right away, the _Phantom's _engines fire and we start to drift away from the _Ghost._

_I know what I'm doing. I'm doing my job and my duty._

Quickly, I glance down at my jacket and pants, seeing the three plates of armor on both legs and my right arm.

_I haven't even thought about getting a new plate for my new arm._

"Keep the lights off Chopper, we have to stay out of sight. I've got an idea." Sabine says calmly as we begin a vertical climb. Immediately the screen to Sabine's right starts scrolling with Chopper's reply in binary.

'_What idea has no lights?'_

"The place is being watched. I was thinking of slipping in from the side a few blocks away and parking on a roof. There's skyways that we can use in order to get to _Alor'ad mand'alor_." Sabine explains, then glances at me. "You won't be able to go in from the bottom and work up. You'll probably have to break in up top and fight your way down."

My comm quickly chimes and I slap it quickly. "Yeah?"

"Ezra! They're moving!" Prime tells me right away.

"On our way!" I tell him then ask Sabine. "How far are we?"

Building fly by on either side as Sabine flies in total darkness. "Five minutes maybe?" She says. I'd go faster but I'm flying blind!"

"That's actually okay! Scouts outside say they're setting up a zipline about the eighth floor."

Sabine's expression drops into a scowl. "Okay, is that where everything is?"

"Yeah. We're working on a solution but it'd be awesome if you guys got here." Prime says, sounding anxious.

_He really doesn't like this._

"Hey, hang on. I've got a plan. Ezra comes in from the roof. I'll take their entrance and work from 8 down." Sabine says quickly before buzzing a skyscraper.

_WHOA!_

Prime doesn't respond right away. "Good idea. We can box them in down here by barricading the doors. That way they're funneled to you guys up top."

"And they don't get anywhere." I say then smile to myself.

_They're going to trap themselves._

"Okay, I'll relay the plan." Prime says simply, then cuts the comm. Sabine quickly points towards a wide rofftop cluttered with pipes and vents.

"Chop, that'll work. We can use the clutter and camouflage." Sabine says, then gives up the controls and rises out of her seat, finding my eyes immediately. "Please be careful."

I try to give her a reassuring smile. "I will. I'm going to try to keep it to the defensive while keeping them in the building. It's all about not letting them get that information right?"

"Yeah." Sabine nods. "Hopefully they don't starting to much sooner."

The _Phantom_ rocks as Chopper has apparently found a suitable landing spot and has set us down. Sabine throws open the back hatch and steps out, then points off towards the left side of the horizon and a dark gray building.

"That's it. And…" She mutters, then creeps toward the back of our building and peers over the edge. "There. Skybridge and maintenance ladder."

_I see what she's thinking._

Reminds me of running from Shak Bait. All emergency escape ladders and rooftops.

"Gotcha. Where am I getting to my roof?" I ask her.

She shrugs, starting to climb into the ledge. "I figured you'll do something spectacular to get there. We're going to be at least a floor short." She finishes just before disappearing.

"THUNK!"

_Oh, great. And I have to jump off a perfectly good building._

I follow in Sabine's footsteps, creeping out to the edge then slip off the edge and land lighter than I expect, barely making a noise.

Sabine stps, then turns and shakes her head. "So not fair. Used the Force?"

"Not consciously." I shake my head, following her lead across the skybridge to another rooftop and another skybridge. Crossing together, I check our surroundings and see our target building.

"CRSSHHH!"

_Uh oh. That sounded like glass breaking._

"Karabast…" Sabine mutters, then picks up the pace and crosses our final skybridge. I quickly follow, then creep with her and peer down to see multiple men climbing across a thin wire, using their blasters as makeshift safety grips.

_I need to go one more building up, then jump across, then double back so they don't see me._

I quickly sneak to the edge of the building and spot the next skybridge leading to the next building.

_Easy._

Smiling to myself, I dart across, then glance across the small street below to the neighboring building.

_I can't use the skybridge here. I have to jump and hope the people on the line don't see me._

I let out a breath, pace out my steps then back up and start swinging my arms back and forth to get some momentum going while looking at my target, a large vent across the way.

_One…two…THREE!_

I take off in a dead sprint, get three full steps then leap across the alley with plenty of room to spare. Effortlessly I slip behind my cover and probe out towards the invading Imperials.

_Nope. Not a thing._

Smiling to myself, I slip around my cover and look up to _Alor'ad_, spotting a full floor but with a handy window that I can plant on and reach the roof.

_I can do this. I've done crazier things._

I take two steps back, then vault myself across the way to _Alor'ad_ and catch the window's ledge with both feet and immediately grab the side with my left hand in it's iron grip.

_Whoa._

Choas and anger flow right to me thru the Force and I snap my head up.

_Gotta go._

In a flash, I crouch, then jump up, grab the edge of the roof, use my torque and core strength to throw myself over the threshold and land heavily, catching the attention of a man.

_Blast!_

Instinctively I reach out and grab his throat with the Force so he can't shout out a warning. The man gags though, causing his comrade to turn just as I pull my blaster into my left hand.

"POP!"

The man lands heavily as the light from my blue bolt fades and the Imperial in my grasp gags again.

"GAH! P—" The man says just before a "SLIP!" sound reaches me, followed by multiple panicked shouts.

_Sabine's going in._

Bye Buddy.

I disdainfully throw the Imperial off the rooftop while walking to the nearest door and quietly slide inside before probing out.

_Yup…they're fighting down below me._

"Wait…did you guys hear something?" A male voice asks, sounding antsy.

_HAAR'CHAK!_

"No, you're hearing things from downstairs. Hurry up, we need a way out!" Another tells him.

"What if it's the Jedi?"

One of them laughs. "I heard he died on Tibrin and that massive hanger explosion."

_They're less than ten feet away and walking this way._

Vicious fighting flows to me thru the force on multiple floors of this building, including Sabine's floor and the first few floors as well as the ground floor.

"Well that explains why we're raiding tonight. Maybe we can—"The first voice starts before getting cut off.

"Go! Make sure the way is clear!"

_Nope._

I smile to myself then slide out into the hallway, causing the five Imperials to snap their sights and blasters to my figure. "Freeze!"

"Run." I say simply, then snap my wrist and activate my lightsaber.

"OPEN FIRE!" One of them yells in a panic. Immediately I duck down, cover my entire body with a block then grab the first two and slam them into the wall as fire follows me. I answer by reaching out and skewering another. The remaining two realize their predicament and take a step, intending to run down the hallway.

"Hurry! Tell him not this way! The chip has to get ou—AUUUGH!" he yells just before I bisect him and the other takes off.

_Fine. Lead me right to everyone else._

"RUN! Hurry! WE GOTTA GO!" the lone survivor yells in terror. "Jedi!"

_Chip. They got something._

I walk down the length of the hall, right into a flurry of bolts which I redirect as I can, some back where they came others into the wall and ceiling before turning on my heels and grabbing the holo by the far wall and throwing it, accidentally taking a guy with it.

"AUUGH!"

_Too easy._

In a groove, I step over the Imperials and into a stairwell with Imperials rushing up. Without thinking, I raise my foot and slam everyone on the stairs into the closest wall.

"WHACK!"

Again I probe while working my way down, hearing footsteps begin to flee away from me before having my Force Probe back up my hearing.

"Gusshhh…"

_NO!_

In a panic, I cut out a portion of the wall and throw it down the hall, blowing apart a door and hitting multiple Imperials before rushing thru and looking for Vader.

_Where is he?!_

He's…not here?

"Shhh…"

I whip around on my heels and see multiple men in masks carrying tubes of some kind just before I throw my lightsaber at head height and catch them all off guard, sending them straight to the floor.

_That was probably just my mind playing tricks on me…I gotta calm down and just clear out the building._

Easy Ezra.

I let out a breath, break stride and probe out.

_Ooh, friendless mixed with bad guys next floor and the final two._

I hop back into the stairwell, slide down the rail and pop into the next floor where it is a all out BRAWL, the sounds completely filling the room. Thankfully, the targets are clear, with armored Mandalorians facing off against normal looking Imperials.

_Let's make this quick._

Leaping into the scrum, I slice the first men I see before sliding back, stabbing the second, pull out my blade, turn it in my hand before cutting another as the fighting becomes a mad scrum to get away from me.

_NO…_

I reach out and grab the first man to flee with my right arm then close my fist, sending him straight to the floor before pulling the next to me and rearing back with my left.

"SCK-ACK!"

The Imperial hits my fist with his face then somehow contorts his body into a full somersault and lands heavily on the floor.

_Punch!_

Wheeling around, I catch it with my left hand and see the snarl of the Imperial who threw it before crushing his hand in mine.

"AHHHH!" He screams in agony before I flash my lightsaber thru him and discard him, moving to the next few men with a jab, slice and stab thru the last one.

_Final floor._

Finally.

I smile to myself before jumping down the entire flight of stairs and see a stampede of men fleeing for the door.

_Cowards._

In a instant I reactivate my lightsaber and throw it into the crowd of men, sending them all to the floor.

"Gah!" "Ahh!" "What the—?"

I pull my lightsaber back into my hand and glance around for any more threats.

_No…only Mandalorians._

Looking around, I spot Will and Prime, looking battered but relatively uninjured but don't let my eyes linger.

_Probably a bad idea to talk to them directly. There's a lot of guys here I don't know._

Looks like everything is okay.

I flick off my lightsaber, probe out for Sabine and nod to the room. Only…for everyone to just stare at me as the Imperials goran in pain near thebarricade.

_Sabine's three floors up._

Without a word, I start up the stairs, taking them three at a time before nearly barreling into Sabine.

"hey." I smile, just before she jumps and takes a step back.

"Chop, don't care. Just move the ship. We have to get home."

_What?_

"Why?" I ask her. Sabine's eyes flick at me as she starts towards the next stairwell.

"Womp wah!" Chop replies.

_Okay._

"Seventh floor is fine. Just be there in a few seconds. We have to leave now." Sabine barks before turning and snatching my lightsaber off my belt.

"Hey!" I protest.

Sabine stops, back to me then activates it and points it at me. "Not a word. It's mine for awhile."

_What?_

"Why?" I ask her as Sabine stalks away once again.

"Look around! You Vader'ed it up!"

_What?!_

"What are you talking…" I ask, then trail off and see the wall I threw.

_Okay, that might have been overkill. _

Why's she so mad? Job's done!

I keep silent until Sabine turns and I see the _Phantom_ thru a shattered window. Without a word, Sabine activates her jetpack and flies right to it, leaving me to jump across and follow. I do just that as the back hatch opens, then slip inside.

"WHAM!"

_OWW!_

Sabine slams me into the wall, looking furious and terrified at the same time. "No…No more. Your eyes are blue. Okay. We're going home."

"Why?" I ask her simply. "What's wrong?"

"You…it's not fair Ezra! Oh _Mand'alor_ is going to have a hard time covering this up…"

_What?_

What is she talking about?

(A/N: Merry Christmas to everyone out there. I'm thankful for the best readers on FF, who have stuck thru 119 chapters. People who have seen Rogue One might notice a few details from the final scenes and ezra's fight. My holiday treat. Until next time.)


	120. Foot Off the Gas

(A/N: Dedication of this chapter goes to Carrie Fisher. Princess Leia is one of the strongest characters in our galaxy far, far away. A brief aside, in this story I wanted to approach Leia's character different than I've ever seen/read her before. In the movies, she's always been underserved in my opinion and she is such a big part of the Rebellion that I wanted to show a different side of her. Younger, not as skilled and witty but just as smart and more importantly strong. She's flawed, like all characters and I've tried deepening her character in honor of her. Gone too soon, RIP.)

Sabine and I slide thru the Citadel towards a pair of massive wooden doors. Two suited men open the doors to a chapel where the crowd has already started to gather inside of the benches.

_I think they're called pews in this sort of situation._

I continue to follow Sabine's lead into the chapel itself, where the first three rows of pews on the right side are discreetly roped off. Immediately behind the roped off area is completely full with mostly unfamiliar faces, Hera, Kanan and Katiey sprinkled in. Behind them is Rex along with a clean shaven clone beside him.

Sabine gently directs me to the left side where I spot Darcy by herself, then Prime and Aidan before I refocus myself and follow Sabine, dressed in an unassuming yet pretty black dress, heels and her hair back to its natural brown onto a bench, sit and pick up a program.

"_In Remembrance: Lana Malreaux of Centares 8-6-3253 to 30-10-3275"_

Twenty two.

Beside me, Sabine lets out a quiet breath then slips onto one of the benches provided and bows her head, causing me to look back to the program provided. Pictures of Lana with friends and family jump out to my eyes but don't quite reach me along with carefully chosen words in neat little paragraphs and calligraphy.

The Empire officially claimed that our fight with Vader on Tibrin was a fuel explosion in which twenty were killed. Darcy contacted Lana's family and came to the conclusion that we could give her the funeral she deserves under the guise that she was one of those that died in that explosion. Unfortunately we've had to wait and throw off any suspicion or prying eyes that might want to use her service as a trap to catch any of us. Thankfully, and graciously Lana's family agreed to wait.

I don't know what Darcy told them about what really happened. They might not know what happened at Denon, her defection, anything. I just don't know.

_They may blame me. I don't exactly blame them._

It was my fault, direct or not. I misplayed my hand and the Vader fight and the result of that was her death.

_I shouldn't dress it up either. Sabine's parents have said she "passed away". No, she died. And it's my fault._

Sabine rises back up and sits beside me, the small bouquet of flowers we bought sitting to her left. Just in case, I reach out and probe the room to check for threats.

_Kanan, Hera, Aidan, Prime, Darcy, Katiey as well as Sabine's parents and Sophie._

Whoa.

Discreetly, I peer around a pair of people in front of me and spot a man with greying hair in Imperial Uniform speaking to a man in simple looking robes with his daughter beside him, hair up in two distinct buns.

_It's Leia, Senator Organa and Grand Moff Tarkin…_

If Tarkin's here that means this isn't a secret to the Empire.

"Tarkin, Organa, Leia." I lean over and whisper into Sabine's ear. Slightly, she turns to me with a surprised look, then looks ahead and spots them, causing her expression to deepen. I sit back, probe again and feel that Mira, Kal, Orir, Brie and Will have arrived.

_She doesn't like it. But at least now we're all here._

Subtlety, a violin or some sort of stringed instrument begins to play a solemn yet beautiful song at a slow pace. The entire room remains seated in silence, simply listening before drummers and a piano start to play in unison with the strings and the sound of the wooden door opening rises above it all. (A/N: Fight Song/ Amazing Grace by The Piano Guys)

Immediately Sabine stands, prompting me to as everyone around us do the same and the music simply gets louder.

_Here we go._

Everyone stands in silence and I refuse to probe out, simply looking ahead in respect before the sight of a simple brown casket on the shoulders of eight men appears out of the corner of my eye, followed by Lana's family and a holy man dressed in white who brilliantly pulls back to ropes separating the family section as the song beautifully continues until it crescendos gorgeously just as everyone stops moving.

"Ladies, gentlemen, honored guests, please be seated."

_(A Few Days Later)_

I let out a breath almost subconsciously and try to maintain loose.

"BZZT GZZZH!" "AHHH!"

Men continue to fall as I ruthlessly spin and impale a Stormtrooper.

_Didn't seem this violent in the moment. I kind of blacked out though until I saw how afraid and scared the other Mandalorians were of me, then went and found Sabine._

A Stormtrooper fires of a desperate shot at my back just before I drop my lightsaber behind me to send it right back, catching the Stormtrooper clean in the face and causing him to slump heavily.

_Focus Ezra…_

WHAM!

Suddenly my vision goes double, then I'm flying thru the cubicle and smash into Lana's filing cabinet. I shakily attempt to get to my feet and grab my blaster as I hear Sabine fighting in what sounds like brutal hand to hand combat with three Stormtroopers.

_She didn't stand a chance. She's mentioned before that she could have fought everyone off…no way._

One of the Security detail break off, takes a step back and catches me full in the face with a kick before slapping restraints on me and dragging Sabine and I outside.

_Kallus. I haven't thought about him in a long time._

"Ahh…yes. My two favorite Lothrats. The Mandolorian…and the Jedi's pet." He says in a superior tone. "Get me the team that works in the office that they were found in, and their commanding officer."

"Gar hut'uunla shabla chakaar! haran kando di'kut arasuum osik shabuir!" Sabine yelled loudly at Kallus, then spit at him.

_A big, hunky glob. Yuck._

"Shock him." Kallus says darkly, before a Stormtrooper fires up one of the droids staffs and stabs me with it, sending my body into violent convulsions as a begin screaming my head off. Beside me, Sabine lets out a horrified scream.

"STOP STOP STOPPP!"

Immediately two lightsabers, one red the other blue connect before I dart around Vader and push multiple shipping crates towards Vader.

_Oh._

One again I force my body to stop tensing up and watch as Vader and I are in pitched combat.

_I didn't know I was flying around this much. I'm almost a blur, each move seamlessly transitioning into Vader's response and my answer._

"GET HIM!" Prime yells at me, further emboldening me as I chase Vader down and cut at his right and grabbing a rogue piece of debris. Vader ruthlessly rips it out of my hands and throw it and me. I flash both my hands up and the crate busts apart and careens wildly away before I reengage Vader.

_Slice, duck, Cut, dodge. That's how I remember it. Spin, cut, connect. Then I messed up._

I watch from the sidelines as I do just that, beating Vader back with a Slice, duck, Cut, and dodge then follow that by spinning, cutting at him and connecting with Vader's lower ribcage.

"I know more than you think. And you like me for that." I smile, causing Vader to roar in fury and telegraphs chop at me which I easily block then duck under, rise up and clear space by slamming the plate of armor on my arm right into his face, sending Vader sprawling back. "You haven't actually been hit in the face in awhile, have you?"

_Oh man. That looked really bad. I caught him full in the face. Not a single inch was spared._

Seconds later, I cut at his chest panel, Vader bats it away before grabbing my throat in a Force Choke and spinning his lightsaber in his hand, connecting with my arm as I flash it out to shock him.

_Hold on…I do that. I spin my lightsaber n my hand. I basically fed my hand to it._

Blaster bolts start flying all around before the panicked shouts of Rebel soldiers catch my attention and I notice Barriss, my clone and a battalion of Stormtroopers protecting the clone as another battalion escorts my Mom out thru a side door. Mom hesitates and looks right at me just as Darcy grabs me and firmly pushes me away.

_Oh._

A firm, yet gentle hand grips my shoulder, slightly breaking my concentration.

_Guess it's dinner or something if she's going to interrupt me._

I let out a breath then watch Mom disappear in a wave of Stormtroopers before the image is replaced with my view of the floor as I'm sitting cross-legged while looking out on the beach.

Sabine's parents basically bought us a vacation on a resort on Onderon in order to get us out of Keldabe after my butchering of the Imperial assault. There really hasn't been any response, with _Mand'alor_ and the Prime Minister reminding people that any remaining Imperials that attempt a military action are open to the full might and response of Mandalore's military. _Mand'alor _added that with that being said, vigilante justice isn't the answer to any of Mandalore's problems.

Kanan and Ahsoka weren't angry, but weren't surprised either when Sabine told them that I ripped thru that building, killing indiscriminately while in a angry haze. I explained that I felt fine until I heard those men in masks, thought it was Vader and apparently lost it. Thankfully, Sabine backed me up on that.

_I still don't have my lightsaber back. It's with Sabine's parents at her house, while I'm completely off the planet._

"Hey…you with me?" Sabine asks gently, sliding her hand into mine. I blankly blink while my heart continues to race.

Finally, I nod. "Yeah. I'm still not very good at meditating."

Sabine's laugh fills my ears before she pecks my cheek. "Finally, something you're not good at." In response, my stomach flips and I quickly bite back the urge to heave my lunch.

_Whoa._

"Oh, sorry…I noticed you were tense. I'm sorry." Sabine coos into my ear while gripping me tighter. "I'm sorry. It's just time for dinner. Do you want to wait?"

I shake my head. "No, I'm good."

"You sure?" She fires right back at me. "You're pale."

"It's okay. My attempt to meditate just turned into seeing my worst hits of the year."

I feel Sabine's expression darken as I get to my feet. "Worst hits?"

"Denon, Vader fight. Mom's betrayal." I nod. "My worst hits."

"Oh."

_Yeah. Oh._

"Let's go eat. I saw a good place while I was shopping. Do you mind?" Sabine asks, perking up and looping her arm with mine.

(A/N: This chapter is going to be just a little mature, simply because it's just Ezra and Sabine and they're hormonal teens. If that sort of thing bothers you, this might not be the chapter for you.)

"Nope." I shake my head. "What sort of place is it?"

"It's a local place specializing in fish. I thought that'd be a nice break after Alderaannian the last two nights."

I smile despite my stomach twinging. "Sounds great."

Sabine snatches the keys off the table then guides us out the door, locking the small house we're staying in up before we begin walking down our steps and down a dirt path towards the seaside town that we're close to.

_This place that we're at is super nice. Way more than I was expecting._

"So, I was thinking about the next few months." Sabine says after walking for a few minutes.

"Okay." I answer, not knowing what else to say. In response, Sabine laughs thru her nose.

"I don't think Mom and Dad are going to ask us to get jobs, so I'm thinking of taking a couple of art classes, making some stuff and seeing if a vendor will buy it."

_Jobs?_

I shake my head as my stomach somersaults once more. "They might want us to get jobs?"

"I don't think so." Sabine corrects me. "But we are staying for an extended period, months. They'd have every right to ask."

"I don't know what I'd do." I mutter to myself.

_I've never really held an actual job. I was a child, a thief, then a Jedi. And now a Mandalorian._

Sabine laughs again, then leans her head onto my arm, allowing her undyed hair to glint in the sunset's glow. "You'd think of something. We all would. Besides, we wouldn't just let you die."

"Thanks." I smile. "I like your plan. Any idea what you want to make?"

"I don't know. Last time I went they were doing something with glass that I thought was really cool. Don't know how I'd do it, but it's an idea."

I nod silently. "It is an idea."

The small town slowly creeps over the hill as Sabine and I keep walking.

"I have been working on a little project recently though."

"Really?" I blurt out in shock.

_How's she kept it from me?_

"Yeah." Sabine says, then parts her hair to the side. "I hope you'll like it."

"What is it?"

Sabine binks quickly, then swallows.

_What is she so nervous about?_

I quickly probe her Force Signature before she says "You know how you sliced Vader's helmet off?"

_What? Where are you going with this?_

"Yeah?" I answer.

"Well, uhm…Kal grabbed it after Vader threw it away but before he knew you were hurt. We put it on the _Ghost_."

_WHAT?!_

"Seriously?" I ask her in disbelief. Sabine shakily nods while looking to gauge my reaction.

"It's the whole helmet, down to where it connected to his chest piece. I've been slowly putting it back together., thinking that in a weird way, you might want it."

_Hell yes I want it._

"Yeah I want it. Why'd nobody say anything about it at the time?" I ask her.

We have a Vader helmet. A legit, real Vader helmet.

"There was too much going on at the time. He mentioned it to me while you were in surgery. It's actually very high tech. His eyes must be injured because the lenses are red, not white. I assume they're that way to protect his eyes."

_So the first time he saw my actual face…was when he took his mask off. I'd always had a red tint before._

"Huh. Go figure." I say while nodding.

Sabine's Force Signature perks up just before she smiles and adds. "It's coming together very nicely. I'm just polishing stuff right now. Then we can put it somewhere."

"Thanks." I smile, then pull her close and kiss her cheek. Sabine smiles into the kiss then wraps her arm around my waist.

"You're welcome. I was afraid you wouldn't want it, the memories and all." She admits with a smile.

I shrug. "If nothing else we can get Sof pretty good with it and be able to tell Luke and Leia to avoid a guy with this mask." Sabine lets out a loud laugh, then covers her mouth a people start to look.

_We're starting to get into town._

"Yeah, we'll get Sof good. She'll probably cry though." Sabine smiles, then directs me to a small building.

"Reservation?" The host immediately asks.

"Yes, Two for Bridger?" Sabine says cheerfully before the host checks a laminated sheet, then waves us inside to a table for two.

As soon as we're seated a waitress slips behind the host and asks "What would you like to drink?"

"Can I have tea?" I ask. Immediately the waitress nods then turns to Sabine.

"Can I get _narcolethe_ on the rocks with soda?" Sabine asks her. The waitress smiles, then nods and walks away, leaving a comfortable silence between Sabine and I.

Sabine interrupts the silence after a moment. "Have you been to a concert before?"

"No." I shake my head while inspecting the menu.

_The Freighter salad looks good. Bantha bacon bits, cheese and a full salad on top of it._

"—here's a music festival at home right after we get home. I was thinking of buying tickets if you want to go."

I shrug while examining the menu. "That's fine."

"There's even a potential orgy afterward."

Immediately my head snaps up. "WHAT."

_NO._

Sabine smirks. "That got your attention."

_I…_

"Sorry." I say sheepishly.

"No problem." She smiles. "I do have a real question when we order…"

Right on cue, our waitress comes back with our drinks, the _narcolethe _and my tea. "And what would we like to order?"

"I'll have the Freighter salad." I smile.

"Dressing?" She fires back.

"The house is fine." I smile at the waitress, who turns to Sabine.

"I'll have the Hauskhua fish please." Sabine smiles before taking my menu from me and handing it to the waitress.

Then, for a moment we simply stare at each other.

"So…" I smile.

Sabine beams. "Its actually kind of important."

"Important. Got it." I smile a little too widely, causing her to break and laugh.

"Okay…" She smiles. "I was thinking the other night…."

_Where is she going with this?_

"Do you want kids?"

I feel my body freeze up.

_Kids?_

Kids?

"Uhhh…I don't know." I stumble over my words, causing Sabine's eyebrows to drop.

"You don't?"

"No, no!" I quickly try to cover for myself. "I've never thought about it. Never had to."

_She's on birth control._

"I know. But I have been thinking, with all this free time we've been having."

"Do you?" I anxiously ask.

_Soon?_

Sabine shyly smiles as she sips her _narcolethe_. "Yeah. I do. Two boys and a girl. One with my last name, one with yours, then a girl to scare you to death."

_Uhh…_

I nervously laugh, then smile. "Okay. I can do that."

_Three kids. The last names though…I do like that._

"I know you can. That's not the question. I just wanted to know if…you had like a timeline or anything in mind?"

_After we finish fighting the Empire._

"After we defeat the Empire." I tell her. "But…yeah. Kids."

_Kids._

How long has she been thinking about this?

"You…really want kids? With me?" I cut her off as she opens her mouth to respond to me and follows that by leaning back in her seat.

"Yeah…I do. I really do. I kind of realized it a couple of mornings ago when I woke up. You were snoring and drooling on your pillow, and I just thought 'I think I can do this for the rest of my life.'" Sabine says softly, then sips her drink again.

"I guess I've never really thought about it. Any of this."

Sabine cracks a grin. "You're so linear, and I love you for it."

"Sorry." I say sheepishly. "I'm not good at looking into the future."

_It's like I uninstalled that part of my brain._

"So you wouldn't mind wrestling around with me in bed for years?"

_No._

No I would not.

A blush quickly starts rising into my face before I shake my head. "Nope."

_She's good. I'm just glad that we have some privacy now because I was finishing WAY too early. Sabine was nice about it though._

She's way better than I deserve, that's for sure. The best thing that's ever happened to me for SURE.

"I didn't think so. Otherwise I would have to put on a show tonight."

"Feel free." I pop off, catching Sabine off guard and getting an astonished laugh out of her.

"Listen to you…" She giggles. "I might have to just to see your face."

_Sabine…_

I don't want to know what my face looks like.

"Let's not and say we did."

Sabine shakes her head. "Pass, I don't know anyone I'd want to talk about that with. Oh! That reminds me." She lights up.

"What?"

"I bought us something." She smiles, looking like she just caught the canary.

"What?" I ask.

She takes a big breath. "Remember on Onderon, when that aural disruptor silenced the sound of that entire battle?"

"Yeah." I nod.

"Well I found a miniature version…for our room at home."

_No…_

That means…

"Yeah." Sabine smiles at my expression I assume. "I want to test it. Tonight. Loud."

_I always try to mute myself because on Denon that was an issue._

"Really?" I ask her.

"Really." She nods just before our food gets here.

_Really._


	121. Nail in the Coffin

"My lord…?" A fearful, shaking voice speaks up.

"Gusshhh…Shhh…Yes Vaneé?" A deep voice below me rumbles out.

The fearful man drops his eyes further as my own continue to scroll across the screen. "The shuttle you sent for from Eadu is here."

_Geonosian queen egg still unaccounted for after Imperial probe droid reported a lone male Geonosian on the surface of the world._

Bridger and his band of Rebels have no idea of the true intentions of the Empire. They believe themselves to be close, but that fact that they have not yet discovered a hint of the Death Star reveals their true failure.

_And to think that they wasted their time believing that I can be saved._

My hand flashes over the display in front of me. "Send my guest in."

'_Mandalore': Over 35 Imperial revolutionaries are still unaccounted for after attempting to take the building of the Office of Mand'alor. One unconfirmed report that saw the scene before it the building was locked down described it as "a war zone"._

You cannot throw off the scent of the Dark Side…can you young Bridger?

My hand scrolls thru a few reports at lightning pace.

_Market stall operator and Imperial sympathizer that requested to only be identified as 'Skal' reported that Bridger, his wife, the little girl and her parents are seen planetside every day, with the only exception being the time the entire family went to Lana Malreaux funeral on Centares. Bridger and his wife weren't seen for a full week planetside, but were spotted eating on Onderon at a restaurant near the Iclia coast. The last few weeks have returned to a sense of normal with all Wren's and Bridger accounted for on Mandalore in Keldabe._

Five picture quickly pop up, and I feel my jaw twitch.

"Ezra Osirus Bridger – Lothal/Mandalore – Ghost Rebel Cell. Husband of Sabine Wren, Son of Ephraim and Mira Bridger" the file reads with a picture of myself smiling confidently at the camera.

"Sabine Mesh'la Wren – Mandalore - Ghost Rebel Cell. Wife of Ezra Bridger, Daughter of Bo-Katan Kryze Wren and Carid Wren" with a picture of Sabine with blue hair smiling at the camera.

_45 Market Street Keldabe, MA, MDLRE 75486218_

"Sophine Satine Wren – Mandalore - Ghost Rebel Cell. Daughter of Bo-Katan Kryze Wren and Carid Wren" with a picture of Sophie beaming at the camera dressed in good clothes.

"Bo-Katan Kryze Wren – Formally known only as Bo-Katan Kryze - Mandalore – Former/Current Leader of the terrorist organization Death Watch – Parents unknown – Mother of Sophine Wren and Sabine Wren" the description reads, with a blank spot for a picture beside it.

"Carid Wren - Experimental Designs Supervisor, Head Design Analyst, MandalMotors Board Member. Parents unknown – Father of Sophine Wren and Sabine Wren" the file says with a picture of him accepting some sort of award.

The screen suddenly changes to "Personality profiles and weaknesses" before the sound of a door opening causes me to turn.

"Gusshhh…Shhh…"

A small, slight woman with frizzy hair slowly and anxiously walks toward me.

_She's terrified, deservedly so._

"You may approach…Mrs. Bridger."

The Force rings with further terror before she stumbles up onto the dais with me. "What do you see?" I ask her.

"I see…oh."

_Oh. All you have to say…is oh._

I remain silent, allowing my armor to speak for me and intimidate.

"You're still interested in my son, Lord Vader." Mrs. Bridger says boldly.

I spin to her. "Your lack of information betrays you. Interested doesn't describe the word. Let me show you something…" Instantly, my decisive victory over Bridger pops onto the screen, stopped at the precise spot I had requested. "Watch." I order her.

The holo plays as Bridger and I fight on the walkway before I catch him exposed and grab his neck in a Force Choke. He attempts to retaliate and end the fight by means of Force Lightning, but I cut that short by slicing off his left hand halfway up the forearm.

"AHHHH!" Mrs. Bridger screams in horror before I pull Bridger to me, reveal the true weakness of his that I've known all along, then fling him away, causing the duracrete to fall and enclose his unconscious body.

"Do you see now why I am not interested?" I question Mrs. Bridger delicately. She doesn't respond, instead opting to watch as Bridger doesn't come out right away as I'm nearly overcome by his comrades before the Lasat moves the pile of debris and extracts young Bridger, sending a wave of relief from her thru the Force.

"He is still alive. Unharmed. Being monitored around the clock. If he moves against me once more, he and his family will be exterminated." I tell Mrs. Bridger simply, sending more terror thru the Force.

_Unknowingly making me stronger._

Finally, Mrs. Bridger lowers her head. "I apologize my son did not join your side My Lord."

"Despite your best efforts to the contrary?" I ask her.

"Excuse me?" She asks before adding "My Lord."

I take a single step forward and ground out "I know _precisely_ what happened at that Clone Wars frigate Mrs. Bridger. You were willing to defect before we infiltrated, got that datapad to you and scared you back into line." She doesn't look up from the floor before I continue. "Now I understand wanting to save your own skin, but the flimsy lack of morality or human decency to betray _your only son, your ONLY CHILD_…you might just be a traitor to yourself."

"I…" Mrs. Bridger chokes out, not looking up. "I'm sorry! I didn't know what to do! I love my son! I wanted him to see the light! It's futile to resist, I mean just LOOK AT ALL THIS?!" She howls, finally looking up to reveal a frantic expression and complete terror.

"Director Krennic says that your progress has stalled." I change tact.

"Oh." Mrs. Bridger blurts out once again. "Is…that why you have me here today?"

"Gusshhh…Shhh…I have you here today because I wish to have you in my presence, in my own castle. Do not presume to understand me or my motivations, Bridger…"

Mrs. Bridger immediately cowers. "Yes, I apologize My Lord."

"However…with your son being a determined loose end and your progress on the Death Star's superlaser stalled…you have outlived your usefulness."

Terror is injected into the Force as Mrs. Bridger freezes up. "What? No—GAHHH!"

Without a second thought, I lift her into the air, pinching my thumb, index and thumb before slowly bringing them closer and closer together.

"My lord…GAHHHH!"

"SNAP!"

Mrs. Bridger's body hits the floor just before I yell in terror and my arms in legs get entangled in blankets.

"AHHHHH!" I thrash around before a hand falls onto my shoulder.

_NO!_

I simply grab the owner of the hand and push them firmly away before multiple yells sound out, a heavy 'THUD!' rings out and I spin around to people running.

"SOPHIE?!"

"SOF!"

"Sabine, wake him up!" Mrs. Wren's voice sounds out before a loud groan sounds out and I force my eyes open to the sight of Sabine on the couch, on her knees preparing to slap me.

_What's going on?_

Sabine sees me open my eyes and hesitates. "He's up!" before I look and see Prime, Mira, Darcy and Mr. Wren helping Sof to her feet under a spot in the wall that's dented in.

_Was that…?_

"Did I do that?" I ask quietly, causing everyone to turn and look at me.

I…

_I was Vader. He had all our information. He had our address. He had my Mom…_

He killed my Mom.

_I'm the last one of us left._

The gravity of the situation hits me, and I feel omit rise up in my throat before I force it back down and slump down onto my pillows.

_I was tired. I was going to take a nap before Sabine and her parents cooked for everyone._

Something was supposed to go on.

"—that normal? The yelling, thrashing around and pushing people?!" Will asks Sabine as behind him Sophie takes an icepack.

"I'm okay…my head kinda hurts though." Sophie tells her father, who looks anxious.

Sabine shakes her head. "No, nothing ever like that. Sometimes he kicks in a nightmare, but that's normal. That's never, ever happened before…"

"Are you okay?" I hear Mrs. Wren asks someone as I look to Sophie, who looks shaken and has a line of tears coming down her face.

"Ezra!" Mrs. Wren yells at me, casing me to jump in fright.

"Mom! Don't yell at him! It's not going to help!" Sabine bites at her mother, still kneeling in my lap. "Give him a second to adjust!"

_Castle. Vader thinks we're no big threat that wasted his time trying to save Anakin Skywalker. He still thinks I'm doomed to fall to the Dark Side._

He knows exactly what's going on. He always has. Those pictures he has…

_Sabine's and mine are from our passport pictures. Sophie's is her school ID picture._

"What'd I do?" I turn to Sabine nervously.

_I'm in trouble._

"You were fine until about five minutes ago, you fell asleep before everyone got here. Then out of nowhere you started rolling over and muttering nonsense. The muttering turned to yelling, kicking then we moved to wake you up and you pushed Sof into the wall." Sabine explains.

"I what?!" I jump, then turn to Sophie looking at me, still holding the icepack to her head.

Darcy asks me "What happened? What'd you see?"

"Is this more about those nightmares you've been having?" Kal asks me as I try to reach out and probe for my Mom's Force Sig…

…

…_nature…_

…

"Ezra?" Mr. Wren asks, voice soft.

_Mom's dead._

I can't explain how I know…but I know.

"Hey…what happened?" Sabine gently asks me before I drop my gaze from her and shake my head.

"I was Vader. I saw everything from his point of view. He was looking at files of us. You, me, your parents, Sof, everyone. Had all our personal information, this address, everything. I could hear everything he was thinking too. He knows where we are, where we've been, all that. He thinks we wasted time on him while straying away from the Death Star. Then…some guy came in and said his guest has arrived. It was my Mom. He…I, he proceeded to lay into her, saying that she's betrayed literally everyone who cared about her. And that there was an Imperial at Safe Zone. He got Mom the datapad that she betrayed us with. Vader showed her the Tibrin fight, then promised her that if I stepped out of line, everyone would pay the price." I swallow then continue.

"Finally, he said that some guy, Krennic or something had told him that Mom's progress had stalled, I think on those Kyber Crystals. Vader said that she'd finally outlived her usefulness…and choked her. Then I woke up." I croak out, then see everyone looking horrified at me. The room stays silent for what feels like years before Sabine gently pulls me into her arms.

"Can you feel your Mom?" She whispers into my ear. I shake my head, then finally crack and choke out a sob into her shoulder before Sabine pulls me close and I finally lose it.

_I'm the last Bridger. Out of the three of us on Lothal, I'm the last one._

I'm all alone.

I don't hear anybody speak up except for small footsteps. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry…" Sabine whispers into my ear before I feel Sof tentatively approach.

_I need to say sorry._

Gently, I try to extract myself from Sabine and turn to where Sof is silently crying again. "I'm sorry. I didn't know it was you." I tell her softly, then try to swallow the lump in my throat.

"It's okay…" Sof replies, looking heartbroken before hugging my head softly. I unconsciously laugh and ean into Sof's hug.

"I'm going to go make a few calls really quick Bo. I'll be back for dinner." I hear Mr. Wren say before I hear his footsteps start upstairs.

(A/N: Surprise! I owe you a million chapters, and I started to write this one and what do you know, I get the whole thing done in one afternoon. So I feel obligated to post it. Again, sorry about all the delays. Hopefully two in two days will tide you over until next Friday. You're all wonderful readers and I thank you for sticking with me so I never ask anything: Until now. Can everyone that reads this please comment on this chap and answer one question: What story should I do next?

A.) A Flaming Rebellion "sequel" of a sort, with a little more reading required. You'd have to read another story to understand what is really going on. (Barrier of entry if you will)

B.) A completely different Star Wars Rebels story

I'm trying to decide myself, and I like both ideas that I have. But I'm nothing without you, my readers and I would like to have you all along for the ride of my next story. So if you could review preferably or PM me and answer that question, I'd really appreciate it. I'm indebted to you all. Hope you enjoyed the chapter! –James)


	122. Chords

"He is still alive. Being monitored around the clock. If he moves against me once more, he and his family will be exterminated."

_He and his family will be exterminated._

I blindly follow the man in front of me as our row begins filing out of our seats and towards the reception area. Directly behind me is Sabine, followed by Sophie and her parents.

I can't tell you three words of the actual ceremony at this wedding. I've been running thru my Vader nightmare again to try and figure out what I can take from it.

That night's dinner was really weird. Mr. Wren was up in his office from the moment I hugged Sof until his wife went up there to talk to him and tell him that dinner was ready. The dinner conversation wasn't forced, but it didn't flow as easy as normal, with everyone clearing a wide berth for me.

I don't think I said five words.

I couldn't sleep that night, every time I closed my eyes I saw myself as Vader choking the life out of my Mom. Once I realized that I couldn't sleep and wouldn't be able to, I planned to go up to Mr. Wren's office and do some Force practice, maybe even some meditation in place of actual sleep.

But Sabine's father was up all night in his office working. On what, I don't know and he hasn't said a word. I ended up in the guest room meditating, or at least trying to. I ended up running thru the lowlights of my year just like on Onderon again, in just as punishing detail. As hard as I try not to, I keep finding myself coming to the conclusion that I have to clean up my act and keep my head down.

"If he moves against me once more, he and his family will be exterminated."

The only thing I really know now, is that everything has been delayed or postponed with the exception of my checkup for my hand in a few months. Mrs. Wren holocommed Ahsoka and Kanan who apparently are on Dantooine, the Rebel base that Leia told me about way back when we were still at Safe Zone. Together, they came to the conclusion that making another move right now would be a catastrophic blow due to the promise of Vader's revenge.

_Which is a lot more than a promise._

It's about the Wren's contacts and resources too. Apparently Sabine's father has his hands in a lot of big pots so he's right up there, unbeknownst to me. Not to mention that I'm one of three known Jedi. The other two are training our only student with the fourth guarding the potential savior of us all somewhere out in the galaxy. Losing me would be a crippling blow simply for knowledge's sake because in Kanan's words: "Ezra is the best repository of Makashi knowledge in addition to experience with the Empire's tactics and strategies." Everyone's grounded. Me, Sabine, Sof, their parents, Prime and those guys, Darcy and the girls, everyone.

Because of a dream.

"Here, something for your hands at least." I hear Sabine tell me, then look around and see that I'm sitting at a table while the dance floor is sparsely populated right now.

I take the drink she's extending to me, then throw on a smile. "Thanks."

"Loosen up…" I hear Mrs. Wren say behind me before reaching out and massaging my shoulders. "You're as stiff as stone."

She knows why. They all know why.

_I said I wouldn't be a burden, and now I've become a burden._

"Trying." I smile, then look at the slacks, vest and jacket combo that Sabine and I bought for a few days ago.

It looks good.

Sabine's in a purple dress and Sophie chose a light blue dress, so everyone's dressed for the occasion.

"You said there would be food right?" Sophie asks her Mom.

"Yes _ad'ika_, I don't know where though."

I pop to my feet almost subconsciously. "I'm hungry too Sof, let's go find a snack." Sophie lets out a small cheer before racing around the table to catch up to me.

Can't blame Sof at all for being hungry. She's young and when you're hungry, you're hungry. We didn't eat dinner before coming because apparently the two socialites that are being formally united tonight have taken care of that for everyone who accepted invitations.

Sophie bounces alongside me before my stomach loudly rumbles. Immediately she beams up at me and giggles before I roll my eyes at her. "C'mon…"

"Hehehe…" She continues laughing as we snake our way alongside the dance floor before we walk into another room where tables are set from the front to the back of the room with stations set up.

Whoa.

Sophie takes an excited gasp, then hops into the air while tugging on my jacket. "Ezra! Look at it!"

"They really went all out didn't they?" I say, then pull Sof off to the right with me so that we don't stop the flow of people coming in and out of the room.

Pulled Worrt, bantha steaks, potatoes, sautéed peppers, flame broiled meat, enormous salad dishes, three tables just for desserts…

"No, c'mon. Actual food first." I say, grabbing Sof just as she begins to drift toward the chocolate cake section of the table.

"But by the time we come back it'll all be gone!" She argues while trying to slip out of my grasp.

I smirk at Sof. "No, if they have this much food at the start, they probably have people cooking more somewhere in the back."

This complex is huge.

"More?!" Sophie says gleefully.

"Yeah, more. You think all this will feed everyone who came here?" I gesture to all the food around us. Sof quickly shakes her head, then starts pulling me towards the middle row of stations and grabs a table.

I probably should stick with her as she gets her food, then come back and get mine.

Unsuspecting, Sof grabs a plate and immediately begins loading it up with _tiingilar_, potatoes with gravy and spice mixed in, vegetables, a roll, salad…

"You'll be able to get more Sof." I reassure her.

_She probably won't be able to eat what she's got. Her eyes are bigger than her stomach._

Sof's face falls. "But there's more I want—Prime!"

_Prime?_

I turn to try and spot him just before he darts past my waist and saves Sof's plate from falling onto the floor. Sof yelps and grabs half the plate as combined, they stop calamity.

"There…crisis averted. If that'd fallen I might have cried." Prime jokes, rising back to his feet. "Be careful Sophie."

"Sorry! I just saw you though and got excited!" Sophie explains, looking embarrassed just before I hear Aidan laugh.

"I think that's the fastest I've ever seen him move." She jokes with me, cracking a smile while waking up in a dress cut near her knee that's a shiny gray. I laugh as Prime looks over with a sheepish smile.

"Just trying to prevent disasters."

I smile at Prime and Aidan. "So you got an invite too?"

"Yup." Prime nods. "My folks did, at least."

"I'm his plus one." Aidan adds, looking displeased.

"What's that?"

Prime explains "She's my date, it's a formal expression."

"Yeah, formal's not my specialty." I confess, then smile and get both Aidan and Prime to laugh.

"It's stuffy, but whatever." Aidan shrugs.

I turn to Prime. "Is anyone else here?"

"Yeah, everyone's here. I would tell you to come on back, but our families are here too and you know…" He trails off.

_Blast._

"Yeah. No offense but I don't want to do that dance tonight." I say wearily, then smile tiredly at them. Thankfully, they both immediately seem to understand.

Prime waves away any concern. "No, I get it. Kal said what you said about being thanked. And they'd heap it on, so no need. You get it."

"Ezra?" Sof pipes up.

I spin back to her. "Yeah? What's up?"

"Can we go sit down? My arms are getting tired." She says, looking embarrassed. Immediately, I crack a smile while Prime and Aidan laugh.

"That's a good problem to have, so much food you can barely carry it! C'mon." Prime smiles at Sof before turning to Aidan. "Babe, I'll walk Sof to the Wren's. You can grab food. I'll be back before you're done."

Aidan nods. "Sounds good." Before Prime and Sof walk away.

"Now what have you got there…" Prime's voice trails off.

"You're so lucky. You know that?" Aidan immediately tells me.

I turn to her. "I am?"

"Your in-laws are easy to talk to." Aidan says, a serious expression on her face.

_In-laws?_

"My what?" I ask.

Aidan quickly cringes. "Sorry, I forgot you don't know this sort of thing. Sabine's parents, your wife, Prime's family to me. In-laws."

_Oh._

"Prime's aren't easy to talk to?" I ask her.

"No, right now we have very…little to talk about. Oh damn." She mutters. "Damn, damn, damn."

"What?" I ask, spotting Prime talking to an older man who sort of looks like Prime with Sof by his side.

Aidan sighs. "That's Prime's dad. Optimus Cadera, Of House and Clan Cadera."

_BLAST!_

"I'm stuck aren't I?" I blurt out.

_His father's gonna ask who Sof is. Prime'll explain that she's Sabine's sister. Sabine is my wife._

Direct line to me.

"Yeah." Aidan says just before Prime and his father turn to Aidan and I.

_Damn._

"This…is going to suck." I say to myself more than anything.

_I don't want to do this. I just love my guys, I don't want to do this whole song and dance with their grateful families for me being a Jedi…_

"Oh yeah. But hey, your guys are there. You have somebody to talk to." Aidan counters as Prime scoops up Sof's plate and the three of them start this way, Sophie with a grumpy expression that she's clearly trying to hide.

_She just wants to eat. She's hungry._

"Hey, uh, Ezra. I mentioned that my folks are here…this is my father." Prime says to me, clearly reluctant then turns to his father. "This is Ezra, who _Mand'alor_ assigned me to.

I turn my attention to Prime's father, who is maybe an inch shorter than his son but more muscular. "Optimus Cadera. Most people call me Op." Mr, Cadera says formally, then extending his hand. "I'm honored."

"No need to be sir, it's a pleasure to meet you." I smile warmly while shaking his hand. Sophie simply sidles up to me looking helpless.

_Aww._

"Prime's been rather obtuse about what you've been doing, but he has told me the…necessary details about you and the boys. They'd all like to meet you."

I smile, mind going at lightspeed. "Sure sir, but can you give me a minute? Sof just wants to eat. I'll walk her back to our table then come back?"

_Let's kill two birds with one stone. Make the most of a bad situation._

"Sure, absolutely. They're welcome to join us. Prime said you're married? We'd love to meet her too."

DAMMIT!

_I'm running out of easy options here!_

"Yeah, I am." I say blankly.

Prime's father claps his hands together with a smile. "Wonderful. Prime, you go acquire his family and meet us all back at our tables."

"Okay." I reply, just before Prime's father looks away and I lift the roll off Sof's plate that in Prime's hands and levitate it quickly into Sof's hands.

_It's something at least._

Sof reflexively catches it, then blinks and lights up before taking a bite out of it.

"Aidan, you know where we're seated correct?" Mr. Cadera turns and asks her.

Aidan brightens up. "Oh yeah, we'll grab some food and be right back there."

"Wonderful, just wonderful…" Prime's father replies before clapping me on the shoulder warmly and walking the opposite direction. Prime meanwhile briefly looks at me before giving me a MASSIVE eyeroll.

"C'mon Sof, our odyssey continues…" He says. Sophie simply stuffs the rest of her roll in her mouth and turns to follow Prime.

Aidan quietly giggles beside me. "Poor Sof."

"She just wants to eat. She was starving before the ceremony was over." I explain.

_This probably feels like an eternity to her._

"Poor girl. But good idea with the roll. I barely saw it." She compliments me before drifting towards a food station.

I guess I could grab some food too.

"Reflex, I felt bad and just did it. Didn't really even think about it." I explain. Aidan nods, then silently drifts off towards the Tonitrky station.

_Good call._

I drift over to the potatoes station and slip in to grab some mashed potatoes, creating my normal bowl then fill it with a brown gravy.

_Where to now?_

My eyes scan a portion of the room and eventually settle on what looks like a roast with a type of broccoli before filling the rest of my plate with a "garden variety" salad with my ranch dressing.

_Now to find Aiden._

I spin around in time to find her retreating figure walking in the same direction Prime's father walked toward and start that way, finally walking into a larger room with scattered tables for the most part but with multiple tables pushed together. Randomly, the Force jolts with surprise, and I snap my eyes up to see Orir jump to his feet and take a step toward me.

"Hey, Prime's dad just mentioned…" He trails off while leaning into me and grabbing my arm affectionately.

I smile forcibly. "Yeah."

"You'll be okay. They can be a little tough to take though." He warns me before stepping away and seeing Will in front of me.

"Ezra! Didn't know you were here."

"Just got here." I smile blankly, not knowing what else to do before a attractive young woman with dark blonde hair, a sharp jaw and sharper features sidles up to Will's side.

Will nods attentively, then gestures to his friend. "_'Karta_, this is my friend Ezra. Ezra, this is my friend Tracyn."

"Most everybody calls me Tracy. Nice to meet you." Tracyn lights up before moving to shake my hand politely.

I Probe with the Force while shaking her hand. "Nice to meet you as well."

_They're…close. And she's beautiful. I wonder why he's never mentioned her before?_

"Orir's somewhere…" Will begins, turning away from Tracy and I to peer down the table, most of whom are looking at us before I spot Orir with a Tonitrky leg in his mouth.

"I see him, Prime went to grab Sabine and her family." I tell Will, who nods.

Tracy turns her back to me and moves to start pulling Will away. "Let's have him sit and—"

"Hang on, this is important Trace…" Will says softly, turning back around—

"Sophie!" A high pitched male voice sounds out just before a light haired blur flies by Will. I turn and see Sophie and Prime, who still has Sof's plate before Sof lights up and hugs the light haired boy.

"Kex! Hi!" Sophie lights up, then hugs the boy.

"What are you doing here?" The boy names Kex asks Sof.

"I came with Prime. Ezra's my family." Sof explains simply, then points to me.

Will asks me "Sof knows my little brother?"

"I don't know." I shrug. "I can barely keep track of who I know." I joke, causing many of the seated people to my left to laugh loudly. "You have a brother?"

"Yup." Will nods. "Kex! Get over here and say hi. This is my officer."

The Force lets out a wave of surprise before Kex walks over to me, followed by Sof. "Oh, hi."

"Hi." I smile and wave awkwardly.

_I suck at this. And I'm not Will's officer._

"C'mon, sit with me Sophie. There's spots right over here at the kids table…" Kex says before Sof moves to follow, Prime in tow with her food.

"Primus, I thought your father said you went to get seconds?" A woman's voice sounds out.

Prime looks over his shoulder. "I did, got distracted Mom!"

_Mom._

I turn and spot Prime's father sitting next to a woman who looks like she's daydreaming directly opposite from me. "Sit down Ezra, please. You must be starved. Introductions to everyone's parents and stuff can wait."

Right away, Will and Tracy disappear and I sit down opposite Prime's father, glancing down the way and spotting Kal sit down before saying something to I think is Orir's parents.

_His father is supposed to be a better cook than his mother, I remember than from when they first came over to eat._

"So son, dig in, how are you liking Mandalore?" Mr. Cadera asks warmly just as I take a bite of my mystery roast. I quickly cringe, then swallow and try to clear my throat.

"I like it, love it actually the more I see it."

He fires right back "How much have you gotten to see?"

"Keldabe, a little bit of Sundari and the mountain regions." I say on the fly, mimicking Mr. Wren's tone when he talks about the mountains.

"Oh, the mountains! The resorts and sports up there were amazing as a child for me." Prime's father booms out with a smile before I probe out and feel Sabine enter the room.

Quickly, I take another bite before Mr. Cadera can get in another word, spin in my seat and wave my hand to catch Sabine's attention, who is eying the room before seeing me, smiling and drifting toward the empty chair next to me.

"Hey Ezra, Mr. and Mrs. Cadera." Sabine says respectfully, then bowing her head to Prime's father.

"You know them?" I ask.

_I thought I was about to have to make introductions._

Sabine sits down as Prime's father accepts her bow of respect and gestures for her to sit. "Kind of, I know who they are because they're Clan Heads."

_And because I told her Prime was their son a little while back after I learned. Systa Agol and all that._

"Which is more than any would expect of her. Congratulations, however late, on your engagement." Mrs. Cadera speaks for the first time.

_She sounds nice enough._

"Thank you, it's not really official I guess. Ezra and I have kept it quiet." Sabine shrugs, then starts in on her plate, which is loaded to the brim.

"Quiet isn't the half of it. Sophie, her sister had to tell us." Prime jokes, sliding past his parents to sit on his father's right.

I frown. "Because we couldn't find a decent time to. It's not something that should just be thrown out there."

"Everyone has a feel for the situation and it's important to be respectful of that." Mr. Cadera says evenly.

Prime quickly adds "I mean no disrespect, obviously." Prime smiles at Sabine and I. "Just commenting on how quiet they keep things."

"You're Sabine Wren, right?" A voice asks to my right. I turn in time for Sabine to swallow and nod.

"That's me. Hi." Sabine smiles warmly.

Orir's father coldly cuts in "The girl who abandoned her education at the Academy."

_WHOA!_

"Excuse me?" I lean forward to get a clear view of Orir's father as Sabine barely slides away from the table.

"She's Sabine Wren, the girl who left the Academy and forced her parents into a long period of suffering over her disappearance before she mysteriously reappeared." Orir's father restates in the same cold tone.

"Dad!" Orir speaks up, sounding angry.

_He's an Imperial sympathizer._

"I don't believe her past has much bearing on—" Will's mother jumps in before I cut her off.

"Not to correct you sir, she's my wife. And I'm lucky to have her."

"And the fact that family matters should stay inside closed doors and respected. Right _Ste'v_?" Mr. Wren says darkly, suddenly appearing from nowhere with his wife by his side frowning at Orir's father.

"…Right you are. Carid." _Ste'v_ says awkwardly.

"Good to see you again _Ste'v_." Mrs. Wren adds with the threat of more behind it .

_Again?_

Prime's father clears his throat as down the table Kal's parents make room for Sabine's parents and they start introducing themselves. "House Wren, Clan Vizla if I'm not wrong?"

"Yes." Sabine answers shortly before continuing to eat.

"Sabine's an expert marksman with a blaster as well as explosives and is proficient in hand to hand combat Father." Prime turns to his father.

He nods before adding "I believe I remember your _adol'a_. Controversial class, but one that adheres to the _resol'nare_ fervently."

"It guides my life. I wouldn't be where I am without it." Sabine adds simply before continuing to eat. I quickly copy her to give myself something to do.

Mrs. Cadera adds "And from the little Prime's told us, you too are a skilled warrior..?"

"Ezra." Sabine fills in for her.

I nod and smile warmly to try and patch over the awkwardness. "I try."

"Seeing him in battle once was enough to convince me, despite my initial hesitation." Prime slightly lowers his voice.

_That's exaggerating things._

I frown slightly at Prime before cutting off another piece of roast. "I would imagine so Primus, especially since he's not supposed to exist."

"The gods smiled favorably on me, what can I say?' Prime smiles then starts working on his plate. I continue to do the same along Prime's parents and Sabine .

"Then I take it that you are at least partially responsible for Prime meeting Aiden." Mrs. Cadera smiles warmly at Aiden, who I've forgotten about next to Prime.

I smile sheepishly. "Kind of, I guess."

"Well good, he needs someone." His mother smiles at Prime lowers his eyes. "Thanks Mom."

"Oh, that reminds me!" Aiden blurts out, getting Sabine, Prime, his parents and I to look at her. "Mr. Wren, sir. Thank you."

"Right…" Prime says before using his napkin.

"What?" I ask.

Mr. Cadera eyes me strangely. "You don't know?"

Sabine and I shake out head before her father turns and smiles at Aiden. "Don't thank me yet. It won't be fun and games."

"Yeah, I know." Aiden amends her statement. "But thank you."

"You're welcome." Mr. Wren smiles at Aiden.

_What?_

"We're missing something." Sabine states.

"Yeah, Aiden, Darcy and the others got—" Prime starts.

His mother cuts him off. "Primus, you let her tell her news. Don't be selfish."

"He's not being selfish. He's as excited as I am. Go on." Aiden unloads right back and smiling lovingly at Prime.

Prime hesitates, looking first to Aiden then to his mother before saying very quickly. "Aiden and the girls got hired by Sabine's father for security. Mira for research and development."

_WHOA!_

"That's great!" I smile widely. "I didn't know…"

Sabine nods. "Yeah. When'd you apply? You could have just come over and done it."

"He approached us the other day. Commed Prime at home, asked for our address and sent an invitation to talk to his supervisor where we found out we'd been hired for a job we didn't apply for."

Mr. Wren jumps in. "The best jobs aren't really opened. You and the others have demonstrated skills we can use. All anyone needs is a helping hand, and I'm willing to do that for them. Don't thank me because you earned it, it wasn't given."

"They must have impressed you." Mr. Cadera comments.

"Very much so." Mr. Wren smiled.

I clear my throat then ask. "MandalMotors is that coveted?"

"Oh yes, it's our top company." Mrs. Cadera.

I open my mouth to respond with a question about MandalMotors but get immediately distracted by the Force grabbing for my attention.

"—yes and the Darks—"

_What?_

Darksaber?

I spin in my chair only to see _Mand'alor_ walking with Mr. Straunch with his head down.

_They want to keep their conversation private._

"Oh, Carid! Bo!" _Mand'alor_ brightens up, grabbing everyone's attention. "I was wondering where you were."

Mr. Wren smiles. "We were in the other room but Prime's family snagged Ezra, so here we are."

"Ezra?" _Mand'alor_ asks, then turns and sees Sabine and I.

"Sir." I bow my head as _Mand'alor_ extends his hands for everyone to remain seated and Mr. Straunch eyes me.

Prime meanwhile, hops to his feet as well as Kal and Orir. "_ba'vodu_." (A/N: An affectionate term or aunt/uncle.)

"Prime my boy, as well as his strong willed friends. How are you?" Mr. Straunch actually smiles at Prime.

_He can smile?!_

"Great, great." Prime smiles as Kal and Orir shake Mr. Straunch's hand. "I'd like you to meet my commander, the man _Mand'alor_ asked us all to serve with, Ezra."

_Oh._

I hesitate before I feel his shock thru the Force.

_Blast. I know what happened._

"Oh. Well that explains a lot." Mr. Straunch nods at me as I stand up before everyone minus _Mand'alor _looks lost.

_He trained Prime, Kal, Orir, Will and Ordo. They told him they're serving with a Jedi. And he's just now making the connection._

Well maybe he can't hate me anymore.

"Sir." I smile before Straunch looks back to _Mand'alor_ briefly.

"You didn't say. You just asked for his second chance."

_Mand'alor_ simply smiles. "Who he is shouldn't matter. It was an error on both sides."

"_Bav_, what are we missing?" Will asks, joining us.

"I'll…tell you later. Long story. But I know Mr. Bridger as well."

Kal turns and asks "You do?" I nod.

"Daddy?" Sof breaks the tension, sidling up to her father. "Can Kex and I go listen to the orchestra's new song?"

Mrs. Wren turns and smiles. "Kex! Hi dear! I didn't see you here."

"I'm…with Will…" Kex says shyly, positively cowering at _Mand'alor_.

"Will? Oh, the hair…" Mrs. Wren makes the connection.

Her husband asks "They're related?"

"Big bad older brother." Bo explains.

Will laughs. "Kind of, when I need to be."

"Speaking of the orchestra, I think Ezra would like it, plus we can grab some cake." Prime jumps in. "We'll be right back."

Sof and Kex dart right around _Mand'alor_ as Sabine stands up. "I don't know if Ezra'll like it. He's not big on live music."

"Has he seen the Onderonian Orchestra in action? No, c'mon." Prime dismisses her concerns before following Sof and Kex.

_But I don't…really like live music. That festival thing Sabine took me too wasn't all that good to me. I didn't like it. Sabine and I ended up leaving halfway thru and I bought her dinner._

I felt bad.

Up in front of us, a crowd starts to gather before Will laughs and smirks at me. "You've never heard anything like this before…"

"And now, the Onderonian Orchestra, conducted by the esteemed Sir John Williams is delighted to play for you their newest composition…The Scavenger." A man calls out, before a series of what sounds like bells starts playing.

(A/N: John Williams has to be in Star Wars. It's a rule. And I had to get Rey's Theme in here somehow. It's better than you remember it. –James)

The music starts picking up, at first gradually, but more instruments begin joining in as the pace gets faster…and faster…

_Whoa._

"Look at Sof…" Sabine nudges Prime and points to Sof, who is standing on a couch with Kex to see.

This is good.

_Really good._

Suddenly the instruments get really loud, and the song just hits another level before one in particular and the soft chimes and tones takes us to the finish.

The room bursts out into applause and I can't help but join in.

_That was beautiful._

Prime laughs, then says to Sabine "Look at him. Told you he'd like it."


	123. Changing Times

_Breathe in…_

Feeling the decorative bookend that are actually the parts of an old hyperdrive drop, I refocus, keeping my right hand behind my back and try to keep the bookend still.

_Breathe out… Good._

My arm slightly twinges from the weight of the bookend, which must be made up of something like Leadianium because for its small size it's got some weight to it. Quickly, I crack my eyes open to see that my left arm's still levitating the bookend, my right is behind my back and that the blankets I laid down to quiet the sound if I accidentally drop it are still there.

_Perfect. Now I can let my mind wander._

Even though I know exactly what I'm going to end up thinking about: The girl just below me that was on top of me just a hour or two ago.

_I haven't been able to keep my mind off her lately. She's been running around Keldabe, doing something, I don't know what while her parents have worked and Sophie's gone to her classes. I've been talking to financial planners, life insurance professionals, career advice specialists…_

They mean well, but it's been awful. Sabine's parents think it might be good for me to do something with my time since it's I'm going to be planetside for awhile.

_I don't know what I want to do. I just want to fight, to win, to compete, to get better. I want to get back to where I was, to get past that and get even better._

I want to get to the point that the next time I see Vader, he's the one backing down and not me. One of my favorite memories of the past year was after we rescued Leia, on the way back to Dxun, Sabine and I talked over every detail of that Vader fight. Sabine's starting to see some of the actual moves instead of just action. I volunteered to help and offered her my datapad so that she's see some of the terms and stuff, but she declined.

_She's a big hands on learner, not somebody that can learn by reading._

Sabine just wants to do things.

_More than anything…I'm just so happy I have her. The past few days despite me still being miserably behind in my Force training, weight training still up in the air and lightsaber combat practice impossible I'm just so…happy._

It sounds dumb, but after dinner tonight while Sabine was helping Sophie with her _Mando'a_ lessons I was in the corner looking up things on my datapad.

_And I think that I'm in love. I can't describe it really, it isn't just one thing. It's her eyes when she smiles or laughs, the way she bites her lip when she's trying to figure something out, how determined yet how encouraging she is to me as I'm trying to beat the odds and this dumb mechno-arm._

_It's her smile as she changes clothes, her force when we finally have some time to ourselves, the little run after she flips on the aural disruptor to leap onto our bed. Her groan when I kiss her, her attempts to get away from me but not really get away from me before I make her night._

"_Ezra, no, move, yes!"_

I crack a smile, probe out and feel Sabine, still asleep one floor below me before refocusing on the bookend and my arm.

_I've got to stay disciplined._

"_Yes!"_

I've probably got to try and get a little bit of sleep here soon. Sabine and I were up for a few hours before tiring out and lying down and watching an episode of some holodrama. She fell asleep and I crept up here to practice.

_At least I can lift things now and move them a little bit. Even a week ago I was having trouble just lifting this thing._

But now I'm finally getting somewhere.

"Creak…"

_That's the door._

"Oh no. Ezra…"

_Huh?_

I spin around, still sitting on his floor and see Mr. Wren, all dressed for work and looking dismayed. "Uh oh."

"You were up all night practicing. Weren't you." He groans, pinching the bridge of his nose and stating his question as a fact.

"What time is it?" I ask him.

_Sabine and I were up for a few hours, then I came up about 2. Granted I never looked at a clock, but we weren't at it for that long…_

"It's 8:40, I came to grab a file up here." He groans, finally looking at me. "You don't have to push yourself so hard Ezra, Bo and I just thought of you finding something to do would help, not for you to do this…"

I hop to my feet quickly. "No, that's not it at all. I lost track of time. I was about to go to bed. The hours must have bled together at some point."

_I've been practicing for an hour, maybe two. Or I'm totally wrong, my timeline's off and I'm doing better practicing than I thought._

Or it's Sabine.

_It's probably Sabine. It was a good night._

Mr. Wren lets out a weary sigh. "Well then, I'm afraid you'll have to run on no sleep unless you want to miss your meeting with Fenn."

_Oh yeah. He asked me to see him tomorrow. Which now is today._

"I better get going, grab something to eat." I say, then try to smile at Mr. Wren, who is clearly flustered. He steps aside, then as I'm almost at the door calls out to me.

"Time's on your side. Don't forget that."

I smile before answering "I won't." and slipping out of the room, down the stairs and towards the kitchen where I feel Sophie and her mother moving around.

"Morning." I say as I walk down the final two steps and hear the sound of a dish being washed.

"Mmph-ah!" I hear Sophie say before a "Snap!"

"Don't talk with your mouth full." Mrs. Wren reminds her before small feet rush around the island and Sophie smiles, swallowing at the same time.

"Ezra! Good morning!" Sof beams at me before hugging me.

I smile and hug her back. "You're warm."

_She is, which is sort of weird._

Sof smiles again at me, then turns at the sound of her Dad coming down the stairs.

"Bo, he didn't sleep."

"HE WHAT?!"She almost shrieks, causing me to jump in fright as the Force quickly warns me just before Mrs. Wren rounds the island in a rush.

_Oh no._

"That's it. I'm moving your doctor's appointment up to tomorrow. And I'm coming." She says, clearly worked up and worried.

"It was an accident!" I say defensively, looking from her to her husband then to Sof, who is looking up at me. "I was practicing with the Force and time got away from me."

She rolls her eyes at me. "I don't think that you lost track of time that much. Unless you stayed up late before…"

Embarrassed, I drop eye contact and glance at the floor as the silence begins to drag before Mr. Wren says "I'm going to work. I'll probably be home late."

Mrs. Wren seems to force herself into action, starting towards the front door. "Alright, sounds good."

"Do you feel okay?" Sophie asks, sounding concerned before I glance down at her indeed looking concerned.

I nod and smile reassuringly at her. "I feel fine."

"Really?" Sof fires right back.

"Yeah, promise. I don't lie to you Sof, you know that." I say dismissively as the sound of the front door closing and the Force twitching at the edge of my conscious prompts me to walk into the kitchen.

_Uh oh…_

"Sophine, go wash your hands and brush your teeth if you're done." Mrs. Wren says briskly, walking into the kitchen at the same time I do.

_BLAST IT._

"Okay!" Sophie answers, voice drifting away before her mother steps toward me and I smile in an effort to defuse her.

"I don't care about you and Sabine. Really, I don't. I get it, you're human and sleeping together is part of being a couple. But we asked you not to do it in our house."

_I forgot about that. Especially since Sabine silenced us._

"I—" I begin, only for Mrs. Wren to put her hand over my mouth.

"I'm not done yet. I only speak for me, I don't know about my husband. Just don't overdo it, if you know what I mean. And yes, I'm still coming with you to the doctor's."

Sophie rushes back into the room as Mrs. Wren takes a step away from me and I stiffly turn to Sof. "Okay Mommy, I'm cleaned up."

"Alright _ad'ika_, let me grab my stuff then we'll get going." Mrs. Wren says warmly, then slips out of the kitchen and into the hall.

_I, uhm…_

"I'll grab a bite, then head out too…" I mumble to Sophie before drifting over to the pantry and opening it before turning back around to see Sophie having not moved at all.

_She's just looking at me oddly._

"What? Something wrong?" I ask Sof, who looks concerned.

"You sounded weird." She says bluntly.

I force myself to laugh, then smile. "Sorry."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah." I nod.

Sof simply maintains her odd look before her mother pokes her head in, carrying a bag over her shoulder. "C'mon Sophie, grab your backpack by the door and we'll be ready to go."

"Did you pack me lunch?" Sophie asks while rushing to the door and pulling on her shoes. Her mother nods before Sophie grabs her stuff, her mom opens the door and they both slip thru it.

_I'm…not really hungry. I want to talk to Sabine before I head out. I don't think I should follow right behind Mrs. Wren._

That just seems like a bad idea.

Quietly, I walk out of the kitchen thru the front hall then up the stairs, my footsteps echoing all around me before I reach Sabine's closed door.

"Zzgghhh…"

_Blast._

I crack open the door and slip inside, only for her snores to abruptly stop. "Uhhh…"

"Did I wake you up?" I whisper. "I didn't mean to."

"It's okay…do we have the house to ourselves?"

_Blast it!_

I cringe before saying "Yeah, but I've got that meeting with _Mand'alor_."

"Okay. Why'd you react like that?" She asks in concern, propping herself up on and elbow and exposing a small amount of cleavage beyond the comforter.

"I messed up. After we watched our show I went to practice with my hand. I'd done it for about an hour when your Dad came up saying that it was morning." I sigh, looking at the floor.

Sabine groans, then plops down onto her pillow. "We lost track of time last night didn't we."

"I think we did. And now your Mom knows, but won't openly say it."

"UGHHHH…" Sabine groans in frustration before swatting the comforter. "Great way to start the day."

"I'm sorry." I apologize.

Sabine thinly smiles at me. "It's not your fault, you're just telling me so I don't make a _or'dinni_ of myself. (A/N: _or'dinni _= moron or fool)

"Yeah." I add meekly before Sabine rolls over, hiding her face from view.

"For what it's worth, I don't regret anything. I'll just have to move my clock." Sabine says, voice slightly muffled. "You leaving soon?"

I nod, trying not to frown. "Yeah."

"Hope it goes well. Comm me when you get out, maybe we can grab lunch." She says cheerfully, then rolls over to reveal a smile.

"Thanks. I'll let you go back to sleep."

"Nope, you got me up. Your fault entirely." She shakes her head then sticks her tongue out at me.

I laugh, then turn towards the door. "Bye."

"Bye!"

_That girl._

I smile to myself and call for a speeder as I walk down the stairs before drifting to the pantry and pulling a nutria bar to me with my left hand, catching it easily.

_That's better. I'm getting there slowly._

I unwrap the bar, lean against the counter and take a bite before glancing around the empty house, eventually settling back in on my hand.

_One move, a move that I didn't even see in the moment, only the aftermath has set me back and put me here._

_I hope there's a reason._

"Beep Beep."

_Speeder's here._

I quickly slide to the door, walk to the speeder and ask the driver to take me to the Office of _Mand'alor_. On the way I inspect myself, dressed in my standard jacket, dark pants and boots.

_Probably should have cleaned up, I didn't even think of it._

The speeder slips out of the flow of traffic earlier than I'm expecting before landing in a office complex complete with arts that reminds me of Denon and water features.

"Payment's not necessary sir, it's already covered."

_What?_

"What? Really?" I ask in surprise. The driver nods.

"It's been that way for years, any speeder to this entire complex is on Mandalore."

_Oh, okay._

"Can I tip?" I ask, fishing in my pocket for a few spare credits.

Th driver smiles sheepishly. "Never required but always appreciated." I smile, then hand him a few credits then wave my goodbye and retreat into the building, made of stone and metal, alternating from floor to floor.

_This time should be a lost more pleasan…Oh damn._

"Can I help you sir?" A receptionist asks me politely as the entire lobby is being renovated, with workers on every wall with debris everywhere.

I nod blankly, looking around. "I'm the 9:30 appointment? Got a call yesterday…" I say nervously.

_I didn't know I did so much damage that I caused a renovation._

"Okay! Sorry about the mess, we had a small incident with some Imperial revolutionaries that caused all this. You didn't do any of it." The blonde receptionist smiles at me, tilting her head to one side, revealing darker highlights underneath. "9:30…gotcha."

_She's pretty._

Very pretty.

"Seventh floor Ezra. And…here's our card. Call if you have any questions or need to schedule another appointment okay?"

I smile and take the card. "Thanks. I appreciate it"

_There's writing on the back. I feel it._

Quickly, I probe out while walking to the lift and the receptionist's voice drifts to me. I smile at her before stepping into the open lift.

_0431-568-357-159 – T'omi 3_

_Dammit. That's not what I meant. I was just being nice, I wasn't flirting or anything._

I sigh to myself as a mechanical voice says "Seventh floor…" and I step out of the lift and slap the card into my pocket out of irritation.

"You the 9:30?" Another receptionist asks politely. I answer with a brisk nod and nothing further. "Right thru that left hand door."

"Thanks." I nod at her, then walk thru the door and two men turn to me.

_Mand'alor and Mr. Straunch, both holding cups of caf._

"Ezra! You made it, I was worried you overslept." _Mand'alor_ says warmly as Mr. Straunch sets his caf down on an elaborate and wooden looking desk with engravings everywhere.

"Actually, the opposite. I stayed up to practice with my new arm and accidentally didn't sleep." I admit as Straunch eyes my arm.

"How much is mechno?" He asks _Mand'alor_.

I cut in "More than half of my forearm, that's it."

"The man in all black that marched in here and killed five guards before Sundari was attacked." _Mand'alor_ explains to Straunch.

"How many?!" I blurt out in shock.

_When'd this happen?!_

_Mand'alor_ laughs. "It's how he marched right in. I had men stationed at the door to keep it shut and keep your identity in house as much as possible."

"And he…yeah." I shake my head.

_More blood on my hands._

_Mand'alor_ seems to sense my frustration and embarrassment and grabs my shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. They were collateral damage."

"Nobody's collateral damage." I groan before he gestures for me to grab a cup of caf.

"You didn't bring Sabine? I was sure she'd be accompanying you." He asks me.

I shake my head as I grab a cup and set it under the dispenser. "No, you asked for me. I let her sleep." I saym then turn to see _Mand'alor_ walking out of the room.

"—all that number and tell her to come ASAP. Not urgent, but I would like her presense." He says to I assume his receptionist before I look to Straunch who shrugs at me.

"Men of action are never at rest." He says sagely.

_What are you? A fortune cookie?_

"Guess so." I say then sip my caf as _Mand'alor_ walks back into the room and clears his throat.

"Okay…now Ezra. _K'yl_ and I have been talking. And, well…why don't you tell him _K'yl?_" _Mand'alor_ looks to Straunch.

Straunch steps forward and nods. "Yes, uhm, yeah. Fenn and I go way back to when I trained him. I've seen three generations of warriors come thru the doors of my Institute here on Mandalore. And you know we take anyone who comes in, the art of combat isn't a Mandalorian possession. It belongs to those who seek it out. I apologize for our first encounter. Fenn has filled me in on the details, apparently you were recovering from Imperial capture."

I nod blankly.

_Is he really doing this? Straunch? Lying down and apologizing?_

"That was shameful. Your identity as a Jedi shouldn't matter, you came into a place I welcome all. And I failed you. I apologize completely, I shouldn't have done it. I'd be honored if you came and continued your rehabilitation with a blade here at my Institute." Straunch finishes, head bowed to me and extending a key.

_WOW._

"I, uhm, sure. I need a place to practice." I say, taking the key and stumbling over my words as _Mand'alor _laughs quietly.

"How is your training going by the way? Carid hasn't said much, just that you're relentless."

_Relentless. I guess there are worse things to be._

"Slow." I frown at him. "I can barely lift things with this new arm." I say, lifting my caf up with my left hand before sipping it.

"Like…?" Straunch asks.

"The Force, I take it." _Mand'alor_ fills in the gaps. I nod.

"It's like starting over, and it drives me crazy." I shake my head.

Straunch cuts in. "I would imagine so. I noticed you were unsure last time I saw you. If you don't mind me asking, is it having a mental effect?"

"Not really. I just hate being useless like I am right now."

_Mand'alor_ shakes his head. "Ezra, you're far, far from useless. You're helping Bo and Carid more than you know just with your presence. You're the embodiment of hope for Mandalore and the galaxy."

"That's overstating it." I disagree. "There's…" I start, then cut myself short.

_NO. Luke doesn't exist. Nobody can know._

Both _Mand'alor_ and Straunch freeze up, looking at me with surprise before glancing at each other. "There's what? A greater plan?" Straunch asks.

"I want it Ezra. What's the plan? This planet, my people can help. They'll want to help."

"There isn't a plan, it's nothing anyone can really help with. At least right now. I can't say anything because if it gets out, then we lose hope and we all die."

_Mand'alor_ frowns. "I'm willing to die if it means winning!"

"It's not going to get to that point." I shake my head.

"Okay, maybe not. What has the Rebellion got cooked up?" He asks me.

I shake my head. "Not the Rebellion. I can't tell you."

"Then who is it? Senator Organa?"

"No, not Leia! I can't talk about it!" I say n frustration before the door open to Sabine in full armor before she takes a step in and takes off her helmet, revealing concern on her face.

"Can't tell _Mand'alor_ what?" She asks me.

"Carid mentioned you know who Vader is, just before you got your arm chopped off. Is that it?" _Mand'alor_ asks me.

Sabine turns to _Mand'alor_. "Chopped? Really?"

"Sorry, not helping." He quickly apologizes. "I won't tell anyone, you know the secret's safe with me."

I can't hide a scowl before saying no. "No, you'll die. The entire thing will go down in flames."

"And you freed Fett!" Sabine adds. "Sorry if my approval rating isn't the highest right now."

_Mand'alor_ frowns. "I had no choice unless I wanted an Imperial army coming to get him and probably take over the planet too, as told to me by Vader himself. Okay? I didn't like doing it."

"So that's why you did that." Straunch says quietly, getting everyone to turn to him.

"Yeah. I know everyone hasn't liked it. But it was trading one for the safety of billions. Including our hope and our future. The planet would have been put into chains Kashyyyk." _Mand'alor_ explains, looking bitter. "It was a bitter pill to take and hasn't gone down well, as I knew when I did it."

"Sir?" A voice rings out before I glance up and find a speaker.

"Yes?" _Mand'alor_ asks politely.

"Your 10:15 is here as you asked."

Straunch sets his cup down before moving towards the door. "Tiem for me to go, I have a class. Stop by anytime."

"Thanks." I smile, then shake his hand. Sabine looks on with confusion, then shakes her head and leans closer to me.

"We are talking about the same big secret right?" She whispers to me.

I nod. "Yeah, Luke."

"He can't know." She responds.

_That's our state secret. Nobody can know, literally. We told the story of Anakin Skywalker becoming Darth Vader on Alderaan without that becoming known. And if they can't know, nobody can know._

The door behind us opens, and I glance back to see…

_Why are they here?_

The mother beams, carrying Iyita before his father, Dav walks in. "Ezra!" He calls out. "You're here?"

"Do we know you…?" Sabine asks anxiously.

_Mand'alor_ answers "Yes Sabine. See, I didn't know it was Ezra that saved them from that bomb on Onderon. The two stories were unconnected until I went and had my normal dinner with a family chosen at random. They told me the story of how a brave young man sprung into action saving their son from certain death after a suicide bomber killed some Imperial officer."

_Iyita_ lights up before his mother hands him off only for him to hug me. "Haa."

"Hey bud. You're getting huge!" I smile at him, as Sabine looks on with a growing smile. _Iyita _giggles,smiles and shakes a brown bear at me. "Oh no, don't eat me."

"Sabine…how old is he?" Sabine introduces herself while watching Iyita and I.

_He's still super silly._

I make a face to get him to laugh and he immediately laughs and starts kicking with glee. "A year as of two weeks ago. His name's _Iyita_."

"Here Sabine." I turn to her, then get _Iyita's_ attention. "Hey, you wanna meet somebody nice? Here!"

I hand _Iyita_ to Sabine, who looks taken by surprise by takes him and smiles. "Hi! You're cute." Iyita simply tilts his head, getting both of his parents to laugh.

"Are you two married?" Mirta asks me, smiling.

I nod. "Yup, don't know why she chose me."

"Oh now that's not true." Dav shakes his head. "Can't be. How you been Ezra?"

"Busy as always." I shrug.

"Were you there on Onderon Sabine?" _Mand'alor_ asks before handing _Iyita's_ parents each a caf.

Sabine nods. "He tackled me thru a glass shop to keep me safe."

"That's a keeper." Dav smirks before his wife sarcastically smiles at me.

"And she still married you?"

I can't stop a laugh along with everyone else before _Iyita_ joins in a few seconds too late, causing everyone to laugh again.

(A/N: Sorry about the late update everyone. Tiem to write has been scarce lately. Chapters will come out as soon as possible, with Mondays and Fridays being the goals. Thanks for reading. –James) 


	124. Blocked

"Sniff…" I lean over, toss the tissue I have in my hand into the garbage and lightly pull a tissue out of the box by our bed and levitate it to me. Sophie's eyes follow the tissue before lingering on me, complete with a sad expression.

"Do you want some more juice?" She asks me gently.

_Sure._

I nod, then grab my glass and drain the last few drops out before handing Sof the glass and watching her trek downstairs. Sabine doesn't look up from her datapad as she takes a bite of the takeout her parents ordered.

_It's good, some kind of dough dish with ingredients on it and bakes and cut into slices. They ordered since tomorrow is Raan'ika and they're cooking for everyone._

Out of habit, I grab my slice and take a small bite.

_I'm not very hungry since I got this flu._

This whole week hasn't gone how we planned. Mrs. Wren took me to the medcenter to get me checked out for a sleeping disorder, came out with the determination that I only should sleep more, and with a full medical file one me. On top of that, I'm temporarily on a high calcium diet due to my various fractures and broken bones.

_The laundry list starts with a broken arm I don't even remember, then malnutrition, the scar from the Inquisitor's lightsaber, fracture in my wrist, slight hormone imbalance due to the bomb on Onderon most likely, Osofibrillation damage to all my organs, muscles and bones. Joint, cartilage and extremity damage, broken nose, an undiagnosed ankle tendon splice, skull microfracture, more broken ribs, fractured bone in my foot from when I dropped part of a hyperdrive on it, more ankle damage, a dent in my orbital, hidden by stab wounds to my thigh, skull and back. And then to top it off, the awful sounding "partial transradial amputation of the left forearm". _

When the medic came back into the room after running me thru a battery of tests, he asked if I was a training dummy, played _meshgeroya_ or a professional fighter. Mrs. Wren couldn't believe all my injuries, but the medic countered by saying that Lothal natives are known for their pain tolerance and physical capabilities. Thankfully, I've received good medical attention and limited my bacta time.

_The only thing he was concerned about was my arm. He didn't want to mess with it, but said that it could give me issues if I get sick soon._

And what did I go and do?

_I got the Balmorran flu. Most kids are immunized around 10. It's up to the parents. Well guess who never got immunized on Lothal then walked into a medcenter on Mandalore and walked out sick?_

Me!

All week I've had no energy, stuffed to the gills with gunk and mucus and junk in my head. Sore throat, queasy stomach, lack of appetite, everything. Sabine has taken care of me for the most part.

"—walking around the snow filled trees…" The holo continues softly playing the _raan'ika_ playlist Sabine cued up as she wraps presents. I've wrapped mine while everyone else was out of the house over the last few days.

_Sof sure is taking a while._

I probe over while turning to Sabine and asking "Is it me or is Sof taking awhile?"

"Yeah, a little bit." She says before looking up at me.

_Sof's coming back up the stairs._

"Clomp, clomp…creak…" The door opens, revealing Sof holding my refilled drink.

"You okay? Took you a little while just to refill a drink." Sabine asks, focusing on her wrapping.

Sophie nods before walking over and extending my cup to me. "Mommy and Daddy fell asleep on the couch. I thought it was cute and got them a blanket. They looked cold."

I can't stop a laugh before Sabine grins in Sophie's direction. "That was nice of you." Sophie returns the smile then sits back down next to her sister and grab a bow for the next present.

"Grab that box of tea Sof, it's for Hera…" Sabine says while reaching over and snagging a different roll of wrapping paper before I try not to yawn.

_I'm tired of having such little energy. I need to focus._

Determinedly, I look back to the book Straunch gave me on my first day back at his Academy before stifling another yawn and taking notes.

_(A few minutes later)_

Sabine POV

_Almost…_

"Move your hand and we've got this." I say quietly, trying to keep the odd shaped box in it's same position. Sof immediately moves her hand then watches as I pin the box down, get the last little piece to stick, then slap a bow and tag on it. "Done!"

"Shhh!" Sophie immediately shushes me, peeking over the bed at the same time.

"Zzzgghhh…"

_He fell asleep again._

Poor Ezra, he's been sick for a week. He's tried his best to not let it keep him down, but when you have no energy, what can you do?

"He fell asleep!" Sophie whispers to me before turning back and revealing a wide smile.

"Zzzgghhh…zzz…"

I smile back, then notice Ezra's head drooping a little more. "About time."

"When do you think he'll start feeling better? The stuff Mommy got for him should start working soon right?" Sophie asks me, her expression changing to more concern.

"Yeah. Go grab his drink so he doesn't spill it." I tell Sof. Right away, she slips to the opposite side of the bed and gently takes the cup out of Ezra's hand.

"Zzzzghh…"

"Get better soon." Sophie whispers, then pulls the comforter a little closer to him before scuttling back to me, grabbing the next present we need to wrap.

_(Raan'ika Day)_

Ezra POV

"Here you go…" Sabine says softly to me, as her mother, Echo and Lux keep picking up pieces of wrapping paper that's been scattered here and there.

_That was fun. Everybody seemed to enjoy their gifts._

As I watch, Kanan sarcastically flips thru the book on dancing footwork I got for him as a joke while wearing Sabine and Sophie's gift of a new, unscarred shoulder piece.

_Sabine said that she's paint his new one like his old one, but wanted to make sure she got the fit right after asking Hera for his measurements._

"_How'd you sneak this past me?" Kanan asks in shock. In response, Hera shrugs._

"_Sorry dear, can't give up my secrets." She replies, causing everyone to laugh loudly._

We were all thinking along the same lines for Hera. I got her a new cup that keep hot drinks hot, and cold drinks cold as Sabine and Sophie got Hera her favorite kind of tea from Ryloth that she slipped up and mentioned to me way back on Onderon.

Ahsoka and Lux were probably the hardest people to think of a gift for. Eventually, Sabine and I combined to get her some new, Mandalorian made armor for her arms, then also teamed up to get Lux a card with some credits because we had no idea what to get him.

_Thankfully, he took it gracefully and didn't tease us too bad for our lack of ideas._

Rex and Echo I bought new datapads for, while Sabine and Sophie bought them their favorite snack, a finger food named _uj'alayi_ that they both couldn't stop themselves from snacking on as we unwrapped presents.

Most everyone else bought small gifts for each other. Sabine's parents' gifts is mostly dinner tonight, which they bought roast _shatual_, a bunch of bantha steaks that we can grill along with some sort of dessert that Sophie nearly lost her mind at when her parents brought it home from the market yesterday.

_It's a cake with frosting on top, but shrunk down so that it's almost bite sized._

Mr. Wren's footsteps coming down the stairs, signaling that he's put my book on the history of hyperspace travel in his office causes Hera to smile. "Oh good, last present."

"Last present?" I hear Sabine's mom ask, in the kitchen doing something.

Kanan smiles deviously. "Yup, last present."

"Chopper, c'mere." Hera turns and waves to him. Chopper moves from his spot near the wall where he's been for awhile now. "And where's Sof?"

"Here!" Sophie lights up, sticking her hand up in the air as Rex, Echo, Kanan, Ahsoka, Lux and Zeb all give each other knowing looks.

_Uh oh…They've cooked up something._

"Uh oh." Sabine whispers to me, smiling.

"I thought you already gave Sophie a gift." Her father asks Hera.

Still in the other room, his wife adds, "yeah!"

"The gyroscopic pendulum was my gift." Kanan explains. "Hera, you want to explain?"

Hera nods happily, then waves for Sof to come over. "Sof, you remember what I told you last time we flew the _Ghost_ together?"

"You said that I should always have a droid like Choppy in case I ever have to jump to hyperspace."

"The only thing?" Ahsoka jokes, getting Rex and I to laugh.

Hera smiles. "No, she's right. And I was thinking. I've had Chopper for a very long time. His ship crashed near my village on Ryloth when I was about your age Sophie. I repaired him, fixed his circuits and he's been with me ever since."

_That means he's kind of old._

"So I was thinking of getting a new droid." Hera says finally.

"WAAAHHHH!" Chopper immediately protests, then moves to come at Hera. Hera, however sticks her hand out and stops Chopper dead in his tracks.

"Hey! Hold on! I'm not done yet!" Hera tells Chop emphatically.

"WOMP WAH! WAAH WOMP WOMP WAAAH!" Chop rocks back in forth, clearly upset.

"_I can be upgraded! I can be renovated! I don't want to be left with some rebellion dummy!"_

"I know you can be upgraded Chopper. I've done it before." Hera soothingly tells him. "I'm not going to do it right away, it has to be the right droid. I'm not going to just replace you with just any old droid."

"WOMP WAAHHH!"

"_Well I would hope NOT!"_

Wait.

_I know where she's going with this._

"What I'm going to do is keep my eye out for a droid. Then when I see one, I'm giving you to Sophie Chop. I'll upgrade you with the latest tech, maybe even upgrade your paint job. Your job, is to keep her safe when she starts flying." Hera tells Chopper, then smiles at Sophie.

Sophie's jaw immediately drops, quickly followed by Sabine's.

_YUP!_

Chopper immediately wheels around to face Sophie. "WAH?"

"_Really?"_

_This isn't just a Raan'ika_ _gift. This is Hera's way of knowing Sophie will be safe when she flies._

"CHOPPY!" Sophie exclaims, then leaps onto Chopper and gives him a big hug. Immediately, everybody laugh and Chopper wheels around so that Sof can climb onto him.

"You've been planning this for a little while if you've put this much thought into it." Sophie's dad says simply, leaning up against the stairs.

Hera shrugs. "It was just a thought I had after seeing how Chopper helped to teach Sophie some things about the Phantom. From there I just sort of went with it." Hera explains, then turns to Sophie. "Do you think that'll work?"

"Uh huh!" Sophie says, hopping off Chopper and wrapping Hera up in a hug.

_Aww…_

"Happy Raan'ika Sophie." Hera smiles, casing Sof to hug her again. Beside her, Kanan spreads his arms out in mock anger.

"What, no hug for me? I encouraged her." Kanan says, just before Sophie reaches over and pushes him over, causing everybody in the room to lose it and for Sabine to lean onto my shoulder for support.

"I…I can't…" Sabine breathed in between laughs as Kanan joins in from the floor, looking very embarrassed.

"Knock Knock Knock…"

_That's them._

"It's them." I tell Mr. Wren, who is stationed next to the door.

"I'm on it." He replies, before his wife slips back towards the kitchen.

"At the rate we're going we'll be eating next Raan'ika. Sabine, can you come help?" Mrs. Wren asks.

Sabine nods, sliding away from me and getting to her feet as I stay seated.

_I can't help. I hate being sick._

The sound of the door opening is immediately followed by a chorus of "HAPPY RAAN'IKA!" causing Ahsoka, Lux and Echo to start that way.

"Come in, come in its cold outside." I hear Mr. Wren urge them to come inside before I creakily get to my feet and poke my head around the corner to see Prime ushering Aiden in, with all the girls inside and Kal shutting the door. Hera and Kanan move towards the couch as Sophie darts for her room before I hear Brie's voice.

"You don't look good."

I smile weakly, then see that Prime, Kal, Orir, Darcy, Brie, Mira, Katiey and Aiden are all eying me suspiciously. "Balmorran flu. If you're vaccinated, your fine."

"Of course we're vaccinated." Prime counters. "Wait…"

"Oh. You never got it. Did you?" Darcy's expression falls, and I nod to Prime.

Mrs. Wren's voice drifts out from the kitchen "He's vaccinated now though."

_Yeah, thank the Force for that._

"Where's Will?" Sabine asks, slipping her arm around my waist. Sof's head pops out of her doorway just as Orir looks to Prime.

Prime answers "He's at Tracyn's with her family."

"Tracyn?!" Hera, Rex and Kanan all exclaim at the same time.

Ahsoka's voice drifts to me. "Who is Tracyn?"

_Tracy._

"Ezra is to Will what Tracyn is to Sabine." Prime explains.

"Despite the fact that they don't want to admit it." Mira adds.

Mr. Wren chuckles to himself. "He's certainly got a lot going on behind the scenes."

"How long have they known each other?" Hera asks as most everyone drifts toward the kitchen with the exception of Aiden and Prime, who are drifting towards Sof.

"Happy _Raan'ika_…"Aiden scoops Sof right up and pulls her close before Prime ruffles Sof's hair.

"Years, since we were kids." Kal explains to Hera before Orir cuts him off.

"C'mon, Sof's gift."

Mr. Wren's voice rises over the increasing tumult. "We told you no individual gifts! It wasn't necessary."

"For you guys maybe, but it's _Raan'ika_! Sof has to get something from us." Prime turns back and explains to her father before the girls hustle to surround Sof as Aiden sets her down.

"I didn't get you guys anything. I forgot." Sof says quietly, bowing her head in shame before Aiden crouches down.

"You didn't have to get us anything goob. But we saw this in the market way back, weeks ago and it made us all think of you." Aiden explains before extending a small rectangular box. "Here."

Sof takes the box and starts pulling off the paper before removing the top, revealing a silver dagger with a curved hilt that glints in the light of the hall. "Whoaaa…" She says, taken by surprise.

_That's pretty and looks lethal._

"You can use it, you can hang it, you can do whatever with it. But we saw it and knew it should be yours." Aiden explains.

Orir adds "Do you like it?" Sof nods, then starts blinking rapidly.

_Oh no, that means she's going to cry because she's so happy._

"No no no…what's wrong?" Katiey moves to Sof's left then crouching to her height.

"Does she not like it?" Prime asks quietly.

Sof quickly shakes her head even harder. "No, I love it…It's just so pretty and I wasn't expecting anythingggg…and I…forgot a present for you guyssss…" Sof says shakily before choking back a sob.

_Aww…_

"C'mere." Aiden pulls Sof into a hug before Katiey joins in. "You don't have to get us anything.

"As long as you're happy, that's enough for us." Kal says warmly as everyone else smiles. Beside me, Sabine settles closer into my hip, looking a little choked up herself.

Prime asks "You are happy, right?" sounding concerned. Sof nods in response before letting Aiden go and moving to hug Katiey.

"Good." Darcy smiles, moving to be next in line for a hug from Sophie.

Sabine slides onto her tiptoes and whispers into my ear "I'm going to go start helping with the food." before pecking my cheek and drifting back towards the kitchen.

_Uhh…that's different._

Mira, Kal and Prime all have surprised looks on their faces before I look back toward the kitchen and see Lux in my normal position, with Kanan looking in what I'm guessing is Hera's direction.

_I should probably head that way and not clog up the hall anymore._

Starting that way, I see that Mrs. Wren's showing Hera where a cutting board is, while Sabine is pulling out finger foods and dips.

"Is Sophie admiring her gifts?" Mr. Wren asks me.

"No." I shake my head. "Saying thank you and getting hugs."

"Oh! I gotta show you guys what Sabine painted me! It's so cool…" Sophie pipes up, causing Sabine to smile to herself proudly. (A/N: It's Sabine's ceiling painting on the _Ghost_ from "Trials of the Darksaber". All rights belongs to Disney and Lucasfilm)

_That was a cool painting. Sabine worked on it for a few weeks in secret so Sof didn't find out early. I think the style she painted it in is what makes it really interesting. She got the entire Ghost crew, minus Sof herself in one painting._

Everyone in the hall starts drifting to Sof's room as Rex begins seasoning the bantha steaks. "Kanan, would you mind preparing the corn?" Mrs. Wren asks him.

"Of course not, I'd be happy to." Kanan replies, moving towards the counter where most of the ingredients are before Hera stops him without looking up.

"Hands." Kanan immediately spins on his heels and turns for the sink before Hera teases him, adding "You're almost as bad as Sophie."

I can't stop a laugh along with Ahsoka, Lux, Rex, her parents and Sabine. "Hey now, that's a compliment." Sending more laughter thru the room before Prime starts towards us.

"Get a drink son, sit down. How was your Raan'ika?" Mr. Wren says warmly to Prime. Prime shrugs as Mira and Darcy slip out of Sof's room.

"It was alright. Mostly got clothes. Did get a gyroscopic adjustment coupon so I can get my helmet readjusted."

"Gyroscopic adjustment? What on Mandalore hit you so hard that you can't just run a diagnostic on it?" Mrs. Wren says, making a face at the stove before turning to face Prime.

Prime smiles while taking out a _a'sokai _then shutting the door. "Blindsided by an Imperial."

"On that mission to the Office of _Mand'alor_?" Hera asks, sounding displeased.

_Oh yeah, she's still mad about that._

"Yup." Prime says sheepishly before catching my eye and making a unsure expression.

_Yeah, still mad._

I smile helplessly at him as Kal walks into the kitchen. "Just heard from our wayward soldier. He said he's on his way, about to leave Tracyn's."

"You said she's been friends with you all for years right?" Lux asks, not looking up from his potatoes.

"Yup, that's how they met." Kal nods.

Prime adds "They've always been this way. Their parents joke that they don't even have to hold the wedding."

"That long huh?" Ahsoka smiles before Prime and Orir both nod.

"It's cute though." Brie smiles, perching herself near the island.

"Invite her here. We're got the food. Is the trustworthy enough?" Sabine's mom asks Prime, Kal and Orir before looking to her husband.

Mr. Wren shrugs. "I'm fine with it, being _Raan'ika_ and all. She seemed perfectly pleasant at the wedding."

"I meant to ask you about that." Hera says quietly.

"Yeah, she's cool." Prime tells Mrs. Wren. "She knows what happened with Darcy and them for awhile now, and I'm sure Will's told her about Ezra."

_If she's important I would hope so._

"Comm him, tell Will to bring her." Mrs. Wren tells Prime, who nods and starts towards the office and Sof's room.

"Hey Daddy! Look at it!" Sophie pipes up, suddenly appearing in the kitchen by the door holding her dagger. Instantly, both of her parents look as well as Ahsoka, Hera and Echo.

"This is really fine quality…" Mr. Wren says, taking the bx from Sof and gently grabbing the dagger. "Could it actually be used if she wanted to?"

Orir and Brie both nod. "Yeah, as far as we know it's not just decorative."

"What should I do with it?" Sof asks the room.

"Display it. Get one just like it to practice with." Rex suggests, turning over the steaks.

Echo adds. "I agree. You can use that one, but don't practice with it."

"Curved hilt…hmm." Mrs. Wren says, holding in close to her eyes for inspection. "More stabbing and jabbing as an implement."

"Well yeah, it's a dagger, Sabine rolls her eyes, causing her mother to scowl in her direction.

"Go put it in you ro—Oh!" Mrs. Wren starts, before shouting, causing me to look and see that she dropped the dagger.

_No!_

Instinctively I flash my hand up and grab the dagger, still in midair and catch it as its level with Sof's eyes. Sophie moves her hands from moving to catch it as the blade is pointing downward to her sides, eyes enormous. Finally, Ahsoka deftly leans over Sof and snatches the dagger by it's handle.

"Crisis averted." She smiles as mrs. Wren crouches down to look at Sophie.

"Don't grab a blade with your hands _ad'ika_. You know that…"

Sof nods. "I know, it was instinct. And you dropped it."

_Hah._

"Very funny." Her mother shakes her head.

Meanwhile, Kanan turns to me. "I was going to ask you how your hand was doing, but that sort of answers that." Self-consciously, I look down and see that I grabbed the dagger with my left hand.

"It's getting better." I shrug. "I don't like the glove yet, it's easier without."

_I'm not wearing it right now._

"You could always not wear it except in social situations Ezra. Up to you." Mrs. Wren tells me.

"Master Che just suggested it because most people in your position do use one." Kanan look to me before returning to his dust corn, doing the same heel spin as he was earlier.

_Wait a mnute…I think I could use that._

My mind starts racing as Prime walks back into the room and starts telling everyone something.

_I always spin on my heels when reversing course. Kanan did it on his toes, and it was lightning quick. I wonder if I could use that to my advantage. Like a counter to the heel spin I normally do. _

A counter to a counter, in essense.

"Whaaat are you thinking?" Sabine says, snapping me out of my brainstorming session.

"I had an idea." I say blankly, as Kal, Orir, the girls minus Katiey and Sophie are all looking at me.

Ahsoka glances away from Lux and the potatoes to ask "Do you want to go try it?"

_Yeah._

"If you don't mind." I say, immediately followed by my guys and the girls all deserting their tasks and hurrying up the stairs.

"HEY!" Mrs. Wren yells. "I need help if you all want to eat before next _Raan'ika!_"

"I'll help. Zeb volunteers as Chopper helpfully starts clunking his way up the stairs.

_Can't use his exhaust ports, he'll damage the wood._

"Sorry!" I chime in as Sophie rushes past me. "Hey!"

Sof simply turns back and sticks her tongue out at me before smiling and continuing to rush up the stairs.


	125. Disabled List

_(Flashback)_

I spin on my toes and arrive at Ahsoka's ignited blade, set to its practice setting way faster than I am expecting. She responds by inverting her blade and slashing at my throat, pausing just before she garrotes me.

_Blast._

"Too fast." I frown as Ahsoka maintains her position right at my throat.

"You're fortunate that you didn't encounter a Inquisitor when you helped Prime. Your speed simply isn't where it needs to be right now."

_Yeah…_

I nod, prompting Ahsoka to relent and take a single step back.

"If I'd know he wasn't at full speed, I wouldn't have called." Prime says in my defense.

"I know that." Ahsoka nods in Prime's direction. "But Ezra needs to know when not to fight too. That's more my point. It should come in time. At his age I found myself looking for reasons to start a fight instead of looking for a nonviolent solution."

I rotate my lightsaber over in my hands. "Is it the speed factor, or the fact that my rhythm is off? It feels like both to me." I ask Ahsoka.

"Both." Ahsoka said. "Your tempo and rhythm are off, which turns your correct diagnosis of individual moves into counters that come before the initial assault."

_And from there it's combat theory. You need to line everything up. Read the move, diagnose it, envision a counter, perform the counter, anticipate my opponent's counter to my counter. Wash, rinse, repeat._

All while keeping my mind open and aware of my surroundings. If you would have told me that all this is would be ingrained way back on Onderon or Polis Massa, let alone back home on Lothal, I would have said you had lost your mind.

"Just a tick off. Maybe two." Sabine speak up, sitting next to Sophie near the holo.

"Those ticks are life and death Sabine. He was a tick off with Vader and anticipating his moves. Now look where we are." Kanan says while walking into the room.

Feeling everyone's eyes snap to me, specifically my hand, I duck my head and drift to where Sabine's father keeps his spare water cups.

_I put myself in a position to have my blade get batted away by Vader. I should have broken off the saber lock, but I went for his chest too early. Maybe. I don't know._

_I keep watching the holo of that fight, and I keep finding differences every time I watch. At first I thought I needed to be more patient and let Vader come to me. Now though, months later I've drifted away from that idea._

"Ezra." I hear Kanan's voice drift to me, prompting me to turn and see everyone looking at me again.

"Yeah?" I smile.

Ahsoka glances at Kanan. "I think this is what Carid was talking about."

_Oh great, here we go._

"You're running thru the Vader fight again." Kanan says like its fact.

"The end, yeah." I answer, then try to smile and throw off the sudden tension in the room.

Kanan and Ahsoka exchange a glance, then Kanan looks in Sabine's direction. "Sabine, can you pull up the Tibrin fight?"

_The Vader fight._

"Yeah?" Sabine says before Katiey and Kal rise to their feet from sitting on the floor.

"If you'll excuse me. Not quite ready to see all that again." Kal says meekly, causing Kanan's expression to drop and for the Force to tug in Katiey's direction.

_Sorry._

"No problem. You all understand why we have to do this, right?" Ahsoka asks everyone who is still seated as Kal and Katiey slip thru the door.

_Will's here._

Darcy shook her head before clearing her throat. "Not entirely. An explanation would help."

"Wouldn't it help knowing where you stepped wrong? That line of thinking?" Aiden throws in offhandedly, waving her hand.

Kanan inclines his head towards Aiden. "Yeah. Battles leave scars. Not all of them you can see."

_I've been trying to work thru them and not involve everyone else. It's a sequencing problem._

_I will solve this arm if it's the last thing I do._

Sabine pulls up the Tibrin fight on the holo, unfortunately right where I left it, paused so I could see my footwork at the exact moment my hand got trimmed off.

_I subconsciously opened myself up, another reason why he was able to grab my throat immediately afterward. _

I had a great opening to stab him in the half second that I realized my hand was gone. Nothing I can do there, but instinctively I opened myself up.

_I can't do that._

"You're overthinking this I think Ezra." Ahsoka speaks up as Sabine hurriedly rewinds the holo from the grisly site it was paused on.

_Sof didn't need to see that._

I shake my head then sip my water. "There's things I could have done. Errors I made that I can use this downtime to fix."

"We're talking milliseconds here Ezra." Ahsoka reassures me.

"It's always been about milliseconds!" I answer hotly. "I look at that holo, and I start seeing errors."

"You're not perfect." Prime consoles me.

"I don't have to be. It's not about being perfect, it's about minimizing the errors I made. I got ahead of myself." I shake my head in disgust.

_I made the Fifth Brother connection and took a leap. A mental leap in equating him and Vader. Vader's different._

"How? Explain." Ahsoka asks me.

"Tons of things! I pursued him too quickly after splitting his mask. I let Prime's encouragement fuel me when it should have thrown cold water on it. I wasn't thinking, just acting. Too focused on his weaknesses that I lost the bigger picture." I say, then spin and toss my water cup across the room.

A moment passes before Prime quietly says. "Sorry."

"No, it's not about you and what you said. You were in the heat of the moment too." Kanan bolsters him as behind him, Darcy, Brie, Mira and Aiden all have distressed looks on their faces.

_They don't know how I think in spots like this._

Prime and Orir do, because of the City of Bone fight and the last Fifth Brother fight. Darcy and the girls have only seen me win handily before this fight.

_Prime's watched me lose._

"Okay, let's run this back from the moment you threw the crate aside." Ahsoka waved me forward. "Sabine." Sabine immediately pauses the holo right as I'm discarding the container on either side. "Half speed please."

I activate my lightsaber as Kanan steps forward and does the same.

_This should be useful. Slice, duck, cut, dodge his jab._

Kanan takes in the four part sequence, then lets me step forward as I copy my moves, quickly slicing at Vader, missing entirely, ducking under Kanan's bladed reply before cutting at Vader's chest and dodging Kanan's instant jab intended to impale me on my own aggressiveness. Kanan then rises up to learn the next sequence of moves.

_Spin, cut at the panel, connect with his midsection. I foolishly taunt Vader, he chops easily at me._

Proactively I step forward and resume my last move, the cut and Vader's defensive jab before Kanan does the same, and I stick him in the midsection, miming the action by stabbing the air beside his chest.

"You got him?" Sabine asks me.

"Why didn't you like, finish him or something? Turn him into a bisected Vader or something?" Aiden additionally asks.

I shake my head and answer "Too fast."

"Because I…" Kanan growls… "Chop."

_Block. Easy block. He telegraphed that from Tibrin to Coruscant._

I duck under it, getting inches from Kanan chest then mime clocking him in the face with my right arm, sending Kanan stumbling back.

_OW!_

I jump, hip twinging before I see Kanan's lightsaber jump off my hip.

_Oh. Well that could have happened too. I was in between him and his lightsaber. He could have ended it there accidentally. Never thought about that possibility either._

"Sorry." Kanan smiles in apology as my mind continues to race.

_Another way I could have lost! This fight almost ended worse than it could have just by pure dumb luck._

I grudgingly take his apology and take a step back, releasing a breath before trying to release my frustrations out into the Force.

"Creak…" The door suddenly opens, revealing Will with Tracyn behind him. "Hi, sorry to interrupt. Just heard you guys were up here. Can we come in?"

Ahsoka smiles. "Yeah! Of course, come on in." prompting me to turn and move to grab more water as Sof hops to her feet and rush towards Will.

"Hi!"

"Hey! Happy _Raan'ika_! I've got a gift for you from my brother." Will tells her.

_Oh great. Here we go again with the waterworks._

_Easy Ezra…_

I let out a quiet growl only loud enough for me to hear and aggressively pull another water cup to me and fill it.

"—o don't worry about it. It's fine. He just did it by himself." Will reassures Sof.

"I'm Tracy." I hear a female voice introduce herself.

"Nice to meet you Tracy, I'm Kanan." Kanan introduces himself.

"Ahsoka." I hear Ahsoka add before Sabine sidles up to me, looking quite small all of a sudden. Without saying a word she smiles up at me, fills her cup and slips away again.

_Easy. Breathe._

"Is it downstairs?" Sof asks Will as Tracy turns to look at her.

Will nods, then sets Sof down and crouches himself. "You remember the girl I introduced you to at the wedding?"

"Yeah…I don't remember her name though." Sophie says shyly, glancing down at her socks.

"Tracy." She smiles, immediately crouching down. "It's okay, I remember you though. You're Sophie."

Sophie blinks quickly. "How do you remember me?"

"Will's told me about you. He says you're his favorite girl in the world." Tracy smiles at Sof, who giggles. Will sheepishly smiles, then glances up at me and his eyebrows drop.

"What's wrong?"

I try to shrug dismissively. "We're looking at the fight on Tibrin."

"Oh." Will says blankly, then instinctively turns to Tracy in the same way I instinctively turn to Sabine.

Tracy asks "Is now a bad time? I can go downstairs if you want." Looking first to Will, then me.

"Yeah, I think that'd work better. I'll be right back down." Will assures her.

"No problem. Take your time." Tracy smiles before slipping right out of the room and back down the stairs leaving Will looking unsure of himself.

"I haven't watched much of that footage, just our part in it." Will confesses to me.

I wave his concerns away. "No problem. Nobody has to look at it, I get why you wouldn't want to."

"Where were we?" Kanan looks to Ahsoka.

Ahsoka replies "Ezra just elbowed you in the face. Play it Sabine." Sabine complies as I step forward and everyone else watches the scene continue to unfold.

_Another chop I saw coming and blocked. Spin away, unconscious lightsaber twirl and I slice at his legs. I meant to get him going one way and catch him another way but he beat me to the spot._

_We both dig in, I break it off and dive for his chest panel, he bats it away, chokes me and…_

_The rest is history._

Kanan takes his time analyzing the final few actions of the fight, then steps forward and chops at me. I block, spin away on my toes, getting farther away than I anticipate and have to extend to get at his legs. My attempt gets batted away, then I get choked. I mime an attempt to use Force Lightning on him and.

"Bzzt!"

"OWW!" I yelp in pain as Kanan actually connects with my left arm right where the connection between my organic, real arm and my prosthetic is.

Kanan immediately jumps forward as Sof hops to her feet. "I'm sorry, didn't mean to actually connect." I bite my lip and nod once then turn away and crouch down as a stinging sensation runs up and down my arm.

_OWWW! dar'yaim_ _haar'chak! _(A/N: Damn it to hell)

The stinging sensation continues running up and down my arm before I open and close my hand, causing—"OWW!"

_My hand!_

"What?" Sabine asks as Kanan and Ahsoka tentatively approach.

"It hurts to move my hand." I say, just before Kanan looks very guilty. "It's like the inside of my fingers and hand is on fire."

_OW!_

"Sounds like nerve pain to me." Ahsoka tells Kanan, who has gone pale.

"I'm sorry Ezra. As I said, I didn't mean—"

"I know." I cut him off. "I'll be fine once it goes away. Can we go downstairs and maybe help with dinner?"

_I've learned everything I intended to learn here. _

The pivot on my toes take me farther distance wise than pivoting on my heel. That's what I came to learn and got more to think about the Vader fight.

_It keeps me up at night already._

"Sure. Let's go." Ahsoka immediately agrees, provoking the girls to get to their feet and start downstairs, Sophie leading the way.

I deliberately linger behind Kanan on the way downstairs and settle myself near the island bar before Sabine sidles up to me. "You okay?"

_This stupid stinging and prickling…I kind of have to._

"Can you grab me one of those painkillers Master Che prescribed me?" I ask, causing both of Sabine's parents to look up from what they're doing and look at me.

"Everything go okay up there?" Mr. Wren asks as Hera drifts over and pulls up the sleeve of the hooded shirt I'm wearing, revealing the connection between arm and hand.

Sabine reassuringly smiles at me then silently starts upstairs. Hera filled the silence by asking "Is it always red when you accidentally hit him hun?"

"Yeah." Kanan nods. "It is energy. It's not inflamed or anything is it Hera?"

"No." Hera shakes her head. "Just red right where the two connect."

_Which is right where he hit me._

Purposely, I turn away from Hera to the couch, where Sophie's holding a pretty blue flower and a book while reading a note.

"What'd you get Sof?" Sabine asks, causing Sof to jump then blush madly and toss the flower in the direction of the rectangular box.

"A book." Sophie replies, a blank expression on her face. "And a note saying Happy _Raan'ika_."

Feeling the spirits of the kitchen soar, Brie asks Sof "Do you know what kind of book it is?"

"No, just what it says on the back. It looks like a action book." Sof says, turning to back over to look at the back cover.

"You'll have to say thank you _ad'ika_." Mrs. Wren says, returning her concentration to the stove. Silently, Sophie gathers up her gifts and disappears into her room as Sabine walks down the stairs, causing her to hesitate and watch Sof go.

"It's…so cute…" Darcy gushes, looking like she's about to fall apart. Mr. Wren simply sighs in dismay, causing Hera to turn back.

"Too soon?"

He nods. "Way too soon. When Sabine and Ezra came home, that was the first time I'd ever thought of giving Sabine away. Now Sof? Too soon."

"She's six Carid." His wife shakes her head in an effort to reassure him.

"And she thinks boys are gross." Lux adds helpfully.

Zeb shakes his head. "Nuh uh. I heard the story of how she got a gift from a boy once and tore it up in disgust. She didn't tear that up."

_Sof doesn't think Kex is gross._

Great, so now the list grows to three: Her father, Kex and I.

"What do you think Will? You know the other side of the equation." Mr., Wren asks him.

"He just wants to be her friend. He's really trying hard because I know Ezra and already knew Sof. But she is the only person he purposely got a gift for."

_Oh._

Sabine giggles beside me, causing me to look over and takes the large blue pill out of her hand. "Well at least he's trying. Most men try to play some stupid game." Hera comments, elbowing Kanan in the ribs.

"Hey!" Kanan says defensively just before the room is filled with laughter.

_(End Flashback)_

"Good, good. Keep your blade up." Mr. Straunch tells _Kob'e_, my opponent tonight as I start high, then come back low with an ankle sweep. He takes two shuffling steps back, and I spin on my toes, whirl around and beat him to his spot, forcing him to turn the confrontation into a saber lock.

_Got him._

My shoulder throbs and the prickling, stinging sensation in my hand persists, but I keep up the pressure and he tries to outmuscle me.

_No, I've got the leverage. The pain in my shoulder is the only way you win, and that's just muscle fatigue. It's been hurting for a couple of hours._

This is the longest I've constantly fought people since my injury. We're going on four hours now. I told Sabine's parents to go ahead and eat without me, I'll warm something up or make a sandwich or something.

_I've faced seven people, this is the second time I've faced Kob'e._

_Kob'e_ pushes at my chest, causing me to retreat my hands and—"POP!" Wordlessly, I just turn and go down, my entire left arm weak.

_OWW! What…_

I grit my teeth and try to move my left arm, only for the muscles near my shoulder to scream in pain and I quickly stop, gasping for breath.

"We're done for tonight with Ezra _Kob'e_." I hear Straunch say as I gingerly get to my feet and see my replacement start up the platform. "What'd you do?"

I shrug dismissively, causing only more pain to shoot thru my arm, forcing me to wince. "Shoulder popped. I'll be fine tomorrow or the day after."

"If you're not, don't come. Shoulder injuries are nothing to mess with." He tells me before _Kob'e_ drifts over and nods in my direction. I return the nod, quickly gather my things and start toward to speeders.

_Man…I've had shoulder pain before just from the repetitive motion. Why is it NOW that I do something that causes it to pop and cause me excruciating pain?!_

Hopping in a speeder and telling the driver my address, I slump in the backseat and close my eyes out of frustration more than exhaustion.

_The dueling itself was going great, it was meant to be an endurance test. And instead I apparently overextended myself._

Angrily, I swat the seat beside me and sit up fully, getting only a cursory glance from the driver before we land, I pay him then slip inside the front door.

"I'm home." I say simply, shutting the door behind me and probing out, feeling Sophie and her father in Sof's room and her mother in the kitchen, most likely cleaning.

Right on cue, she pokes her head out past the wall and smiles at me, holding a bottle of cleaning solution and some cloth. "There you are _ad'ika_, I've got dinner ready for you."

"Thanks." I smile weakly, slipping out of my shoes gingerly as the movement causes pain all up and down my arm and hand.

_I hate this. This is awful._

Mrs. Wren immediately drops what she's doing and slips into the hall. "What's wrong? You're moving badly."

"I popped my shoulder pretty good and my hand is the same." I groan, then shake my head. Immediately she slips her arm around me and corrals me into the kitchen.

"Sit, rest. CARID!" She calls out over her shoulder.

A moment passes before "Coming!"

"Is Ezra home?" I hear Sophie ask just before I feel movement upstairs.

_Sabine._

Mrs. Wren sticks with me all the way to the table and deposits me just as Sophie appears in the hall and rushes to hug me.

"Ahhh…" I gasp and cringe as Sof tackles me into a hug before frantically letting go, feeling my tension.

"What's wrong?" Sof asks, concern flying onto her face.

"Shoulder…" I grumble as her mother is warming up some food and her father comes into view.

He asks "What'd you do? What'd it sound like?" as Sabine's footsteps start down the stairs.

"It was just tired, like muscle fatigue then it popped." I say quietly.

"Popped?!" Sabine's voice calls out, before she stops and starts back upstairs.

_BLAST!_

"And his arm still has the lingering stinging and inflamed feeling Carid." Mrs. Wren says without looking back, causing him to frown.

Sophie lets out a soft whine and grabs my left hand tenderly. "I'll see if I can connect with Master Che and move his visit up."

"We've got another couple of months though." I respond.

"No Ezra, it's just a single month." Mrs. Wren responds.

_Has time flown that fast?_

I laugh once as Sabine appears at the foot of the stairs. "Really?"

"Time flies when you're having fun." Mr. Wren smiles as Sophie's expression brightens.

"You really don't look good. The arm popped?" Sabine asks, holding the bottle of painkillers and the manual for my arm.

Her father shakes his head. "No, the shoulder popped. I was about to ask him if it hurts enough that he wants to see somebody tonight."

"No no." I shake my head. "Not tonight."

"If it keeps up, we will see somebody Ezra." Mrs. Wren says, leaving no room for debate.

I smile at her back as she grabs a plate and starts putting dinner together for me. "I know, thank you."

"You're welcome." She responds as everyone sits down at the table, Mr. Wren taking the manual from Sabine.

"Now I know there's a way for you to remove the hand safely at home in case of an emergency…" He mutters before licking his finger and starting to fly thru the pages on the datapad.

Sophie immediately looks to Sabine, who frowns. "Dad, he doesn't need it removed. The pain's not worse, just still there." She tells her father, then looks to me for confirmation.

_Yeah._

"But the pain has lingered for three weeks after it began. Which concerns me in terms of long term damage to his actual arm. The mechno-arm can always be tweaked, adjusted and rewired." He replies as a plate of breaded bantha steaks covered in gravy, mashed potatoes shaped in a bowl and filled with gravy, vegetables and some bread with bantha butter spread on it slides in front of me.

_Oh man this looks good._

"Thank you." I smile at Mrs. Wren, who returns it, looking pleased with herself.

"How'd you bring the potatoes back to life Mom?" Sabine asks as I move to grab a fork and Sabine's father grabs my arm.

"Hang on Ezra." I nod as Sophie walks around the table to sit beside me on the right, Sabine across from me and her mother beside her.

Mrs. Wren shrugs. "Kept them warm with boiling water. Old trick I used to use to warm up your food when you and your sister were very little."

"Oh yeahhh…" Sabine says, then glances back at what looks like two pans stacked on top of each other. "The double-boiler."

"Keeps the temperature down and the consistency the same but gets your food nice and warm without cooking it." Mrs. Wren smiles.

I shake my head while spearing some vegetables one handed. "Brilliant."

_Oh wait…I can't cut these steaks._

"Can I have my arm? So I can cut my stuff?" I ask, but not really, pulling my arm away from Sabine's father and switching hands with my fork at the same time.

_Nobody is cutting my own dinner for me. And I wouldn't put it past him to figure this out and get my whole damn arm to come off. He's a genius engineer._

The hand continues to prickle and sting, especially at the fingertips as I cut the steams into strips, then roughly turn the strips into bite sized pieces before handing Mr. Wren my arm back.

"Do you really know what you're doing Dad?" Sabine asks anxiously, watching as he suddenly has multiple tools out and a screwdriver in my arm.

_Oh, so that's great. I cut my food with a screwdriver in my arm._

Sabine's father dismissively shakes his head. "Sabine, I graduated top of my class in engineering. Period. Not just in regards to ships. If I can figure out a hyperdrive in seconds, I can figure out how to fix Ezra's arm, or at least help. My skills aren't the question here. It's if I can really help or not or just ameliorate the issue."

"What's amer-pbthhh…?" Sophie asks her Mom, causing Sabine, her parents and I to laugh.

"It's a word that means to make somebody feel better." She answers Sophie. "Understand?"

Sophie nods. "So Daddy thinks he can fix Ezra's arm, but if not at least make it feel better."

"Precisely."

A "GSSH…" sound emits from my arm just before Mr. Wren says "Got it." and my stomach starts doing cartwheels.

"Oh _haar'chak_." I mutter quietly, then lean onto the table with my right forearm for support as my stomach goes crazy, turning over multiple times before making an audible sound.

"His stomach, didn't think about that." Sabine says as Mrs. Wren eyes me intently.

"Ezra?" Sof asks quietly.

Mrs. Wren reaches across the table and grabs my shoulder. "Finish what you can. I can always make more or something else."

Breathlessly, I gasp and nod as my stomach continues its dance and I feel something come _out _of my arm, leaving what feels like a stubby something behind. Almost involuntarily, I turn back and see that Mr. Wren has my entire mechanical arm in his hand, leaving a silver attachment on my left arm, revealing a cluster of wires and openings.

"By the gods Carid how did you do that?" His wife asks in amazement as Sophie starts around the table to get a better look.

"It's sort of a claw mechanism to get it in there. Everything runs off high powered pistons, servos and valves. Retract the edge to get it in." he explains, as three metal extensions at the edge of my arm retract to align with the holes in the silver attachment. "Once inside, expand—" the metal appendages expand. "And I assume the brilliant coding and technology takes over, connecting the arm to his nervous system."

Sabine gasps "Wow." As Sophie reaches her father and eyes my hand, which is bigger than her entire head.

"You can take it _Soph'ika_. Just be careful." Her father says, then moves to give Sof my hand.

"Do NOT drop it." Her mother adds before her husband shakes his head.

"Actually, it's supposed to be durable. That's modified durasteel alloy. If he wanted to, he could trick out that arm's grip strength and enhance it past what any organic arm could do." He shakes his head.

_Organic._

Anxiously, I take a small bite of potato and gravy, only to be pleasantly surprised when it goes down easily. "No. I want it normal. It's stupid, but if I grab somebody's hand I don't want to break it."

_I feel like I can do that the way it is already._

"I understand." Mr. Wren nods as Sophie turns my arm over, inspecting it.

"It's…kinda neat." Sophie says quietly.

Her father smiles. "That's one of the most advanced pieces of technology in the galaxy _ad'ika_. It's a modern miracle."

"Yeah, that it can connect to Ezra's arm, feel like his old one, be able to use it with little trouble…" Sabine trails off.

_Up until Kanan zapped me, I was just having to train with it and get used to it. Which I can do, and did do._

"Can I see it?" Sabine asks as their mother looks on, then back to me.

"Feeling okay?" Mr. Wren asks me, grabbing me by the shoulder and causing a vague sensation to pass where my arm should be.

_But isn't._

"Yeah, I—" I begin, but stop as I absentmindedly move to cut another piece of steak and am stopped by my stub of an arm.

_My useless without a miracle, alien arm!_ _It's a freaking stub. There's just a little muscle past my elbow, then the attachment begins. I lost more of my old arm to that stupid thing, and now not even the miracle arm is there to help me because it's not working right!_

Unconsciously, I blink back tears and take a deep breath, causing everyone's attention to be drawn to me as Sabine's expression falls, her father grabs me by the shoulder and Sof runs around the table to my side. "It's okay…" Mr. Wren gently says, gripping my shoulder.

"No it's not!" I snap at him. "I mean, look at it! It's a useless arm without it! It's a stub with metal at the end." I continue on, raising my left arm up and revealing that it barely rises past my head. "Without that thing working right, I'm useless! What am I supposed to do, fight with it?" I ask the room, waving around my stupid arm sarcastically. "I'm worthless."

_No way! It's impossible. It's not even impossible, it's a literal joke, not even a good one._

"You are not worthless." Mrs. Wren says firmly. "You're frustrated."

"As any normal person would be." Mr. Wren adds gently.

I frown at my plate and try not to scream out "I just…want it to work. That's it. And now I'm falling apart."

"You're not falling apart." Mrs. Wren reminds me as Sof slinks close to me for a hug. "You're just hitting a rough patch."

"My body's betraying me." I counter, causing Sabine to shake her head.

"You've always taken a beating Ezra. Always. Maybe this is your body's way of trying to force you to adjust your style." Sabine hypothesizes.

Mrs. Wren jumps in, adding "I saw Count Dooku, live and in person fight once. Just once, but it was all I needed. It was beautiful, effortless, and all without a hint of physicality. It was like fighting against smoke."

"You can't fight smoke, it doesn't have a form to grab onto." I shake my head.

"Maybe that's what you need to do?" She shrugs. "I don't know."

Mr. Wren adds "Nobody does."

"How'd you hurt your shoulder?" Sabine jumps in. "Maybe the two aren't connected."

"Simple." I tell her, then scoot my chair back, causing Sof to let me go. "I moved to block a jab at my chest, pulling my hands back and "Pop!" went my shoulder."

Mrs. Wren immediately jumps in, miming the motion then cringing. "I'm not sure your shoulder is supposed to be able to do that."

"I think you made a move that's physically impossible and popped something out of place." Her husband continues the train of thought. "I'll go upstairs and see if I can contact Master Che."

"Hang on Dad, what about—" "Clink clink clink…"Sabine starts to hand my arm back to her father before hesitating.

_That sounded like something's rattling around inside._

"Uhhh…" I blurt out.

"You broke it!" Sophie pipes up, still hugging me while looking at Sabine.

"Did not!" Sabine scowls at Sophie. "I didn't do anything to it."

"I doubt you could have done anything that could have broken it…" Mr. Wren dismisses both of his daughters, taking the hand back from Sabine and holding it up to the light. "But it does look like something's worked itself loose."

_So…it's already broken._

"I'll go check it out. Eat what you can Ezra." He finishes his statement, then smiles at me and starts upstairs to his office.

"Can I get some milk or something?" I ask Sabine, causing both her and Sof to leap to their feet.

Sof volunteers "I got it!" enthusiastically, causing Sabine to meekly sit back down as Sof races to grab her stool, a glass for me then sets up a little station at the island in the middle of the kitchen, pulls her stool to the conservator and deftly pulls out the container of blue milk.

I take a bite as we all watch Sophie pour me some blue milk at the station she set up, then put the container and her stool back where they belong and brings me a glass of blue milk."Thanks." I smile at her, taking the glass then giving her a one armed hug she returns enthusiastically.

"What was it that Ahsoka sent you _ad'ika_?" Mrs. Wren turns and asks Sabine.

I sip my blue milk as Sabine lights up, then responds. "Oh, it's big news. Awesome actually. I was going to wait and tell Ezra first, but you're here…"

"Tell, tell." I tease Sabine, who cracks an even bigger smile.

"It's a packet on how to become a Fulcrum agent." Sabine says.

_Whoa!_

"Whoa! That's great!" I jump out of my seat and move to hug Sabine.

As I hug her Sophie asks "What's a Fulcrum agent?"

"Yeah, what is that?" Her mother adds.

"Ahsoka's a Fulcrum agent. Kanan, Hera, all of us were on the _Ghost_ fighting the Empire on Lothal before catching somebody named Fulcrum's attention. They sent us on crazy mission after crazy mission until we finally met Ahsoka herself. She was Fulcrum. That was about a month and a half before we saw Lux and came home." Sabine explains as I can see the wheels in Sophie's head start turning.

_Now she has the full timeline._

"What does a Fulcrum agent do? Recruit for new cells?" Mrs. Wren asks. "I assume that Fulcrum is just a code name."

Sabine nods. "Yeah. Apparently she, Rex, Leia, some of the other Rebel leaders were impressed with how we handled the Ramordia mission."

"That's great Sabine." Her mother smiles, clearly very proud of her before Sophie rushes across the table and tackles her into a hug.

"Congratulations!" Sophie cheers.

Sabine smiles warmly before waving me back toward my food. "Yeah, if we end up seeing Master Che I'll talk to her then."

"Yeah, I want her there if I get to see him soon." I jump in. "You guys, Hera and Kanan."

"Prime?" Mrs. Wren throws out there.

_Hmmm…_

"Maybe? I don't know." I admit.

"I think he'd want to be there." Mrs. Wren explains. "After all, we sent them away the first time because we didn't know how badly you were hurt."

_What do you mean…?_

I turn to Sabine and ask "What did you tell them when I was out?"

"I told them basically that the Vader fight went very badly. He didn't turn, we all fought him and escaped but that you got your arm partially cut off." Sabine explains.

"Just my hand." I correct her.

Mrs. Wren jumps in, frowning. "It's still a life changing injury Ezra. I mean, look at you. You've been battling to come back, too hard I might add, for months now. It's worn on you, whether you want to admit it or not." She finishes sternly, smirking and causing Sophie to giggle.

_Yeah…maybe._

"Maybe. Sorry I yelled." I apologize.

"You have every right to be angry and frustrated _ad'ika_." She tells me gently before reaching out and touching my arm tenderly.

"Yeah, sometimes you just need to scream." Mr. Wren adds, coming down the stairs and causing both of his daughters to laugh.

His wife turns to the stairs and asks "Any luck?"

"A lot of luck actually." Got ahold of his head nurse right away and got Master Che himself a moment later. He asked us all to come to Polis Massa at our earliest convenience."

"We'll go tomorrow." Mrs. Wren jumps in.

"Tomorrow?" I blurt out in disbelief.

Both of Sabine's parents frown at me. "That'd be best. I did my best to explain what Ezra's troubles were and showed him that I figured out how to take off your arm. He doesn't want me to reattach it, makes your checkup easier and prevents something weird from happening. His words."

"My checkup is about a month away though." I reply.

"I mentioned that, and he said he could accurately see where your progress is tomorrow."

_Well now I need to comm everybody._

"I need to comm everyone." I say blankly, then turn to Sabine.

She answers "I'll call Hera and Kanan from my room."

"I'll comm Hera from the office." Mrs. Wren smiles.

"Lux and I need to talk anyway."

Sophie asks "What about Prime? He'll want to go!"

"We'll comm him after we comm Hera _Soph'ika_." Her mother smiles at her, causing Sophie to look relieved.

"And I'll…?" I ask.

"Eat." Mrs. Wren finishes my sentence.

"And rest." Her husband adds. "We'll probably head out early."

Sophie hops out of her chair and starts to her room. "I need to pack!"

"No you need to go to bed!" Her mother counters.

"AWW MAN!"


	126. Checkup

I don't let my eyes leave the sterile white platform while standing next to the benches beside the oval shaped room while I reach out into the Force again.

_Nothing. I don't feel a thing. Maybe Padmé actually did go down to the Second World to avoid whatever conflict is to come that both she and Vader both foresee coming._

_She's not here, that's for sure._

The room stays scarcely lit, the lights on their low power setting in the event that there is a medical emergency that needs urgent attention.

_I've learned that they don't discriminate here. Empire or not, can pay or not, if you need to have something done that could save your life, they're doing it and worrying about it need more people like the people here at Polis Massa in the galaxy as a whole._

Now c'mon Padmé…I could use the guidance.

_Please?_

I let out a breath, then turn and see Prime walking toward me, wearing his armor but not carrying his helmet. "Hey."

"Hi." Prime returns my smile. "You okay? You're just staring into an empty room."

I shrug. "Kind of. Remember on Alderaan? Padmé Amidala?"

"Yeah." Prime says, suddenly turning serious. "Where are you going with this?"

"When I got rescued from the Empire, they brought me here to be operated on and recover. The night I woke up, I freaked out, thinking I was still at the Empire's mercy. I closed my eyes in chains and woke up with Sabine a couple of feet away. But after I pulled myself together, the Force tugged at me, telling me to follow. I did, and it led me here."

"Here?" Prime asks. "It's an empty room."

"She died here. I saw it, the Force granted me a vision. It wasn't what I wanted to see, but I needed to see it. It's how I learned I was still following the light. I was so turned around after over a week that I barely knew which way was up."

Prime raises his hand in a silent question. "Why…would the Force show you Padmé Amidala dying?"

"Because she wanted me to see it. Padmé, that is. I know it sounds impossible, but it's what happened. Nothing is impossible with the Force as your ally."

Prime laughs once. "Ahsoka said that to Vader."

"It's true."

"So, you saw her. Can she talk, say anything?" He asks me intently.

"Yeah, but she didn't." I shake my head.

_She didn't have to._

"On Alderaan…you guys said there was a reason that you had to pursue Vader, seek him out. She was the reason." Prime says, phrasing it like a question.

I nod. "I can't really say much more, because it's personal to them. But yes.""

Prime seems to accept that. "Not to be dismissive, but look where that's gotten us. You lost a hand, the Rebellion is still laying low, the girls all are moving on and trying to put roots down. Things have changed."

"Yeah, but I needed to do it." I counter. "I had to try. I'll try again if I get an opening."

Prime's expression darkens instantly. "You don't think you'll get another opening…will you?"

"No. I think he'll try to kill me. And I'll hold him back. But if I get another opening, I'm going to take it."

"Hah." Prime laughs once. "And to think that Sabine's parents ever worried that this might keep you down for good."

"That's not going to happen." I smile, trying not to laugh.

Prime's expression becomes serious once again. "By the way, I'm sorry about what I said on Tibrin. About yelling for you to go get him. I was in the heat of the moment, and got caught up in it."

"No, no, you're fine." I shake my head and turn to him. "That's what I needed to hear. I'm the only reason I'm here right now. Me, not you."

"I just felt like that's what you needed to hear. You're a lot better than even when we first met. When we fought that Zabrak in Sundari, from the little I saw you were fighting for dear life. But on Tibrin, you were on his level."

"I was close." I disagree. "But you're right, I didn't stand a chance in Sundari."

Prime adds "Orir wanted to charge him, like Lana did Vader later. Sabine talked him out of it, forcibly. She seemed to know exactly what to do."

"You know how that goes." I smile.

_Instincts._

"Yeah, I do know how that goes." I say, then glance at the clock on the far wall. "Time to go."

_I don't want to keep Master Che waiting._

"Thanks for inviting me, by the way. I appreciate it." Prime says, falling into line beside me.

"Don't thank me, thank Sabine's parents." I shake my head. "I didn't even think of it, it was all them."

Prime seems nonplussed. "Well still, I appreciate it."

Together, we walk in comfortable silence as I try to ignore the irritating sensation of my left arm until we reach a similar room to the one that I last saw Master Che in.

_Everyone else is already here._

"We're not late, are we?" I ask, slipping past the open door

Ahsoka immediately shakes her head. "No, you're right on time."

"Find what you were looking for?" Lux asks, looking superior.

"Yeah, now I've seen this whole place." I smile, then catch Ahsoka's eyes just as they flash in understanding.

Hurried footsteps just outside the room cause me to turn and see Master Che slide into the room, a file in his hand. "Just in the nick of time. How are you feeling?" Master Che smiles, then extends his hand for me to shake.

"Not bad at all." I smile, shaking his hand.

"Good, good. Now sit, I can't have a patient of mine standing while I examine." He chastises me, and I slide over to the made up bed, prompting Sof to leave her mother's side and join me supportively.

"Thank you again, for seeing us on such short notice." Mr. Wren says graciously.

Master Che smiles, but accepts the thanks politely. "You're welcome. This shouldn't be too long, but it will be later. You look good Ezra, all in all, how has the rehabilitation gone?"

"Good, really good." I smile, feeling everyone's eyes on me. "You kind of had me scared when you gave me my timeline." The room suddenly bursts into laughter, with Kanan, Hera, Rex, and Lux on the far wall.

"That's not what I intended, but a diagnosis is a diagnosis. Now, give me your opinion, what did you think of the arm's performance? Any tweaks, changes you want made? Likes, dislikes?" Master Che implores me.

I quickly shake my head. "No ,not really any outside of the symptoms of the last few weeks, but I feel like that's not permanent."

"No, they're not." He assures me.

"Then yeah, I like the hand. Weight's fine, I'm used to it. It works wonderfully, but as you know I've seemed to mess it up."

Master Che cracks a reassuring look. "You didn't mess it up. Everything that's wrong with it is fixable, arm included. Now that we've gotten that out of the way, the not so fun part."

_The diagnosis of the diagnosis._

"The stinging, prickling sensation was due to a precautionary, safety feature that we installed in the event that you didn't follow your rehabilitation schedule and trained too hard to come back."

_Oh blast._

Master Che continues "There isn't any nerve damage, but there is an infection on the arm itself. You marked down that you caught the Balmorran flu about a month ago?"

"Yes." I nod once.

"Good, that makes sense. There is a infection risk with illnesses like that, but most are immunized. Your situation, the circumstances make sense. I'm going to put you on a cocktail that will wipe out the infection. It's really not anything to be too concerned about."

_An infection?_

"Like on his arm?" Mrs. Wren asks as I glance down at my left arm.

"Yes." Master Che nods. "It's not noticeable now, but it's symptoms are partially what masked the beginnings of what Ezra felt as discomfort with the arm. The stinging isn't just the hand. There is an infection."

"But it's nothing to be too concerned about." Hera asks for clarification.

Master Che nods. "It'll be taken care of. What won't be taken care of, is the inescapable fact, that you did not take it easy Ezra. Bo-Katan, Miss Sophie and Hera all told me a story of you taking on an Imperial home invasion essentially, weeks after you left here. Ignoring their orders and reminders that you weren't ready."

"Yeah…" I say, having no defense. "I did do that."

Master Che's expression turns morbid as he doesn't look away from me. "This could have been more serious Ezra. Training at all hours is exhausting, but okay. You need your rest, you are only human. You will break down. Don't take this as "Oh, I trained too hard." no. This is about overextending yourself and overexerting yourself while your body is healing. That's how your shoulder happened. Eventually, the body betrays all its problems thru injury."

"Is his shoulder serious?" Sabine asks as I glance nervously at a spot off to my left near Lux's feet.

"No. It's a rotator cuff injury that resulted in a AC joint hyperextension." Master Che shakes his head. "A swift invasive procedure will fix him, and we'll do that as we reattach his arm to minimize the discomfort."

_So I'm having surgery._

"However…" Master Che lets out a heavy breath. "What all this means, is that you are not cleared Ezra."

_WHAT?!_

"What?!" I blurt out. "Why not?"

Master Che gives me a deadpan look. "Your shoulder will need a month to fully heal. In addition, the infection will take time to defeat, and then there's the remainder of your rehabilitation."

"My rehabilitation is going very well though." I counter. "I'm finally getting close to where I need to be using the Force."

"My decision still stands. It's not ability, it's about preventing chronic injuries. Ezra, you're thinking of your arm as a biological replacement, not a mechanical one, which unfortunately it is." Master Che explains patiently. "There will always be risk of infection, risk of muscular issues even with the proper rehabilitation. This isn't a permanent solution. So I will not clear one of the few remaining Jedi without being comfortable doing so."

_Alright…I get that._

"How much longer is he sidelined?" Ahsoka asks gently. "Combat wise."

Master Che double checks his file then turns to Ahsoka. "Add a month to the original diagnosis." Immediately, I nervously run my hand thru my hair.

_Another month just gone. Poof._

"I should be able to come to you this time and reduce suspicions next checkup." Master Che finishes, then turns to me. "If you're ready to get this spedder on the road, we can prep you whenever you're ready."

"Let's do it now." I decide on the spot, just before both of Sabine's parents move to jump in, then stop themselves.

Master Che hops to his feet. "Alright then. Follow me."

_(Five Days Later)_

_Ramordia._

Here again, under similar circumstances.

_After I got knocked out to fix my shoulder and put my arm back together, Ahsoka came in and told Sabine and I that we had a mission we needed to complete before we went home._

Ahsoka wanted to take advantage that we're in sort of a far flung part of space to do these missions, so here we are.

_One here to Ramordia, then a quick supply drop._

We contacted Maddie just after we made the jump to hyperspace to say we're coming, and to grab the people that she trusts the most. Five or six, then meet where we met her last time.

_Sabine's totally running this mission, and is very nervous about it. Ahsoka said that we're essentially starting our own cell._

The time is starting to march on, and I can't hold the entire Rebellion up forever waiting for me to recover. Nobody has had any trouble (that I've heard of) since Tibrin.

_The Rebellion is starting to grind it's gears and get rolling again. Which I'm glad about, but I'm now a sideline figure._

Apparently our stay on Mandalore is going to be at least semi-permanent, with the Rebellion getting back in business. Ahsoka told Sabine and I that this was our show, that we can make the calls, choose what we do, how and when. That when we got home, not to think of it as a break anymore. It's back to work.

_After we contacted Maddie, Sabine and I both have brainstormed things we could do, people we had contacts with. We settled on the besis of our cell being on Mandalore already with Prime, Will, Kal, Orir, Darcy, Brie, Mira, Katiey and Aiden already semi-enlisted._

The plan is for us to approach them when we get back.

"KLUNK!" "GSSsshhh…"

_We're here._

"Chop, make us some reservations please and send them to my comm." Sabine says, hopping out of her seat. "And let us know if anyone gives you trouble."

A distant "Womp WAH!" causes Sabine to smirk as I move to follow her off this freighter Ahsoka is having us fly here, then to the supply drop. After that, we'll fly home and Sabine's father will slip it into regular service, then back to the Rebellion.

"Thanks Chop. Everything hold up okay?" Sabine asks, hesitating as we slip towards the cargo hold.

"WAHHHH!"

"_It's not the Ghost, but it'll have to do."_

"Thanks buddy." I smile, then follow Sabine as she passes the power converters, moisture evaporators and spare parts in the cargo bay and into the hanger we've parked in. "Same restaurant as last time?"

Sabine smirks, slowing just enough to slip her arm around my waist. "Yup, I couldn't pass up that macaroni again."

"It was good. With the bacon baked in."

"UGH don't make me hungry yet." She chastises me, but smiles contently at me.

"Is that an order?" I ask in mock fear.

Sabine's mouth opens slightly, before muttering "Shut up…" and briefly pulling me down to kiss me.

"We're here overnight this time." I smile darkly, hand lingering on Sabine's hip.

"And I've got the dampener." Sabine adds.

_Wonderful._

Together, we walk in comfortable silence as I vaguely remember the way to Maddie's, assisted by Sabine gently redirecting me once or twice. Before I know it, we're on the landing and Sabine hits the buzzer before sliding closer to me and grabbing my ass.

_Hey!_

I laugh once as Sabine doesn't react, then impulsively return the fever and cause her to turn, looking affronted. "Grab your handful later." She commands me. "Stay focused."

"I'm only following the direction of my leader." I cockily reply, then slyly try to smile at her.

Sabine simply laughs and hangs her head. "_Ni kar'tayl gar_."

"I love you too." I answer, then watch her jaw drop.

"You understood that?" She asks me, sounding shocked.

I nod. "I am trying to learn still you know."

"I know…" Sabine trails off, then bites her lip. "Why haven't you said anything? Do you not want my help?"

I quickly shake my head. "No, not like that. I just wanted to surprise you." Instantly, Sabine's frown transforms into a smile before she wraps her hands around my neck, stand on her tiptoes and kisses me.

"_Ni kar'tayl gar darasuum_." She whispers tenderly, then pulls me closer and slips her tongue into the kiss this time before separating.

_Darasum…I don't know that one._

"That last word?" I ask quietly.

"Forever." Sabine answers, then beams.

The door suddenly opens, and Sabine takes a hurried step away from me, interrupting the moment before I turn and see a clearly off her game Maddie standing in front of us.

"Sorry…I'll explain." She mumbles, then steps aside for us to come in.

"Everything okay?" I ask politely.

_She looks sick._

"We had a party last night. One drink turned into two, into shots." Maddie explains succinctly starting up a pair of stairs.

_We went down last time._

Sabine flashes a brief smile before asking "Bad hangover?"

"You have nooo idea." Maddie groans in response. "Everyone's upstairs at my place. I apologize for the mess. I was gonna clean up, but I feel like garbage."

"Don't worry about a mess." Sabine eases her fears. "A mess we can move around."

"I was worried you were like sick or something." I confess.

Maddie shrugs as we continue up the stairs and enter a cracked door. "My family are property owners here, whole building is ours. So I don't have neighbors. Easy choice."

"Invite us next time." Sabine jokes, causing me to smile.

Maddie however, freezes. "Are you serious?"

"If we're in the neighborhood…why not?" Sabine counters Maddie, whose gears are clearly churning as she opens the door fully for us.

_Whoa. This…is a mess._

Red cups everywhere, various liquids on the floor, multiple folding tables set up, some with upside down cups on them, some right side up. "And now I'm mad you didn't invite us." Sabine frowns.

"Must have been one hell of a party." I say quietly.

"Ahh, they're here." I hear a voice say, then four or five people pop out from behind a pillar near what looks like the kitchen.

_I only recognize one guy, the one with blonde hair and the glasses. The other two girls and dark haired guy with long hair I don't think we go their names._

Maddie looks very embarrassed before slipping past the others. "I'll grab drinks."

"I'll take one of last nights, please." Sabine smiles, causing our friends to gawk at her.

_I can't have any alcohol because of my painkillers and this cocktail I'm on. I hate her._

"I thought we failed our test." The long, dark haired guy says quietly.

Sabine immediately shakes her head. "No, you didn't. You said all the right things, and some of the wrong things. You weren't ready. But that's why we came back."

"To get you ready." I smile warmly. "Can we get your names? So I don't have to just gesture at you?"

"I'm Kyl." The long haired guy says.

"That's Simone Janaesson Baana, or SJB as we call her." A different light haired girl smiles. "I'm Terral."

Finally, the glasses wearing guy smiles. "Det. Hi."

"Hi." Sabine replies warmly, as Maddie hands Sabine and I red cups.

_Oh, it's tea._

I quickly sip my drink again, then smile. "Nice. Thank you."

"You're welcome. Sorry I'm half dead." Maddie groans, then plops onto the couch.

"So we didn't fail." Terral asks.

Sabine shakes her head. "Didn't fail."

"Well what now then?" SJB asks as I feel Det's eyes on my arm, causing me to glance up at him. He doesn't notice, still eying my arm.

_Don't tell me we've got another anti-mech guy. I don't have the patience today._

Or ever, for that matter.

"We're building out the Rebellion still. Together, we want you guys with us." Sabine explains, looking pleased while gesturing between the two of us.

"How do we do that?" Kyl asks Sabine.

Sabine leans back onto the edge of the couch. "Well, first off you need to forget my name. I'm Fulcrum. We both are Fulcrum."

"Fulcrum?" Maddie asks in a disapproving tone.

"Like the pivot point of a joint?" Kyl turns to look at Det with a skeptical look.

"Yes, and it's worked for years. So we're keeping it." Sabine ends all discussion there. "We joined thanks to a Fulcrum. It's a system."

SJB jumps in. "And now you guys are Fulcrum's."

"Yeah." I nod.

"Congrats on the promotion." Kyl says before sipping a drink.

Terral smiles. "Yeah, congrats. Now how can we help?"

"Easy." Sabine smiles. "Hold more parties."

"Over my dead body." Maddie jokes, voice flat and still lying on the couch, causing us all to bust out laughing.

Sabine bites her lip, giggles more, then turns serious again. "I'm serious. We want people. We need people. When the Empire messes up, we want people to look around and see a group that has a better answer. An answer that slowly grows, not as a rebellion, but a cool idea. Something we can grow to."

"Like a movement." SJB inlines her head.

"Exactly." Sabine nods. "Don't say anything that could be considered treason, don't say it to just anybody…just get the idea out there that the Empire could get better at some stuff. Maybe you have some ideas."

_I like it Sabine._

"We can do that. Right?" Terral looks to Kyl. Kyl nods once.

"X-Space is sort of the example you're going after." Maddie jumps ahead.

Sabine nods once more. "We want them to be eased in."

"What'd you do to your arm?" Det asks me quietly. "We heard about some fight on the planet Tibrin, with a rumored Jedi getting hurt."

"How did you…?" I ask quietly.

Sabine adds "Yeah, that's supposed to be very quiet."

"Nobody knows anything." Maddie perks up. "It's just un unsubstantiated rumor. That apparently is true."

_Oh blast, we tipped off that it's true by our reaction._

"I'll be fine. Our focus has changed a little bit. Which is what sent us here." I reassure everyone, then eye Det. "How'd you know?"

"I can tell how you're nursing your shoulder that you're hurt. The glove on your hand says something happened since the last time we saw you."

_This kid is a serious brain._

"He wants to become a doctor and go into medicine." Maddie smiles proudly. "Don't you Det?"

Det nods once. "Seeing people hurt hurts me."

"I'm fine." I reassure him, shooting off a smile. "Just some nicks and bumps. Give me two months, I'll be right as the rain."

The entire room loosens up, causing a wave to ripple thru the Force.

_We're going to be alright._

(A/N: Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. Quick housekeeping notes: I posted a one-shot Sunday night that I wrote when trying to finish this chapter after this Saturday's Rebels episode. I'm pretty happy with it, so check it out if you want. I'm not doing anything with it yet, at least until S3 ends. Which brings me to my next point.

Flaming Rebellion…will be having a sequel. I spoke to the author whose idea I'll be basing a key plot point on, and she gave me her blessing. So the sequel is a go. Thank you once again for the overwhelming response to my A/N, I still can't believe how many people chimed in, essentially removing any doubt in my mind. After I wrap Flaming Rebellion, I will take a week, two maybe three off to recharge, then start both a sequel and a story about what happens between the two. The latter will just be a series of one shots, nothing required reading, but a treat for those who want it.

Last thing: I have a special one shot coming up that I'm working on involving Sabine's parents. I love the idea, it hinges ona point that _NOBODY_ has mentioned to me once, in this whole story. Yet. I'm looking forward to publishing that. Don't worry if I post one-shots. Flaming Rebellion will press on, unabated until it reaches the conclusion that I came to months ago.

Thank you for reading. –James)


	127. New Hope

"WHHHHIIIRRRRR—VROOM!"

In front of Sabine and I's eyes, the blue streaks of hyperspace is replaced by the endless black of space along with a sandy brown planet.

_Ahsoka's having us deliver power converters…to a sandball? The entire planet looks like a desert._

Sabine has a puzzled expression before doublechecking our dossier. "Yeah, this is it. Now we have to figure out where Mos Eisley is. Chop?"

I hear a vague "Womp Wah!" from deeper inside this small freighter.

_Going to see Maddie and our friends on Ramordia made sense. And yeah, I guess Tatooine is in the neighborhood kind of, but why even come?_

There's nothing here.

"Alright, found Mos Eisley." Sabine says. "And great, the Hutts are in control. Awesome."

_Oh no. Hopefully me popping off about saying I'm Jabba the Hutt won't catch up with me now._

I sigh then reply "Great."

"Ahsoka must be using this planet for something if we're so far out that not even the Empire wants this place." Sabine says dismissively. "I've heard of this planet once, but just because of podracing."

"Oh yeah, you and your Dad watched a podrace on Tatooine when we first went home right?" I ask her.

Sabine smiles before shaking her head. "No, a Dug names Sebulba won the race. Dad made a comment about nothing ever coming from here." Immediately, I laugh.

"He'll get a kick out of this." I smile and Sabine nods before nosing us down towards the atmosphere and the endless desert below. Purposely I keep my mouth shut and let Sabine concentrate as we descend to the planet before I feel the Force grab my attention spontaneously.

_Hmm. That's strange._

In response, I close my eyes, reach out and feel…

"Whoa."

"What?" Sabine says, sounding like she's biting off a portion of annoyance.

"No big deal." I immediately tell her.

_She needs to concentrate. She can't feel this…beacon anyway. Master Kenobi felt like a spotlight, collared and pointed in our direction. Whoever this is just feels like a beacon, urging me to come closer._

"If it wasn't a big deal, you wouldn't have said something. I've got this, now tell me!"

I reach out again, and continue to feel the Signature before swallowing the lump in my throat. "I feel a huge Force Signature."

"What?" Sabine blurts out in disbelief. "Seriously?"

"Yeah." I nod. "It's like…Master Kenobi felt like a spotlight pointed right at me. This is like a beacon, begging me to come closer and find it."

The sound of the ship traveling thru the last vestiges of the atmosphere fill the cockpit as I open my eyes to see Sabine glancing back at me. "Well, this supply drop should be quick. We can go investigate and report back to Ahsoka."

"Unless it's completely new, I know Ahsoka would have felt it. It like reached out and grabbed my attention."

_I think it's the strongest signature I've ever felt. It's just raw power._

"Huh." Sabine bites her lip as a small city unfurls in front of us and the Signature feels just a breath away.

_It's CLOSE._

"It's really close. I think it's here in the city." I tell Sabine, feeling breathless. She again looks away from the console to look at me.

"You okay? You sound out of breath."

_Whoever this is…it's really strong._

I shake my head. "I just feel like Ahsoka should have known about this and warned us."

"Maybe she didn't know." Sabine shrugs her shoulders before taking her hands off the controls, allowing Chopper to take control. "You'll be fine. We'll be okay."

_That's not what I'm worried about. I'm more worried about Vader finding out about this person. That'd be a disaster. Because whoever this is is naturally REALLY strong._

Sabine pulls me out of my chair and towards the cargo hold, where our shipments of power converters, moisture evaporators and spare parts along with a speeder to haul it to our customer sits idly, waiting for us.

_Ahsoka gave us a baseline price, but added that if they've fallen on hard times we could even just give it to them. Which is weird, since we can't really be in the business of charity, but orders are orders._

It'd be bad to disobey a direct order on our first mission.

"CLUNK! GSSHHH…" White gas disperses outside the door as Sabine slips her helmet on, I put on my jacket while reaching out for the Force Signature again.

_That is SO close…it's making me antsy._

The bay doors drop, and I allow Sabine to lead the way, pushing the first group of power converters on their repulsor pallets down the ramp and towards the hanger floor.

_That Force Signature is who we're delivering to I think._

I shake my head, grab my pallet and start pushing before hearing "Hi! These the power convertors, evaporators and parts?"

"Yup. I'm Sabine." Sabine says cordially as I reach the hanger floor and see Sabine removing her helmet and looking at a average sized man with very light hair. "Where are we?"

"Tosche Station. Welcome to the farthest place from the center of the galaxy." Our customer says ominously, then turns to me. "Hi."

"Hi, Ezra." I smile at our customer as I probe out.

_Yup, this is the Force Signature._

"Luke Skywalker, nice to meet you guys. If you want to push your pallets towards my speeder, I think we can just make the one trip of it." Our customer says, smiling and shaking my hand before I see the resemblance.

_Oh…my…_

The air evaporates from my lungs as Luke disappears into the cargo bay leaving Sabine and I gaping at each other.

_No way. Ahsoka sent us…to meet LUKE?! The one hope for the entire galaxy? Anakin and Padmé's son?_

I drop what I'm doing, look back to Luke coming down the ramp and see Anakin's dimple on his chin, his build and Padmé's facial structure.

_I can't believe it._

"So, how was your trip? Where'd you guys come from?" Luke asks, sounding very happy as he pushes the spare parts and moisture evaporators towards his speeder.

_Wow, strong too._

"Mandalore." I say blankly before Luke seems to recognize the name.

"Were you guys there when they fought the Empire? Ahsoka said that she knew some people there that fought." He asks, looking from Sabine and back to me.

Sabine nods. "Yeah, we fought a little."

"And they seriously are letting you guys be free? Before now I didn't really believe it." Luke asks Sabine.

"Kind of. We have to play within the Empire's lines on a lot of things. We can't just declare war or something crazy."

Luke laughs, then smiles. "Yeah, I don't think that'd go well for you guys. Not that I wouldn't…be rooting."

_He really doesn't have any idea. Does he?_

"Whose side are you on?" I ask as Luke attaches his pallet to his speeder. Luke straightens up, then turns back.

"I don't know. I've got a buddy that's in the Imperial Academy, but I don't know."

_Deserting?_

Sabine and I look to each other, her expression blank before Luke pipes up. "I shouldn't have said that. Sorry. Please don't repeat that to anyone. I assume Ahsoka wouldn't have sent people I can't trust."

"We?" I ask him.

"How do you know Ahsoka?" Sabine adds.

_Great question._

Luke smiles. "She came to us, saying she's got a lot of contacts that could help my Aunt and Uncle. We run a moisture farm out past Mos Eisley. It's a tough life, but Ahsoka came to us in the nick of time, getting us some much needed supplies before she and my Uncle worked something out that said if we needed stuff, we'd come to her."

_Ahsoka…_

"Cool." Sabine says evenly, before pushing her pallet to Luke's speeder and he deftly attaches it.

"I don't think I can pull all three. Do you guys have another run to make, or can one of you follow me?" Luke says, sounding defeated.

_We can follow._

Sabine smiles and replies. "We'll follow you Luke."

"Stick behind me then. Things can get a little rough." Luke warns us, then glances out at our ship.

"I'll grab the speeder. Ezra, tell Chop to watch things." Sabine tells me, then moves to grab the speeder.

"WOMP WAH!" Chopper replies, evidently near the cargo bay door. Luke steps up, crouches down and spots Chop.

"Is that an astromech droid?" Luke asks me, straightening up.

I nod, trying to look unimpressed. "Yup."

"Is he you guys'?"

I shake my head. "No, he's a friend of ours."

"He. Like he has a personality?" Luke asks skeptically.

_Oh yeah._

"Yeah." I smile. "More like a Loth-Cat than a droid."

Luke's face immediately goes slack. "Like a what?"

"Whirrr…" The speeder pulls up beside us before Sabine chimes in "Don't listen to him Luke, he's always got some strange comparisons."

Luke laughs, then cracks a flawless smile. "Alright. You guys have water right?"

"Yeah." I nod. "Made sure to grab some before we came."

"Smart. Welcome to Tatooine…" He says, then starts pulling out of the hanger. I smile as Sabine trudges up to me, holding waters for us while operating the speeder with her knees.

"That's Luke. The Luke." Sabine asks me immediately. "Vader's son."

_Yeah._

"That's him." I nod, then swallow a lump in my throat.

Sabine pulls up just past me so I can get on the speeder. "Why have us meet him here? Why?"

"I don't know." I answer with a shrug while clambering onto the speeder. Sabine doesn't respond, simply kicking the speeder into it's higher gear and pulling away to follow Luke.

_That sun…_

Luke uses multiple back alleys and side streets to escape the flow of traffic in the small city of Mos Eisley, and we're out in desolate desert within minutes. Meanwhile, Sabine's questions, unease and nerves all flow straight to me as I gently hold onto her back on this speeder.

"Does he want to go any faster?!" Sabine yells sarcastically. "We're approaching 200 kph!"

_WE'RE AT WHAT SPEED?!_

I glance around Sabine to see Luke pulling away from us, then glance at the display and see that Sabine's sitting at 195.

_This guy's a speed demon._

"_Not my trick…Some Jedi did it during…the war!" Hera yells as the Star Destroyer becomes a gray blur, the command deck protecting us from their tractor beam._

Just like his father.

"What?!" Sabine asks me. "I feel you all stiff back there!" She yells.

"Just remembered something Hera said about Anakin!" I counter. Even thru her helmet, I can see her expression change by her body language.

"Hera said somethi…oh! When we were saving Leia!" Sabine figures out, and I nod. "This is insane!"

_This speed maybe! I just can't believe this is happening._

Sabine hunkers down, determinedly picking up more speed and starts catching up to Luke as he continues driving into the baking heat of the twin suns in the sky.

_I feel like I should ask for some seasoning, be turned over a few times, then be checked to see if I'm cooked all the way thru._

After what feels like endless desert, Luke begins to visibly slow down and a collection of moisture evaporators, set up in the shape of a farm come into view. Sabine slows accordingly, and within a few minutes, Luke's hopped off his speeder and is pushing it towards a circular building.

"Aunt Beru? Parts are here." Luke says warmly, appearing completely comfortable both physically and in the Force.

_This is where Master Kenobi hid him. He's supposed to be watching over him._

Quickly, I probe out as a woman's voice answers, only to feel nothing of note in the Force besides the…child looking guy that's the hope of the galaxy pulsing beside me.

_Unknowingly, and without remorse. It's like a huge "Hey! Look at me!" sign._

I blink, then shake my head to refocus as Sabine's voice floats to me. "—you for having us."

"No problem, we appreciate you helping our Luke. The second trip would have been dangerous alone." Luke's…I don't know says.

_Aunt? Maybe? Did Anakin have any other family? I know the Jedi Order would have frowned upon keeping in touch with other family._

Meaning that this is a brilliant place to hide him.

_I'm going with Aunt and Uncle._

"Ezra." I smile. "Are you Luke's aunt?" I approach the woman with a warm smile.

She nods. "Yes, I'm Beru."

"Oh, why did Ahsoka send a Mandalorian…?" A man grumbles just before I turn and see a stern, serious looking man with broad shoulders.

"Is there a problem with me being here?" Sabine immediately pops off, clearly irritated at his tone. "We did just help you guys save a lot of time coming out of our way."

The man immediately caves. "That's not what I mean, I apologize. Luke is just easily wound up and adventurous. Seeing someone such as yourself could distract him, and we need him focused for this year's harvest."

_Seeing someone such as Sabine? This guy is either a little bit off, or unknowingly offensive._

"I—" Sabine takes a hard step toward the man before Beru gently corrals Sabine.

"I'm sure both of you are thirsty. Owen, go find something to do with yourself." She immediately dismisses her husband before smiling warmly at me.

_I'll follow. Help keep the peace._

The three of us all walk down a well disguised stairwell down to a cool garden like area before Beru pipes up "I'm so sorry about that. My husband can be a little hard to take sometimes. But he is right, Luke is a child that likes to wander off track."

"He got right to work with us." Sabine says, sounding skeptical before taking off her helmet and causing Beru to do a double take.

"Oh dear, your hair is beautiful." She smiles, and

Sabine beams in response. "Thank you. Just had it redone a little while ago."

"Well it looks great." Beru compliments her once again while pulling out glasses and pouring out a drink for us both. "Do you both come from Mandalore?"

"Yeah, we do." Sabine smiles as I sip my drink politely, then look around.

_I think I want to explore a little before we leave._

"This is a moisture farm, right?" I ask, inkling my head back to Beru.

She nods while pouring herself a drink. "Yes, it is. Tatooine has a…limited economy. We do what we can and do our best. It's enough for my husband and I, but not for Luke."

"We uhm, know who he is." Sabine says, noticeably unsure of herself.

_Whoa. Wasn't expecting that one._

Beru seems to sigh, then sets down her glass. "We're trying. I'm sure you two as well as Ahsoka must be frustrated with us."

"Not frustrated." I correct her. "It's just a lack of information."

"When Master Kenobi came to us, 17 years ago and told Owen and I that the kind, polite young man that came to us before the start of the Clone War had become a very bad, bad man and asked us to love his son as our own, we knew it would not be an easy task. Luke is a troublemaker, any sort of trouble within the system he seems to find himself squarely in the middle of it. That doesn't help Owen because our livelihood depends on his good name." Beru says humbly. "I don't know what all Luke is supposed to become, but Owen and I have had time to think on what felled Anakin and got us into this spot. Would you like to hear it?"

Sabine and I both immediately nod, and Sabine moves to sit. Beru immediately smiles gently, looking like a kindly old mother.

"It is a fundamental lack of love. The Jedi were almost the things of myth and legend. Owen's father married a woman named Shmi. Shmi's son was named Anakin, and he was discovered by the Jedi and taken away. She never really saw him again. When I first met him, he was brave, kind and polite just as I said. But there was something almost robotic about him. Like he was following life on a script and not truly enjoying it. Loving and cherishing it like a normal person. When that script fell to pieces, Luke came to us as a baby. We have tried our best to love Luke as our own while disciplining him when necessary and trying to lay a foundation of a normal life. I know, and I'm sure Owen does too that a day will come that Luke leaves. He's not a farmer, the first of his friends are already leaving Tatooine. Luke's father didn't have a foundation, just a script. No love, just a sense of duty. We don't want Luke to become anything like his father." She says, then smiles, looking exhausted.

"I think you may be right." Sabine pipes up, giving Beru a kind smile. "You need both I think."

Beru smiles back at Sabine, then turns to me. "I know you're a Jedi."

_What?_

I instantly freeze up as Sabin immediately demands "How'd you know?"

"He stands a little straighter, like Anakin did. You've got a lightsaber clipped to your belt." Beru smiles. "To most people you're just different, then they forget. "But to people who saw the Jedi, they probably know."

"How well did you know Anakin?" I ask her, then smile.

_This isn't an easy question._

She shakes her head. "Not very well. I knew his girlfriend, who I assume is Luke's mother better. She was nice. Humble, always wanted to help. Padmé. She said she helped relief efforts on planets for the Senate. But there'd been a threat and Anakin had been assigned to protect her. But then they found themselves here."

_Huh._

"I hate to interrupt reliving the bad olddays…But I think it's time for you to go. You don't want to raise suspicions. Even here, you never know who is watching." Owen walks in, looking grim.

Sabine already has helmet on before she ask "Is there somebody outside?"

"No, but I'm just being careful. Luke would appreciate it if you two said goodbye. He really liked Ahsoka." Owen smiles and asks us.

Sabine and I both nod, before I speak up a final time. "Sorry, last question. Did Ahsoka say she knew Luke's father?" Both Owen and Beru nod.

"That's kind of how she got in the door. That, and a message sent ahead by Kenobi." Owen says, face contorting into a scowl.

"You don't like him, do you?" Sabine jumps in.

Owen answers by waving us to the door. "That old wizard is going to get Luke in a lot of trouble. And I can't say that I like that. Thank you for the parts and supplies. We appreciate the support."

"Glad to have helped." I smile back as Sabine does the same before I turn and see Luke out near our speeder, working on one of the moisture evaporators.

_He planted himself there so he could say goodbye. Sneaky._

I like it.

"You guys heading out?" Luke glances up from his work, then wipes his hands off.

"Yup." I smile, then extend my hand to him. "It was nice meeting you Luke."

Luke nearly leaps to me, smiling from ear to ear. "Nice to meet you too. Both of you guys. Thanks for coming."

"You're welcome." Sabine says, then gently hugs Luke, catching him completely off-guard. "Be safe Luke."

"I'll try, not much danger here." He jokes, gesturing to the vast desert around us. "Can you do something for me?"

"Yeah." I quickly answer.

"What's on your mind Luke?" Sabine adds helpfully beside me.

"Can you say hello to Ahsoka for me? And tell her thank you."

_Yeah, we can do that._

Sabine and I look at each other, then smile. "Yeah." I turn back to Luke. "We can do that."

(A/N: Surprise.)


	128. This House Is Not A Home

Following Sabine as she flashes the card for the front gate, Chopper and I trudge forward to our destination.

_I'm tired. I'm ready to get off my feet and be home. Two full days in hyperspace is too much consecutively._

Sabine and I mostly just ended up longing in the Master Suite watching the holo and sleeping. But I know that I'm still tired, so it wasn't restful.

The quiet hum of Chopper rolling behind me is the only sound as we walk thru the street and towards the front door. Sabine leads right onto the porch, then without knocking opens the door. "We're back." She calls out, sounding drained.

"Sabine!" Sof's voice replies, muffled before she pops into the hall wearing her pajamas and socks.

"Finally, you're back." I hear Mr. Wren say as Sophie rushes to her sister and hugs her tight. I can't help but smile before feeling Lux and Ahsoka in the living room and hear them get to their feet.

_Why are they here?_

"Hi." I smile as Ahsoka files into the hall and Sof disengages from Sabine and comes for my hug.

"Hi." Sof says gently, pulling my legs into a hug around my knees before I can crouch down and give her a proper hug.

I shake my head, crouch and break off her hug. "Goob. It's past your bedtime."

"Mommy and Daddy said I could stay up." Sophie smiles softly at me, then hugs me again. "How was your trip."

Sabine immediately laughs, then looks back to me as Lux quickly looks confused and a smile creeps onto Ahsoka's face. "We're going to pull the rest of the curtain back. Aren't we?" She asks Sabine and I.

_I…don't know if I want to do that. Ahsoka knows, Lux knows, I know and Sabine knows. But I don't want to condemn Sabine's family to torture and death._

"Pull back the rest of what curtain?" Mrs. Wren asks, sounding annoyed at the end.

Her husband simply says "Oh. There's more?" causing Mrs. Wren to stop in the kitchen and turn to him.

"What do you mean?"

Sabine's father clears his throat then says "The way Ahsoka said it, I don't think we got the full, full story on Alderaan."

_Oh blast. He's figured it out._

"Why? Lux, what's so bad that there's so many layers of secrecy?" Mrs. Wren says adamantly to him.

Lux bows his head. "I think that's Ahsoka's call."

"I know why. If you know and Vader finds out…" I trail off.

"It's over. The final plan goes up in smoke and we're fighting just to survive." Ahsoka finishes. "You're tortured, then killed for knowing. That's why. We're trying to protect you."

Sophie looks up at me, concern written on her face before her father says "What if we don't want to be protected?"

"I don't think it's a choice." I say to Ahsoka and try to block out Sabine's parents just before I feel their eyes start boring into me.

"Ezra Osirus…" Mrs. Wren snaps angrily.

"Bo!" Mr. Wren bite at her.

_She said my middle name._

"There's a really, really good reason Mom." Sabine defends me.

Forcibly, I turn back to see Mrs. Wren glaring at me so hard my face starts feeling hot while her husband has his hand on her chest, holding her back. "There must be. But I am willing to die if I have to for this to get done."

Lux frowns. "Don't talk like that." As Sophie retreats to the kitchen and her mother.

"Mommy…" She whines, before her Mom hugs her.

"_Ad'ika…_there are things worth that."

"But…don't." Sophie says, then sniffles. Sabine turns to me just before Ahsoka starts shepherding us into the living room.

Sophie's father moves to hug her before he says "Let's warm something up for Ezra and Sabine…then let's get the rest of the picture."

"It's already warm. They can grab a plate." Mrs. Wren says, still sounding angry as Sabine loops past the staircase and toward the bar and kitchen.

The Force accepts Ahsoka's inquiry into the Force before I hear her sigh. "Anakin had kids."

_Oh no. She said it._

I stop dead just as the full kitchen is in view and see Sophie's brain contort, Mr. Wren whip around to face Ahsoka and for Mrs. Wren's jaw to drop.

"That's impossible. I don't believe you. The Jedi—"

Ahsoka silences Mrs. Wren's heated counter with a raised hand. "My Master didn't care about that rule. He loved Padmé, I felt it the moment I met him. I just didn't know what it was yet."

"But it doesn't make sense." Mrs. Wren counters. "If he's a Jedi, and she's a Senator…how? The timing doesn't match up!"

"It does if you factor in that he had to return to Coruscant momentarily to report back to the Jedi Council." Lux offers up intriguingly.

Ahsoka nods, then piggybacks off his point. "It's rare, but women can still die in childbirth. That's what Anakin was so afraid of. It wasn't one life at stake, he thought there was two."

"Thought?" Mr. Wren asks.

"Twins." Ahsoka smiles, looking suddenly ecstatic. "Padmé had twins."

"But she died anyway. That doesn't even make sense. Wouldn't he go with Padmé to see his children?"

Ahsoka's smiles vanishes. "He…Anakin had already fallen and become Vader. From what Master Obi-Wan said, there…" She takes a deep breath. "There was a terrible argument between Padmé and Vader. At first she though he was Anakin still. I don't know all the details, Obi-Wan just said it was the worst thing he ever heard." She swallows a lump in her throat.

_He was gone._

"Long story short." Ahsoka clears her throat, bringing everyone back to reality. "Padmé was dying. Vader and Obi-Wan had a fight that put Vader in his suit, then Obi-Wan took her to a medical facility. Ezra?"

"Polis Massa." I say.

Mrs. Wren quickly covers her mouth. "Oh…my…."

"Yeah." Sabine nods.

"I saw her." I add impulsively. "She didn't say anything, but I did see her." Lux nods in my direction as Sof looks confused in the middle of the kitchen.

Ahsoka rests the conversation by leaning against the pantry door. "What this has to do with Ezra and Sabine, is that Anakin and Padmé's son was who they delivered those power convertors to."

"What?" Mr. Wren blurts out.

"And that's why you wouldn't give us a planet name?" Mrs. Wren asks Lux and Ahsoka. "To hide his location.

"I'll give it to you now." Ahsoka counters, heading her off. "Tatooine. Anakin's only family is there. Obi-Wan is watching him from a far distance."

Lux smiles, than adds "The situation isn't ideal. But we're in a holding position right now."

_We've got news on that front._

Mrs. Wren turns to glance at her husband then nujbly looks to Sabine and I. "So…this entire Rebellion is a cover to hide them. The twins." Mr. Wren throws out there.

"No, the Rebellion is a legitimate effort that can stand on its own two legs. It's meant to oppose the Empire. But there is a greater plan." Ahsoka smiles. "Grab your food, then sit down."

In moments, both Sabine and I both have trays of soup, crackers and a drink before Sophie beats her parents to the couch and plops down.

"Twins are babies born at the same time. Right?" Sophie asks the room.

_Uhh…I'm staying out of this one._

"Yes." Lux bravely volunteers.

Ahsoka smiles, then nods. "There's a boy and there's a girl."

"A girl?" Sophie lights up. "What's her name?"

"Leia." Ahsoka smiles before Sabine's parents both lose it.

"WHAT?!" They both scream in disbelief, causing Sabine to jump and spill some of her soup as Sophie clutches her head.

"Leia?! The Leia we know?"

Mr. Wren says quietly "She doesn't look look Bail or Breha…"

"How'd she end up there?" Mrs. Wren asks before Sabine shrugs.

_I actually don't know this._

"The three of them divided the twins to protect them. Luke went to Tatooine with Obi-Wan, Leia went to Alderaan." Ahsoka explains as I spi my soup politely.

Sabine's eyebrows quickly drop into confusion. "Three?"

"Master Kenobi, Senator Organa, and Grand Master Yoda." Ahsoka explains.

I throw in "And we still don't know where he is?" hoping for a better answer than the one I got on Alderaan.

_Which wasn't an answer at all._

"No." Ahsoka answers succinctly. "Did Obi-Wan tell you?"

"You saw him?" Mrs. Wren asks us.

"No." I shake my head.

"No, we didn't see him." Sabine shakes her head. "I thought we might, but all Ezra felt was Luke."

Mr. Wren says simply. "Luke. That's the boy's name?"

"Yeah." I nod. "I felt him right after we came out of hyperspace. He's very, very strong. He's like a beacon in the Force."

Ahsoka smiles. "I felt the same thing. The crazy thing is, he doesn't even know it."

"What do you mean doesn't know it?" Mrs. Wren asks. "I'm sure he could be a Jedi if Ezra can feel him in the Force.

This time, Sabine speaks up. "They're raising him differently. Ezra and I talked to his Aunt about that. They think that he needs to learn how to be normal first, then maybe a Jedi someday. But they're not too big on that idea."

"He's not as loved as he could be." Ahsoka adds. "He's a little beaten down and humbled, which isn't a bad thing. But he could be giving Ezra a run for every bit of his money if he was with us, but Obi-Wan and Bail have forbidden him from joining us so far."

"Forbidden?" Sophie asks.

"He can't join us and help." Lux explains.

Sophie frowns in response. "I know what forbidden means! But why is he forbidden?"

Ahsoka sighs, then shrugs. "I don't know. Maybe they'll know when they see it. I just know that Luke and Leia are Anakin and Padmé's kids. If Ezra is a 5 on the Jedi scale of 1-10, I'm a 8, Anakin was a 10, Vader's a 10 and both of them could be 10's."

"Why am I a five?" I blurt out loudly.

_I'm better than a friggin' FIVE!_

Ahsoka waves me down. "We've discussed this."

_Yeah, and you said that both you and Kanan were more naturally talented. Which, sure okay. I'm going to do everything I can to prove you wrong. BUT A FIVE?!_

"I'm insulted!" I say angrily.

"I don't know what we're talking about." Mr. Wren adds on.

Ahsoka frowns in my direction, then turns to Sabine's father. "All Jedi had to pass a certain criteria for them to be trained to be Jedi. Below that threshold and you weren't accepted. But some people that were taken in were stronger than others. Ezra's middle of the road. I'm lucky because of the training I got, the Master that was elected for me, otherwise I'd probably be nearer a six or seven."

"But Ezra has fought multiple inquisitors, and Vader to a draw at worst. How can he be not that strong as a Jedi if he can do that?"

"It's all about maximizing your potential." Ahsoka says very delicately. "Ezra and I have discussed this before. He's talented, but what we're talking about is a level that even I can barely reach. Ezra would have been cut to ribbons by prime Anakin, prime Master Windu, Master Kenobi, on and on. It's not about trying, or training, it's about innate talent and potential."

I set my tray of half-finished soup and a few crackers on the table in front of me and cross my arms in silent protest.

_Now I bet she'd add that since I've lost part of my arm I'm closer to a four._

"In fact, Ezra's already behind the curve. Losing that arm diminishes his potential." Ahsoka says, being brutally honest before I angrily pop to my feet and snatch up my tray.

_I KNEW IT!_

"Why does losing his arm matter?" Sophie asks naively.

Ahsoka closes her eyes. "I'd rather not keep going on about this." She asks.

I answer by heavily dropping my bowl in the sink, causing a loud "CLANGGG—Cliiiinkkkk…" before directing my anger out into the Force and towards Ahsoka's direction. She immediately spins on her heels and moves to advance on me.

"Do you want to keep pouting like a child about this Ezra? Because I can indulge you." Ahsoka asks me, putting her hands on the bar.

"Indulge me!" I say hotly. "You said that you and Kanan chose my style because of my lack of potential. My lack of talent!"

"We thought that the style would be the best choice given your tendencies and the situation we're currently in."

"I'm Form II because of my lack of talent. I have to compensate for that with precision and accuracy." I scowl at her.

Ahsoka takes another step forward. "Precision and accuracy can beat power and brawn on most days! You've proven that!"

"Doesn't sound to me like you believe in me going forward if I've lost potential." I point out and smile sarcastically.

"We've been over this Ezra. You're the test subject to see if we can properly train Luke and Leia. Which at this point I think I can say that we _can_. This experiment is a success. We're talking about the greater good." Ahsoka changes the subject ever so slightly, leaving me nose to nose with dead air and a scowl on my face.

Sabine quickly fills the air with a question "Who would train them?"

"I don't know. If I had to guess, then I would take Luke. He seems to be very much like his father, and I know how to channel that. I did, even as a Padawan. I think Leia would force our hand and try to be trained by Ezra."

_What?!_

"He can't really do that, Kanan is much better suited to training her." Mrs. Wren counters Ahsoka.

_And more doubt, this time inside the house._

Great.

I shake my head slightly and turn back to finish up cleaning my dishes as Ahsoka answers Mrs. Wren. "You're right, Kanan has a lot more experience training. But you all know Leia. She's stubborn as a bantha and refuses to fail. Her circle isn't all that big, and Ezra's in it. I think she'd force us to let Ezra train her, perfect or not."

"Rin, in this scenario would train with Kanan." Lux finishes the point.

Ahsoka's eyes flash to me. "He's around a 5 or 6. Could have some potential, but just isn't on that tier you need to be on in order to make the impact necessary."

"I think Ezra's made a lot of impact." Sophie defends me gently, then smiles in my direction.

"What about Master Kenobi?" Mrs. Wren asks.

Lux shurgs. "Don't know. This plan has kind of been drawn up with his help, it was briefly discussed at Safe Zone, but not in detail."

"He can do whatever he wants." Ahsoka says dismissively. "He's earned that right."

_The right to stay out of a science experiment with the future of the Jedi Order potentially._

Lux nods respectfully. "I agree. Ahsoka, I think the other news might need to wait."

"Other news?" Sabine asks, as Sophie hangs her head.

"Awww…"

Her mother glances from her to I, then back to Ahsoka and Lux. "Yeah, I agree. We'll tell them later."

_More secrets and doubts._

"Okay." I say calmly. "In that case, I'm going to go train."

"What?" Lux says in disbelief as I start towards the door.

Ahsoka simply becomes a blur and races toward the door. "Ezra, don't let your ego get in the way. You need to rest! Resting isn't a sign of weakness! Master Che wants you to fully recover!"

"I haven't dueled or practiced blaster deflection in a week, since I injured myself." I tell Ahsoka calmly, beating her to the door. "I need to practice."

"I think you should rest." Lux adds, alking towards us in the hall.

"Think. Slow down. Don't act on emotion." Ahsoka tilts her head at me in a caring gesture.

I frown at her. "I'm not, it's something I need to do. After all, wouldn't I minimize the 'loss' of potential from losing my arm by getting to know what I can do with it just as well as I did without thinking with my old arm?" I try to reason with her.

"We're not talking about physical ability here Ezra. It's not something you can control because it was never in your control." Ahsoka shakes her head at me. "Work with us here! I'm trying to help by not giving you an unrealistic expectation!"

"Why?" I ask her. "Why tell me how weak I am instead of encouraging me? Because that's all I've been hearing recently. Slow down, slow down, slow down. It's driving me nuts! Before all this happened we were going as fast as we could!"

Ahsoka clenches both of her hands in frustration and swings them at her sides. "Because, that's what got us in this mess! The Jedi Order never told Anakin he was the Chosen One, because they knew the pressure he would be under. The pressure came from within anyway. Problem is, he already knew. Everyone did, and they hurt him by never telling him and making him think they didn't trust him! Instead, they should have played their cards to start and go from there!" She tries telling me.

"Why are we following the rules and lessons of the past?" I ask her. "I get it to a point, but the Jedi fell Ahsoka! Isn't this an opportunity to maybe try something new?"

Ahsoka lets out a frustrated shriek, then shoves me into the door. "FINE! Go ahead! Train til your heart's content! But I know this Ezra! If you ever meet Palpatine, you're not making it! There's no chance you will, I probably wouldn't even make it! If you don't want to listen, then I'm not going to try and make you listen!"

"Fine!" I say, swinging open the door and taking a step through it.

"WHAM!" The door gets slammed closed by Ahsoka and a angry Force Push, causing me to cling to the door handle, fail then bounce on the rough ground until I dig in and stop.

A muffled "FINE!" follows me out, causing me to blink, then shake my head.

_I can do this. I know I can do this._

_(Fifteen Hours Later)_

"Cling, cling, cling…" Sword bash against each other as I watch from the sidelines, off to the side with a drink beside me. Almost involuntarily, my eyes fall back to my comm and the message Mrs. Wren just sent.

"_Ezra,_

_Carid, Sabine, Sophine and I are meeting in Carid's office for a minute before going to lunch. We want to talk to you about the news we have for you guys. It's good, promise. We're all going to go have a long lunch afterward too. I don't know if you had breakfast, but please come eat at least._

_Carid and I have throughts about you and Ahsoka, but we'll bite our tongues if you want us to. They left this morning as planned with Chopper and your ship, all is fine on that front. _

_Love,_

_Bo"_

I felt Ahsoka and Lux leave the planet this morning while I ate my breakfast in the diner I researched after my stomach started growling constantly.

_I haven't been some since Ahsoka threw me out basically. I trained in an angry fur for hours, then have slowly come down and remembered "Oh hey, it's probably a bad thing that you just yelled at AHSOKA."_

I'm so stupid sometimes.

_I'm right about what I said though. I don't care about destiny, or potential. When the speeder meets the road, it comes down to how much have you practiced, how much have you trained, have you thoughts of all the possibilities. The reps, the thinking, the ability you've wrked yourself to. Not some impossible to determine power ranking._

That stuff is just stupid. The Living Force is the only practical way to view things. You can't put everything in a vacuum and bet on destiny. As Ahsoka said, that's how we got into this spot with Anakin being the Chosen One.

_I need to answer her. Even though she's a couple of blocks away._

"On my way. You guys don't have to hold your opinions. I've cooled off now a little bit. If you want I'll explain when I get there." I reply, then rise to my feet and catch Mr. Straunch's eyes.

"Going somewhere?" He asks.

I nod. "Sabine's parents want to take me to lunch."

"Ahh, nothing better than a free lunch. Glad you came in, and thanks for opening the place this morning."

"I tried." I sheepishly smile. "I just turned on the lights and stuff."

Mr. Straunch shrugs. "It looks all complicated on the outside, but really it's simple." I laugh, shrug then wave and start towards the stairs. I'm halfway to the front when my comm buzzes for my attention.

"_Sounds good. Take your time."_

It kind of sounds like she's purposefully lying down so I don't get angry.

_I hope not. I'm not a hothead or anything._

I shake my head, then turn my left wrist over and smile as I close in on the door and the bright sunshine outside.

_Training went great today. I was worried that reattaching my hand would mean that I'd have to start over again with my hand but it's right where I was when Mr. Wren took it off at the kitchen table, minus the nerve pain._

_Oh wow…what a gorgeous day._

I blink, then smile and look around the square, full of blooming trees along with a cloudless sky and no wind at all.

_Can't beat this weather. Maybe I should offer to take Sabine on a dessert date or something. Or maybe bring Sof and Sabine to a park or something so that we spend some time outside._

The weather should be getting warmer soon. The cool season should be just about over with by now.

_It's around the same time of year that we came home._

_I have to admit, Mandalore in bloom is beautiful._

Smiling as I enter the building, I slip into a half full lift and press the floor for Mr. Wren's office. Right away, eyes follow my finger back to me as the Force tingles with their confusion.

"Are you sure you know where you're going?" A well dressed man asks me bluntly.

_Easy…_

I let out a breath, then turn and smile. "Yeah, I have a meeting already set up."

"Floors above 45 are reserved for some of our top designers and decision makers. They don't need to be disturbed. What's your name?" The same man asks, looking at me skeptically as all eyes in the lift are on us.

"Erza Bridger sir." I smile, then extend my hand to shake.

_Always assume the person in front of you in important. Easy way to get yourself in and out of trouble. Be respectful, but defend yourself when necessary._

"Erza Bridger, don't recognize it. Come with me, we'll get you sorted out." He says rapidly, not taking a breath and not shaking my hand.

_Really?_

I bank my irritation and smile politely. "Alright."

The lift stops a few seconds later, and one person files out, leaving room for two to pile into the lift. The process continues al lthe way up to floor 40, where I'm gently grabbed at the elbow and shepherded forward.

"I can walk." I shake free of the man's grip and say firmly.

_I'm not a child._

"Don't start getting an attitude with me. We do have security n the building, and your 'meeting' can be rescheduled, if you even have one."

_Wait, I know the security here. _

"Do whatever you need to sir. I've been here before, had multiple meetings in the exact same place." I concede the point to the man, who smiles to himself as he turns away and starts to a monitor.

"Engineering to Security."

A moment passes before a familiar voice says "Security to Engineering, what's your issue?"

"I've got a 1022, unidentified person attempting to go to floor 55, claiming he has a meeting. Requesting a schedule check and detail." My friend says, sounding quite important.

_Brie answered that call._

_I wonder if the girls are security for the whole building, or just this section. The building as a whole would not be fun, but for a small area, that'd be kind of cool and an honor._

"Engineer Salm, just checked the schedule. Carid Wren's schedule is blocked off for an unspecified reason. What is the name of this unidentified person in your possession?" Brie asks skeptically.

_I think she knows it's me._

"He claims his name is Ezra Bridger." Salm says deviously.

"Claims?" I say exasperatedly. "I can show you ID if you want it."

"That would be awesome." He counters, walking over and lookin expectant for my ID. Politely, I pull out my wallet and the Mandalorian ID that Sabine's parents arranged for me to get a few months ago.

_Just in case._

The man's brows furrow. "Hmm, okay."

_Okay?!_

The lift shudders, and the doros open just before an annoyed yell. "Salm!" followed by Darcy and Sabine's father, looking quite irritated.

"Just as I thought. Salm, where'd you pick him up?" Mr. Wren snaps at him.

_He's angry. Uh oh. I hope not at me. That's something I haven't seen yet, and I hope I never do._

Salm swallows nervously, a lump in his throat. "I was returning from a meeting with the plasma experts across the way sir. Ezra here pressed the button for your floor sir, he wasn't dressed professionally and I took action to prevent you from being unnecessarily interrupted."

"It's not an interruption. He's my daughter's husband, and a trusted friend of mine. We're going…to lunch." Mr. Wren says, drawing out his sentence as every syllable becomes almost painful to listen to. "What did the plasma experts say?"

"They backed up the data that we've been shown, and that the wing design will most likely have to be changed."

"Changed to what." Mr. Wren demands in no uncertain terms.

Selm squirms in front of me. "I don't know yet sir. I was about to contact the theoretical design analysts and see what our options are."

"That could delay that ship _months_ Selm. Why did I not get a message about this right away?" Sabine's father demands.

_Whoa. He isn't mad at me._

Darcy smirks imperceptibly at me and flashes her eyes in my direction as Selm sputters. "I wanted to get the analysts opinions before informing you. Get all our options ready. I know this mean a delay."

"And instead you decided to corral my son in law, who I actually was expecting?" Mr. Wren asks him, sounding incredulous. "I'm glad we're paying you for this wasted time."

"It's not wasted time, I just wanted to prevent a security breach. You yourself requested additional security." Selm defends him decision then tacks on "Sir."

Mr. Wren crosses his arms. "It's wasted time in my book, and that's all that matters to your supervisor. Get to your station, make the last 20 minutes as an unpaid break, and _contact the analysts_. Now."

_OUCH!_

I manage to hold back a cringe as Selm nods once, then scrambles towards a closed door, then practically runs thru it, causing Darcy to chuckle once.

"Conceited fool. He just got hired away from the Core Worlds and Czerka Corporation for quite a high price. He's a brilliant mind but he causes almost as many problems as he solves." Mr. Wren shakes his head then waves me towards the lift.

"He didn't look old." Darcy comments, getting into the left and hitting floor 49.

Sabine's father nods. "He's not, he's considered a prodigy. Unfortunately I think he's a little off mentally, which almost comes with the territory. Has a hard time fitting in and meshing with a team dynamic. We're already thinking of trading him back and trying to recoup some of the credits."

_Seems smart._

Darcy nods silently before exiting on her floor, waving to us as she departs.

"Hope he didn't get on your nerves too much Ezra." Mr. Wren immediately lightens up.

I shake my head dismissively right away. "No, it's fine. He just irritated me because he assumed so much so fast."

"He didn't seem to think I would both taking a meeting with you." He laughs once. "Little does he know you don't even have to call to get a meeting with me."

"Thanks." I laugh.

"Oh don't thank me, it's not something to thank." He smiles as the lift opens. "And now you've seen me as the demanding boss everyone who works here thinks of me as."

"You were pretty intense." I admit, which gets him to crack a smile as we walk thru his door, causing Sabine, Sof and their mother to turn and spot us.

Mr. Wren smiles in their direction before telling me "Well it's a contracted out job that we're designing and perfecting for a private buyer. Sometimes it pays not to ask questions. But in the process of stress testing, we found that the wing would buckle and fail under the pressures of reentry in atmospheres, shred in hyperspace and drag when it did survive. Hence the meeting with plasma experts. We have to start eliminating problems." Mr. Wren explains rapidly. "You keep up with some of that?"

"Yeah." I nod. "Kind of. A little bit of that"

"You're smarter than most Ezra." He claps me on the shoulder as Sophie comes for a hug.

Mrs. Wren behind her keeps digging in her husband's desk. "You really should clean this out more Carid."

"I know my mess. I love my mess."

"I get that, but you don't need hundreds upon hundreds of flash paper notes." She grumbles, throwing a wad of paper into a pile on the floor. Immediately Mr. Wren jumps to start scooping it up.

"Hey! Easy _karta_, I'm not done with a lot of these ideas!" he says protectively.

Mrs. Wren puts her hands on her hips. "Upload them to a digital notepad!"

"This is all spontaneous stuff Bo…it's part of my process." Sabine's father shakes his head, piling his notes back into his desk and undoing his wife's work.

"Fine, fine…" She shakes her head as Sabine smirks at me.

_Apparently they have very different working styles.\_

"You'd be more disorganized if you had a desk."

Mrs. Wren smiles. "I don't! I have an assistant." causing Sabine and Sophie both to laugh.

"You can have an assistant for very little. It's scheduling and housekeeping. I'm dealing in the theoretical and abstracts and my assistant would have a starting figure far higher than what I'm comfortable with, anyway that's not why we're here." He rambles, then course corrects.

Sabine smiles. "Yes, why are we here?"

"You'll see." Sophie smiles, causing me to frown.

"You know?" I ask Sof, who nods happily.

Her mother smiles "We were discussing it with Ahsoka and Lux yesterday before you two got home. We've been debating this for a while now, just wanted to let thm know so that the word can start getting out.

"Sign this Ezra, then Sabine." Mr. Wren hands me a datapad with several forms pulled up.

_Deed of Land and Property…Jurisdictional History…Bill of Sale or Transfer…_

_I'm sure they'll tell me what all this means anyway. They wouldn't lead me astray._

Quickly, I sign and initial where it tells me to sign an initial, then pass the datapad to Sabine, who copies me.

"Why…are you smiling so much?" I ask, as all three Wren's are BEAMING. Teeth an everything.

_What's up their sleeve._

"Here. What's going on? What terrible thing did I just commit to?" Sabine asks. In response, Sophie turns to her parents, and Mrs. Wren turns to her husband.

He, in turn smiles again. "You just committed to a lifetime of property ownership."

_Oh no._

"I can't afford that." I blurt out.

"What?" Sabine asks.

"Easy, it's nothing you have to pay. It's the house in the Tulvaree Mountains." Mr. Wren begins to explain. "You two are now the owners of that property, and that house effective immediately."

_What._

I freeze up, then after a second glance over to Sabine, who has gone pale.

_Wha…wha…_

"What do you mean…owners?" I say, trying to stop my voice from shaking.

_If it means what I think it means…I can't take this. No. _

I haven't had a house since Mom and Dad on Lothal.

_No way._

"You own it. It's yours. Every inch of floor, every appliance, every snowflake." Mrs. Wren smiles before Sophie catapults onto her sister for a hug.

"Dad…" Sabine gasps in utter shock. "What?"

Her parents exchange looks before her father clears his throat. "Look…I know this is a shock. But to Bo and I, it's really simple. You two are married, forever. You're building a life together as best you know how. Bo and I once did the exact same thing. We started in my small, crappy apartment in Sundari before I got my job here and we relocated here to Keldabe. When you two stress to us how little you can do, we know."

"Believe us, we know." Her mother laughs.

"Sabine, you're now a Fulcrum Agent with the rebellion. You can also do some art and pursue your passions on the side. Erza, on the other hand is a skilled melee duelist who…" Mr. Wren trails off before smirking at his wife and daughter.

"EEKKK!" Sof squeals.

"What?" I ask them, completely lost.

"Who…has a job offer to be an _instructor_ at the Academy here in Keldabe or at the satellite Academy in Tokrush near the Tulvaree Mountains." Mr. Wren finishes before my mind goes blank.

I barely even register Sophie hugging me and Sabine pulling me close. "Congratulations I can't believe it!" She whispers, then kisses my cheek.

"When did I…what?" I ask Mr. Wren in disbelief.

His wife steps in for him. "If you remember, at the wedding Carid said that the best job aren't advertised. Well, Mr. Straunch lost a instructor to a sabbatical. He needs a teacher, and can either send him here or to the mountains. We—" She gestures to her husband. "Vote the mountains."

"So you have your own space, your own home, your own life. I don't think you wan tto be living with us forever." Mr. Wren finishes, then smiles.

…

…

_I cannot believe it. This is almost up there with finding out that I could be a Jedi. I have a house, a job, a life…just being offered to me. All I have to do is take it._

"_Ad'ika_, we know this is a big deal for you." Mrs. Wren steps forward as Sof grabs both of my hands. "You and Sabine have both told me indirectly that at one point you didn't have a home. Carid and I, our lives are here in the city. We have a house that we can give you, we want to give you and keep it in the family forever."

_In the family forever?_

Quickly, I feel my eyes get hot, causing me to blink a couple of times to get rid of the sensation before Mrs. Wren continues. "This is our home. Your home can be out there, on your own without us over your head. You can do whatever you want."

"With a few exceptions written into the deed." Mr. Wren smiles.

"Exceptions?" Sabine asks skeptically.

Her parents smile, then her father nods. "First, you can't sell the property. Period. Try to do that, and it legally goes to the next blood family member."

"And it becomes MY HOUSE!" Sophie cheers, getting me to laugh and Sabine to smirk.

"Second." Her mother interjects. "It has to stay in the family. Sense a theme?"

"And lastly, Sophine must always have a room." Mr. Wren says, before Sophie toothily grins at us.

Her mother smiles. "We want you to make it yours, so we're going to help finance a renovation for you guys."

"A reno—what?" Sabine blurts out.

_WHAT!?_

"So that it's not our house that you live in. You can redo the kitchen, add a room, do whatever. You can even ask for more money and do something incredible with it! We don't care, as long as it become _your_…home." Mr. Wren rests his case.

I look over to Sabine in disbelief, only to see that she has tears n her eyes. "You guys…" Immediately her parents rush over and pull her into a hug.

"We love you. Both of you. You're adults…and this is our way of letting you go." Mrs. Wren smiles, also crying.

"Kind of. Don't think you can hide from us." Mr. Wren smiles before I get a hearty tug on my shirt.

_Sof._

Quickly, I scoop Sof up and get a massive head hug. "Thank you Sof."

"You're welcome. It was their idea. I just nodded and smiled." She admits with a sly smile.

Sabine turns to her sister. "Did you sneak in the part about your own room?"

"Nope. That's our idea."

"Do I get to fix it up too?" Sophie pipes up. "My room?"

I nod. "Of course."

"That won't be part of the budget. That'll just come out of her first speeder bike." Her father jokes, causing everyone but Sophie to bust out laughing.

"Hey!" Sof protests. "Not fair!"

Her mother smiles at us, adding. "After this lunch, we can get you two a shuttle up to the Mountains to let you sleep n your own home tonight."

_Yeah. I want to do that._

I nod an play along before I'm being pulled towards the door. "I'm hungry!" Sophie complains. "I didn't get breakfast!"

"Because you slept until I had to wake you up to come here!" Her mother teases her as they all move to follow us.

"But I could have eaten!" Sof counters, still pulling on me as she slides out the door.


	129. The Great Outdoors

"Sch—tick!" The power-shovel sticks in the cold ground before I set my jaw and move the chunk of dirt behind me and in a pile off to the right, far enough back so that it isn't in the way.

"You sure you're ready to be operating a power tool there Ezra?" A gentle voice teases, causing me to push back the little hat I'm wearing to keep my head warm and glance over to see Rex and Echo smiling at me.

A smile sneaks onto my face as I set the shovel down. "Hi! Didn't know you guys were coming."

"It was a spur of the moment trip." Rex concedes as Echo keeps a smirk on his face.

"Shoulder giving you any trouble?"

"Not at all." I explain. "The shovel is doing most of the heavy lifting, I only have the weight when I'm moving it to the pile, which is the easy part."

Echo nods as Rex surveys the scene of me digging directly under a wing of the house. "Foundation trouble? Why are you digging?"

"Trying to find the foundation. Sabine and I have had an idea, but before her parents come for the first time today, I want to find the foundation so we can, you know, explain it properly."

"I see where you're going with it. Building up?" Rex presumes.

I shake my head and smile. "No actually. One of the conditions we had in order to get this place is that Sophie always has to have a room. Which is fine by us, we want her to feel at home. Which got us thinking about Sophie as she gets older. A room is great, but you want your own space."

"Something you and Sabine now have for the very first time." Echo nods.

"Exactly. So our idea, is for us to put in a basement level. Goes along the length of the house, a little bit can be used for storage if we want it. But for the most part, it's Sof's area to do whatever she wants."

Instantly, both Rex and Echo smile. "That's a really good idea."

"And the foundation has to be in a state that you can just drop it, and put in a basement." Echo adds on.

"That's what we're thinking."

Rex glances around. "And you don't have to worry about flooding since you're up here. Is the ground frozen?"

"Pretty close." I smile. "I tried a normal shovel earlier, and got nowhere. I actually broke the spade part off trying to get enough leverage."

"Sounds like you took a stab at moving too much."

"Nah." I disagree. "It wasn't too much at all, it was a third of that last scoop."

In a moment, both Rex and Echo look at me in surprise. "Must have been kind of old." Echo muses.

"I don't know. Sabine's father said that they haven't done too much to the house since his parents died when Sabine was very young. They've kept it up obviously, but it's been a vacation house more than anything." I explain.

"So things like the tools, appliances might need to be replaced." Rex moves to the logical conclusion.

Echo turns to me. "How much are you guys thinking of doing? Touchups or a renovation?"

"Her parents want us to renovate. Make it our place." I smile as Rex and Echo both look taken aback. "Sabine's…I don't know exactly. She loved her father's parents."

"Grandparents, the term is." Rex smiles kindly. "I think that's how Sophie looks at Echo and I.

"I don't care, I love it." Echo smiles. "It was really nice of her to invite us to you guys' _Raan'ika_."

_She was the one adamant that Rex and Echo come._

"I know the word in _Mando'a_ is _ba'buir_. The first change I suggested Sabine shot down flatly, mentioning a memory of them." I shrug. "So I'm leaving her in charge of it."

Echo shrugs before Rex speaks up. "You mind taking a break and showing us inside?"

"You guys can go in." I smile. "You're always welcome, don't have to ask."

"But it's your house now." Rex corrects me. "Common courtesy, plus you get some practice with guests."

I sigh and shake my head, which gets a laugh out of Echo before I start towards the steps. "Sabine's like her Mom, shoes off at the door."

"Makes sense to me." Rex smiles as we reach the sliding door and I slip off my shoes as the beats of Sabine's music barely reach my ear before I open the door and hear the unknown, tech filled beats and singing.

Echo does a quick stop before turning to me. "Music?"

"Sabine." I smile.

"Didn't know she was a music fan. I know you two had a Core Drive connection on Denon, but didn't know she listened to it."

I smile. "It's not bad. Fills the house up a bit."

_The house is kind of big for just Sabine and I. The first couple of nights we were here it was strange how quiet it all was. We're used to Keldabe and sirens at odd hours and crowd noise. Here it's calm, quiet and peaceful._

"Too quiet?" Echo asks, sounding confused.

"A little." I shrug as I hear Sabine set something heavy down. "We're used to the chaos of her house."

"That's not chaos, I think that's normal. Hello Sabine." Rex laughs once before I turn and see Sabine smiling at Rex and Echo.

"Did we miss a message that you guys were coming?" She immediately asks. "We had a short throughout the house this morning."

"Short?" Echo asks. "Did it break anything?"

She nods once. "Kitchen lightbulb."

_At least it was during breakfast and we were eating at the table calmly when it went "POP!"_

"I can take a look at it if you want." Echo volunteers. "Ezra was just telling us how this place might need a few repairs."

"I was going to have Dad look at it, and besides you guys just came. Sit down, do you want a drink? Are you hungry?" Sabine dismisses Echo gently and with a smile.

Echo and Rex both laugh before Rex takes a bag off his shoulder. "You sound like your parents. And we're fine right now. Before I forget, we got you a small housewarming gift." Rex and Echo both smile as Rex extends a bottle of brown liquid to us.

"We know you don't drink much, but this is really very good stuff." Rex smiles as Echo begins glancing around, biting his lip.

I lean over and read the label before Sabine remarks "You did not…this is really nice Brandy!"

"We did it because we wanted to. You two deserve this." Rex smiles as Echo just profiles towards the center of the house.

"I'm not sure about that." Sabine laughs, but steps forwards and hugs Rex. "Thank you."

"I'm sure. We're all very proud of you." Rex smiles proudly at Sabine, then me before the sound of the front door creaking open causes me to turn and see Sophie lugging a bag of groceries.

Rex laughs as Sabine lights up then calls out "Did you guys buy groceries?"

"Yeah." Sophie says, voice strained from the weight of her bag. "Daddy was going to cook outtt...uhh!"

"Heavy?" I ask Sof, who immediately nods but keeps moving forward, determined to reach the kitchen counters.

"Uhhh! Dumb bag…" Sophie grumbles. "Come on! HRGGHHH!" The bag continues dragging on the floor stubbornly, but thanks to Sof's effort it is still coming with her.

Her mother pokes her head in and sees Sophie struggling with the bag before stepping inside. "Dear, I've got a lighter one if you want that one."

"No!" Sophie demands defiantly. "I've got it…UGH!" Rex laughs and grins at Sophie's determination as her father walks inside the house and closes the door behind you.

"Rex! Welcome, did we miss hearing that you were coming?" Mr. Wren smiles as Sophie continues her fight with her grocery bag.

"No." Rex politely explains. "Echo and I just stopped by for a moment to see how Ezra and Sabine are doing."

Mrs. Wren asks "How is everything Ezra?" as Sophie is almost to the counter.

"It's good." I smile before turning to Mr. Wren. "You were right, some stuff is failing after being used for a week straight."

"I was afraid of that." He says wearily. "I'm sorry. Maybe I should have stress tested things a little bit."

Mrs. Wren glances around the room, then up where there is an empty socket where a light bulb should be. "Carid."

"Yes? Oh, blast. Electrical short?" He immediately deciphers the issue while looking at the ceiling.

"Yeah." Sabine says quietly before a soft "Thump." Sounds out.

"I…got it." Sophie gasps, slumped against the kitchen cupboards. I immediately laugh at the sight of Sophie, collapsed from exhaustion.

Sabine beams at Sof, then makes a move to grab the bag. "Thanks So—Oof!"

_Whoa._

Rex immediately looks to me, surprise written all over his face before Sabine says "Sof, that was heavy even for me."

"Really?" Sof perks up, still collapsed near the sink.

"I'm working on the short Carid." Echo says, voice echoing from the hall. Mr. Wren turns and makes a move to start in his direction.

Mrs. Wren gathers the two grocery bags that are set near Sof and the counter before asking "Beside things breaking, do you like it?"

"Yeah." I smile as Sabine nods in agreement.

"Why are you already trying to dig under the house?!" Mr. Wren calls out to us, causing Rex to smile and Sof to turn and look at Sabine in confusion.

Sabine smiles at her mother then looks to me. "Did you find it?"

"What are you digging for?" Sophie asks.

"Treasure." Rex smiles, getting laughs from both Sophie and her mother.

I smile at Mrs. Wren and answer "We had an idea about what we want to do with the house."

"Okay." She smiles in response as Sabine and her sister head in the direction of the sliding door before Sof pulls it open with ease, prompting everyone to walk back outside and straight towards my lovely mess.

"Oh no, he found Carid's power shovel." Mrs. Wren jokes, getting a laugh out of Rex. "What, I dare to ask, are you two thinking?"

"Easy. Where's the foundation?" I ask with a smile.

Sabine adds helpfully "We're thinking of adding a basement so that _somebody _can have their own space as they grow older. And maybe for a little storage space too."

"Really?" Mrs. Wren smirks at Sabine and I as Sophie gasps and tackles Sabine's leg in glee.

"A basement for me?!"

I nod. "That's the idea."

"I never would have thought of that." Mrs. Wren remarks. "But it would be a great use of the space."

Rex pivots to her and asks "Do you know if the dirt is easy to work with?"

"I don't know." Mrs. Wren shakes her head. "I really don't know all that much about the house. Carid grew up here, and I've come here a lot, but I don't know much about the house itself."

"What was the question?" Mr. Wren asks before I turn and see he and Echo exiting the house and walking in our direction.

Mrs. Wren explains "Rex was asking about the quality of the soil. The kids are thinking of adding a basement to the house for Sophie as she grows up."

"Hmm…A basement." He bites his lip. "You can do it, it'd take some work. The soil hasn't been disturbed since they set the foundation, and that was…I don't know how long ago. My parent's parents."

Echo asks "This house has been in your family this long?"

"This house has always been ours. My great-_ba'buir_, _An'oushka_ and her husband didn't like the "fast paced life" developing in the city." Mr. Wren says, air quoting 'fast paced'. "They moved out of Keldabe with their seven small children, and came to Tokrush, which was a sleepy town back then, found this plot of land and started building."

_Huh._

"I brought the blueprints with us today, thinking Bo and I might have to inspire Sabine and Ezra to think outside the box, but they decided to dig down under it." He says with a smile. "I'll be back, going to load up the blueprints on a datapad."

The sound of him walking away fills the air just before Rex and Echo look to me. "Uhm, Ezra, we couldn't help but overhear Ahsoka talking to Kanan. Apparently you two had an argument?"

_Oh blast it._

"It's Jedi stuff. Kind of hard to explain." I shake my head.

_I don't really want to talk about it._

Rex takes a solid step forward. "Ezra. I don't know the intricate details of being a Jedi, but I understand what it means to be one. Ahsoka was frustrated. Really mad, almost as wound up as I've ever seen her. What did you two have a disagreement about?"

"It was about my potential as a Jedi mostly." I sigh. "Way back on Dxun, when I was putting my new lightsaber together, we had a discussion about my future. She said that I, most likely won't be able to beat Vader on my own because I'm not talented enough naturally."

Echo cuts me off, speaking over me. "Not talented enough?"

"He's not done." Mrs. Wren jumps in. "Go on Ezra."

"They chose my style because in terms of my potential using the Force, I would have been a mid-level Padawan in the Old Order. A five out of ten. Anakin being a 10, Master Obi-Wan being a 8, Ahsoka a 7, Kanan a 8, and so on." I continue explaining. "What I had a problem with, and what I've always had a problem with, isn't that Ahsoka's master was always more of a natural with the Force than I was. So is she, so is Kanan. I'm okay with that. I just think that she's not calculating how much work means and needs to be considered when thinking of somebody's ability."

Echo bites his lip. "So Ahsoka views it as a closed circuit, with the outcome predetermined from the moment you begin you training. Your ceiling is defined. You take issue with that."

"Exactly." I smile, thrilled that he's understanding it.

_Sabine's parents didn't totally pick it up the first time I told them._

I continue on. "I don't think that anybody should be judged just by how naturally the Force comes with them. How much you train, the effort and passion you bring with you should count. That's why I can stick with Vader a little. I've studied and studied and practiced, and practiced."

"A clinical approach versus more of a spiritual one." Mr. Wren comments, walking back down the steps without looking away from his datapad. "And technically, since we're talking about religion here, the analogy fits."

One glance at Rex instantly tells me that he's more relieved. "That's good, because as I told everyone else, Ahsoka was about as wound up about that argument as I've seen her about anything."

"Which makes sense now, because it sounds like Ezra and Ahsoka view the Force a little differently." Echo points out.

"It's a philosophical difference." Rex smiles.

Mrs. Wren smiles, then adds. "Ezra's skipping over a small point, but I think it's important. Ezra bristled at being told to his face his strength. But the Jedi Council apparently did not tell Skywalker how strong he was, despite it being common belief that he could bring balance to the Force. The fabled 'Chosen One'."

Rex and Echo both groan. "Ugh that stupid nickname."

"You know it?" Sabine asks.

Rex nods. "It was all over the holo during the war. They always found General Skywalker, hyping up his performances in battle because he was the Republic's best hope for winning the war and bringing peace as this 'Chosen One'. He didn't need that pressure, nobody did. And look where that got us."

"Ahsoka, in the end is trying to prevent Ezra from making the same mistakes her master did by telling him exactly where he stands in the grand scheme of things." Mrs. Wren finishes the point wonderfully. "Trying to prevent the errors of the past from occurring again."

"But, in my opinion, you can't tell people they're just a number, and that's all they are. The word that comes to me is agency." Mr. Wren says. "Would Ezra work as hard if he knew that no matter how hard he worked, he'd always be a middling Jedi? No, no way. That's part of being human, the temptation to be lazy and rest on your laurels. Everybody needs to feel like they have some control in their life."

Sophie turns and smiles at me before Rex nods. "Alright, this is making a lot more sense now."

"I can see both sides' points." Echo comments, clearly trying to stay in the middle of the road.

"I think it's just a good reminder that no matter how far away we get from the Purge, Ahsoka's instincts come from the old Jedi Order. And that those instincts can come into conflict with modern problems." Mrs. Wren says wisely.

Sabine turns to her father and changes the subject. "What are you seeing Dad?"

"I'm seeing…that the house is truly built into the mountainside that's been weathered down and now is in the back." He muses. "The house is built on a raft foundation, which means Ezra…" He stops, grabs my shovel and begins walking towards the far edge of the house, about where the living room ends and the house turns to the bedrooms. "Has been digging in the wrong spot."

_What?!_

I sigh and shake my head as Sabine smirks at me before Mr. Wren says "I'll ask around and look for somebody that knows a soil tester. This foundation tells me that the soil is bad and expands. So we'll have to be careful…digging the basement itself."

"So we're doing it?" Sabine asks, sounding taken off guard.

_Thought we were discussing it still._

Her father nods. "Of course we're doing it. Why not? It's a lovely idea. It'll just take working around small problems."

"Ezra." Echo asks. "Why not move the dirt with the Force?"

"Because I don't know where the foundation is. I don't want to grab it, and accidentally screw it up."

Mr. Wren points at me with the shovel handle, intending to hand it back. "Dig here Ezra. And yeah, better safe than sorry."

I smile, comply and begin digging as a conversation is struck up behind me. "What are you planning to cook?"

"Classic cook-out food. Burgers, hot dogs, Bo bought easy potato fries. I need to show Ezra how to use my grill that I bought."

"That you bought?" Echo asks.

"Yes, I bought a gas grill just before we found out Sophie was coming to join the world. So my great purchase got ruined, but in a good way."

"HEY!" Sophie complains, sounding angry.

"I'm joking _ad'ika_." Her father appeases her.

"Th—Crick!"

_OWWW!_

Both of my arms begin vibrating from hitting something very solid and causing my shovel to involuntarily redirect. "Think I found it."

"Arms go numb on you?" Mrs. Wren smiles as Mr. Wren takes the shovel from me and brushes dirt aside with his foot to reveal a dark structure while I try to shake some feeling back into my hands.

"Yup. Duracrete, likely durasteel reinforcements. Your basement might need a column or two Sophie."

Sof pipes up. "That's okay!"

"Why a column?" Sabine asks.

"To support the weight of the foundation. I think I know what we'll need to do. I'll get a real structural engineer up here to double check and to draw up a blueprint, followed by another engineer for the soil and a contractor." Mr. Wren ruminates before kicking the dirt over to one side and leaving the foundation slightly exposed.

Mrs. Wren looks at the foundation briefly, then turns toward the house. "C'mon Sophie, let's go get out the food so we can start cooking." Sophie immediately turns and starts toward the house, encouraging everyone else to follow.

"Grill's around back." Mr. Wren corrals me, preventing me from following the others before leading me toward the back of the house.

"You really think the basement is a good idea?" I ask him honestly.

"Yes." He nods right away. "I'd never even considered it honestly. I can't really think creatively when it comes to this house. It means too much to me."

"But you gave it to us, that's what I still can't believe." I smile

Mr. Wren cracks a smile, then shakes his head. "I stand by what I said, it's about building your own life. By the way, there is more that we're going to have to work on with the house. The exterior most likely will need to be replaced."

"Replaced?" I ask.

_It looks fine. I know that it's local wood on the outside, with the insulation, sound proofing and everything else coming after that._

"Yes, it hasn't been checked on or kept up since Sabine was born."

"The entire outside of the house?" I question as we arrive at a back porch, complete with a table and something covered in a tarp while the mountain looming over us seems to start a ways back from the house itself.

_That might be a decent spot to train with my lightsaber._

"Yes, grab that tarp, set it anywhere." Mr. Wren nods. "It's local wood for the exterior now, but there are many ways you can go with it. The wood is decent at insulation, but there are better options. It's all up to you and Sabine. Bo and I will foot the cost since it's maintenance that needed to be done already."

_No use fighting him on it, he'll just silence my concerns anyway._

I occupy myself by grabbing the tarp and pulling it up and off to the left, revealing a grill was knobs, buttons and drawers built in.

"This looks really nice."

"It is quite nice." Mr. Wren smiles. "It's gas, there's a natural convertor built into the grill so that you never have to replace the cylinders or worry about having fuel too cook with. Sabine loved dinners like this as a kid, we're betting Sof will too."

I smile at the thought of a Sophie sized Sabine out here, trying to help her Dad as she cooks before he snaps me out of my thoughts. "Turning it on is easy. Just lift the lid, turn two knobs to get the gas flowing—" He explains just before a soft "Hissss…." Sound emits from somewhere. "Then hit this button here labeled "ignition." Mr. Wren smiles. "And…"

"Click click, click, WOOMPH!" The grill sounds out before gentle flames pop up and start licking the grate eagerly.

"Easy and quick. Close the lid to get the temperature to rise." He explains, closing the lid. "Usually you want the temperature around 350 degrees, 400 if you want it to cook faster. But I've found that 350 is plenty fast and you're much less likely to burn whatever you're cooking."

"Makes sense." I smile, then feel Sof's Force Signature near the door, turn and see that she's holding a cutting board, followed by her mother.

Quickly, I grab the door and smile. "I gotcha guys…"

"Thank you Ezra. Aww, you started it already?!" Sophie frowns.

"Sorry." Her father apologizes with a smile. "I needed to show Ezra how to work it so he can use it."

Sophie frowns while pulling open a door and revealing a stepstool. "I was hoping I could do that too…"

"I'll let you start it next time." I smile at her in an effort to appease her. Instantly, she brightens up and turns to where our food is waiting for us.

"Be safe now." Her mother kisses Sof's head before walking back inside.

Sof turns to her father and I, eyes on a swivel. "Ezra, can I stay here for a couple of days?"

_Whoa!_

"I, uhh, yeah! I don't see why not. Does she have anything going on?" I turn and ask her father.

He shrugs. "No, she doesn't have anything going on. But you might want to ask your sister."

"Ask me what?" Sabine asks, pulling open the door.

Sophie whips around and fires off "Can I stay here tonight?"

Sabine laughs, then smiles gently at Sophie. "Of course you can. You're always welcome. You don't have to ask. Just tell us. If we have something going on, we might work around it, but you're always welcome."

"Thank you…and thank you for my basement." She smiles, then hugs Sabine around her waist.

Sabine returns the hug where inspecting our mess, then turns to me. "Hey, do you mind if I run our Krennic idea off Rex?"

"Krennic idea?" Mr. Wren asks.

Sabine nods. "There's a Imperial officer whose name keeps popping up named Director Krennic. We don't know what he's doing, but his hands are in the same messes we keep digging into. We were thinking of using our slicing contacts on Ramordia to look into it, maybe do some hands on intel too."

"Sure, he's bound to have some good ideas." I smile at Sabine.

"Director Krennic. You said that name when you had your nightmare." Sophie mumbles, then peers up at me.

_When I threw her into the living room wall._

I try to smile reassuringly at her. "Vader mentioned him. That's part of what gave me the inspiration."

Sophie bites her lip. "Please be careful."

"WE will be." I smile at her before Sabine kisses her cheek then moves to go back inside.


	130. Volley

Sophine Holo-Clips: Year 1-3

_Yup._

I press play, wait for a moment before the sight of a baby Sophie wrapped up in a blanket comes into focus.

"Hi." Mrs. Wren smiles, looking exhausted while wearing some sort of gown. "I'm your Mommy."

The tiny bundle doesn't vocally reply, but the bundle moves around, followed by Sophie lying her head down on her Mom's collarbone and curling up.

_She knows she's safe._

An arm extends from the side of the camera to gently touch baby Sophie. "And that's your Daddy. Mommy and Daddy. We love you, so much already." Mrs. Wren cooes to her daughter before looking past the camera.

"Go get Sabine."

I can't help but smile as the image quickly becomes shaky, then shuts off abruptly for a second or two, then is replaced by a white hallway with people rushing around. In front of the camera is a girl, normal sized with long hair and a bounce in her step.

_It's Sabine._

My smile grows wider as Mr. Wren' voice comes in from off camera. "She's just in here _ad'ika_. Remember what your mother and I told you?"

"She's my sister, it's my job to love her more than I do Mommy and Daddy. She's going to be small, so don't be mean." Sabine says in a higher pitched voice than I'm used to, then smiles at the camera.

"Good girl, c'mon."

Sabine adds as her father opens the door and steps thru "And you won't tell me her name?"

"Nope." Her father replies cheerfully.

"It's a surprise _Alli_." A female voice says kindly before walking into the frame. (A/N: _Alli_ = Color, used as a noun. "My color".)

_That must be her ba'buir, her grandmother. Mr. Wren's Mom._

Mr. Wren walks thru the door, revealing his wife lying on a bed, holding Sophie with a smile before looking over. "Hey Sabine."

"Hi." The camera pans to Sabine as she walks over, clearly curious.

"Oh Bo she's beautiful." Sabine's grandmother gushes before the camera pans to her, revealing light gray hair down just past her ears, laugh lines, small wrinkles and a loving smile.

"_Ba'buir? _Was I this cute when I was born?" Sabine turns and asks insistently.

_She wants to be cuter._

"Yes _Ad'ika_, you were cute and very beautiful. Just as cute as she is." Her grandmother beams as Sabine nods, then continues to cautiously approach the bed.

Her father breaks up the tension by saying "You were a little crankier though. You cried and cried for hours." Instantly, Sabine blushes, looking embarrassed before turning to her mother and sister.

"She's cute. And small, you're right." Sabine states matter of factly.

_Just like Sophie does._

Mrs. Wren smiles, clearly proud as Sabine eyes Sof before her father gets a better angle of Sabine looking at Sof.

_She already loves her. I can just see it. Instantly._

"Her name is Sophine Satine Wren." She explains to Sabine just before her _ba'buir_ makes a noise of surprise.

_Satine._

Sabine's parents exchange a quick glance before Mrs. Wren asks Sabine "Do you remember how we told you to hold her?"

"Yes." Sabine says, arms snapping into position as fast as they can.

_She was all arms and legs back then. No muscle, hasn't hit puberty yet. Her face is more rounded, and her arms go on and on._

Mrs. Wren beams, then hands Sabine her little sister. Instantly, the bundle moves, and Sabine gasps "Oh, don't kick. I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Sab—" Her father starts before Sophie goes still and rolls over to face Sabine, who instantly smiles.

"Hi."

The bundle barely moves in response as her _ba'buir_ mimes "She opened her eyes" to their parents, and Mrs. Wren smiles from ear to ear.

"My name's Sabine…I'm your sister." Sabine says in a gentle voice while smiling at Sophie.

Sophie makes a barely audible noise and the bundle moves again before a tiny hand pokes out and grips her blanket.

"Grab her hand. She'll like the touch." Her father instructs Sabine who listens right away and slips Sophie's hand into hers.

"Creakkk…"

_Huh?_

I snap my eyes away from the holo I'm watching to glance towards my bedroom door and see the outline of Sophie.

"Hey, you're supposed to be asleep." I say gently, setting the projector on Sabine's side of the bed and moving to get up. "You okay?"

Sophie nods in her pajamas. "I can't sleep. Do you know when Sabine will be back?"

"No." I shake my head. "I know what I told you Sof, she went to Sundari for the Rebellion."

"Okay." Sophie frowns. "Can I stay with you until she comes home?"

_Of course._

I laugh once, then pat the bed. "Get over here." Sophie lights up, then rushes over, a smile spreading across her face.

"What are you watching?" She asks, crawling onto the bed and plopping next to me.

_Oh, I know how to do this._

I quickly rewind the holo a minute or two and smile at Sof. "I think you'll recognize it."

"Huh?" Sof asks, lost.

"Just watch."

I restart the holo, and the scene resets.

"Hi." The camera pans to Sabine as she walks over, clearly curious.

"Oh Bo she's beautiful." Sabine's grandmother gushes before the camera pans to her, revealing light gray hair down just past her ears, laugh lines, small wrinkles and a loving smile.

Beside me, Sophie's eyes drop down in confusion as I can almost hear her brain start figuring it out.

"_Ba'buir? _Was I this cute when I was born?" Sabine turns and asks insistently.

"Yes _Ad'ika_, you were cute and very beautiful. Just as cute as she is." Her grandmother beams as Sabine nods, then continues to cautiously approach the bed.

"Is that me?" Sof asks beside me. I smile, then nod while letting it continue to play.

Her father breaks up the tension by saying "You were a little crankier though. You cried and cried for hours." Instantly, Sabine blushes, looking embarrassed before turning to her mother and sister. Sophie giggles beside me then leans closer to the projector.

"She's cute. And small, you're right." Sabine states matter of factly.

Mrs. Wren smiles, clearly proud as Sabine eyes Sof before her father gets a better angle of Sabine looking at Sof.

"Her name is Sophine Satine Wren." She explains to Sabine just before her _ba'buir_ makes a noise of surprise.

Sabine's parents exchange a quick glance before Mrs. Wren asks Sabine "Do you remember how we told you to hold her?"

"Yes." Sabine says, arms snapping into position as fast as they can.

Mrs. Wren beams, then hands Sabine her little sister. Instantly, the bundle moves, and Sabine gasps "Oh, don't kick. I'm okay. I'm okay."

"Sab—" Her father starts before Sophie goes still and rolls over to face Sabine, who instantly smiles.

"Hi."

Sophie simply beams beside me. "Hi."

The bundle barely moves in response as her _ba'buir_ mimes "She opened her eyes" to their parents, and Mrs. Wren smiles from ear to ear.

"My name's Sabine…I'm your sister." Sabine says in a gentle voice while smiling at Sophie.

Sophie makes a barely audible noise and the bundle moves again before a tiny hand pkes out and grips her blanket.

"Grab her hand. She'll like the touch." Her father instructs Sabine who listens right away and slips Sophie's hand into hers. Sophie reacts by squirming in her bundle to get closer to Sabine and her hand, causing Sabine to readjust her hold as her _ba'buir_ moves in case Sabine has trouble.

"And that's your _ba'buir_." Sabine smiles down at Sophie.

Their _ba'buir_ leans over Sabine shoulder and strokes Sophie's cheek. "You're beautiful, my _cyar'ika_."

"We love you. We all love you. It's nice to finally meet you." Sabine smiles at Sophie, who makes a tiny squeaking noise.

"Is that _ba'buir?_" Sophie asks me, blinking rapidly.

_Uh oh._

I slip my arm around her shoulder and smile. "I think it is. I just saw these clips and started playing it." I explain.

"I don't remember her. Mommy and Daddy have only told me stories. But I've never seen her before."

"You have now. Do you know what she said to you?" I ask.

_I don't know what cyar'ika_ _means. I know that Sab'ika is Sophie' nickname for Sabine, and her parents call Sophie Soph'ika, but I don't know that specifically._

Sophie sniffles and nods. "Yeah…it means darling, beautiful, or sweetheart."

"I know she already loved you." I smile as the holo keep playing, showing Sabine holding Sophie in her arms. Sophie simply leans on me and wipes her eyes before the holo changes scenes.

_Let's see what is now._

The image quickly becomes shaky as the camera holder rushes thru the kitchen and stops in the living room, showing the sight of Sabine and a much bigger Sophie on the couch with Sophie staring at Sabine.

"What? What silly." Sabine says, a smile in her voice. "Why you staring at me?" Sophie instantly responds by rolling to the cushions of the couch.

"Sabine, grab he—oh!" Her mother commands her as Sabine is moving to help Sof up before retracting her hands and watching Sophie push herself up.

"Whoa." I whisper.

_We missed a long time. Months at least._

Probably too busy taking care of Sof to record anything.

"Look at her!" Mr. Wren's voice says, clearly thrilled as Sabine lowers her head to get eye level with Sof.

"Yayyy! Yay me! Yay Sophieee!" Sabine cheers, then grabs Sophie's arms and waves them back and forth, getting laughs from her parents.

"Bbbb…pbttthhh…"

Mrs. Wren huffs out a frustrated breath, "Nope."

"Sabine." Sabine says happily, still looking at Sof. "Sa-bine. Sabine."

"Bpbthhh…bbb…" Sophie drools all over herself before Sabine cleans her up with a tissue.

"Sa-biiiiine." Sabine draws it out, still smiling.

"I don't think she's trying to say anything _ad'ika_. I think it's just noise." Her mother tells her gently.

Sabine frowns, but crouches down again. "Sabine. Say it with me Sophie! Sa-bine."

"Bbb…Pbbtthh…"

Beside me, Sophie giggles before baby Sophie says "Beeeepbhh.."

_Whoa._

The camera jostles slightly then pans to Mrs. Wren looking shocked.

"Sabine. Sa-biiine."

"Beeepbthhh…bean."

"'_Bine_." Her father whispers.

_Sa-bine._

"Bine." Sophie says, waving her arms at Sabine. "Bine!"

Sabine's face splits into a huge smile. "Yeah! Hi!"

"Bine!" Sophie says in a happy voice.

Beside me, Sophie laughs. "I'm saying her name I think."

"I think so too." I smile.

"Bine!" Sophie says, this time reaching for Sabine, who scoops her up.

"Yeah! I'm right here, always will be." Sabine says gently.

"You're her first word Sabine. That's wonderful." Her mother smiles, getting up out of her seat as Sabine totes her sister as Sof has her hands in Sabine's hair.

"Oh I remember that…" Sabine's normal voice sounds out, causing me to jump before a heavy body hits the bed and crawls over.

Sophie tackles the large shape then asks "You were my first word."

"Yeah." Sabine laughs, crawling up closer to me as she hugs Sophie at the same time. "I had tried for months, since you came home and started making noise, to get you to say my name. And then one day for no reason, you said my name."

"Bine!" Baby Sophie says on the holo, getting all three of us to look back to see Sof's face right next to the camera.

"No, that's a camera." Mr. Wren jokes, just before Sophie hits the camera and it tumbles, then stops abruptly.

"Oh!" Mr. Wren gasps in frustration before letting out a sigh of relief as the picture stabilizes to a close up of Sabine then turns back to see Sophie and her father looking at the camera. "Good catch Sabine."

"Bine!" Sophie waves her hand.

"Hi." Sabine says happily behind the camera.

Sophie turns to her sister beside me. "Hi."

"Hi." Sabine laughs, then pulls Sophie close. "Sorry I'm home late."

"It's okay." I smile.

_(Weeks Later)_

"Just a little more to the left." I frown, then step forward as Prime and Orir do the same. Together we push the desk a little to the left as it protests by barely dragging on the floor.

_Kal found an artisan in the market hawking this desk, beat all to hell but at a bargain of a price. He quickly pounced on it, had it delivered to he, Will and Orir's apartment before they all decided to fix it up and bring it with them as a housewarming gift._

_Even though we've been here a month and a half now._

Prime straightens up, then bites his lip and examines my setup, which right now is just the desk. "Looks better to me, what do you think?"

"I think so too." I agree. "Thanks for the help."

Orir smiles. "Sorry Kal grabbed the heaviest desk in the Sector."

"You said that you were thinking of sharing this office with Sabine?" Prime asks, prompting me to nod.

"Yeah, I don't really need an office all that much. Everything I need to do can be done almost anywhere. But Sabine wants an office to communicate with people, draw up plans for our cell, that sort of thing. Maybe even do some art from time to time." I joke, getting Orir to smile and Prime to chuckle. "So, yeah. An office."

"A shared office." Prime comments as I turn and grab the door for them, then walk out into the hall and towards the living room, which is a complete and utter mess.

The people Mr. Wren hired to do our renovations are doing a great job. In the month since Sabine's parents came to see us for the first time here, they've hired people for the basement, did all the testing, made a blueprint, we adjusted the blueprint, they started digging and laying the foundation for the basement.

On top of that, they hired some local contractors for the façade, which we settled on as a light (relatively) but durable stone called Hijarna, using metal to stabilize and hold the weight. Breaking up the exterior is a full remodel of the façade of the house itself, adding a wall of windows in the living room next to the doors, which are in the process of being replaced. There's dust, plaster, stone chips, fragments and debris everywhere.

_But it's going to look awesome._

"Oh good, is everything ready?" Sabine asks, causing Sophie to look up from mixing paint.

I smile. "The desk is set a little far back. I like it where it is."

"Did you leave room for a holo?" She questions me. I nod, prompting her to smile gently and walk into the to-be office and see for herself.

"Don't forget the paper so we don't mess up the floor Sof." Brie reminds Sof as she gets to her feet. Sof listens and scoops up a stack of paper then trudges off after Brie.

The sound of a spoon clinking against a container almost involuntarily causes me to turn just before Katiey removes the spoon. "Alright, I think the lemonade's ready. Let's hope that I did it right."

"I'm sure you did Katiey." Mrs. Wren reassures her as Prime, Orir and I along with Darcy, Mira, Kal and Aiden all drift towards the pitcher of lemonade Katiey has mixed up.

"Thanks." Prime smiles warmly to Katiey as she starts handing people glasses.

Mira observes "This kitchen is really going to be something once it gets cleaned up."

_Oh yeah, I forgot that we're adding more counter space in addition to replacing almost all the appliances._

"It already is something. I really like it Ezra." Darcy smiles warmly before Sabine lets out a shout.

"EZRA! You put the desk too close to the wall!"

_Karabast._

I sigh to myself, set my glass down and trot back to the office, Prime and Orir in tow only to take in the sight of Brie and Sof setting up paper while Sabine is facing toward me with a frown. "It needs to go back."

"Back. Got it." I smile and nod once.

"How far?" Prime adds on as Orir moves to the side of the desk.

Sabine shrugs. "Half a foot maybe."

_Alright._

"Don't drag it please." Sabine adds, just as we all get in position to lift it. Before anybody can reply, Orir begins lifting it, forcing Prime and I to pitch in and together, we move it a little more than the half foot Sabine is asking for.

_Better safe than sorry._

"Thank you." Sabine smiles, allowing us to return to our drinks, which have magically been filled.

_That's nice._

A "knock knock." Causes the room to turn and for Mrs. Wren to volunteer to get the door with a "I got it." Before she opens it, and a man in imposing green armor takes a step in.

"Hi, I hope I'm not imposing." _Mand'alor_ says warmly before Mrs. Wren smiles and waves him in.

"Of course not, come in here." She says dismissively as the room begins drifting towards the door.

Prime, Kal and Orir move to bow before _Mand'alor_ raiseshis hand. "No no. Thank you, but I'm a guest too. No need."

"This is a pleasant surprise Fenn, what brings you all the way out here?" Mr. Wren asks.

"Lemonade?" Katiey asks him politely.

_Mand'alor_ immediately smiles. "Yes, that'd be great. Thank you. And to answer your question, your nose for destruction and remodeling Carid."

The room quickly laughs, and I smile before _Mand'alor_ turns to me. "Congratulations by the way. This is a pristine piece of property."

"Thanks." I smile.

"I brought a little housewarming gift with me to mark to occasion. I'm having my guard bring it in." he nods. "It's a small statue, but has some weight to it."

Mrs. Wren jumps, then starts walking quickly. "You can put it over here by the holo." Just before multiple men in armor begin toting a wooden box.

_Uhm, why do four men need to be carrying this box?_

I step aside and allow them access to the living room and the holo so they can set the box down and unpack it. "Sorry about the mess." I apologize to the men along with _Mand'alor_.

"No problem." One of _Mand'alor_'s guard nods once.

"Don't worry about it." _Mand'alor_ himself waves away my concern. "This is how it's supposed to look. If it wasn't all dusty I'd be worrying that you weren't doing it right. Did you contract the work out?"

Mr. Wren nods. "Yes, to the _Kalavala_ craftsmen. They're working quite quickly."

"I noticed that you already had a trench dug under the house. What is that for?" _Mand'alor_ asks.

"Basement. It was Sabine and Ezra's idea.

"Hi!" Sophie's voice sounds out before she runs by in a blur and hugs _Mand'alor._

_Mand'alor_ immediately scoops her up and hugs her. "Hi! What are you up to?"

"Painting! We're about to start!" Sophie beams before being set back down on her feet.

"Sir." Sabine calls out, causing me to turn and see her bow her head in _Mand'alor_ direction.

_Mand'alor_ smiles warmly. "Ahh, there you are Sabine. Congratulations by the way."

"Thanks." Sabine smiles and asks "What brings— you up" before my mind is completely distracted by the Force reaching out to me and nagging for my attention.

_Okay. This is weird. This house is pretty remote, we don't have neighbors. Which means that either I'm jittery from not fighting anybody in so long or it's like a earthquake or something. There are earthquakes up here, as well as avalanches. The snow is starting to melt from the winter. It's probably a small avalanche._

_Mand'alor_ continues his conversation as I busy myself with the lemonade and probe again.

_Still there, still persistent. I wonder if I'm feeling something greater in the Force, and that it's not a local thing._

I let out a quiet breath, make sure I'm not biting my lip and check my eye level before reaching out into the Force and having it return to me a localized threat of danger and tension.

_Is it one of Mand'alor's guard?_

"Ezra?" I hear Mrs. Wren call out to me, jerking me out of my thoughts.

"Yeah?" I smile.

"You okay? You got quiet and stiffened up." She comments as she, her husband and _Mand'alor_ look at me.

I nod, then smile again. "Yeah. Just thinking about a snack?"

"Can I have a snack too?" Sophie pipes up, turning to her parents.

"A small one." Mrs. Wren smiles as Prime and Kal exchange glances.

_Do they feel it too?_

Out of habit, I turn to the conservator and open it, then examine my options.

_I could make a sandwich or something small. We have some leftovers from a few nights ago…_

The Force gives me a more urgent tug for attention, and I spin back to face Sof. "What are you thinking of?"

"Sandwich?" Sophie says harmlessly, then smiles as a green laser light appears on the side of her temple.

_Sniper!_

"Ezra! Get—" I hear as I instinctively tackle Sof behind the couch before madness erupts all around me.

"CRSSHH— CRSSHH— CRSSHH—POP POP!"

The sound of dishes shattering and blasters firing are replaced by the girls' terrified screams and an anguished yell from Prime. "AHHH!"

_NO!_

"Sir! Stormtroop—AHH!" One of _Mand'alor's _guard says before the glass wall shatters and he's blasted across the room.

Hopping to my feet, I'm past everyone, thru the door and pulling my lightsaber into my hand as I hurdle the porch's handrails and land near the basement construction.

_BEHIND!_

I spin on my toes just as a blaster shot whizzes past me, revealing a lone Stormtrooper standing in the middle of the basement before I blast him and spin back to see another single Stormtrooper looking at me.

The moment we lock eyes, he takes off.

_Oh get BACK HERE!_

I take off at top speed down the path towards the practice range as the Stormtrooper runs away, sporadically firing back and missing me completely.

_I'm not even having to break stride._

Anticipating the next turn where the ground levels out, I hop onto a rock and leap into the air, causing the Stormtrooper to turn and move toward his blaster.

_Nope!_

I unleash a violent Force Push with my feet and see the air bow as my push pick up loose dirt before smashing into the Stormtrooper and sending him into the rock behind him.

_Now where would a sniper be that had that shot?_

Snapping my eye level up, I see an outcropping just before something white moves and I start in that direction.

_I don't know who these guys are, but you just tried assassinating me, Sophie and I don't know who else! Prime's definitely hit, and I heard multiple shots miss._

I hurdle the backdrop for Sophie's targets and start navigating the uneven landscape of boulders and jagged rocks while—

_WHOA!_

I frantically skid to a half as a semicircle of Stormtroopers are lined up and pointing their weapons at me.

_Uh oh…This is asking a lot for me to block all of these._

"Whoa…what's going on?" I ask nervously.

_Thank goodness I haven't revealed my lightsaber. That's a shoot on sight kill order._

"Hands in the air, Jedi." One of them orders me.

"Or what?" I ask him.

The sound of multiple blasters aiming at me sends my heart rate skyrocketing. "Or we shoot."

_Oh this is not good. What can I do here?_

Just as I open my mouth, the air is filled with the familiar sound of jetpacks, and I turn back to see three men in Mandalorian armor lowering themselves onto the high ground.

_Uh oh. So this must be what Rex always called the "Kill Box". Where you go to die._

_This escalated quickly. How am I going to get out of this?_

I turn back around, feeling the heat of the blaster barrels on my face and chest while examining the situation.

_I'm not seeing a way out of this. Stormtroopers aren't the inept fools I used to think of them as. They might miss ten times but they won't miss twenty. And I'm surrounded._

"Surrender." One Stormtrooper orders me once again. "Now!"

The Force gives me a split second warning, provoking me into leaping toward the man just a instant before one of the jetpacks explodes in a ball of fire.

"BA—BOOM!"

"Oh s—BOOM! BOOM!"

White hot debris fills the air as I dodge the first volley of shots from the Stormtroopers, then blast the nearest lightsaber just as the Force screams another warning.

_Behind me._

I activate my lightsaber in a flash, spin on my toes again, causing the shots aimed for me to find their comrades before more blaster fire behind me almost forces me to turn back and see that _Mand'alor_, Sabine, Will, Orir, Darcy and Tracy are forcing the invasion back. Immediately, I turn away from them and to the remaining Stormtroopers, who look half ready just to run for it.

Flashing my palms up, I grab multiple large rocks and push them with one hand while feeding that hand with the other, pushing rocks up out of the ground to be catapulted.

"Aaugh!" "Uhh!" Two of the Stormtroopers go down heavily, bombarded by the rocks as only one remains.

I drop my barrage and chase after the lone Stormtrooper, wearing an orange pauldron.

_I think I know who these guys are._

The Stormtrooper doesn't even bother to fire back at me as he runs for a shuttle.

_NO!_

Quickly, I hit the brakes, focus on his whole body, raise my hand up and grab the man with the Force, instantly stopping him.

_He's trying to get away._

I smirk as he thrashes around, feet barely off the ground as he starts breathing heavily. "Let…Me GO! Jedi scum!"

_501__st__ Legion…Vader._

"No." I say firmly. "Your tag, soldier."

"Doesn't mean a thing." He spits out at me, looking furious.

_He could be wearing a camera embedded in his armor._

I quickly look the man up and down before spotting a random, almost indistinguishable dimple in the armor that's been filled in.

"Who sent you?" I ask calmly before covering the camera with my palm.

"Doesn't matter. You're a Jedi, and a criminal. Order 66 gives me fully legal authority to kill you on the spot."

"Unfortunately your authority doesn't mean a DAMN thing here!" _Mand'alor_ says angrily before I turn and see him marching up, rifle in hand.

"Easy…" I raise my hand to him, Will, Tracy, Darcy and Sabine as they jog toward me. "He's wearing a wire."

_Mand'alor _frowns, then pulls out a small stick. "Everybody that has electronics stay back!" before adding "Ezra, you too, I don't know how your arm would take this."

I nod and take a step back before Orir marches forward and grab the Stormtrooper bodily. "Let me go!"

"WHACK!"

_Oh!_

Orir finishes his follow thru after sucker punching the man. "Over my dead body."

"That can be arranged." The Stormtrooper fires right back before _Mand'alor_ points the stick at the Stormtrooper and clicks a button.

"GZZTtt…"

_Mand'alor _smirks. "EMP burst. Whatever you're wearing is done for now."

"Don't matter, I still won't talk."

Out of nowhere, Mr. Wren marches forward. "I've got it."

"Got what?" I blurt out as he brushes past all of us and walks straight for the shuttle.

_There's one more person in there. The pilot I bet._

"Wait! There's one more…" I rush forward to protect Sabine's father. "Pilot, I think."

Mr. Wren nods. "Don't…do anything rash please."

_So don't kill him. He respects this pilot enough to spare his life. _

_I can do that._

I nod in understanding, snap my wrist to activate my lightsaber and take a step inside the speeder. "I'm not going to harm you if you come quietly…"

_C'mon…_

"Hello? I know you're here!" I call out, taking small steps further into the shuttle.

The floor creaks up ahead before I see two hands go into the air. "I'm here. Don't shoot. Or swing." He says, sounding anxious.

Immediately, I deactivate my lightsaber. "I won't shoot if you won't shoot." I shoot him a innocent smile.

"I just got told to fly and was given directions." He explains, face gone pale.

"Okay." I nod. "Just…come on out." I try again to reassure the man before glancing back and seeing Will with a rifle in his hands. "Will, no. He's coming willingly."

Will snaps his eyes up to the pilot in an Gray Imperial uniform, complete with hat. "Weapons?"

"no." The pilot shakes his head vigorously. "I'm unarmed."

"I'll be the judge of that…" Will mutters before stopping the man and briskly searching him. "Nope, you were right. I apologize."

"I understand." The pilot immediately acquiesces.

I turn to the man and wave him down the ramp. "Thank you, we appreciate that."

"Ezra, is he coming willingly? Or can I give him back peacefully?" _Mand'alor_ asks as the man appears at the bottom of the ramp while Will motions for everyone to stand down.

Mr. Wren simply takes his place and rushes onto the ship, causing Will and I to exchange looks. "Trace, watch him…" Will mutters as I start after Sabine's father, _Mand'alor _hot on my heels.

"Prime's inside the house with Sophie and her mother. He's okay. I think everyone else ducked and missed their shots. But he froze and got hit in the knee." Will explains to me as we follow Sabine's father in the shuttle.

_The knee?_

"Can he walk? Is the leg okay?" I quickly ask.

Will nods. "Yeah, just bloody. And he can't put weight on that leg. But it's not like gone or anything."

"When'd you get here by the way?" I ask.

_He and Tracy said that they had plans today when we invited everyone._

"Right before the madness started. We parked near _Mand'alor_ and was walking to the house when all hell broke loose. I tried getting o you but they surrounded you before I could help." He explains, then smiles solemnly.

I smile at him. "I appreciate that."

"No problem, just slow down next time and don't end up in the kill box."

_Mand'alor_ calls out "Carid, what are you looking for?" as we near the cockpit.

"Easy! Fuel log. Tells us where the ship is from." Mr. Wren explains.

Will snaps his fingers. "That's genius! Find where the ship last fueld up from and you have it's startng point."

"Or one of them. It's like crumbs…got it." Mr. Wren smiles. "I was afraid he was erasing it while Ezra eased in here. But I've got it."

_Well, I was being cautious._

"This ship has come a long way…Mustafar. That's the last refueling spot in the log. Then various Imperial outposts on Rodia, Kessel, Corellia…"

_Mustafar…Oh no._

"Mustafar. You're sure?" I ask him.

_Please say no, I'm not sure._

"Yes, I'm sure. The timestamps check out and everything." Mr. Wren nods.

I sigh, then frown. "Well then, this makes a lot of sense."

"What? Why?" Will asks as _Mand'alor_ looks lost as well.

I turn and point out toward the shuttle bay. "That Stormtrooper, all of them I'm bettering were 501st Legion. Vader's personal troops. He probably was monitoring the progress of the raid the whole time."

"So Vader knows where you live now?!" Will says, looking dumbfounded.

I nod. "Yeah, and that's not it. I'd be willing to bet that whole house up there that Vader's home base…is Mustafar."

"Mustafar? It's a raw mining world. It's a lava world."

I nod, then frown to myself. "I've seen it. We had to go rescue Kanan just before we met Ahsoka. And Hera told Sabine and I something."

_Here we go._

"It's where Jedi go to die."


	131. Just Another Day

My eyes snap open, almost independently before I glance around.

_Pale light…what time is it?_

"ZZZGGhhh…"

Slightly, I roll over, trying not to disturb Sabine, who as usual is curled up to me and see the clock display.

_6:09 in the morning. Good job Ezra._

I sigh to myself, then roll back over and stare at the ceiling.

_I'm up aren't I? I'm not going to be able to go back to sleep._

"ZZZGGhhh…shhh… ZZZGGhhh…"

_Nope. I'm up. Might as well get my day going and be productive._

Resigned, I try to gently slip out of Sabine's arms then sit on the edge of our bed and let my feet find the floor.

_Kitchen. Caf and some breakfast._

One thing at a time.

I walk into the kitchen, straight to the instant caf machine, stick a cup under the nozzle and hit start.

_That reminds me, I need to grab some grounds today so that we don't run out. Sabine could do it, but she's doing her own thing and busy enough as it is._

The nozzle makes a squirty sound, then the dark, caffeinated liquid begins falling into my cup, causing me to smile and turn my attention to the living room and the newly reconstructed wall.

_After the 501__st__ took some potshots at us, we decided that it's probably not a good idea to have an open bank of windows in our living room. It just is asking for us to be sniper practice._

So we've rebuilt the wall where the windows were, ordered and installed more Hijarna to complete the façade. Other than that, things are moving along.

_The most noteworthy thing Sabine and I have done is appliance shopping. Choosing between washers, dryers and dishwashers is a far cry from going to to toe with a battalion of Stormtroopers.I like it though. Things have settled down, life is starting to be "normal"._

"Pbbbbbttthhhh…"

_Caf's done._

I quickly walk back over, grab my caf along with my datapad and start reading where I left off.

"_Subdivision 9.2 Chapter V"_

"As stated in earlier chapters, the primary purpose of a Jedi should be to avoid conflict at almost any cost. When the cost, or potential cost becomes too high, such as innocent lives being placed in harm's way or an opponent who refuses to peacefully step away, conflict becomes a Jedi's duty.

The best possible outcome for a conflict, is one that is quick and decisive. Long, drawn out fights bring with them unpredictability and variables that can be difficult to account for. In situations of conflict, I recommend three steps to strive for a short conflict.

Analyze your opponent: What does their physical build suggest about their style? Have they tipped off their preferred method of fighting? What stance are they in? Knowledge of your opponent is a building block to success.

Fights Previous: This is only applicable if you have fought this adversary before. What style did they use? Which hand is dominant? Did they have a preferred blocking side? What moves did they repeat in an effort to beat you? Think back to your previous encounter, and use that information to your advantage.

Application: What counters would work best in this situation? The best approach would be for you to let your opponent come to you, and that you work off that knowledge and react instantly. For example: Say I would be facing a Form IV Master that I've come into contact with multiple times. I know that this opponent would try to spin me around using jumps and then attempt to capitalize.

What should I do? Personally, I would shift my focus more toward Form V, a much more physical form, anticipate their jumps and attempt either a _shiak_ or _cho mok_.

_Okay._

I set my caf down while bringing my datapad with me as I retreat back to Sabine and I's room to get dressed.

_I feel so dumb reading thru this manifesto again, and finding things that I've missed. Like this: Use what you've earned about an opponent to your advantage._

I don't think I've really ever applied my knowledge in quite that way, except for my fights with the clone. And then, I really wasn't thinking properly, it was more "How can I beat him?" or "How can I get out of this?"

_The point about a quick fight being the goal seems a little idealistic. If Form II's primary focus was short fights, wouldn't there be fewer counters and feints? More parries and counter strikes?_

_Makashi is a lot about rhythm, and setting the tone of a fight. It's smooth, everything flows fluently. It draws out a weakness for you to exploit._

Tossing my nightshirt into the hamper, I throw on one of my white shirts that I usually wear to work then change into some flexible pants and scoop my datapad back up. Sabine is still sawing logs as I slip out of our room, closing the door behind me and start toward the door.

_I think I'll call a speeder today, let Sabine have the speeder if she needs it. Oh, and I need some caf for the road._

I stick my cup under the caf dispenser again while pulling my comm to me and scrolling thru my contacts for Flier.

_(30 minutes later)_

Cheerfully, I smile as the exterior of the Tokrush Academy, affectionately known as _Ori'bavar_ homes into view, the taciturn façade a welcome sight.

_Time to go to work._

I keep walking thru the streets as vendors dot the sides of the streets on either side.

_Ooh, those flowers look good. I'll probably have to buy some during my lunch break because since it's the final day of the week, it's my day to lock up. The stalls will probably be closed when I get out._

As I close in on the front door of the Academy, I see a cluster of my students appear out of an alley, laughing and joking with each other.

_Kerk, Aeluno, Brir, Shi and Itas._

I smile as I feel them notice me thru the Force, then try to hide my amusement as they scramble to hide their laughs and smiles.

"_Ar'an,_ good morning." _Shi_ says respectfully as everyone else bows their heads. (A/N: _Ar'an = _soldier, guard)

"Morning. You guys can smile." I joke, trying to loosen them up.

_Respect is good, but I don't want them on pins and needles around me. I won't be able to fully get them to their potential._

Quickly, I feel everyone loosen up and get a few laughs before I grab the door. "I'll see you after Seeker's daily address." I tell them as they walk inside towards the atrium. Meanwhile, I turn the other direction toward my office and designated training area.

The voices of some of the younger students bounce off the walls as I walk down the halls, unlock my door then leave it three quarters of the way open.

_Glad I don't have the kids today. I prefer the older ones, where I only have to repeat myself a few times. I'll get my fair share of them the first couple days of next week, then I go back to my focus on some of the older students. They're much easier for me._

I set my bag beside my chair and my datapad on my desk before stopping and looking at my setup, which hSabine helped with.

_Pictures of Sabine, Sof and her parents mostly. But a small Death Watch logo, a brown necklace similar to Hera's and one of Zeb's dagger's sit off to the side, displayed on one of my bureaus. _

_I could do more to decorate, but I don't really want to right now._

Quickly, I glance thru my notes from yesterday before double checking what I had planned.

"Hi-Lo".

_Really, it's the concept of varying your targets in a fight. But the simple version is "Go high, go low." _

_Mix it up. We should be just about ready…_

My lightsaber rests comfortably on my hip as I stride to the side door, picking up my sword that's resting in its holder off to the side before walking thru the entryway just as my students, plus _Der'k_ walk in and move ot sit down before seeing me and bowing.

"_Ar'an_…_" _They all say reverently, before I gesture for them to stop and sit, then they comply.

I smile at everyone. "Okay guys. Today, we're going to primarily be working on a technique that makes sense, but comes up in every battle. Hi-Lo." I begin, then start pacing as I explain things. "Simply put—" I unsheathe my sword "It's high—"

I hold my blade in an attacking position near my neck.

"—and low." I drop my blade to about waist height. The purpose of the exercise and the concept, is to get your opponent away from blocking the same position over and over again. If you vary your attack placement, you can manufacture a opening where there wasn't one initially." I smile, then raise my hand and gesture to _Der'k_.

_Enough action. Time to just show them, that's the fastest way to start this lesson. Any lesson really._

_Der'k_ rises to his feet and grabs his practice blade as I do the same. "The application isn't complicated in practice, but I've seen everyone here kind of settle into a rhythm that you bash—" I swing at empty air. "at each other—trying to get at your chest—and beat you—at the same spot—"

The room bursts into laughter, getting my point and causing me to crack a smile and turn back to _Der'k_. "Defensive position, half speed."

_Der'k_ complies, assuming a stance with his feet parallel to me and his blade out front. Coolly, I step forward and strike high. That move is easily blocked by _Der'k_ with both hands.

_Both hands._

I compensate by turning my wrist over and slice at his waist. Quickly, he darts down to block the blow at his hip.

_Got him. High, low, alternating until I beat him._

_Der'k_'s face is fully concentrated before I spin back to my right and chop high. I'm met with a upright, tight block which I barely engage him in before swiping at his ankles and his defenseless feet. In a snap, _der'k_ has managed to get his blade down there to block in a very all-or-nothing move.

I smile, snap my wrist again, find myself in a reverse grip on the sword and mime stabbing _Der'k_ before he can get his blade up to stop me.

The room quickly applauds as _Der'k _looks frustrated before I smile. "Good job _Der'k_. Now you all see what I mean. I worked _Der'k_ into a position that he couldn't recover from. Honestly, I didn't think you'd get down to the slice at your ankle. Good job blocking that." I smile at _der'k_, trying to motivate him.

"It was kind of a blind dive." He says critically.

I shake my head. "But you got there. You guys know one of my rules: You can practice your velocities, but never ever lose focus while executing a move. Don't sacrifice the present move for an uncertain future move. You may not get there. Split up, start practicing at half speed."

My students immediately begin enacting my command, splitting into pairs, grabbing their practice blades and begin practicing Hi-Lo.

_(Four Hours Later)_

"Slow down just a bit." I smile at _Aeluno_. "Okay Ae? You don't have to do everything as fast as you can."

He nods as his opponent, _Brir_ tucks her short hair behind her ear. Ae turns back to _Brir_, and I give the motion to start dueling again.

_High, low, high…eh._

I try to stop a frown at _Brir's_ weak slice meant to counter Ae's strike.

_Might have worked if she's put anything into it. Medium, low, medium—_

_Here comes low, then high._

_Low, high strike that's a whiff…oh goodness his feet._

I close my eyes briefly and hear practice blades whack together before seeing _Aeluno_ shuffle into a swing at _Brir_'s head that she drops down to avoid.

"Stop…Draw. Goes to _Brir_." I say simply, leaving no room for argument.

Instantly, Ae turns to me. "For what? I had her defending me the whole time?"

"Is it always about defending or attacking? Can you control a battle thru defense?" I ask him, knowing that he knows the answer.

_The little kids are still learning this. Yes, you can._

"Yes." He says meekly.

"The reason you lost were you feet. Pick out some songs at lunch for the afternoon." I tell him, trying not to sound too cold while being frustrated.

_I've talked to him about his feet I swear every single day. And yet he's stuff shuffling, still dragging his feet and not flowing at all. He'd be good now if he gained those split seconds by just fixing his feet._

I turn to the rest of the room. "What questions do we have?"

_They know to always have questions._

"I have one." A familiar male voice sounds out. "Catch!" just before I see a red blur streak toward me. In a snap, I extend my hand to where I believe the item is going and am greeting with the plushy ball at first colliding, then cushioning into my hand.

_Caught it._

I smile at the sight of Prime, looking taken surprise as my students are cowering. "Caught."

"You're a freak." He calls out to me before reaching back for his crutches.

"Everyone, this is one of my very good friends, a man that I've fought beside many times. Prime." I say with a laugh as he makes his way around my students and toward me and my office.

My students quickly move to bow reverently at Prime, who smiles but waves them down. "Thanks, though I don't deserve it right now."

"What brings you out of the city? And out of your rehab?" I ask, glancing down at Prime's tightly wrapped knee.

_That sniper shot turned his knee ligaments and tendons into bloody pieces, so he had to have reconstructive surgery_ _a few weeks ago. He can move around okay, but won't be fight ready for awhile._

At least the damage isn't permanent. ACL, MCL, LCL, PCL, meniscus, everything just done for. Any time he tried standing the leg had no support and he just went down.

_Turns out, knees are important._

"The rehab people got sick of me." Prime jokes. "I'm sorry to interrupt. I can hang until your lunch, whenever that is."

"It's here in just a sec—" I tell him before I'm cut off by the chime of the lunch bell. "Nevermind." Prime laughs before I wave him in the direction of my office, and he begins crutching his way over.

My students quickly leave for lunch before Prime grumbles "Sorry I'm so slow."

"You're fine. It's my fault that you got shot."

"Better only me and my knee, than what those bastards had planned. We'd have everybody laid up, you'd be captured…"

I wave my hand to silence him. "No. No. Enough of that. What brings you here?"

"Well…" Prime says slowly, easing his way into my spare chair. "I had an idea. I've got a buddy of mine, House Cadera that's working in the Imperial Science Division in the Mid Rim near Onderon. Do you and Sabine think I should talk to him? Ask him about this 'Krennic'?" he asks, putting air quotes around Krennic.

I shrug. "Maybe. What's your thinking?"

"Get to know some more about him. He's a ghost right now. Get some materials for the Rebellion's folders, some intel, maybe lure him out to a place he shouldn't be…?" Prime trails off before miming a sniper shot.

_Too soon._

"I think that's not a bad idea. You'll just have to be careful how you phrase it I think. You said he's in your House?"

Prime nods. "House over everything except family. Mandalore comes before service of the Empire."

_Okay._

I smile while pulling out my lunch of three peanut spread and jelly sandwiches, chips and a X-Lite. "And you think you can get him to talk."

"Yeah, he's an old friend. Not like Will and all those guys. But we're cool." Prime backtracks.

"Sounds good to me. Just have a cover ready if he starts asking questions. If he works in the Imperial Science Division he's got a brain.

_A big one probably. Things have to line up, or this is a bad idea._

Prime nods. "I will. Eat, have your lunch. Sorry to just drop in."

"No problem, you're welcome anytime." I smile, then take a big bite of one sandwich. "How's everyone."

"Good, good. Will's finally moving out with Tracy."

I swallow, then ask "Finally?"

"Yeah, they've been together since before the stars began burning. But they take everything so slow, and the property market in the city is…"

"Bad?" I guess.

Prime nods. "It's awful. But Will's taking a loan from his parents and their endless pockets, so it will work out."

"Buying, or renting?" I ask.

"Buying." Prime surprises me. "Renting here is a loser's game. I'm sure Sabine and her parents have told you how good Mandalorians are with finance."

_Yup. Some of the biggest banks this side of the Guilds. The Mandalore banking Center is a monument to their ability._

I nod, then swallow again. "They have."

"Which is how Sabine's father made his fortune. Yeah, he's compensated well, but I'm sure he knows the market very well."

_Investing. He's good._

I move onto my second sandwich, then prod Prime along. "What else is going on?"

_(Seven hours later)_

"Here you go sir." The driver tells me politely then turns around to see that I'm already handing him my credit stick. "Oh, apologies sir."

"No problem. My wife's just cooking dinner, I can see it." I smile at the smoke rising out of the back of the house.

_Apparently we're grilling out again._

The driver laughs. "Well then, I can't blame you! Have a good night sir." He hands me my credit stick back and I scoop up my bag and datapad, hop out of the speeder and start around the house as the speeder pulls away.

_They won't know I'm here yet. The speeder came in too low._

Rounding the corner of back of the house, I start to see the exterior of Sophie's basement, which is poured but is being reinforced and inspected for flaws or errors before the soft chatter floats to me and I hear my name.

"Ezra!" Sophie calls out, then rapid footsteps run away from me and toward the stairs.

"Ezra, dear. Welcome home." Mrs. Wren smiles down at me from the balcony as sabine turns something over on the grill and Sophie tackles me into a hug.

Impulsively, I lift her into the air and spin her around. "You're here again!" I tease her, getting Sof to giggle before I start spinning her around.

"Hope you don't mind. She commed after she got out and asked if she could stay the weekend." Sabine calls out to me.

I smile at Sof then let her down. "Nope, don't mind at all. I never mind. She fills up the house."

_She really does._

"How was work?" Sabine asks me as I follow Sof up the stairs and onto the balcony, where I see that Sabine is cooking a rack of ribs and some sort of cylinder of meat.

"Good, kids were crazy. But the older ones were good for the most part."

Mrs. Wren seizes upon the last part. "For the most part?"

"Yeah." I sigh then sit down. "All of them have multiple flaws, which I'm trying to help them fix, but they just don't…use what I'm saying."

"What do you mean?" Sophie asks innocently. "What do you mean?"

_She probably will understand faster if I give her a physical example._

I smile down at Sof, then pop back to my feet. "Well, say you keep messing up your feet by dragging them. I've shown you a few times how to fix it, but you keep dragging…your feet."

"It's most likely just the repetition." Mrs. Wren says wisely. "They have so many habits ingrained that their feet just move that way."

"So you're having to retrain some of them." Sabine reads into it.

_Ehh…_

I shrug, not knowing what else to do. "I'm training all of them. I'm just having to retrain them all on individual critiques at the same time."

"Ezra?" Sophie pipes up.

"Yeah?" I smile.

"Can I see your lightsaber?"

_Whoa._

I quickly smile as her mother turns to look at Sophie. "Yeah, just be careful." I tell her, then pull my lightsaber into my hand and extend it to her.

"Okay!" Sophie beams, then takes it and mimes a sound effect "HUMMMMM…"

Quickly, Sabine, her mother and I laugh as Sophie jumps off the balcony and starts running around.

"Take that you Stormtrooper! Aaahh! Oh no! It's Sophie! Ahhh!" Sophie says, swinging my lightsaber around while not activating it. Beside me, her mother covers her mouth to hide the fact that she's laughing.

_I don't see this side of Sophie too much. Super, super goofy Sophie. Sabine gets loopy when she's tired, and Sophie's always a little silly, but never "I'm gonna swing a lightsaber at fake enemies" goofy._

"Yah! Yah! Hi-YAH!" Sophie keeps swinging away, holding my lightsaber with two hands before leaping forward toward a tree. "Run! YAH!"

"Hiss—hummm…"

_WHOA!_

A small limb of the tree drops off, cut off by my active lightsaber as Mrs. Wren goes from relaxed to freaked in an instant.

Sophie, meanwhile is frozen. Two hands extended toward the tree, not moving a muscle.

"What? Why—Whoa!" Sabine yelps as Sophie, very slowly turns back to the three of us, still barely moving a muscle.

Sof's bottom lip starts quivering. "I…I'm sorry…"

"It's just a tree limb…" Sabine says reassuringly, as the lightsaber blade begins dipping down toward the ground.

"Sof, listen to me. Turn around slowly…and look at the blade." I snap into instructor mode and start down the balcony stairs.

Sophie does exactly what I say, turning slowly, spotting that the blade is drifting toward the ground, and quickly steadying it, pointing it straight up at the sky.

"Be _very_…careful Sophine." Her mother calls out to Sophie, who, if anything goes from stone to Durasteel.

I smile and crouch next to Sophie on her left, immediately spotting her terrified expression while looking at the lightsaber blade. "It's okay…it was an accident."

"I'm sorry…" Sophie says, sounding near tears.

"It's a tree limb Sof. It's okay. No problem. I just didn't want you to hurt yourself." I reassure her lovingly. "It's fine."

_She was never in any real danger if cutting herself, but always better safe than sorry._

Sophie turns to me. "I didn't even know I activated it until it was active." Sophie says, eyes huge as the blade begins dropping again.

_It's heavy for her. When she turns away from it her concentration isn't good enough for her to keep it upright._

I smile gently at Sof. "I know, it's an accident. Look at the blade."

Again, Sof listens and straightens the blade, pointing it up into the air again before I ask "It's heavy, isn't it?"

"No…it isn't heavy. I…I don't know the word."

Sabine calls out "Bulky? Like awkward?"

"Yeah, but the weight isn't like a normal sword." Sophie tells me. "It's heavy in my hands, but…weird for the blade."

I smile. "It is different. Lightsaber's might be the weirdest weapon in the galaxy Sof. Nothing that I've seen is quite like them."

"Take it back…" Sof asks me, moving her arms toward me.

"Womp…hummm…"

"SOPHIE!" Her mother calls out in concern, before I extend my arm toward her.

_I've got it._

I smile at Sof again. "No. I don't want it back right now. We're gonna turn it off, then back on. Okay?"

"But I don't want to…I don't know how!" Sophie whines.

"You'll learn. Now look at your hands." I smile at Sof. "You've got both hands on the lightsaber, right?"

Sof nods, then looks at her hands, causing the blade to wobble slightly.

_We're fine. If she messes up, the tree won't be okay, but it's just a tree._

"Look what button you're holding onto." I smile, then point out the activation on the side that the bottom of Sof's hand is on.

Sof spots it, then droops her shoulders. "Oh."

"Squeeze it again."

Sof turns to me. 'What?"

_Blade._

I flick my eyes to see the blade start to drop, but directly in front of Sof. "Squeeze the button. I promise, nothing bad will happen."

Sophie nods, gulps visibly, then her arms tense up, she squeezes the button…

And the lightsaber turns off.

"See?" I smile. "World didn't end. Now extend your arms out, away from your body, and press the button again."

Again, Sof listens, extends her arms as far as she can and—

"Hummm…"

_Got it._

"Turn your wrists to the left." I tell Sof, and she complies, dropping the blade to the left. "Straught." Sof straightens her wrists. "Turn your wrists to the right."

The blade drops to the right.

"See? It did exactly what you wanted it to. You're controlling it. Now squeeze that button again?"

"Fwwhhip!" The lightsaber extinguishes itself, and I pull it out of Sof's hands and into my own then wave for her to come here.

"Hey." I beam at Sof. "You did good. It was an accident. You didn't freak out, you stayed calm, you took care of it. Good job."

"The tree…" She says, looking heartbroken.

I laugh. "Sof, it's a tree. It'll grow more branches."

"But what if it doesn't?" She asks me, sounding stuffed up.

"Then we'll get a new tree." I laugh, causing Sabine and her Mom to laugh, which causes Sof to laugh.


	132. Training

"Grssshhh…"

The transport's doors open, allowing Sabine and I to exit the transport before spotting a guard, along with Leia waiting for us. Quickly, the guard snaps to attention, causing me to promptly acknowledge them.

"Thank you." I smile, followed by the men lowering their attention.

"You're dismissed. Thank you." Leia says gracefully before stepping forward and smiling at Sabine and I. "And thank you for coming. Are you both alright?" She asks, clearly concerned.

Sabine removes her helmet as I nod. "Yeah, we're okay."

"Is the intel you relayed true? Vader staged an attack on your new house?" Leia badgers us.

"Yes." I nod again.

Sabine jumps in. "Saying its Vader could be a stretch. But it seems likely."

"Doesn't he have better things to do? He's been mentioned in the Core, having just busted up a crime syndicate."

_Huh?_

"He does that?" I ask Leia.

Leia nods. "Yeah, he's never directly on the HoloNet, but his name does get mentioned. He's the Empire's strongest muscle. So when he goes somewhere, destruction follows."

_Makes sense I guess._

"How are things here? When is this meeting?" Sabine asks as we walk into an underground structure.

"A few hours. Your meeting with Ahsoka and some of the other Fulcrums is in a few minutes." Leia explains.

Sabine nods, then drifts off silently, leaving Leia and I.

"She doesn't like me…does she?" Leia asks.

_Ehh…_

"It's not a dislike. You guys are opposite sides of a coin. She respects you, but doesn't agree with how you do things." I explain, then try to brighten her spirits. "She does, though like your willingness to fight. I hope you saw in the Safe Zone report how she credited you for helping turn the tide."

Leia shakes her head. "I didn't do much except hold my ground until you came, then ran for a transport. I don't know if you have a minute, but…there's been some updates."

"I have a minute. With Rogue One?" I ask.

Instantly, Leia smiles. "The very one. Hop in here and I'll be able to explain it to you…" She tells me, then gestures to an open room.

I lead the way into what is evidently an open conference room before Leia shuts the door and clicks button.

"Whiiiiieeeee…"

_White noise. She's got an aural disruptor somewhere in here._

Leia sighs to herself, then fires up a holo. "Alright, get over here because I don't know how long we've got until somebody needs me."

"Okay." I obey then crack a smile.

"The Rebellion has slowly, over the many years created a network of informants. All over the galaxy, Core, Mid Rim, Outer Rim, we've tried getting everywhere. It's been slow work, but we're a lot closer now than we were this time last year. One of these informants…" Leia rapidly zooms in on a map of the galaxy. "Has heard of something about Saw Gerrera being obsessed with this "Imperial Weapon" and everything about it."

I jump in "I thought we didn't associate with Saw Gerrera. Ahsoka seemed against the idea. Sounded like it was almost a formal thing."

"His tactics are deplorable and brutish. There isn't anything he won't do in order to achieve his objective, even if he is the only man left standing at the end of the battle." Leia nods. "We told him just that after he bombed a Imperial Base that also had a daycare, killing over three hundred innocents."

_Whoa._

"They were aligned with the Empire, yes, but they were innocent. The bomb didn't care and just left carnage." Leia sighs, suddenly looking choked up. "The Imperial Senate was told it was a gas explosion, and wrote some compensatory law to keep all the families quiet. The footage clearly shows it wasn't a gas leak, but that's never been shown. Anyway, this intel." Leia shakes her head. "It starts with multiple trips from the planet of Geonosis as told to us by a defector from Gerrera's Partisans. My father, Senator Bail Organa requested that he investigate an energy reading coming from the planet."

I nod. "Before the bomb."

"Before the bomb, yes. Gerrera investigated the planet, reporting a large amount of debris ringing the planet and almost no native lifeforms, the Geonosians. No sign of the heat signature or anything. That was our last contact with him before he went dark, off the grid and we had no way of contacting him. But apparently, Saw lost a decent portion of men and retreated from the planet, only to come back to investigate more. Saw told his men that whatever the Empire was building, they had to have left some clues on the planet."

"Okay." I nod again, to encourage her to continue.

Leia let out a heavy sigh. "Apparently something exploded down on the surface of the planet after contact with a lone Geonosian. Our informant claimed it was poison, but really we don't know. What we do know, is that Saw abandoned everyone but three men on the planet to die and now needs a respiratory suit just to help him breathe."

_Whoa._

"Kind of sounds like Vader." I comment.

Leia smirks. "Yes, which does make sense in the timeline since our next contact was after investigating the bomb and discovering his connections. He's now in hiding, because if we know, you can guarantee the Empire is after him. Word is that he's become obsessively paranoid with this weapon, and we can back that up by returning our contact to us in a bodybag. Nobody has heard from him since."

_More and more like Vader. Ahsoka is right. We can't work with a paranoid bomber that doesn't care for civilian casualties. Our public support would evaporate._

"I'm doing a lousy job explaining this in order, but from there we've been trying to piece together what Saw could have seen. Sabine's father's best estimate of the weapon that your mother was working on is the general consensus right now, but the equipment required would have far exceeded what's left on Geonosis. So we're sending our last Saw Gerrera contact to the Ring of Kafrene to investigate."

_Huh?_

"I'm missing something. Why this ring thing?"

Leia beams. "Because we have good reason to believe that the Empire is shipping Kyber Crystals using that Ring as a trading post."

"Kyber crystals?" I blurt out. "Kyber crystals?!"

_The crystals Mom was working on?_

"We think that's what's powering that weapon." Leia smiles.

_We destroyed a Kyber crystal after stealing a decoder from Kallus' office on Fulcrum's orders. We've actually been chasing the Death Star all along…_

"—the power capabilities line up, crystals that size fit in the design Mr. Wren designed for us, it all fits!" Leia finishes.

I nod, then shake my head to bring myself back to reality. "And what if we're right? Do we really have the capabilities to take the Death Star down?"

"Maybe, but we have to at least try." Leia's face finally falls. "Is it true that you're going to be staying on Mandalore?"

_Oh blast, I was hoping we wouldn't have to talk about this._

I let my face drop, then smile. "Yeah. This latest attack by Vader, plus his threat kind of forces my hand."

"I was afraid of that. I saw the report from Kanan and Ahsoka, recommending the same thing." Leia frowned.

"I'm sorry." I apologize.

Leia quickly leaps toward me. "No, don't be sorry. You should protect everyone. Sabine's family is number one, I can't ask you to put the Rebellion over them, it wouldn't be right. You…are still with us though. Right?"

"Yeah, of course." I say, surprised. "You thought we weren't?"

"Kind of. After what happened on Dxun, I wasn't so sure. Which I was wrong by the way. I think that's been pretty definitively proven. I had the footage combed over again, we have no idea who the Imperial Agent is. But I don't think that they are still with us, and neither does the Council."

_That would make sense, leave before your cover is blown._

I nod in agreement, then add "Yeah, I'd hate to have another base burnt. Especially since it's such an unassuming planet."

"Yeah, Dantooine isn't too bad. It's more cheerful than Dxun for sure." Leia smiles wryly, getting me to laugh.

"Are you keeping the Dxun base?" I ask, curious.

"Yes, we're converting it into more of an arms factory and fighter production hub rather than a main base. It's so low profile that a new ship coming from the planet wouldn't register in the mind of the Empire, and we're planning on using that to our advantage in order to replenish our fleets."

_Makes sense._

I smile. "It all makes sense." Leia laughs, then starts for the door.

"We're trying not to do anything too rash and impulsive. But before we go to this meeting…I have to ask you something."

"Okay?" I say, slowing my steps to almost a halt.

Leia smiles reassuringly at me, then the smile drips off her face. "In the Senate, there's a procedure called the designated survivor. In the case of an attack or catastrophe, a high ranking member of the Senate stays offsite so that they can assume legal control of the government and not have a situation that nobody knows who is in charge."

"Where…are you going with this?" I ask anxiously.

_I don't like how she's talking._

Leia simply smiles and continues. "In the event that something catastrophic happens to the Rebellion. Imperial Invasion, a failed attack, whatever. I want you to assume control at my behest. You and Sabine are our Designated Survivors."

"Whoa, hold on. Leia!" I quickly say, grabbing her by the shoulder. "Why? What?"

Leia's expression turns grim. "I'm getting more involved. The Senate is getting even weaker than the shell of its former self that it has been for almost 18 years now. They just signed away veto power to a group called the Imperial Ruling Council, people that I've never even heard of. I had to go ask my father, who explained that Palpatine has kept personal advisors since the Clone Wars, and that's probably who that Council is. So if the Senate is effectively a joke, then I'm getting my hands dirty and starting to fight."

"Why Sabine and I then?" I ask her. "Why not Ahsoka?"

"Because Ahsoka will probably be right in the middle of everything like she always is. She has her hands in anything. You guys will be on Mandalore, safe and laying low from Vader. Turning his threat against him and guaranteeing that the Rebellion…_lives._" Leia smiles. "You're a Jedi, Sabine is a Fulcrum Agent and helping to expand the Rebellion. If something happens, I believe in you guys to keep this dream alive. Never give up, keep fighting, and we'll get there one day."

"Sabine will like that." I smile, and Leia returns it before opening the door.

"Good. I'm glad to hear that." She says cheerfully before we start down a hallway deeper into the complex.

_(Two Weeks Later)_

"I'm headed out." I call out to Seeker as he continues tidying up the fighting areas.

"Sounds good, tell her happy birthday from us." He smiles cordially, then turns his back to continue picking up.

I smile then turn to the door. "Thanks! Will do."

_Whew. Long day, but it's over now. And now for Sabine's surprise dinner. Kind of._

I slip outside the Academy, turn to hit my comm only to spot Sabine out of the corner of my eye hopping out of a speeder.

_Oh, I need to hustle._

Breaking into a jog, I smile and call out "No, I got it!" to the driver, causing both he and Sabine to turn and for Sabine to smile.

"Ezra…" She smiles sheepishly.

"No no, not today." I smile while handing the driver my credit stick.

He quickly runs it, then hands it back. "Thank you sir."

"Thank you." I nod in reply before he rises back into the air and starts driving further into town.

_I'm starting to really get the hang of things here in Tokrush. Streets, how to get everywhere, the shortcuts, that sort of thing._

I turn back to Sabine tucking her hair behind her ear looking content. "Thanks Ezra."

"You're welcome. You look beautiful." I smile, trying to keep my eyes off her subtle purple dress cut right at her knees.

Again, Sabine smiles. "Thanks. You didn't have to do all this."

"Yeah I did. I worked all day." I laugh. "And I couldn't really think of a gift."

Sabine laughs once, then grabs my hand and starts into Tokrush proper. "You are my gift, you didn't need to do anything."

"I'm a lousy gift, working from 7 to 7 with an hour for lunch." I counter. "I haven't seen you all day."

"You're working, and you enjoy it. How was your day?" Sabine completely changes tact.

I shrug. "It was alright. Taught counters most of the day, and only a few of the students ever figured out what I meant. They took it as an alternate attack move instead of a reliable staple you need."

"Sounds like a frustrating day."

"Nah." I answer. "How was your day?"

"Good, I didn't really do anything." She says while breaking into an embarrassed smile. "I slept in, had some caf, lounged around, painted, read the latest Ramordia report…"

"What'd it say?"

Sabine expression turns severe. "Leia's right about the Kyber crystals being traded. They examined over 3,000 Imperial trade hubs, billions of transactions, and the words "Kyber Crystals" didn't pop up once." She says, lowering her voice so passersby can't hear. "Once!"

"So their omission tells us that we're right." I nod.

"Exactly. I also asked them to focus on Lothal, Ilum, Mygeeto, the planets we saw on the holo on Denon. Those are the only places that we know of that have Kyber crystals for sure."

I smile, then grab the door. "You're brilliant."

"Here?" Sabine blurts out, slowing her strides. "This is Mandalorian."

"I like Mandalorian food." I smile.

She however, frowns ate me. "Ezra, I hope you didn't just book a reservation for us based on what I like."

"I like it!" I reemphasize my point defensively, then usher Sabine inside.

"Ma'am, sir, party name?" The host asks us.

"Bridger." I smile. The host quickly scans a list, spots us and grabs two menus.

"Follow me." He requests, then leads us back into the restaurant.

_Huh, they layout of this place is…unique. Everything is spread out and contained. Each table has their own space, so you don't have to worry about being loud._

A table nearby lets out a raucous roar of laughter, barely getting a glance from the tables around it as we drift toward a side room with double doors.

"Uh, I think you may have the wrong group…" Sabine says politely to the host. "It's just us."

The host plays along, double checking his notes before saying "No, this is the room we have you reserved for. If you find it to be too big, we'll be happy to move you."

Sabine clearly thinks it over before nodding and the host walks away, allowing us to enter our dining area alone.

"After you." I smile at Sabine. Sabine steps forward and pulls open the door.

_Got her._

The lights flick on, revealing everyone before—"SURPRISE!"

Sabine jumps straight up in the air, terrified before she sees that it's her parents, Sophie, Kanan and Hera as her mother bursts out into laughter and turns to Hera.

"Did you see her face…?" She laughs, almost hysterical before comically bulging her eyes and causing Hera, Kanan and I to laugh.

"Happy birthday!" Sophie rushes to Sabine and tackling her into a hug. Sabine laughs, then bends down and hugs Sophie.

"You planned this."

Sophie smiles. "Ezra and Daddy did!"

"And it worked." I smile at her, then step forward as Hera rounds the other side of the table.

"Happy birthday…" Hera smiles before Sabine turns to her for a hug. Sophie leaves her sister's side and walks over to peer up at me and wave.

"Hi." She smiles.

"Hey. Long time, no see." I return the smile and get a giggle out of Sophie before she turns to a chair and sits down.

Sophie sitting prompts Kanan and Mr. Wren to sit and for Kanan to turn to me. "So, how's actually working?"

_That smirk…_

"It's good." I smile.

Sabine immediately jumps in while sitting beside Sof. "Don't listen to him totally. His students drive him nuts."

"Not in a bad way." I reply. "I just want them to be better."

"Hera can vouch for me, I've spent sleepless nights trying to help you get better." Kanan says, then looks to Hera for support.

Hera's expression briefly flashes surprise before she nods. "Mostly before we met Fulcrum though."

_That would make sense. He was all alone and he must have known how important it was that he'd found me. Especially before the Empire did._

The door behind us opens, and I turn to see a waiter toting drinks. "For you…" He stops and hands Sophie a large juice.

_Huh. Must be because of the special occasion._

"Thank you!" Sof pipes up happily as the waiter distributes drinks to Hera, Kanan and Sabine's parents.

"Alright, ma'am? For you to drink?"

Sabine nods. "I'll have the narcolethe on the rocks with soda please."

"And you sir?" The waiter asks me.

"The tea. Thank you." I smile.

The waiter nods. "Alright, you guys' food is already cooking, it'll just be a few minutes."

_We already ordered?_

"Huh?" Sabine turns to her father.

He, in turn smiles. "They usually don't like groups of more than four. This restaurant cooks everything after it's ordered so timing is crucial. And since we're a group of seven, I ordered us all the same thing, their specialty."

"Have you been here _ad'ika_?"Mrs. Wren asks Sabine.

"No." Sabine shakes her head. "Ezra isn't the biggest fan of authentic Mandalorian food."

"I like it…" I counter.

"Bad experience?" Mr. Wren asks me.

"No, I just had something that was so hot it tried burning my face off. That's what I don't like."

"Spicy hot or temperature hot?" Hera asks me.

I smile. "Spicy."

"This isn't spicy. At least it shouldn't be." Mrs. Wren turns to Hera and I. "It's Bantha loin chops, potatoes, something green and a salad."

Sof smiles as Hera nods. "Doesn't sound too deadly." Kanan jokes, getting everyone to laugh. After a minute, Mrs. Wren turns to Sabine.

"Sabine…Sabine." She starts, which causes Sabine to start blushing.

"Mom…" She groans, just before the waiter slips in and deposits our drinks in front of us.

Mrs. Wren smiles proudly. "I have to _ad'ika._My _birik_."

"Birik?" I ask her.

"Sabine's her baby." Mr. Wren explains as Sabine looks embarrassed.

"Twenty years old. With your own husband, your own house, your own life, so many big responsibilities…we're so proud of you." Her mother gushes, looking very happy.

Kanan simply raises his glass. "To Sabine."

Everyone else quickly follows suit, Sophie emphatically and Sabine in embarrassment. "Thanks…"

"You're smarter and better and wiser than I was at that age." Hera smiles, prompting the Wren's to nod as I sip my tea.

"Absolutely. I…I don't remember many birthdays." Kanan starts strong then quiets down.

Sophie quickly looks sad. "Why not? It's your birthday!"

_Oh._

"I uhm…" Kanan sputters, then looks to Hera for support.

_Hera mentioned once that Kanan was "out a lot" before she met him. He partied it up._

"I got into fights on my birthday. Mostly my fault." Kanan smiles in a offputting way at Sof.

"Why?" Sof asks.

Her father frowns and firmly says. "Sophine, that's enough."

"That means your birthday isn't too far around the corner Ezra." Mrs. Wren changes subjects as Sof looks dejected.

I smile and play along, trying to change the subject. "Yeah, it is. You guys don't have to do anything special though."

"Kanan and I were looking at our schedule calendar, and we might have a big supply run that week dear." Hera smiles towards me.

I return the smile, and Hera's expression brightens. "No problem, if you guys have missions to run, then don't stop for me."

"Nineteen right?" Sof asks.

"Yup." I smile. "Nineteen."

_Almost four years since I joined Kanan and Hera. I had a birthday with them when Kanan and I had to mess around in that stupid parade. Then Naboo two years ago with Sabine and Ahsoka, plus last year at Safe Zone._

_I made a point not to say anything. Took a small cake down to Mom'sroom and we just talked. Nothing important…just talked._

"I'm two years older than you right now." Sabine smiles at me proudly. "Hah!"

_It was one of my favorite nights in recent memory._

I pull myself out of my thoughts as Hera asks Mr. Wren a question, but not before I see Sabine look at me, concern falling over her face.

_It's a little more than a year and a half difference between Sabine and I._

Thankfully, the door opens behind me, announcing the arrival of our food. "Alright…here you go." The waiter smiles, handing Sof a huge plate full of grilled bantha chops, potatoes, a long, green vegetable, a side salad and some sort of dressing in a little cup on the side.

_Wow. Hope it tastes as good as it looks._

I get my plate third, after Sabine and paitiently wait for everyone to get their food before cutting off a piece of the meat and tasting it.

_WOW._

"This is really good." I smile, causing Mrs. Wren to smile back.

"One of the top restaurants on Mandalore." She comments.

Kanan swallows a bite and asks "How do you all know all these good restaurants?"

"We used to travel to planets just for the food before we had the kids." Mr. Wren explained.

"You're foodies." Hera laughs one as I spear some of my salad.

"Not a bad thing in my book. You name the planet, we probably have a good spot to eat." Mrs. Wren adds with a smile

Kanan diverts the conversation away from food easily. "Sabine, Ezra, I have a quick question for you." Before he turns to Mr. Wren. "Are we clear?"

Mr. Wren glances at his lap. "Yup. No monitoring frequencies…"

"Wait…that's not a monitor. Those are pod races. Carid! Put that away!" Mrs. Wren scolds her husband as Sof laughs while sipping her drink.

"I'm not watching, just monitoring my credits."

Mrs. Wren's face goes from stern to incredulous. "You're _betting_ on podracing?! It's Sabine's birthday!"

"I know, and I'm paying attention." He says defensively.

Sabine smiles and tries to take the heat off her father. "Who is it? Are they winning?"

"Yup." Her father smiles readily. "Name's Jade, from the Outer Rim, forget the planet. Got good odds, she's won five races in a row, looking to be six."

"That doesn't make it better." Mrs. Wren frowns.

"Would you rather I bet on Sabine's birthday and lose? Or win?" he counters, causing Mrs. Wrem to hesitate.

_She'd rather that he win._

I smile along with Hera and Kanan before Kanan jumps back to his point. "What's this intelligence that you all had Prime dig for in the Mid Rim. Hera saw that you had classified intelligence directed to you."

"Classified?" Sophie turns her head.

"So not everybody looks at it." Sabine explains to Sof before turning back to Kanan. "Yeah, I didn't want everyone's eyes on it in the case that it's a dead end."

Hera glances up. "Do you think it's a dead end?"

"No, actually. Prime's friend gave us the good. The "Director Krennic" that Ezra heard in his vision and when we were fighting to buy Mon Mothma's cell time is actually named Orson Krennic. He's the Director of the Advanced Weapons Research Division of the Imperial Military." Sabine starts off.

The temperature in the room drops before Mrs. Wren asks what I thought of when I saw the report.

"The Death Star?"

"Maybe." Sabine shrugs. "Nothing for sure. What we got mostly was a full personality report. He's a hand full. Knows the Imperial Structure so well that he's ranked equal to a Admiral, which, for a Scientist shouldn't…happen. Big time partier, dating back to his mid twenties, stayed out late into the night. He's openly sought the approval of Emperor Palpatine, reasons unknown. Little compassion for innocent life, no consideration of mercy, compassion, compromise…you get the picture."

Kanan airily says "Sounds like a guy we'd all love to have for dinner."

"Do you think we can use his ambition do lure him out foolishly? Take advantage?" Hera asks, looking eager.

"Not really, he's late fourties, early fifties now. He's seasoned enough that he likely would hedge his bets." Sabine shakes her head.

"Any word on what he's working on?"

Sabine shakes her head. "Nothing concrete. Just a top secret weapons project. What is interesting is his work with the Republic Corps of Engineers."

"Really?" Mr. Wren asks. "They recruited me. Said I wasn't smart enough."

_What?_

"Seriously?" I ask, and Mr. Wren nods while looking back to Sabine.

Sabine smiles at everyone before continuing. "The file we got mentions a fond friendship with a "Galen Erso", who retired then unretired to return to Krennic's service. What's so important is that Galen Erso is a leading expert on crystallography and energy enrichment."

"Crystallology…" Hera groans. "Of course, the way to get crystals to be fine tuned."

"What Ezra's mother was good at!" Mr. Wren lights up.

"Exactly." I nod.

Kanan jumps in. "So it's the Death Star."

"We don't have confirmation on that." Sabine says nervously. "It's an educated guess."

"Who else knows?" Hera asks. "As far as I know there isn't any ongoing investigation into the Death Star right now. It's all small scale operations."

_WHAT!?_

I turn to sabine in surprise, only to see her eyebrows snapped down before Kanan says "What?"

"You two know something." Mrs. Wren deciphers our looks.

_How can Hera, one of the top figures in the Rebellion…not know about Rogue One?!_

"Leia told Ezra, who told me. You don't know?" Sabine asks Hera.

Hera shakes her head before Kanan cuts across her. "Know what?"

"There's a contingency plan. I told Sabine because I know she's trustworthy. I don't know why they didn't tell Hera." I say nervously, as Kanan looks angry.

"Likely because there's little concrete evidence right now." Hera hypothesizes. "Give me a name that I can use when I ask? They may not talk, but I might as well try."

Sabine nods. "Rogue One. We're a little off the reservation here."

_Which means covert ops, getting our hands really down deep in the muck of the galaxy._

_We'll have to go deeper if we're gonna figure this out. Maybe even find Erso's daughter. She's a ghost right now._

"Thank you." Hera smiles in thanks.

Sabine returns the smile, then her expression brightens. "Oh, that reminds me? Do you guys want to see the house? They just finished the basement today."

"Today!" Sophie perks up, smiling widely.

"They got it done?" I ask her.

_They told me it wouldn't get done until tomorrow._

Sabine smirks at me. "It is now that I yelled at them during their tenth break of the day."

"Yeah, we'd love to see it." Hera smiles.

Quickly, I glance back down at my plate and see a lot of work left to be done.

_This is delicious._

_(One Hour Later)_

"Alright…" Sabine mutters as I step to the side door and pull my keys out of my pocket. "Home sweet home."

"It looks amazing Sabine. I really like what you've done with the outside." Hera comments.

Kanan nods in assent. "Yeah, looks good. A little dark, but good."

"You don't like dark?" I ask him.

_I like it._

"Just not what I think of when I think of a home." Kanan says as I let everyone walk into the house. Right off the bat, Sophie spots the hole in the floor where we had the staircase down to the basement put in on the far wall.

"Easy…we haven't done anything to those steps or anything. It's hard duracrete." Sabine says protectively to Sof, who is peering down the stairwell.

"Let's have a look, I'm curious to see how spacious it is." Mr. Wren says, a split second before Sophie easily starts down the steps.

"Whoa…" I hear her gasp, then hear the flick of a switch and lights pop on in the stairwell.

"I LOVE IT!" Sof screeches as I start down the stairs and turn to my right.

_Whoa. It is spacious._

There's some room off to the left here, but most of the length of the basement extends down to the right a good twenty five to thirty feet, with two support pillars the only obstructions in the room.

_Did they remember to put in the back?_

I step around mrs. Wren and Kanan and peer further down and see a notch, more empty space, then door.

_This is great._

"Thank youuuu…" Sophie hugs Sabine's legs tightly, as sabine smiles happily.

"You're welcome."

"This is bigger than I was expecting when I heard basement." Kanan admits.

Hera smiles before Mr. Wren nods. "I want a high ceiling so that it wouldn't seem cramped and that you could use the space. But this is better than even what I was expecting."

"When can I start decorating?" Sophie asks Sabine and her parents.

"Next trip down. We'll have to buy a bed and stuff too." Sabine smiles.

Sophie lights up again, then leaps into the air, looking primed to explode. "This. Is. AWESOME!"

I laugh, then gaze around.

_Yeah, this is pretty cool._

(A/N: A note for everyone asking where we're at. Research Luke's age in A New Hope. Ezra's two days older than Luke and Leia. That's where we're at. Thanks for reading.)


	133. Death Star In The Sky

I grimace a smile out of me while taking back my passport from the spaceport worker, and walk forward to rejoin Sabine, who is waiting just before the opening out to Keldabe proper and the city. Right away, she reaches out and rubs my shoulders.

"Please keep trying to relax." She asks me quietly.

"I am trying." I say as the Force twinges again.

_This time I know it's not local. Over the last week and a half I've gone from feeling nothing, to a little bit of tension, to escalating until I feel like I'm in a vice grip while the Force is the edgiest I've ever felt it._

Sabine pacifies me with a smile while keeping a hand on me, then slipping her hand into mine. "I know. Is it any worse?"

"No, just the same." I say quietly, still feeling the silent pressure all around me.

_I do not like this. At all._

I've commed Kanan and Ahsoka, who spoke to Mon Mothma. They've put the base on Yavin IV on a "Yellow Alert", which means watch towers being manned at all hours, doubled security patrols, the works. In truth, ever since we realized that our Imperial infiltrator from Safe Zone was on Dantooine (thank to him getting caught tampering with a server), we've been on "Yellow Alert".

_From the time we got locked down in Tokrush, to when we got the all clear and learned of the new Yavin IV base, to when Rex and Echo pronounced our air forces "ready for small scale assault", to when Leia sent me a long communication, telling Sabine and I that Rogue One was rolling._

Jyn Erso was found, an Imperial prisoner and was bailed out two days ago. Kanan reported back, saying that really she's nothing special, just an average woman with an attitude bigger than she is. Huge temper, long rap sheet, and an unwillingness to help.

_But she's helping, apparently. No word on where she is now, the status of the mission, anything._

_It's been like this for months, just us doing our own thing. Day after day, a new routine. Never thought I'd miss the days of daily Rebellion and the exhaustion that comes with it._

I let out another breath, try to push the anxiety of the Force away, only for it to bubble away, then fall back to where it's been.

_A haze, a weight. Just…there._

The market around us slowly turns into the familiar gated neighborhood of the Wren's before I swipe my keycard and let Sabine go first.

"Do we know what we're having for dinner?" I ask, changing the subject.

"No." Sabine shrugs her shoulders. "Mom didn't say, but said that she'd be cooking when we got home."

_Back to our old routine._

I nod, smile and try to put a more upbeat expression on my face before Sabine and I walk right up to the door, knock twice then open the door.

"Hello? We're home!" Sabine calls out, just before Sophie flies out of the kitchen beaming.

"Hi!" She exclaims happily, then hugs Sabine and I, both by the legs.

I smile as Sabine laughs. "Hey Sof."

"You two are early. Ezra, I thought you had work." Mrs. Wren calls out, stirring something in a big pot.

"I did." I explain, then walk into the kitchen and spot Sof's stool in its normal spot, with the celery on the counter with a cutting board beside it. "I cancelled my classes for the afternoon and went home early."

Mrs. Wren stops, turns back and looks at me. "Oh. I can see it."

"See what?" Sophie asks.

Sabine smiles down at Sof. "Ezra's been feeling something in the Force for days now. He's really nervous about it."

"Oh…" Sophie says quietly as Mrs. Wren reaches out and grabs my arm.

"And it's not here?"

I shake my head strongly. "No. It's not imminent, it's been here for over a week. And it's just gone from a prickling, to a warning, to become pressure all around me, like a weight."

_I've been using Ahsoka's techniques to try and expand my reach out into the Force, and that's all I can tell._

"You're home now. Grab a drink dear, then peel some potatoes for me. I can have Sabine and Carid do the rest. Have you asked Prime or Ramordia to look into what you're feeling?" Mrs. Wren asks me.

Sabine nods as I walk to the conservator and pull out the _narcolethe_. "Yeah, we told Prime, Darcy and everyone to be one their toes, play everything very close to the vest. We've got Ramordia on standby with Yavin in case something happens and the Empire tries to cover it up or something."

I set a glass down and move to grab some ice as Mrs. Wren stops, then turns to Sabine. "That seems like an aggressive action Sabine. Isn't there as risk that if we use them as a propaganda outlet, they'll be captured?"

"Yeah, but I trust Ezra's instincts. And the Force has never lied to him. I want to be ready. I don't want to have to ask other cells for help." Sabine says strongly. "I want to be the place that things pivot and turn on."

_Instead of being a Fulcrum Agent, Sabine has her hands in so much stuff that she wants to be THE fulcrum. The place where everything pivots._

"I've just got a bad feeling about this." I say, pouring some soda into my glass and stirring it before adding the _narcolethe_.

Footsteps announce Sabine's father is coming down the stairs before he calls out "Are there any high profile missions currently active?"

"No, there shouldn't be." Mrs. Wren jumps in. "It's been so quiet Carid. Months of just building up strength and depth."

"No…" I correct Mrs. Wren. "Rogue One's live. They found Erso's daughter two days ago."

Before my eyes, I see Sabine's parents both go white. "You think…?" Mrs. Wren asks.

"I've got a bad feeling." I repeat myself. "That's all I've got."

"But the picture does not look great." Sabine supports me.

Mr. Wren walks into the kitchen then eyes me. "Yeah, you look strained Ezra."

"I like your beard though!" Sophie pipes up, lightening the mood a little and causing me to rub my chin.

"Yeah, blame Sabine." I shrug, causing Mrs. Wren to laugh.

Sabine rolls her eyes at me with a smile. "All my fault, yeah."

"Why aren't you completing it? It's a beard, but it's supposed to be a mustache and connect." Mr. Wren teases me.

"Because he's a baby. And because it's not really growing in there yet." Sabine teases me, then jabs me with her elbow.

I smile while sipping my drink before probing out again.

_Still there, inert. Just waiting._

"Whatever, you like it." I smile at Sabine as I see Mrs. Wren read my face, knowing that I just probed out. Emotions fly over her face before she points me to the sink.

"Can you help with potatoes dear?"

I smile, then start that way. "Of course."

"Carid, can you do some salad preparations for Ezra?" Mrs. Wren asks her husband as I slip beside Sophie and flick on the water to wash my hands.

"Hey."

Sophie turns to me, looking content. "Hi."

"How was school?" I ask while washing up.

Sophie turns away, looking unimpressed. "It was okay. Nothing really happened. I'm learning fractions."

_Fractions?_

"I never liked fractions." I say, then grab the potatoes. "But then again, you're smarter than me, so I think you'll be fine."

"I'm not smarter…Mommy!" Sophie turns to her mother.

"You're both equally smart. Now keep working." She says, shaking her head.

_Cop out answer._

Sophie instantly frowns. "What kind of an answer is that?"

"Sophie." Mr. Wren asks her gently as I reach over, pull out my trusty potato knife, pull the glove off my hand and start peeling.

"How's your hand?" Sophie asks gently, turning back to me.

"It's great." I smile.

Mrs. Wren chimes in "No issues since your last checkup?"

"Nope. None at all." I smile again.

"Flick flick flick flick…"

I hear Sabine ask her father a question as I probe out again, only to be greeted with slightly more pressure. Shakily, I let out a breath and flip my potato over.

_No need to worry everyone over more pressure._

Quickly, I peel the bottom half of the potato I'm holding while listening into the conversation between Sabine and her father about the progress of the B-Wing.

_Dxun has been pumping them out like they're its primary responsibility. They've come up big recently._

The conversation continues as I grab another potato, then turn and ask Mrs. Wren "What are we cooking?"

"It's a ham. Your potatoes are going to be sliced, then put in a dish with milk, flours and spices and left to cook in the oven for 30 minutes." She answers.

_Sounds great._

Sophie turns to her left "Sabine, can you help me?"

"Of course, with what?" Sabine asks.

"Mommy likes this cut thin, but I don't think I can do it without cutting myself." Sophie turns to Sabine, who pulls the cutting board to her.

Their father suddenly slips between them. "Sabine, keep working. I'll help Sophine." He says quietly, then smiles at Sophie. "Thank you for stopping and asking for help."

"It's what you always say to do." Sophie answers simply.

I turn back to my potato, only peeled a third of the way, and quickly pick up the pace.

_The potatoes need to get in the oven before we're eating at midnight._

I set that potato aside, and grab the third before probing out again. Right away, the Force pushes me back, resisting even the idea of a probe, before I let out a breath and concentrate.

_C'mon…Yup. The same._

"Flick flick flick fl—"

"_AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!"_

My knife completely misses the potato before hitting the sink as screams continue ringing in my ears and I feel like the Force itself is trying to smother me.

"_AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!"_

In response, I probe out into the Force and immediately stumble weakly into the counter before I hear somebody call out my name.

"_AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAAHHHH!" "AAAA_—"

_Oh no._

I open my eyes to see that I'm cowering in the nook of the counter, hands over my ears as everyone is looking at me, Sabine reaching out to steady me.

_What's happene_—

I probe out again and feel the Force retract from me…then become serene and peaceful.

_Uh oh. Oh no._

"Ez—" I hear Sabine begin to say my name before I run past Mrs. Wren, thru the kitchen, pivot hard in the hall, go left and fly into the office and begin typing out the code to contact Ahsoka, Hera and Kanan on Yavin IV.

_No no no…pick up._

A moment passes before I slap the wall beside the comm. "PICK UP!"

"What?!" I hear Mrs. Wren ask before Sabine and Sof enter the room.

"It's bad…All I heard were screams. It was like when Vader came here and the Force seemed to start smothering me. It jumped me, then screams, then…nothing." I explain weakly, feeling my hands shake.

_This is BAD._

Sabine and Sophie both look to me, scared before the holo pops on. "Kid! Ezra, glad that's you. Otherwise I was hanging up."

_Zeb._

"Zeb, I know something happen. I felt it. It's bad. Really bad. Do you know anything?" I ask as fast as I can as I feel the Force start prickling again.

Zeb immediately looks shocked. "I guess…I should have known. We don't know right now. We have suspicions, but that's it."

"What's the suspicions Zeb?" Sabine asks, stepping forward as I feel her parents step into the room.

"Jedha City. We sent a mission there involving a…—"

Sabine cuts Zeb off. "Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor and a reprogramed Imperial Security Droid. I know the file Zeb."

Zeb freezes. "That file was under VIP Only status."

"We're VIP's Zeb! Leia told me personally!" I tell him strongly. "Do we know what happened?"

"No." Zeb shakes his head as yelling filters thru the mic and to us. "I—"

"Zeb! What's going on?" I hear Ahsoka demand.

"Any word from Jedha City and Agent Andor?" Somebody in the background asks before Hera, Kanan and Ahsoka appear on the holo.

Zeb shrugs. "I don't know. Everything on Jedha City went black, all our informants, everything! Then Ezra came on saying he felt something thru the Force!"

I look to Kanan and Ahsoka and instantly see it in their eyes.

_They felt it too._

"I've got them! They're transmitting a holo clip!" Somebody yells loudly, causing Hera, Zeb, Kanan and Ahsoka to turn.

"Start saving it immediately!" Someone orders forcefully. "All holos on what they've sent."

Our holo immediately shifts from Hera, Zeb, Kanan and Ahsoka to a desert planet with a large moon…

"Oh no." I breathe out and choke out a breath.

_That…isn't a moon._

We all watch in silence as a person runs past a series of ships, looking small as the moon inches its way up the horizon until it fully eclipses the sun.

"BA-BOOOOMMM…RUMMMM…"

Eight tributary beams feed into one large beam just before a massive green light rains down, obliterating a large plateau, instantly blowing the entire thing up into the atmosphere. The picture quickly becomes shaky as the horizon effectively disappears and appears to start coming toward the ship.

_Mom…what have you built?_

"It's active." Sabine breathes out, causing me to turn and see her father looking horrified, her mother with tears in her eyes and her hands clapped over her mouth, Sophie looking on with shock, and Sabine looking shaken.

The footage continues until a group of people pile into the ship with the horizon threatening to swallow the ship up. Very quickly, the ship gets into the air and begins speeding the other way.

_It's not going to make it. Unless they jump to hyperspace quick, that destructive wave is going to catch them._

Just as the thought pops out of my head, the camera shows the blue of hyperspace, then cuts to black. Leaving stunned and horrified silence in its wake.

"Why destroy the city? It was a monument to how far the Jedi have fallen." Kanan comments.

_What? Jedha, Jedi?_

_Am I missing something?_

Ahsoka turns to Hera. "We have to do something. Start editing that footage so we can broadcast it. That's genocide, the Empire can't cover that up."

"I'm worried about how it got there. That thing caused an artificial eclipse. That means it's the size of a moon, larger than the mockups I made." Mr. Wren said. "It might be capable of hyperspace."

Sabine whips around. "At THAT size?!"

"Hyperspace isn't limited by size, but by the energy you can put into your craft." Mr. Wren replies to Sabine.

"We don't know where the Death Star is going next." Hera states before turning behind her. "They got out?"

"Yes!" Somebody emphatically answers, causing Hera to whip around.

"Ezra, Sabine, you and Sophie have to go to Tokrush. Now."

_What?!_

"No!" I counter.

Sabine adds "They've crossed the line! We've stayed at home, on the sidelines, playing our part for months! The Empire went too far! We're getting back in the game!"

"No you're not!" Hera responds. "You two are the back-up plan! You're the cell that is supposed to be held back in case of emergency! If I had to bet, they're going to start evening the playing field. Who is the only planet to fight the Empire and win?"

_Haar'chak._

Ahsoka, Zeb and Kanan all turn to Hera as the lightbulb hits everyone at the same time. "You!" Hera says fiercely. "Keldabe is probably the next target! Now I'm ordering you to get to the spaceport, and get home. Comm for further instruc—tio—nnn…"

"They're cutting the holos…" Mrs. Wren turns to her husband.

_Oh this is really, really bad._

The holo goes black before Sabine's father jolts us all into action by pushing Sabine and I to the door. "We're going now. Bo, cut the stove."

"I agree, no time." She answers briskly, darting out of the room.

"Daddy…" Sophie whines, sounding scared. Instantly, she's scooped up by her father.

"Hey. It's going to be okay. You're going to Tokrush with Ezra and Sabine. We'll meet you there as soon as we can. Okay?" Sophie's expression turns distraught before she hugs her father tightly, and I feel my heart pounding.

_I can't believe this._

I cannot believe this.

"Why would the Empire not test the Death Star on an uninhabited moon?" Sabine asks.

"Since when has the Empire cared about civilian life? Or casualties? At all!" Her mother responds, sounding frustrated. "All this damn food gone to waste…"

Her husband winces. "I'm sorry Bo, but we might only have minutes!"

"Minutes?!" I blurt out as Sabine jumps.

"I don't know how far that planet is from us Sabine. C'mon, we're leaving now." He explains, then starts to the door, leaving Sabine and I looking at each other.

_She doesn't even have her armor. I grabbed my lightsaber out of habit more than anything. We've been civilians for months!_

"SABINE!" Mrs. Wren yells at us, causing Sabine to jump then rush to the door as I'm hot on her heels. Once we come into view, Mr. Wren opens the door. "C'mon, we're leaving."

I step outside after Sabine only for the neighbors to be standing outside.

_That's really weird._

"Hey Carid, did your holo just get cut off?" A man calls out.

Mr. Wren nods while subtly pushing us forward. "Yeah! Did yours?"

"Yeah! Weird! Something must have tripped downtown!"

"Something!" Mr. Wren replies before turning away, ushering us forward with his quick pace.

_I don't like this. At all._

I let out a breath I've been unconsciously holding and probe out into the Force, only to feel a very slight edge to it, otherwise it's serene.

_Oh that's not good._

"What are you feeling?" Sabine asks me, causing everyone to look at me.

I sigh as Mrs. Wren clicks a button and the gate swings open. "An edge, that's really it."

"An edge?" Sabine repeats, and I nod.

"Nothing else to it."

"Let's worry about that when we get to the spaceport." Mr. Wren says evenly, stepping around me and picking up the pace even further.

After turning out of the neighborhood, we're greeting with the extremely odd sight of people out in the street, taking to each other in small groups.

"—comms, holo, all are out!

"So weird, usually if there is a service interruption we get a warning…"

"I swear, I've had enough of their terrible service. The moment this ends I'm demanding a refund on my last bill…"

_They won't be able to help you. This is the Empire. What scares me is how they got to us so fast, within a half hour of zapping Jedha, we're silenced._

Oh I don't like this…

Mr. Wren leads us ahead without looking back, Sophie on his shoulder while trying not to cry.

_She's gotta be so scared._

"Carid, its Fenn." Mrs. Wren says simply, causing us all to turn and see _Mand'alor_ walking right towards us.

_Mand'alor_ wastes no time with greetings. "It's not us. As far as my people can tell, it's the HoloNet. Why are you out?"

"It's worse than that. Look, unless we can get to a safe place, we're going to the spaceport." Mr. Wren tells him, leaving little room for discussion.

"Why the spaceport? Everything is grounded. We have no navigation. Everything is down." _Mand'alor _ reveals.

"We need to get the kids to _Tokrush_ Fenn. Now." Mrs. Wren tells him firmly.

_Mand'alor_ counters hotly while trying to keep his voice down. "Why? What do you know? I can get you on my personal shuttle, but_ I need to know what's going on._"

Mr. Wren sighs. "Call your guard, we'll need a bubble to discuss this in."

_Mand'alor_ makes a simple gesture, then barks out a few quick words before we're surrounded by armed Mandalorians.

"The Empire's weapon. The one Sabine and Ezra have been chasing for years now, the one I told you about. The Death Star. They used it." Mr. Wren gets right into it as we start towards the spaceport.

"Used it? Where? On what? That's why everything's down?"

"Complete blackout so that word cannot get out of that system." Mrs. Wren tells him.

_Mand'alor_ asks "How bad is it? The size estimates you showed me of that weapon are obscene."

"It's worse than that. We saw what happened just before the Holo was cut. It caused an eclipse on Jedha before the primary weapon blew the city into the atmosphere."

_Mand'alor_ stops in his tracks and just looks at Carid for a moment. "That city was a repository of Jedi history and information. Now all that's lost."

_Jedi history? I've never heard of this place before. Why have I never been there?!_

"It doesn't matter now. We spoke to Ahsoka, and they ordered Sabine and Ezra to their house. This could get really bad."

"We might be next. We have openly rebelled…Okay. I'll start subtly start telling people to return to their homes." _Mand'alor_ mutters. "Little help that will be, but we won't have panic."

Mrs. Wren jumps in. "Fenn, all due respect, but you probably should leave too. Get somewhere safe if this does turn for the worst."

"No." He shakes his head violently. "I go down with my people. Are you and Carid going to _Tokrush?_"

Mr. Wren shakes his head. "I can do more here."

_NO!_

"Dad!" Sabine starts, before her father raises his hand, silencing her.

"This isn't up for debate. Fenn, where is your ship?"

_Mand'alor_ simply starts off at a jog and points into a hanger. "Here. I'll tell the pilot where you're going."

"Go." Mrs. Wren urges us all forward as _Mand'alor _runs up to the cockpit and begins speaking to the pilot.

By the time we're walking next to the cabin, the engines fire up.

"Go. We'll comm as soon as we can." Mr. Wren deposits Sophie on her feet, causing Sof to hug him.

"Daddy…" She sobs, as Sabine look to her mother just before she hugs both Sabine and I.

"May the gods be with you two. Be safe." Mrs. Wren says, then swallows a lump in her throat.

Sabine gasps out a breath. "Mom…"

"It'll be okay Sabine. Get onboard." She smiles weakly, just before she crouches down and hugs Sophie.

Sabine turns to her father, who hugs her. "Be careful _ad'ika_."

_Oh man. This…can't be the end? It just can't be._

_This day has turned worse than any day…almost ever._

Numbly, I walk onboard and grab onto the rigging, followed by Sophie, who hops into a seat and buckles herself in. Sabine is the last one to board as Mr. Wren grabs the door.

"We need to get to—" "SLAM!" The door shuts followed by Mr. Wren's muffled voice. "Mandal, we can start coordinating..."

The rumble of the engines overtakes the conversation before the ship begins to rise into the air.

_(30 Hours later)_

I pour myself another drink, set the bottle down then lean onto the counter before the sound of Sabine walking out of the basement floats up.

_We were watching a holofilm before Sof fell asleep. I thought I might fall asleep, but no luck._

I probe thru the Force just before Sabine wraps her arms around me. "She's in bed."

"Good." I say quietly, feeling nothing thru the Force.

_I just had a light tremor, a much tamer version of what happened on Mandalore about an hour ago. I just hope it's not the Death Star again._

A terrible accident, I can deal with. But not mass civilian causalities, brutally murdered in a "Mining Disaster".

That's the joke of an excuse, a cover that the Empire came up with. A damned "Mining Disaster". The holos were dark for four hours before they automatically turned on to the Vice Chair of the Senate, Mas Amedda who "regretted to inform us" that the city of Jedha, home to 11.3 MILLION people was no more.

_Lost in a mining disaster…_

"Any word on what you felt?" Sabine asks me quietly before I hear Sabine pull open the freezer to start pouring a drink for herself.

I shake my head. "No. At least the holo hasn't gone dark this time. I commed ahead to your parents, and to Yavin, informing them. Nothing had come thru since."

_Usually radio silence would worry me, but that's been the protocol since we heard from Sabine's parents. They spoke to Ahsoka, Kanan, Lux, everyone and said that we're supposed to be essentially nonexistent. As few comms out as possible, for emergencies only._

_Act normal, treat every day like it's normal._

I don't know how I'm supposed to work here in two days. I'm a wreck right now.

_The Jedha footage is sitting dormant as far as I know right now, not being sent out. Nobody seems to know anything._

Sabine kept track of the underground holo, which was a lot quieter than normal today. Usually all of our cells, pirates, everyone is chit chatting away.

_Not today._

_Talk of cover ups, fear of being listened to and watched, super weapons and doomsdays were everywhere. Not many conversations lasted more than five minutes._

I hear Sabine pour her _narcolethe_, then her soda, take a sip and let out a heavy sigh. "I can't believe I didn't think of this."

"Huh?" I blurt out, then turn to her.

"This. Of course they were going to zap some poor planet with the Death Star. It makes sense? What's the use of a weapon you never use? Plus your dream, vision…" She trails off.

"I don't know if that's true." I say quietly. "I've been tricked before."

Sabine nods, then sets her drink aside. "I looked at your note again. It's all fitting. Plus we're here."

_Yeah…it is all fitting together. That's the problem._

"I wish I could alert Alderaan without sending everyone into a panic." I whisper, then run my hand thru my hair.

Sabine walks right up to me and wraps me in an embrace. "Maybe we should, even if they do panic."

_Maybe._

Sabine looks up at me briefly, then walks away and into the office before…

"Why'd you grab that?" I ask nervously.

_She grabbed the Vader helmet. We put it in the office as a display._

Sabine shrugs then answers while setting the helmet on the kitchen counter in front of me. "He has something to do with this."

_It scares me that the neck of the helmet is molded and stiff enough that it can just sit there, like Vader's head's in there. Just beyond the red lenses are his eyes._

"_My eyes truly are everywhere."_

"Not even he can kill millions in an instant." I mutter, then bite the inside of my lip. "His body count can't even be a million."

_Just one million. One frackking million people._

The holo suddenly light up blue before the symbol of an incoming message appears and Sabine and I race to the holo.

"Who is…it?" Sabine asks me.

_Tantive IV. Never heard of it._

A message appears just before Sabine starts reading it. "Not sure if this will get past Vader. Being pursued thru hyperspace from Battle over Scarif. Headed to Tatooine to find an "Obi-Wan Kenobi". Save these clips and forward to the Empire. We cannot allow them to get away with this level of slaughter. –L"

_L._

_Leia._

"Being chased by Vader?" I say in a whisper.

"To Tatooine? Battle over Scarif?" Sabine asks, then turns to me.

_WHAT IS GOING ON?!_

Two clips display, showing that they've downloaded into our holo. Out of habit, I start the first one before the holo begins firing up in earnest.

_WHOA!_

Sabine gasps as the holo starts showing a massive, chaotic space battle unfolding over a watery planet with a shield gate on the lower half of the screen.

"Where's that Hammerhead Corvette?" A Mon Calamari man asks urgently.

_Admiral Raddus is there…That means more than likely Hera's there too._

I swallow nervously before someone replies "In position, acting now."

The scene swivels to the left, where a Imperial Star Destroyer is just…sitting there with another one below it, taking pot shots at Rebellion craft.

_Oh this is bad._

Out of nowhere, the inert Star Destroyer jolts, then starts dipping down toward the other Star Destroyer. "They're gonna collide if that Star Destroyer doesn't do something quick!" Sabine calls out.

The Star Destroyer continues dipping down just as I see a massive burst of flames coming from the far side of the dipping Star Destroyer.

"That's a Hammerhead Corvette! It's pushing—"

"SCRECCCHHHH!" Metal shearing metal is followed by a roar of cheers on Raddus' ship and…

"_Haran osik!"_ Sabine exclaims in disbelief as the Star Destroyer just _shears_ the top off the other one effortlessly before both begins diving toward the planetary gate.

_This is UNBELIEVABLE. Un. Believe. Able._

I look over to Sabine, hands on my head as Sabine is frozen in cheerful shock before the holo shows both Star Destroyers wrecking the planetary gate.

"Sir! We're receiving a transmission from the surface!"

"Shields at 25%!"

_They're not out of this yet!_

"All ships, prepare for the jump to hyperspace!" Raddus commands. Right away, ships begin positioning themselves, then jumping before a Star Destroyer—

"WHACK!" "BA—BOOM!"

Three craft jump into evasive maneuvers as a troop carrier crashes right into the Star Destroyer that absolutely threaded the needle.

_The precision you need to jump into hyperspace, right THERE…in the middle of a battle is off the charts._

"Relay it down to Princess Leia and the Tantive IV now!" Admiral Raddus orders before the entire ship rocks and Sabine and I both gasp.

_The Death Star…just jumped out of hyperspace right on top of them._

_By the gods…it's enormous._

Its familiar façade of gray Durasteel with an array in the top hemisphere is pointed right at the ship.

_How did this get out? How did Leia survive to send us this if the ship got vaporized?_

The array suddenly lights up, all 8 tributary shafts combining to form on beam before it fired right past Raddus' ship and hits Scarif, causing a massive explosion and mushroom cloud on the surface.

_Oh…my…_

"Rogue One…may the Force be with you." Admiral Raddus proclaims, then slumps in his seat.

"All men to the airlocks! Protect the Tantive at all costs!

"I've got a single Imperial shuttle and four TIE's on the scanner!" Somebody yells, before I feel the Force tense up around me and I suddenly feel like I've been dunked in ice.

"Uh oh." I gasp, causing Sabine to glance over at me before the holo switches to the next scene, security camera footage of men scrambling everywhere.

"C'mon! Hurry!"

"0632…0458…0194 0000—download complete" a display reads before it spits of a chip.

"C'mon! Let's go!" somebody yells as another pushes his comrade forward and into a hallway.

"We've got to go now!" somebody yells as the men run into a hallway and towards a closed door. Men line up to protect the man holding a chip in his hand befo—

"WHiiiiirrrr…" The hallway goes dark just as the door cracks open. Instantly, multiple men attempt to pull it open manually.

"It's stuck!"

_That door has to weigh a ton._

"Hey!" The soldier holding the keycard starts banging on the door as soldiers run by on the other side. "HEY HELP!"

_Oh no._

The gentle blare of the "Boarding" alarm rings out thru the hallway as soldiers move to protect their position.

_Just like protocol tells them to._

"Whiiiirrr…"

The ships starts creaking ominously—

"Gssshhh…Shhh…Gssshhh…Shhh…"

Sabine claps her hands over her mouth as my breath freezes in my lungs.

_No…_

All the soldiers point their blasters at the sound.

"HUMMMMM…" The hallway is bathed in crimson, revealing the figure of Darth Vader.

_They're dead. They don't stand a chance._

"OPEN FIRE!" Somebody yells, followed by a violent flurry of bolts right at Vader, who casually waves his lightsaber up, then diagonally, blocking all the bolts while redirecting some right back into their senders, knocking them to the floor, dead.

"HELP US!" Someone screams in inhuman terror, banging on the door.

Vader simply continues blocking blaster bolts before a soldier foolishly straightens up, and Vader raises his right hand, Force Choking the man, causing him to drop his weapon and clutch his throat just before he gets pinned to the ceiling.

"It's jammed!" Somebody yells as I can't take my eyes off Vader.

Shots start missing comically wide and high as Vader methodically marches toward the door, blocking two bolts before turning his wrist and bisecting the man pinned to the ceiling as a bolt flies right at him. Vader simply _catches_ it, returns it and kills the soldier nearest to him before lowering his blade, yanking on all the remaining men's blasters and pulling them out of their hands and sending them flying past him.

Vader continues his death march, felling one soldier, two solders, three soldiers, all with heavy, one handed cleaves before grabbing another soldier and pinning him to the wall with one hand.

"Here! TAKE IT! Take it!" The Rebel holding the key card screams in a panic as he's down to the final rebel between him and Vader.

"AHHH!" He screams as Vader impales him, sticking his lightsaber thru the door, causing the new card holder to run in a panic with Vader less than five feet away before he trips over a doorway and shuts the door.

"LAUNCH!" He screams as Vader continues mowing the solider after soldier. The entire scene shakes as the camera suddenly shows what must be the Tantive IV take off, Vader steps behind it as he marches out into the hanger.

_Only to watch it leave._

…

Numbly, I turn to Sabine and see that she's got tears running down her cheeks. "Those…those men…" She chokes out before reaching for me.

_They never stood a chance. Vader slaughtered them._

I pull Sabine into a tight hug, her face in my chest as she breaks down, crying. "They never had a chance…"

_I could have helped._

"No Ahsoka." I try to turn it positive. "No Kanan. They're okay. They're alive."

Sabine replies "Do we know that?"

"They would have thrown themselves in front of Vader to save those men." I reassure her firmly.

"We have to do something Ezra…they can't stop him. You can."

_Yeah. But I'm ordered to stay here._

I nod, then hang my head. "I know. I'm ready to face him again." Sabine simply curls closer to me, shaking.

"They didn't stand a chance…and Vader just slaughtered them." She whispers, before I turn to the holo.

_Better send those clips along. And we know where Vader's going. They can send help to Leia there._

I can't believe she's going to Tatooine.

_Vader's going to find Luke._

_(Four days later)_

I grab my drink and walk over to the sliding glass door overlooking the path that Sof's at the end of, practicing with her bow. Out of irritation, I reach up and scratch my beard, which keeps on itching.

_Home sweet home._

There's been no word from anyone in days. Since Leia forwarded us Vader's slaughter and the Battle over Scarif.

The door clicks open behind me and I turn back to see Sof slip thru the front door, looking winded.

"Hey. How'd it go?" I call out, causing Sof to glance around then find me as I'm absent mindedly playing with my lightsaber.

Sof replies. "It's Sophie. I'm back from my training at the range. Has Sabine heard anything from Mommy and Daddy about Yavin IV?"

"It's Sophie. Back from my training at the range. Has Sabine heard anything from Mommy and Daddy about Yavin IV?" A high pitched voice that kind of sounds like Sophie said.

I force myself to let go of my lightsaber and look to the small girl with brown hair past her shoulders and a massive metal bow over her shoulder.

"I…" I start, but don't get any farther.

_I don't know._

"You okay? Bad news?" Sophie asked, happy expression slipping into a worried look.

"I…haven't heard anything." I say, then smile down at Sof.

"Oh. So she's still talking to everybody?" Sophie questions innocently, looking up at me.

I hesitate, then shrug. Sophie briefly gives me a funny look, then turns towards the kitchen. "Can I make a sandwich? I'm starving." She poked her head out at me while opening the conservator.

"Sure. Don't let me stop you." I reply. "You don't have to ask Sof, you know that. If you're hungry, grab something. This is your house too."

"Okay. Thank you." Without looking, Sof calls out while setting her bow on the counter and started digging in the conservator. "Do you want something while I'm in here Ezra?"

"Sure, I'll have a slice of cheese I guess." I say nervously.

_I'm not really hungry._

Sophie's head pops right up, looking even more confused than before. "A slice of cheese?!" She asked, sounding incredulous.

"Yeah?" I reply

"Are you feeling okay? Did the Force tell you something?" She peppers me with another question.

I shake my head reflexively and probe out with the Force.

_Very…calm. Peaceful._

"Nothing. I—" I begin, before a door behind me opens. I turn around in time to see Sabine appear from behind a door, then shut it behind her.

"Okay, I'm off the Holo. Hey Sof, you're back." Sabine beamed at me, then Sophie.

"Yup. I'm getting a snack. Ezra asked for a slice of cheese." Sophie says, looking amused an giggling at me.

Sabine smiled at me, then rubbed the bottom of my chin with the top of her hand. "How'd you shoot kiddo? Get me a slice of piameinta and bread while you're digging please." Sabine said, marching past us both and towards the dinner table past the conservator.

"I missed 33 out of 250 shots. Hit all the stationary ones." Sophie replied immediately.

"That's not good enough Sof. Come on now."

Sophie hung her head in the conservator. "I know…"

"Nobody's going to be standing still if you're actually going to fight. You need to be over 90% on MOVING targets."

Sophie simply nodded.

_217 hits and 33 misses is great! Over 90%!_

"That's still pretty good Sof." I smile encouragingly at Sophie as she is submerged in the conservator.

"I hit like half of them. But not enough." Sophie said simply, emerging from the conservator with an armful of sandwich materials.

"Maybe the disks can help you." Sabine said, then looked to me.

"It's moving too fast too accurately be a person though. Daddy said so." Sophie replies, setting her stuff down then throwing a wrapped piece of cheese at me. I clumsily catch it then look up to see Sabine easily catch her snack.

"But it is a moving target. Droids?" Sabine asked me.

"What about those moving targets Rex and Echo practiced with us on Onderon?" I reply, idea popping into my head.

"Oh gosh I remember that. What was that? 5 years ago?" She asked me.

_Four and a half._

"Was this when you all had to run from that Inquisitor before you killed him?" Sophie turned to me.

I nod, then look back to Sabine. "Maybe…I'll also ask Daddy to program some droids for you to shoot at when he and Mom come up tomorrow."

"They're coming?" Sophie beamed and jumped in the air.

"Yup." Sabine smiled, then taking a bite out of her mini sandwich.

Nervously, I take a bite out of my cheese and glance outside while probing into the Force again.

_So tranquil._

"What happened with Yavin? Did everything end up okay? Where are the plans to that Death thing?" Sophie asked her sister.

I pivot back to look at Sabine, who is smiling at us. "Yeah, they blew it up."

"WHAT!?" Sophie and I both yell at the same time.

"Yeah, the strike team they sent right before Yavin went out of radio contact found the weakness from the stolen plans and used it to blew the whole thing up!" Sabine smiled happily.

_THEY BLEW IT UP._

_That was the last major shockwave I felt yesterday. I felt Alderaan, then just after that, another one._

Alderaan nearly made me faint. I was walking out on the deck, and my legs just went out from under me. Thankfully, I caught myself and didn't go down heavily.

_The Empire did the exact same thing they did after Jedha after Alderaan, but this time claimed that the planet exploded after a failed superlaser weapons test, incinerating the planet._

"So what now? Senator Organa's father is dead after Alderaan blew up. What do we do now?" I ask Sabine nervously.

_I feel lost._

"Mom and Dad are coming to pick us up and are going to take us to Yavin IV, where the Princess and the Rebellion is holding a special ceremony for the pilots that blew it up. After that…I don't know."

"Have any other planets done anything about Alderaan?" I ask Sabine.

Sabine smiled. "Yeah. Dad said _Mand'alor_ told him that multiple planets are coming to him and asking to join us. It's about to be civil war soon."

"Civil War?" Sophie's eyes bulged, mouth full.

_Oh no._

Sabine sadly nods as I instinctively reach down for my lightsaber.

…

_I'm going to need this soon to protect Sabine and Sophie. _

_They may already know about the base on Yavin IV. Sounds like they launched an assault from there on the Death Star._

_How in the world did they WIN?!_

I glance up and see Sabine steal a sip from Sophie's bottle she set beside her sandwich. Sophie giggled, then snatched back her drink. "Hey! It's mine!"

"Not anymore. Share." Sabine gently scolds Sophie who complies. I laugh quietly, then move to take a bite of my cheese.

"Sof, I'll be right back. I need to talk to Ezra for just a second."

I glance up, trying to obscure my concern as Sabine waves me toward the office before I walk in and Sabine closes the door behind me.

_She never does this. Sophie's always kept in the loop for the most part._

"Leia submitted what happened after everyone lost contact with her." Sabine wastes no time getting into thing.

I nod. "Okay."

"She got captured over Tatooine. Taken to the Death Star before Vader and Tarkin tortured her for the location of the Yavin base, and whatever they stole on Scarif. They stole the Death Star plans Ezra. That's what was on that chip."

_WHAT?!_

"Really?" I ask, causing Sabine to nod then smile.

"Leia wrote in the report that she got rescued by a smuggler named Han Solo and a boy named Luke Skywalker…"

"No…" I breathe out.

_No…_

_Secret's out._

Sabine nods and continues. "They tried getting to Alderaan, only to find it destroyed and got caught up by the Death Star's tractor beam. Then…"

She suddenly stops, and tears well up on her bottom lip.

"What Sabine?"

"Masterrr…Ben Kenobi, also know as Obi-Wan Kenobi…fought Vader anddd…"

_Oh no._

"They all saw Vader get him. Slash to the neck Ezra…" Sabine says shakily, blinking back tears. "But he's the one that cut off the tractor beam so they could escape. He bought them time. Leia have Solo, the smuggler the Yavin base location, they quickly threw together an attack that would hit the weakness in the Death Star, an unaccounted for exhaust port."

"Ezra…Luke took the shot that took it down."

_WHAT?!_

"Seriously?" I ask her, not quite buying it.

_Last time I saw him he was just a kid!_

Sabine nods, a smile slowly creeping on her face. "Hera says she saw him in the madness after he landed. Ahsoka could barely take a look at him before walking back to her quarters. She said that he looks the spitting image of Anakin."

_He is. He really is._

"After the ceremony tomorrow, Kanan and Ahsoka want us there. We, well, you guys are going to offer to train Luke."

_The moment of truth._

I smile, then grab Sabine's hands. "Sounds like a plan to me."

"Oh Ezra…" Sabine collapses into my arms, looking exhausted. "This is too much."

"We won though." I smile at her before my eyes fall on Vader's helmet, back in its normal position.

_He finally got Kenobi._

"Vader wasn't on the Death Star by chance was he?" I ask, hoping silently.

_Can I get lucky for once?_

Sabine shakes her head. "No, he was chasing Luke just before he got the shot off. Tarkin was though. Almost all the Imperial Navy's Joint Chiefs went down with the Death Star."

"Whoa." I whisper.

"Yeah." Sabine smiles weakly. "They're as vulnerable as they've ever been. And the Death Star attacking Alderaan showed their true face to the galaxy."

_Word was getting out about the truth of what happened on Alderaan._

"Is Alderaan getting out?" I ask, before Sabine nods.

"The Empire is still peddling their story of it being their weapon, and their fault. But a relay satellite caught everything, and was forwarded to the Ring of Kafrene, who forwarded it along, who forwarded it along to Ramordia, who sent it to Yavin, who started blasting that footage, plus the Scarif clip, plus the Jedha clip."

_The secret's out._

"Nobody's buying what the Emperor is selling.," Sabine says firmly. "Nobody. And the fact that the Senate is now gone and everything is ruled by Regional Governors makes the Empire suddenly look like a regime, not a democracy."

"Which it is." I say simply.

_It's always been a ruthless regime, just wrapped up in the fabric of the Republic._

Sabine sighs, then gives me one final squeeze before letting go. "I'm going to pack Sof some clothes. Mom and Dad should be here in a few hours."

"We probably need to pack for a trip. We might have a mission." I tell her, prompting her to nod in response.

"I hope so. Hopefully to go get Vader."

_Hopefully._

(A/N: My faithful and loyal readers the final chapterof Flaming Rebellion is coming Monday. You won't want to miss this. Thank you for reading.)


	134. Think Thru The Fight

The music continues to play as the smuggler, Solo and Luke along with the Wookie walk out of the atrium. A few moments later, the entourage on the dais follows, quickly shadowed with the first row on either side.

_And now we've just got to wait for the crowd to get to us._

Self-consciously, I glance to my left, past Sabine to where Sophie and her parents are before glancing forward and seeing the progress people have made toward the doors.

_They're supposed to gather their things and evacuate the premises and quickly and cleanly as possible. The Death Star was going to destroy the moon before Luke fired those Proton Torpedoes, so we know they know we're here._

A jolt from the Force pulls me out of my reverie, and I see that it's our turn to go. Following the rest of the crowd's example, I step into the walkway and lead the Wren's thru the large wooden doors before stepping off to the side.

Sabine slows her steps to stay with me, and before long her parents have joined us. "I'll be right back. I'll meet you at the Strategy Center." I smile at them, then watch Sabine's parents nod in understanding.

"Okay, sounds good. We'll find Prime and make sure they know the plan." Sabine smiles at me before pulling Sophie toward her, and for Sof to wave meekly.

I return the wave before splitting off from the Wren's and down a dark hallway before I turn and see the makeshift memorial. Humbly, I bow my head before letting off my tension into the Force before walking up to the plaque.

_Cassian Andor_

_Arro Basteren_

_Yosh Calfor_

_Eskro Casrich_

_Jyn Erso_

_Chirrut Îmwe_

_K-2SO_

_Farsin Kappehl_

_Baze Malbus_

_Jav Mefran_

_Ruescott Melshi_

_Paodok'Draba'Takat "Pao"_

_Bodhi Rook_

_Serchill Rostok_

_Taidu Sefla_

_Stordan Tonc_

_All the individuals listed above selflessly, humbly and bravely undertook a mission nobody asked them to, and sacrificed their lives in doing so. Their sacrifice is not in vain, their actions will propel this Alliance forward in its goal of overthrowing the Galactic Empire, and they will never be forgotten._

Absolutely.

Erso and Andor I know. K-2SO must be Andor's droid.

_I don't know the rest of them. I know somebody had the people that Jyn picked up in Jedha City before it got blown to bits write down a little about themselves, their beliefs, etc. Two of them were members of an organization called the "Guardian of the Whills"_

_I'll have to research that further when I get back to Mandalore using Mand'alor's archives._

My comm crackles to life, and I quickly slip my earpiece in just as I hear Prime's voice.

"Ezra? Come in."

"I'm here." I reply.

"Good, these damn walls are so old and thick that I was nervous about comms getting thru."

I smile, then nod while turning away from the makeshift memorial made up of flowers, candles, helmets mounted on blasters and other mementos. "I've got you loud and clear."

"If you don't mind me getting right into it, what's the plan? We're all outside the Main Temple." Prime asks me, tension slowly creeping into his voice.

"For right now, split up individually and scatter yourselves around the complex. If the Empire comes while we're here, I want to be able to trap them." I explain.

Prime is silent for a moment, then succinctly replies "So let the Rebels that remain attack the invading force, then mop up behind them?"

"Exactly. Make sure the positions you take are strategic ones that you can defend yourselves as well." I answer.

"Just like old times." Prime laughs.

"So much better than sitting on Mandalore fiddling while the Empire blows away planets." I add, getting a dark laugh out of him.

"That reminds me." He speaks up. "The Empire's claiming the Death Star's destruction was by rebellious insurgents who must be hunted down and destroyed. They're not saying that it was a weapon too."

"Are people buying it?" I ask.

"No, not at all. Things are too clean for people, which is funny because everything is a mess right now. The footage of the Death Star exploding is currently circulating the underground HoloNet."

_Thanks to cells like Ramordia._

I nod, then smile. "Sounds good to me Prime. Comm when you're in position."

"Will do." He replies, then the comm goes quiet.

_Ahsoka has probably already contacted Leia thru Mon Mothma and told her to meet her at the strategy center with Luke and the smuggler. We want to say thank you personally, plus…_

_Make our move with Luke._

_We'll probably also ask the smuggler to stay on as well, seeing as how his ship was the one that got tailed all the way back here. They'll be looking for that ship now as well._

I swallow a lump in my throat, bow once more in respect to the memorial to Rogue One, then walk over to a lift and hit a button for the top floor.

_I don't want to know how long it took them to put a modern lift in an ancient temple. They didn't bother on Dxun._

The lift rises upward as I fiddle with my lightsaber before it comes to a stop and I step out to the sight of Kanan, Hera, Lux, Ahsoka, Zeb, Chopper and Sophie, Rex, Echo, Sabine and her parents all talking amongst themselves.

"Ezra…" Hera is the first to see me, then hustles forward and pulls me into a tight hug. "Oh it's so good to see you…"

I smile and hug Hera back before letting go. "Were you at the Death Star fight?"

"No." She shakes her head. "But I was at Scarif. Rex, Kanan, Chopper and I. It…"

"Was equal to some of the worst battles of the Clone Wars. And that is without that infernal Death Star." Rex comments. "And I don't say that lightly."

Hera lets out a heavy breath. "It was even bigger than you think in person. When it came out of hyperspace, the wave nearly knocked the _Ghost_ into a cruiser."

"The beam was accurate too. It split the primary tower of the Imperial Installation in half." Kanan reveals, to nobody else's surprise.

_IN HALF?! You don't need to be that precise! It was powerful enough that you could just point it anywhere almost I'm sure!_

"Glad it's gone. It's done enough damage." I say quietly.

_I'd never thought that something Mom helped build would kill 2.1 Billion people._

"Let's brighten the mood. Luke's coming." Lux smiles brightly, as Ahsoka looks nervous.

"Yup." She says simply.

_She's nervous about this. It's her master's son._

"He's the spitting image of Anakin." Echo shakes his head.

Mrs. Wren turns to Echo. "Really?"

"You'll see it." Echo nods as I probe out, then turn behind me.

_They're here._

I hear Kanan rise out of his seat just before na aggressive, loud male voice sounds out thru the lift door. "—just want my credits, then I'll be out of your hair _your highness_ and can go back to my life."

"As I've said, for the _fourth_ time, you cannot do that! The Empire is going to have a Death Mark so high on your head that whoever gets it will be able to instantly retire." Leia snaps back as the lift door opens. "You can't leave, at least not yet."

Luke takes two steps inside the room, then comes to a dead stop. "Whoa."

"Whoa what ki…" The smuggler askes before seeing everyone in front of he, Leia and Luke.

"We need to talk." Ahsoka smiles warmly. "It's good to see you Luke."

"Luke?" The smuggler asks, looking shocked then turns to him. "You know these people?"

Luke nods. "Only three. Ahsoka, the tall guy with the beard, named Ezra and the blue haired girl. She's Sabine."

I can't help but grin. "Wait, you've seen them before?" Leia asks, jolting me out of my happiness.

"Yes." Ahsoka steps forward. "Thru Master Kenobi and your father Leia."

"We…" Lux suddenly says in a somber tone. "We're very sorry for your loss."

Leia blinks quickly a few times before Sof fearlessly walks past Ahsoka and I, right to Leia and extends her arms for a hug. "I'm really sorry…"

"Thank you…" Leia says stuffily, then sniffles as she picks Sophie up and hugs her. "Really, thanks."

Sophie gives her a warm, loving smile before answering "You're welcome."

"Luke, Han, this is Sophie." Leia introduces her while setting her back on her feet. "She's Sabine's sister."

Sof completely ignores Han and turns to Luke. "Hi! I'm Sophie."

"Hi Sophie." Luke crouches down and smiles.

"You were in contact with Master Kenobi?" Leia asks Ahsoka, voice still shaky. Ahsoka nods before Leia jumps back in. "Well why was I never told?! We could have played the end of the Battle of Scarif completely differently!"

"Your father asked us not to. In an effort to protect you, and Luke." Lux backs Ahsoka up.

_Ahsoka still doesn't have her A game. This is a little bit too much for her._

"Luke? Why Luke?" Han asks brashly.

"Because Luke is the son of a Jedi named Anakin Skywalker." Rex says firmly.

_Ahsoka must have told him. Good. We need Rex._

Leia's eyes drop down. "My father told me stories about him. He was your Master Ahsoka."

"What?" Luke blurts out.

_Huh?_

"Yes." Ahsoka smiles. "That's why I went to meet you, all those years ago. I had to see my Master's son with my own eyes. Master Obi-Wan thought it would be a good idea."

"So your supply plan…" Luke trails off.

"Was a ruse so we could keep in touch."

Luke's eyes snap onto Sabine and I. "And you sent them? Did they know?"

"Yes." I jump in, making sure to leave no doubt in my voice. "Everyone in here knows."

Luke, however gives me a filthy look before turning back to Ahsoka, who asks "It's true? About him and Vader?"

"Yes. It was weird… he did this—"

_WHOA!_

I jump forward, then stop myself as Sabine, Lux, Rex, echo, Kanan, Ahsoka and Mrs. Wren all freak out."—lift his blade thing and just let Vader kill him. But he bought us time, which I guess he knew." Luke finishes solemnly while lowering his father's lightsaber.

Ahsoka blankly nods while pulling one of her lightsabers off her belt and extending it to Luke. "Can…I see that?"

"See what? It's just another one of those laser swords." Han says dismissively.

"No." Ahsoka shakes her head.

"It was my father's." Luke backs Ahsoka up, then smiles. "You recognized it."

Ahsoka lets out a shaky laugh. "I've seen that lightsaber more times than…I don't know. How'd you get it?"

"Ben did. Ben Kenobi. I guess you called him Obi-Wan." Luke smiles, then takes Ahsoka's lightsaber and hands his to Ahsoka.

_It looks just like his…_

"Yup." Ahsoka smiles widely, before taking a step back and—

"Hummm…"

_Wow. Just when I think things can't get any more unbelievable. Luke comes in holding Anakin's lightsaber._

I can't help myself as I walk to Ahsoka to get a closer look. "That's it?"

"Yup. It's Anakin's lightsaber."

"Ben said that he wanted me to have it when I became old enough." Luke smiles.

_Uhhh…yeah. Sure._

_He must have no idea what the truth is about his father._

Ahsoka deactivates the lightsaber, then gives it back to Luke, who completes the swap. "Thank you Luke."

"This is great and all, and it as very nice to meet you all, but I really do need to get going. Chewy should have the Falcon all se—" Han waves flippantly at everyone and takes a step to the door before I step around, then in front of him.

"You can't leave." I say politely. "Leia's right."

"Don't worry about me. Worry about your hair, flyboy." Han scowls, then moves past me.

_WHAT?!_

I block his escape. "Still can't leave. You have to come with us."

"Like hell I do!" Han fires back. "Look, I'm sorry your mystical Space Wizard friend is dead. I'm sorry Luke's father is too. It's a real shame. But I just got hired to fly them to Alderaan, which got us all in this wonderful mess. I don't believe in all that mumbo jumbo anyway! Now move before I knock some sense into you."

_Okay, I've had enough._

Irritated, I pull my lightsaber to my hand as I extend it over Han's head. He moves to punch me before I activate it with a flourish and hit the floor between us. "You're found the line!" I raise my voice.

Han freezes up, only moving his eyes to look at the mark on the floor between us, and to my lightsaber.

"Don't push him, he's had a really, really bad week." Sabine chimes in helpfully, walking up.

"Oh really? Join the club." Han spouts off before properly seeing Sabine and changing his tone. "Oh, my apologies. Han." He extends his hand.

Sabine replies by leveling her blaster with his forehead and letting it rest there. "I'm married. To him. Drop it. You're not nearly as important as you think you are."

"Really, you're a loose end." I say, still aggravated.

_This guy's a real blowhard._

Luke steps forward, arms extended in an effort to keep the peace. "Hey…he's with me." He says before squaring me and my lightsaber up. "You too?"

"Yeah." I answer him honestly. "We were just getting to this part before Han jumped in."

"What part?" Leia asks.

_Here we go…_

Lux is the first to step forward. "Leia, your father, Bail, had a plan for Luke. See, Ahsoka, Ezra and Kanan back there are all Jedi. Ahsoka and Kanan trained him, and they all want to help train you."

"We were planning on having Master Kenobi help us, but we can do it without him." Ahsoka says firmly. "Luke, we need to train you to become a Jedi like your father."

_Alright, that's settled._

Luke looks down at the floor, then shakes his head. "No. I don't want to do it."

_What?_

The Force almost hits me head on as I feel Ahsoka freeze up.

_WHAT DO YOU MEAN NO?!_

"You have to." Kanan jumps in. "It's your responsibility Luke. I'm sorry but this isn't a choice."

"I felt you from up above Tatooine when we first came to see you." I tell Luke. "If I can feel you, the Empire will be able to as well. You need to learn to protect yourself."

Luke shakes his head. "Look…I'm sorry. But there's bigger priorities right now, like defeating the Empire. I can't honestly put all that aside to train to become a Jedi right now. I've got to help beat the Empire! I'll do it afterward, okay?"

_What?!_

"I…" I sputter out, then look to Ahsoka, who looks like Luke just broke her heart. Behind her, Rex and Echo are looking on in disbelief.

"I know you've got a plan, but things have changed. Maybe if Ben was still alive, I'd do it. But I can't! I just can't." Luke says firmly, ending the discussion.

_How's he…going to defeat Vader if he never learns how to become a Jedi?!_

This cannot be happening.

Leia looks from Ahsoka, to Sabine, then to me before gesturing to Luke and Han. "Look, we can maybe discuss this later when emotions aren't so pent up. We need to evacuate to one of the rendezvous points."

"Princess, we've been thru this. I ain't doing it!" Han spouts off at her.

In a flash, Rex is past all of us and has grabbed Han by the collar and slammed him against the wall. "Listen! This is a war! You're in a war now, regardless of what illegal behavior you were wrapped up in before. So start acting like it."

"How'd you know about my little issue with Jabba?" Han asks Rex, looking very surprised.

Sabine blurts out "Jabba? The Hutt?"

_Oh great, we've now got a compromised asset that's on the wrong side of a Hutt. Wonderful!_

"Yeah, Jabba the Hutt." Han frowns at Sabine.

Rex keeps his eyes on Han. "You've got crook written all over you."

Han quickly goes red. "Not quite crook, I just deal in the gray areas."

_Deal. Spice? Stims?_

"Look, this Rebellion doesn't care who you were. It's who you are now, and if you're willing to take a stand against the Empire or not." Leia cuts in and raises her voice to dra everyone's attention. "Regardless, you cannot leave. You know Luke's identity, which is enough to get him killed. You know this base, you know me. You're too important. And we could always use a fast ship."

"So, now I'm important huh?" Han smirks devilishly before the Force ripples with Ahsoka, Sabine's parents, Hera and Sabine's annoyance at Han.

_This guy…_

Leia doesn't give an inch. "Focus. We're going to need to evacuate here pretty soon so the Empire doesn't come and try to level us. You want some more credits? Maybe even a steady set of jobs? Fly for us."

"I want to get paid for my work here too." Han bargains.

"You will…" Leia rolls her eyes. "Now go back down to the hangars and make sure your ship is prepped for three, at least."

Hera steps forward "You flying with him?"

"Yes." Leia nods. "He'll need to know where to go."

"Alrighty then. Isn't this simpler?" Han asks, taking a step to the lift before—

"WAOOOOH!"

_That's…the invasion alarm. We're too late._

The room is suddenly filled with oscillating red lights from the alarms, pulled by the forward scouts. "WAOOOOH! WAOOOOH!"

"You've got to go." Hera jumps forward, ordering Leia, Luke and Han. "Now. They want you, you're getting out now." Hera continues barking out orders to people as I creep past everyone and to the window.

_Let's see what we're dealing with…Karabast._

"_Haar'chak._" I mutter to myself as Sabine appears at my side, looks up and sees the Executor blocking out a portion of the sky.

"It's Vader." Sabine calls out as my mind starts going in circles.

"GO!" Kanan shoves Luke, who seems to be in shock. "Get out of here!"

_I can hold him off. Ahsoka's not on her A game right now, and Kanan is a bad matchup. I've got my guys in position and ready to go already._

"Same plan." I hit my comm and tell Prime, trusting that he'll rely the message to everyone else before turning back to see the Wren's, Hera and Zeb talking.

Sabine looks to me. "What are you thinking?"

"Ahsoka and Kanan can make sure everyone gets to the _Ghost_. You, me, Prime, Darcy and the others engage Vader to buy time and—"

"WHIIIIIRRRRR!"

_TIE Fighters._

I turn back and call out to the room. "I'll buy time. You guys get to the _Ghost_, I'll meet you there."

"I'm coming with you." Sabine tells me.

I smile at her as the Wren's plus Lux, Zeb with Sof on his back, Rex and Echo start toward the stairs.

"What's your plan?" Ahsoka asks as he and Kanan walk up to me.

"I brought Prime and everyone with me in case this would happen." I smile.

Kanan shakes his head. "No, what about Vader?"

"I'm going to play it completely differently this time. I've had more than enough time to come up with some ideas."

_I need to make him come to me and put himself in a position where I have the upper hand. I need to constantly be looking for an opening to exploit._

"Be careful. After we get everyone to the _Ghost _we'll come help." Ahsoka tells me as Kanan nods.

"Fair enough!" Sabine ends the conversation as I glance around.

_I need to get outside without everybody and their mother noticing…If Vader's coming from the side with the window…_

I smile to myself, march to the opposite wall, plant my leg into the ground and throw a wave of energy at the wall.

_Where are you weak?_

A large crack forms in the wall on the left side, scaling three to five feet.

"Good enough." I smile while walking over then activate my lightsaber and slam the blade all the way up to the hilt.

"What are you doing?" Sabine asks skeptically. "These walls are thick?"

"Then why…?" I grunt as I feel the end of my blade break thru the exterior of the wall. "Am I thru it already?"

Sabine frowns before stepping back as the wall begins glowing from the heat of my lightsaber.

_It's a gradual process. At first my lightsaber isn't hot. But when met with resistance, it heats up really quick._

"CRACK!" The crack spreads quickly, and I take one hand off my blade to test the integrity of the wall with a push.

_OOH. We're almost…there!_

The wall suddenly gives, and I cut a decent sized hole for Sabine and I to squeeze thru before sliding outside. We're greeted with the sight of low altitude dogfights, along with multiple shuttles moving to land while being fired upon by anti-aircraft guns.

"We need to focus fire!" Sabine calls out. "It's too spread out to cover everything! X-Wings can get the TIEs!"

I counter "Comm Hera!"

_I need something to do with this rock that I just cut out._

TIEs and X-Wings continue rushing by as far above us, the battle between our limited Capital Ships and Star Destroyers rages on.

A fireball suddenly appears on the hull of a Star Destroyer, just before the Force gives me an impulsive tug, I grab my glowing slab of stone and heav it as empty air.

"Wh—" Sabine asks me before "BOOM!" a TIE flies right into my stone, causing debris to rain down to our right.

_Vader's not here yet. I don't feel his presense._

"I hate you sometimes!" Sabine yells at me before tagging a TIE Fighter with a missile and causing it to begin decending rapidly. I spin around to try and get my bearings.

_OH OSIK!_

"Sabine!" I yell in surprise, causing her to spin to me and see the TIE targeting us just before I pull her to me, focus my energy and exhale.

_I hope all my practice and this idea works!_

"POP POP POP!"

The air all around is ripples before the deadly green bolts from the TIE bounce off my Force Shield right back into the pilot's face.

"BA—BOOM!"

Sabine freezes up, expecting a fireball before peeking out past my arms. "What?!" She schrreches in disbelief. "WHAT?!"

"It's an idea I had." I smile. "I've got some tricks now.

_I need to be using the Force a lot more actively. To protect mysenf, to use my surroundings around me…_

_Nothing is impossible with the Force as my ally._

"What else do you have up your sleeve?" Sabine asks, eyes wide in disbelief. "Ezra! We should be dead!"

I smile then look back around the pyramid and see a shuttle being escorted to the ground.

_That's him._

"You'll see! That's Vader." I say ot her, then hit my comm. "Same plan, just stay paitient…"

"You sure?" Darcy answers quickly.

"This is madness!" Brie adds as Sabine and I round the corner to see that the majority of the land battle is being fought right in front of the Temple.

_They want to storm it, and we know it. That gives us the advantage._

"Yes I'm sure!" I counter. "Let's let the defenses do as much as they can before we intervene. When we intervene, they need to evacuate."

Sabine fells a TIE with her wrist rail run thing, then leaps over me to the level above me. "I don't want to be in your way."

"You're not. Let's use the vines and ivy to coamflage us." I throw out there as we approach the front side of the temple.

_That speeder is getting close…_

I focus my attention on Sabine and I then try to disguise us in the Force while we creep around.

"I don't know where you guys are, but good job hiding." Sabine comments as she looks for everyone. Meanwhile, the Temple defenses are starting to forget about the TIE'sand are inundating the Stormtroopers attempting to advance on the Temple.

"CHUNG! CA—CLUNG! CHUNG!" "BOOM!" "BOOM BOOM!"

_They don't have any walkers down yet, so it's still man on man for the most part. And they don't have the defenses to defend against an entire temple opening fire._

The scene below turns into chaos as I barely see grenades roll out from behind abandoned X-Wings before they all explode, sending men flying before I feel a chill in the air.

"He's here…" Sabine calls out, then shaking away the chills.

I slap my comm. "Vader's coming up thru the front. Just now landing."

"Good! Keep him occupied!" Ahsoka tells me. "We had to go around the side of the Temple to get to the hangars! The regular entrance was directly hit by strafing bombers!"

"Did Luke and Leia get out?" Sabine asks.

"Yes!" Ahsoka answers before cutting the comm off.

_She's clearly got her hands full._

I glance back to see burning trees but little else. "Can you check our flank?" I ask Sabine, who nods and slips away as Vader's shuttles land and Stormtroopers leap out to meet their rebellion counterparts.

_501__st__ surely._

"Uhh…this is weird!" Sabine tells me, hustling back. "There's a few random Stormtroopers back there, but nothing significant. That's it!" She gestures in front of us.

_That is weird. And all or nothing assault instead of just overwhelming force?_

"Well, they have that guy." I reply as Darth Vader finally appears out of his shuttle. "So it might just work out for them." Sabine lets out a laugh before hesitating as the 501st start marching forward.

_Wait…where are the guns?_

I glance around and see that all the anti personnel guns have stopped fired and are completely abandoned.

_Wonderful. Now those men down there have no backup._

Admirably, they dig in and give the 501st and Vader all they've got, fire coming in from all sides. Vader simply brushes the fire away like a light annoyance before throwing people bodily and creating holes where the 501st isn't.

_He…seems to be moving slow. Or maybe it's just me._

I slowly creep down towards the front of the Temple, intently watching Vader crush people.

_Yeah, that isn't his game. Did he get hurt or something at Scarif or by Obi-Wan or something? This isn't him. _

_Or at least the Vader I'm used to. _

"Ezra! The _Ghost_ is maneuvering to the left side of the Temple. Work Vader there!" Sabine says thru the comms, into my ears so my position isn't directly given away.

Vader, nor the Stormtroopers seem to notice Sabine and I as we're about twenty feet away and twenty five feet above them as soldiers begin tightening their formations to try and compensate for the Imperial strafing tactics in addition to rolling out more grenades.

"BOOM BOOM BOOM!" Multiple grenades go off, sending tens of Stormtroopers flying up and away while Vader continues marching forward as if nobody's there.

_Ridiculous._

A soldier on his knees behind Vader takes aim at some fuel cells—"WHOOSH!"

The entire left flank of the 501st is engulfed in a fireball that begins spreading to his right flank, but seems to avoid Vader out of fear of being killed itself.

_The elements even bend to this guy…_

Vader answers the Fireball by grabbing an X-Wing, lifting it and throwing it at the soldiers—

"BOOOM!"

"OH COME ON!" I hear Will yell in exasperation.

_I need to intervene quick. They're down to just a few men._

I creep down the temple face further as a lone Imperial bum rushes Vader—

_Oh no._

Vader sticks him, then makes a moment to—"WHOMP!"

_WHOA!_

Vader goes flying back due to what must be a grenade, landing heavily and motivating several soldiers to roll grenades towards Vader, who is caught under a pile of crates and debris.

"THUNK—BA-BOOOOOOMMM!"

The entire scene lights up with the fireball before the Force ripples with Vader's annoyance before he rises off a knee out of the fireball.

_NOW!_

I leap off my spot on the temple wall, let myself fall and land on my feet in front of Vader, lightsaber already in my hand. Vader hesitates slightly as the remaining Rebel soldiers look to me for orders.

"I've got him. Good job." I say curtly, not taking my eyes off Vader.

Vader takes in the Rebel soldiers fleeing as the fire from the fuel explosion continues to burn. "I thought it was you that received the transmission from the Princesses ship…" Vader begins.

"You're right on one count at least. You butchered those men." I call out to him.

"They were in the way."

"They were innocent!" I yell at him. "They stood no chance and you knew it!"

Vader counters "There are no innocents in a war…young Bridger. And this is a war of your own making."

"Steady…" I hear Darcy implore everyone in my ear.

"I don't think many people will buy that!" I tell Vader. "Footage of what you did to Alderaan, Scarif and Jedha is already racing around the Holonet!"

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…I told many arrogant Imperial officers that technological terror was too big to be of much use."

I smile. "Well congratulations, you were wrong. Billions died because of that Death Star!"

"Billions more will die in this war!" Vader roars, causing a pile of debris to quake and fall down. "If you intend to fight a war, the Empire will burn down the _galaxy_ to destroy this Rebellion."

"You'' burn down what you intend to protect? Then what will you have?" I ask him.

_Nothing._

"We will have peace." Vader answers.

"Peace? More like pieces! There will be nothing left!"

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…of you." Vader says darkly, then activates his lightsaber.

_I'm ready for this. I've trained with all the droids at their fastest speed, I've battled Straunch, Seeker, everyone I could. I've studied, I've watched my previous battles. I've practiced._

I'm ready.

I respond by activating my lightsaber in the Makashi salute, then wait for hi mto come to me.

…

_He's not coming for me._

"While we are _young_…Bridger." Vader taunts me.

"Guests first. Besides, you're older." I gibe back at him, only for the tactic to work and for him to leap out at me.

"NOW!" Sabine screams before the air is filled with blaster fire and I pivot to my left.

_Okay, so everyone has adjusted with our goal. We're all in a semicircle backing to the left, and the Ghost. Okay._

Vader dodges some fire, deflects some other before a bolt slips past his defenses and hits him in the chest and sending him staggering.

_OOH!_

I leap forward to capitalize, causing Vader to defensively swipe at my slice before I spin on my toes and cut at his midsection. Vader blocks, spins on his heels and moves to advance or Kal and Katiey.

A missile loops around me, blowing up in Vader's face before he marches forward and I slam my foot down, bringing up a substantial amount of debris and sending it at Vader.

"Ahhh!" he cries out in surprise as my idea works, pelting Vader with stones and rocks while knocking him off his feet. The position is peppered with shots and even a grenade before vader springs to his feet,sending the grenade in my direction.

_NOPE!_

Anticipating it's trajectory, I push out, connect with the grenade and send it flying before Vader chops down at me. I evade the chop and counter with a slice, which Vader locks up in return and digs in.

_Trying to get me to do the same._

I break the lock, do a semicircle with my wrists and make a two handed stab at the center of Vader's head which he ducks, leaving his chest wide open.

"WHAM!"

I plant my foot in his chest, feeling the chestplate cave and multiple buttons get pushed before hitting what must be Vader's actual chest.

_Wait…I know what to do!_

A smile pops onto my face as I concede the advantage and hit my comm. "Hey! New plan! Run Lodestone!"

_Oh I hope this works._

"Oh no…a plan." Vader says, hitting multiple buttons on his chestplate while getting to his feet. "It was obvious you didn't have one before."

_That's a lie and he knows it. He didn't know Prime, Darcy, Kal, Orir, Katiey, Brie, Mira and Aiden were lying in wait._

Feeling the others begin evacuating to the _Kom'rk_, I smirk. "Is that all you've got?"

"Not by a long shot. And you have ceded your greatest advantage." Vader tells me as I peek back.

_About ten feet until the hanger. Then I take a left._

"Sabine." I tell her just before she hesitates.

_For this to work…she's got to go._

The Force trembles with her hesitation before she follows the plan, fires up her jetpack and flies toward the _Ghost._

"That…was your last mistake." Vader coldly warns me, then slices down at me.

_Slowly._

I easily block it, slip away and fire a blaster shot at him for distraction. Vader raises his left hand and sends my shot back at me, encouraging me to dance away and beam.

_That's a move I use all the time when Sabine and I dance._

Vader takes a hard step forward as I cede my final step before the hanger and throw more debris at him in a unrelenting wave, intending to slow him down.

_We're in game theory now. If a Makashi user starts using his surroundings as a defensive maneuver, he's losing. Like Dooku throwing the silverware at Anakin on Naboo._

The Force ripples as Vader's mind works, giving me a long enough opening to spin, run away and leap onto the open _Phantom_ before slipping inside as Sophie blankly stands in front of the _Ghost_, looking around.

I slide above the ladder shaft as my heart begins thudding.

"AAAHHH!" Sophie screams in terror. "AAAHHHH!"

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…"

_COME ON!_

I hear Sophie's heavy footsteps run onto the _Ghost_, Vader right behind her.

"Bad move Sophie Wren." Vader grounds out, voice meant to intimidate.

"Choppy!" Sophie screams in terror.

"THUNK—WHIIIIRRRRRRIIIIIRRRRR!"

"WHOOOSSSSHHH!

_Did it work?_

"YEAHHHH!" Sophie screams in delight as I feel everyone rush in and the engines fire before the _Ghost_ begins to rise into the air. "WOOOOOO!"

As quick as I can, I drop down, turn and see Vader, frozen in place as the magnetized floor has frozen him with Kanan, Ahsoka, Sabine, Rex and Mrs. Wren holding him in place with their weapons.

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…"

"Gotcha." I smile at Vader, causing him to turn his head in my direction.

_The rest of him can't move._

Ahsoka is the first to crack a smile. "Great idea Ezra. A perfect plan."

"How'd you know?" Mrs. Wren asks me as Vader remains frozen, a step into the crew lounge.

I smile. "He said on Tibrin that the move that I used on Shark Bait was the same move that put him in that suit. Which means…" I say, then reactivate my lightsaber. "He lost most of this arm—" I point to his left arm. "—and both legs. He's walking on two legs, so they must be cybernetic replacements. Like my arm."

"So when he stepped far enough inside the ship…we could trap him." Rex smiles proudly while walking out of the visitor's cabin.

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…an admirable plan." Vader concedes.

I smile, then look to Sophie who looks thrilled. "Thanks. Good job selling it Sof."

"Thanks! It was scary, but it worked!" She lights up, clearly proud of herself as her father crouches down and hugs her before getting a good look at Vader.

"So this is the big, bad, Darth Vader." Zeb grins. "Beaten by a child."

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…"

_We did it. We won._

The rumble of the _Ghost's_ engines under my feet continues as Sabine takes Vader's lightsaber out of his hand.

_Please don't do anything dumb Sabine. Like—_

"Hummmm…"

_Activate…it._

"If you intend to humiliate me, you'll have to do more than display my own weapon to me." Vader says coolly.

Sabine turns her wrist as her face is lit by the crimson of Vader's blade. "I wasn't humiliating you. I'm only looking at the weapon that has murdered thousands."

"And will murder you." Vader replies, causing me to see red and snap activate my lightsaber under his head where he cannot see it.

_But he knows it's there._

"I can always change my mind. Instead of prisoner exchange, we can just dump you in space. See how long your suit lasts you in space." I spit out at him.

Kanan steps forward, grabs Vader's cape and rips it off him, revealing a large battery. "Every cyborg needs a battery."

_And there it is._

"You really think you've won?" Vader asks the room.

Ahsoka is the first to answer. "Yeah, I do. You're paralyzed in that suit. You have no limbs to combat us with. This ship will be in space soon, and you'll be even more trapped than you already are."

_Even if he got away from that magnet, we're thousands of feet in the air by now. He's stuck. Unless he wants to see if he can fly._

"I'll be back." Sabine declares, then turns around and descends down the ladder to our turret.

Mrs. Wren calling out "Sophine, stop." Causes me to spin back around and see that Sophie has tentatively approached Vader and is looking at his chestplate.

"Be careful." Kanan adds on as the room holds its breath.

Vader responds by shaking his head. "I will not hurt you. You played your part in your plan very well and showed bravery. The same cannot be said for your friends."

"They're not my friends." Sophie responds firmly. "They're my family."

"Gusshhh…Shhhh…very well. If that is what you wish." Vader answers Sof before Lux pops out of the cockpit.

"We're above the planet and about to make the jump Hera." Lux informs Hera, who turns and walks into the cockpit before the door swishes shut once again.

Ahsoka simply smiles. "See? Trapped."

"You underestimate me." Vader warns her. I answer Vader by switching hands with my lightsaber and adjusting its posi—

_WHOA!_

The magnet yanks me forward as my arm gets caught in its grip and pulls me down. Echo instinctively steps forward, only for his whole body to freeze like Vader's before Vader himself moves.

_NO!_

As I'm falling, I throw a desperate punch at Vader, only for him to catch it and spike me on my hip. Before taking two huge steps toward the turret.

"SABINE!" I yell, panicked.

_NO NO NO NOOOOO!_

Vader instead stops at the ladder, leaps up and—

"WHISSSSSSSHHHHHH!"

My mind immediately jumps to the airlock and the _Phantom _before the air vanishes from my lungs and I feel my entire body get violently pulled toward the ladder.

I dig in, grabbing onto the small doorway with my spare hand as my other one is locked down by the magnet before I hear a desperate cry and look back.

_SOPHIE!_

Sof tumbles thru the air, desperately clawing for her mother's hand before I let go of the door with my right hand, reach out and grab onto Sof with all I've got.

_NO!_

The Force surges with strength as I feel Kanan and Ahsoka both grab onto Sof and attempt to bring her in, but the vacuum of space keeps Sof where she—

"SHICK!" "WHAM!"

Sof lands face first on the floor and scrambles in a panic to her parents, crying uncontrollably. Numbly, I look to Chopper and see that he's inserted himself in the dataport.

_He shut the Phantom. Or closed the ladder shaft off._

I collapse in exhaustion before feeling the magnet disengage from my arm, Echo gasps and collapses next to me.

"Echo?" Rex jumps forward and pulls him into a sitting position.

"I'm…okay." He winces, then whacks the floor with his hand in frustration. "Damn!"

_We lost him. I, personally lost him._

_And we had him dead to rights._

I groan, roll onto my back and close my eyes. "I lost him…"

_I lost him._

"Yeah…but we won. He—" Kanan replies.

A muffled sound echoes all around the ship before Hera jumps into the room. "Vader had his personal Starfighter waiting. He just jumped away."

_Blast it…_

I sigh and close my eyes before Ahsoka replies. "I guess he had us beat. Getting his personal Starfighter to trail us."

"Which could have alerted the Empire to our new position, or started firing at us." Rex continues.

_He did it again. A daring escape pulls victory from the jaws of defeat._

"Go hug your sister." Mrs. Wren tells Sof, who hustles to the ladder for the turret.

I force myself to sit up, then look everyone in the face. "I'm sorry. My mistake gave him the opening he needed."

"Technically, yes. But you beat him Ezra." Kanan explains to me. "You completely fooled him, tricking him into believing that he'd caught us off guard. That's the closest anybody has ever been to bringing him to justice."

Mr. Wren adds "You'll get him." Before Mrs. Wren crawls over and pulls me into a hug.

"Good job honey. You did wonderfully."

"Thanks." I say, exhausted as everyone starts to their feet.

Lux looks to Ahsoka and Hera. "So…what now?"

"I don't know." Ahsoka admits.

"New base? New planet? New plan?" Zeb guesses. Rex shakes his head in response.

"They'll be expecting that."

Echo pipes up. "I think we should maybe go to Ezra and Sabine's home in the mountains. Lay low, see what comes next, reduce suspicions by letting everyone get back into their groove."

"That sounds like a good idea. I'll glance at the charts, see how we can throw the Empire off our scent." Hera agrees, then slips into the cockpit.

I glance around and see the Wren's start toward the cockpit, Chopper fire up his thrusters to lower himself down to the turret, Lux and Ahsoka holding each other and Kanan on Hera's heels. I move to follow everyone to the cockpit, but am stopped by a hand on my shoulder.

"Hey. Kid." Rex spins me around ,revealing a proud smile.

"You had him." Echo smiles.

"And that's mighty hard to do, trick Anakin Skywalker so good." Rex's smile only gets wider.

I smile sheepishly, then shake my head. "But I let him get away."

"Hey." Echo cuts in. "I shouldn't have leaned forward and given him the opening either. We'll get another chance."

Rex nods in agreement. "Now if I were you, I'd hug Hera. She freaked when you revealed your new plan."

_It was risky._

"I'll do that. Thanks." I thank Rex and Echo, who both smile proudly before following me into the cockpit.

Kanan and Sabine's parents give me a slight look before Hera stops what she's doing and hugs me.

"Never…scare me like that again. Even though it worked." She warns me.

I laugh, then hug her back. "Alright. Sorry. I didn't mean to scare you."

"I had all the faith in the world in you." Kanan jokes, getting Sabine's parents to laugh.

"It's not about faith Kanan." Hera reprimands him before softening her tone. "But I know what you mean, love."

_Aww…_

I smile before Hera whacks my chest. "Oh don't look at me like that. Go hug Sophie. We'll comm when we decide our route."

"Ye ma'am." I smile at her, then wave to everyone before slipping past Rex and Echo in the doorway and sliding down the ladder, where Sabine is holding vader's lightsaber, Sophie is holding his cape and Chopper is glued to Sof.

"Ezra!" Sabine smiles, just before Sophie tackles me.

"Thank you…"

I smile, then crouch down and hug her back. "You're welcome."

"I felt you grab onto me. I knew you wouldn't let me go." Sophie says honestly, truth reverberating thru the Force.

Sabine's eyebrows furrow. "You felt him?"

"Yeah!" Sophie nods. "I was flying past everyone, then I felt a hand grab me, and it felt like Ezra. Then Kanan grabbed me, then Lux grabbed Ahsoka and she grabbed me. I wasn't gonna go anywhere."

I smile before Sabine crouches down. "Well, I'm glad. Sorry I was too busy down here."

"Yeah, what were you doing?" I joke, getting both Sabine and Sof to laugh.

"Hanging on for dear life." She smiles, causing Sophie to giggles loudly before hugging us both. Sabine and I both respond by engulfing Sof in a hug.

_I'm glad everyone's okay._

After a moment, Sophie slips away from us, leaving Sabine and I just…holding each other. "So what now?" Sof asks.

Sabine looks to me. "I don't know."

"I think we're going to make a few hyperspace jumps, then go home to _Tokrush_." I admit, catching Sabine's eye.

"Oh, okay." Sabine blinks rapidly. "We can do that. I don't really have much left for like food or anything, but okay."

I turn to Sof. "We'll probably have to use that foldout bed that's a couch for somebody. Okay?"

"Okay!" Sof nods raptly. "It'll be a sleepover! It'll be fun!"

_Yeah, it should be._

Sabine sighs quietly, then looks to me. "I love you."

"Love you too." I smile, then peck Sabine on the lips, causing Sof to groan and for Sabine and I to laugh in response before she hangs her head on my shoulder. I hug her and turn in time to see the endless black of space turn into blue streaks as the _Ghost_ jolts into hyperspace.

(A/N: SOMEBODY CUE UP THE STAR WARS THEME! (All Rights Reserved)

BADA BA BUM BUM BA BUM BUM BUM BUMMMMMM! BUMM BUMMM BADA-BUMM!

THANK YOU. First, to Disney and LucasFilm for allowing me to use the characters and story of Episode IV: A New Hope as well as Star Wars Rebels. Secondly, to George Lucas himself, for creating the entire saga out of nothing but a few ideas in the Journal of the Whills.

And most importantly, to you my readers. Thank you, from the bottom of my heart for sticking with this story. Your PM's about how much you've enjoyed this story and what it's meant to you over the past few days and weeks has made me feel grateful to each and every one of you. Whether you've been reading from April 2015 or just found this story yesterday, I can never say thank you enough. You've made this entire story possible just by reading, reviewing and enjoying what was just a few ideas in my head in the beginning. So thank you.

For those who don't know, or skipped a A/N or two (I can't blame you), I will be doing a sequel to Flaming Rebellion, untitled as of right now. I know people will want a hint, so here's one: The main plot is hidden somewhere inside this story. It's in there, I promise.

As for me, I'm going to be taking a break for a little bit. I don't know exactly when I'll be back, it'll be a few weeks at most but may stretch out a little bit. Gotta get some things in order as I potentially move again. (Sidenote: This story has outlasted five places I've lived at. FIVE.) But I will be back, recharged and ready to write a sequel that excites me even as I type this.

I do plan on writing a series of one-shots that'll get us from where we are now in the timeline to where we're going. When those come out, I don't know. It may be a week, two weeks or it may be this Friday because I'm a c compulsive writer type. They'll be in a story titled "Between the Margins", all grouped together. I hope you all will enjoy that.

I can't believe this story is over. Just like you. What a ride.

Thank You. –James

P.S: Love you Sof.)


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